Look Alive Twenty-Five (Stephanie Plum #25)(57)

“Here’s something weird,” Lula said. “I’ve been surfing around, checking up on my fame as a celebrity sandwich maker. There’s a unflattering video of me waiting tables. And there’s a couple newspaper articles and some local television pieces on how people have been disappearing and leaving their shoe behind at the deli. I asked for more on the subject, and I got a video someone made about the deli kidnapping. It’s like an amateur reality-show thing. There’s five of them. And one of them looks like Hal.”

I looked over at her. “How much like Hal?”

“A lot like Hal.”

Lula brought her iPad over and passed it to me.

I was dumbstruck. “This is Hal,” I said.

I scrolled back, looked at all five, and also recognized Wayne Kulicki. The videos had been uploaded by someone named Hotshot. They were grainy night shots showing a man walking out of the deli’s back door, carrying a garbage bag. There was a blinding flash of light and the next scene was a single shoe on the asphalt parking lot. This was followed by a visual of crime scene tape and police doing their job investigating.

I called Morelli.

“Lula stumbled across some YouTube videos that seem to be recording the deli kidnappings,” I said.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I recognized Hal and Wayne Kulicki. You’ll want to look at this.”

“I’m just getting into my car to leave for the day. Are you at the office? I’ll head over.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

I called Ranger and told him about the videos.

“I got them,” Ranger said, moments later. “That’s Hal.”

“What do you make of this? Can you trace down Hotshot?”

“Doubtful if I can trace Hotshot through YouTube, but the feds might be able, and I can hack into the feds.”

“Why is this up on YouTube?” I asked.

“Someone wanted it seen.”

“They wanted to get caught? They were proud of their photography? What?”

“Tell Lula to keep surfing. Maybe she’ll stumble on something else.”

“Morelli is on his way over to the office, and then I’ll go home with him. Your guy can clock out. Tell him thank you from me.”

“Babe,” Ranger said. And he hung up.

It took Morelli twenty minutes to get to the office, and Connie was three minutes behind him. I had the videos on Connie’s computer, and we all crowded together to look.

“I did a fast review of the kidnap victims before I left,” Morelli said. “This first one is Elroy Ruiz. Age thirty-two. It’s difficult to see his face in the video, but he has the right build. The next up is Kenny Brown. The video is dark but this looks like our man. The next victim is more recognizable. He gets to the dumpster and turns toward the camera. His name is Ryan Meier. Nineteen years old. In the country on a student visa.”

“Where’s he from?” I asked.

“Switzerland.”

I had an immediate aha! moment. Wulf is a Swiss national. This is the Wulf connection.

I advanced to the fourth video, and Wayne Kulicki walked out of the deli. He had a bag of garbage, and he didn’t seem concerned. He didn’t look around. Nothing caught his attention on his way to the dumpster. He tossed the bag in, turned and faced the camera, and there was the blinding flash. Next frame was of his shoe.

The last video was Hal. He walked to the dumpster, tossed the bag, turned and walked toward the camera, smiling. Flash of light. No more Hal.

“There are three different camera angles here,” I said. “The first video was shot from the second floor of the deli building. That’s why you can’t see the manager’s face. The second, third, and fourth were shot from a camera just to the right of the deli’s back door at a height of about six feet. And it looks like Hal was captured on video by a camera that was placed in the dry cleaner’s parking lot.”

“It’s like making these movies was all part of the kidnapping,” Lula said. “I want to see season two where they show you what happens next.”

“There’s no Vinnie video,” I said.

Vinnie walked in from the back entrance. “What do you mean, ‘There’s no Vinnie video’?”

“Lula found videos of the kidnap victims on YouTube, but you aren’t included. Are you remembering anything at all from the kidnapping?” Morelli asked Vinnie.

“Bananas. Everything was black, and I kept smelling bananas.”

“Was this in the beginning when you were first captured?” Morelli asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember anything except bananas.” Vinnie narrowed his eyes. “I hate bananas.”

Morelli made a couple calls to report the videos.

“Will you be able to trace them?” I asked him.

“Possibly. It’ll get passed up the chain of command.”

“What about camera placement? Do you think someone was in the building, on the second floor, for the first kidnapping?”

“Either that or they used a drone,” Morelli said. “After the first guy, Elroy Ruiz, everyone looked directly at the camera. It could be because they saw or heard a drone.”

“I like the idea of a drone taking video,” Lula said. “A drone’s like a miniature alien spaceship, only you could get it on Amazon.”