Page 4 of Under His Heel: A Kidnapping

He tried the bathroom down the hall, only to see it was closed for maintenance. A sign cheerfully invited people to go to the bathrooms one floor down.

That would account for a certain amount of time, but not for Alex’s failure to return. Rather than trek around the school, Tracht pulled up the GPS tracker on his tablet.

Alex’s collar pinged as being close by. Almost on the same spot that Tracht was now. He frowned and looked around, but no Alex.

Ignoring the sign, he took a peek inside the bathroom, but it was also empty and had a foul stench besides.

Tracht looked around the hall again, and then he spotted the stairwell. Alex would have preferred that over the crowded elevators. Maybe he was hiding in it now.

He made sure the door opened from both sides—it did—and then started going down.

Only halfway to the floor below, he saw the blood.

A few drops, scattered over multiple steps, then a larger stain on the landing. Tracht carefully stepped around the blood and peered further.

On the next landing down, he saw why the GPS was pinging Alex as close by. The collar, broken into a lot of smaller pieces, lay strewn around. Next to it were the shattered remains of two tablets.

Unexpected. Tracht gripped the handrail to keep himself steady. He had to breathe deeply to remind himself that panicking would do absolutely no good. For a moment, his mind blanked, and he was overwhelmed by—by worry, unfamiliar as it was for something other than himself and his career.

Tracht kept going down the stairs, his pace speeding up with every step. He spotted a few drops of blood here and there, and skid marks that indicated something being dragged. The stairwell led to an emergency exit, where the alarm had clearly been deactivated to avoid alerting anybody.

His tablet buzzed. He hit the ‘accept call’ button without looking at the screen.

“Johannes? Have you seen Johan? He isn’t answering his tablet. Markus said he left in the middle of the presentation.” Anna sounded mildly annoyed.

Tracht started walking back up the stairs, forcing himself not to rush. He had to swallow twice before he could speak without risking sounding anything other his usual self. “What kind of tablet does he have?”

He stopped on the landing with the destroyed electronics.

“An Axel 3-II. It had a purple case. Why?”

One of the destroyed tablets was certainly purple. The other one was a simple older model, the same kind that Tracht had refurbished for Alex’s use.

“Anna. I’m going to tell you something now. And you need to stay perfectly calm.” He probably had no business telling her that, when he was already shaking with rage. “Come to the stairwell. I’m on the fifth floor landing. Come quietly, don’t make a scene. Don’t ask anybody else if they’ve seen Johan.”

Thankfully, Anna wasn’t the kind of woman to burst into hysterics. She listened, and she continued to talk to him on the phone as she made her way to the stairwell. Tracht hung up when he heard the door opening.

She gasped loudly when she saw the blood. Her steps hastened to clear the last few steps.

“What is this?” she demanded in a hoarse whisper. “Is that—”

“Alex’s bond collar, his tablet, and Johan’s tablet.”

She started taking pictures. Tracht waited while she pieced things together. He was running possibilities through his own mind. He could see Alex getting into a fight with somebody, but the addition of Johan put a wrench into that scenario. He thought of the Nilsens, coming to claim their payment in Alex’s body, but that was unlikely, since then they’d never see another cent from Tracht. Or maybe Alex’s useless brother, making good on his threat to get revenge.

“I knew it. I knew he was bad news!” Anna hissed. “You said you had him properly trained, that he was at heel, but look at this! He hurt Johan!”

For one brief second, Tracht had no idea what Anna was talking about. When realization hit him, he had to laugh, stress and anger turning it ugly. “You think Alex did this?”

“Who else? It’s obvious! Alex snuck off and cornered Johan. He hurt him—” she pointed at the blood stain further up, “and got rid of all the tracking devices.”

“Why would Alex do that?” Tracht asked, forcing himself to maintain an even voice. He didn’t think he succeeded.

“To ransom him? To force you to release him from servitude?”

“I think Alex knows me well enough to know that I don’t—” Tracht stopped that sentence before he could finish it: I don’t give two shits about your brat. Now was not the time to antagonize Anna further. “Look. Call Vasilis. Get him to send discreet security. Send Chryssy and Markus home and talk to the school so they give you all the security footage.”

Anna took a breath and then nodded. “Yes. All right. If this is a kidnapping, we do have kidnapping insurance.” She pulled her tablet out and called Vasilis.

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