Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“It gives him a motive, though,” Rex said. “For the kidnapping. A kid that he denied and never stepped up for would be inconvenient right now. It’d take the focus off his campaign and put it on his personal life. It’d speak of character, or lack thereof. He’d want to avoid that, I’d guess.”
“Agreed,” she murmured, troubled once again by the question of Hollis’s possible involvement in Cyrus’s kidnapping. “I called the number listed on his website and left a message with the receptionist who answered, but I haven’t heard back from Hollis yet,” she said. “If I don’t, I’m going to go there. He’s giving a speech in DC tomorrow, so I’m leaving Cyrus with my dad for the day.”
Cyrus had specifically asked to spend the day with Pops, and her dad had seemed happy to do it when she’d called and asked. He’d mentioned miniature golf, and she was sure Cyrus would like that—she remembered loving it as a kid. And Cyrus needed some kid-like normalcy right now. But even more than the activity, she was glad she had her dad to offer Cyrus some male attention after he’d been deprived of a dad figure in his life for too long and obviously craved it.
Rex nodded slowly. He looked concerned and like he wanted to say something but was holding it back. She didn’t prompt him because she was pretty sure she knew—he was worried Hollis would be dismissive at best and cruel at worst. Or maybe he’d refuse to see her altogether. She was prepared for any and all scenarios, however. And her only goal was to get a feel for whether Hollis was capable of attempting to harm Cyrus. Beyond that, she didn’t hope for, nor expect, much. She’d given up on Hollis a long time ago. “Just promise you’ll call if you feel unsafe at any point.”
She was about to say she wasn’t worried about that, but if Hollis was part of the network who’d kidnapped a child, who knew what else he might do? Meeting him in a public place was important. “I promise,” she said. “And I’ll text you as soon as I’ve left.”
Rex put a roll in his mouth and chewed, appearing to have trouble getting it down. He followed it with a swig from the beer and then wiped his mouth with a napkin. “One other thing,” Rex said. “Something odd happened while I was looking around Hollis’s campaign site. It was like someone else was there.”
“There? What do you mean?”
“Inside with me.”
“You mean like a web designer or administrator making edits to the site?”
“No. It was like someone was following me around.” He looked off behind her as if even he—knower of all things cyber—was having difficulty explaining what he’d experienced. “Every time I went to a specific email, a reply box opened within it and a string of random letters and numbers was typed in.” He shook his head. “It was weird.”
“I call unexplained computer stuff a glitch, but if it seemed off to you, it probably was. Could it have been another hacker in there trying to communicate with you?”
“I thought about that. But how did they know I’d be there? There are very few safety barriers. Someone would have to be monitoring that space continuously and for what reason? And if they wanted to communicate with me, why type gibberish?”
She had no answers. But she did have a possibly connected question. “If whoever sent that video of Cyrus in the room isn’t connected to the people who arranged his kidnapping, that unknown person would have had to hack into the monitoring camera, right? To be able to post it on the dark web for me to see?”
He nodded. “The police said the monitoring device was in the main room of the cabin, most likely used to watch Cyrus without constantly entering the room.”
“Yes. But could the feed of Cyrus have also streamed to someone else? Say the people that man who brought Cyrus food kept referring to who were on their way? Or even a bigger boss of a kidnapping ring of some sort?”
“Sure. Any of that is possible. You can monitor footage from anywhere remotely if you’re granted log-in access.” He inclined his head backward. “Like the one at your door.”
“So the woman who called and gave me access to the live stream is either a hacker, or someone related to the crime. Someone who maybe went rogue or whose conscience got the better of her.” She thought for a few seconds. “Or someone who wanted to torture me,” she murmured. But something about that didn’t feel quite right, and she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what. Maybe it was that the voice on the phone had been eerie, yes, but now that she thought about it, almost . . . helpful.