Page 124 of SEAL's Resolve

The screen shifted to show the lobby of Stewart Group headquarters. Mike Fleming stood at the front desk with Richard. Behind the guard, a light flashed on one of the screens Richard should have been watching. When Richard grabbed his cell phone to answer a call, Fleming slipped behind the desk and did something at the keyboard to stop the flashing and typed a few more commands. Fleming was involved with the kidnapping. He must have tinkered with the security system so it showed that Stewart left the building at 7:00. The time stamp on the footage indicated that Hale kidnapped Stewart shortly after the workday ended.

Jon glanced at him. “Fleming has computer skills.”

“How do you know?”

“I had to piece together the footage we needed. Someone did a good job of corrupting the footage, then deleting it from the server.”

“Fleming. You found the footage and cleaned it up,” Rafe said, indicating the frozen screen shot on Jon’s computer.

“Fleming’s good. I’m better.”

Eli placed a box of tissues in front of Kristi and patted her shoulder.

“Thanks,” she said, her voice thick.

Time was running out before Hale or Fleming called her with a ransom demand. Both men wanted easy money at the very least. With Stewart’s financial accounts locked, the men would turn to Kristi. Didn’t take a genius to know she’d pay any amount of money to free her father.

Trevor Cain was Hale’s biological father. Did the security guard also want revenge for a perceived injustice? Rafe frowned. If Hale had contacted his father, Cain likely gave his son a different version of events than was in the record. Hale might feel that the abuse charges were trumped up and the 30-year prison sentence unfair.

He looked at Eli. “Call Adams. Tell him what’s going on. If he can call Hale or Fleming and keep him on the phone long enough, we can track the signal. Ask if Adams is willing to talk to me.”

“While I do that, you need to talk to Kristi.”

Her eyes widened. “Why? What’s wrong?” She grimaced. “Besides the obvious.”

Eli was right. Rafe couldn’t delay the conversation any longer. “Come outside with me for a few minutes.” Rafe led her to the outdoor couch on the deck.

Sitting beside Kristi, he gathered her against his side. “You saw the footage.”

She nodded.

“Hale and Fleming are in this together, and others may be involved who weren’t at your father’s office.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Rafe?”

“I talked to Brent a few minutes ago. The computer techs at Fortress have been watching your father’s financial accounts. Someone tried to access his accounts several times and messed up the password.”

She looked at him. “The accounts are locked?”

He nodded. “Hale and Fleming want money. They’re out of luck unless they find another source of cash.”

“Me.”

“You’re the easiest target to reach.”

“But wouldn’t they force my father to access Stewart Group accounts?”

“I imagine they tried. However, when the techs told Brent about your father’s personal accounts, he had them lock down the company’s accounts as well. He also called Stewart Group’s chief financial officer. Walters knows what’s going on. Hale and Fleming will call you with a ransom demand.”

“What do I say?”

“Depends on what they want.” And how they wanted the money delivered. He didn’t have a problem with Kristi transferring money into their account. Jon could track and reroute the cash to Kristi’s account. Cash delivery was a different problem altogether. Unfortunately, Rafe suspected the greedy security men would want traveling cash and a money transfer to an offshore account.

“I don’t care how much they want. I need my father, Rafe. I don’t want to lose him.”

“We’ll get him back, hopefully without any money exchanging hands or bank accounts.”

“We should go inside now,” she murmured although she didn’t move.

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