“Lucia Oliveira. She’s an executive assistant. She theoretically resigned this morning. I need to see if she entered Lumina’s buildings this morning. If we can footage of her home, then I’d like to see how she left her home.”
“You suspect something nefarious? Do you have her mobile?”
“I do, but she theoretically returned her phone and laptop to the office. There’s no way to track her. I want to see if she returned it or if someone else did.”
“Lucia Oliveira is already in our system. We have a file on her. Did you know this?”
“Yes. I created the file.”
“Well, it’s your lucky day, then. Since she’s already in the system, we can get facial recognition lickety split. Shall I launch a blue notice?”
“Please. Let me know the minute you locate her.”
“Well, you know love, it’s not me that does the locating. But the request is off. Shall I pull Nigel from his meeting?”
“No. There’s not much he can do until we learn more.”
“There’s a chance she resigned on her own?”
“Yes.” God, I hate admitting that.
“What’d you do to her, love?”
“Why would you assume I did something?”
“It’s your tone of voice. You sound like you give a damn.”
“I always give a damn.”
“Sure you do. Alrighty. I’ll be in touch.”
The line clicks. Call ended.
What else can I do?
Her work email. Accessing her work email, and for that matter, all employee email, had been something I did weeks ago, but with a couple of clicks, I entered Lucia’s Lumina email. A quick scan showed me all emails were work related. And interestingly, her last email was sent at 5:45 pm the prior day to Peltz and there is no mention of resigning.
But he said he received her resignation. Did she drop off a printed resignation? How would she do that? She doesn’t have a printer at home.
The firm uses Google docs, and I know her username and password to get into her account. I sort the documents by the date of creation. She didn’t create any documents yesterday or today.
My skin lights with awareness. This has nothing to do with her pregnancy. Someone has taken her. And it has to be the same group responsible for the Watson girl’s abduction. It was the same scenario, although in that case, a resignation was emailed when she left the company.
I open the case file and read through the specifics, confirming what I thought. Yes, the email claimed she had fallen in love, something her sister flagged as unbelievable.
What exactly did Lucia’s resignation claim?
I’m up and out of my seat, ready to request a copy of Lucia’s resignation, regardless of risking Peltz’s suspicion when my mobile vibrates.
“Did you locate her?”
“Log into the network. We have her getting into a black limousine at 7:42 am. She doesn’t appear to be in duress. You can watch the video and decide for yourself.”
I click in and scan the image. It’s a view from a traffic camera at the intersection, and it’s grainy. A figure that might be Emelia stands on the stoop. If it’s Emelia, then she witnessed it all.
“Where’d the car drive her? Did she come to Lumina?”
“If she came to Lumina, we haven’t yet located that footage. And we have reliable coverage on all the streets around the building. If that black limousine drove on one of those streets, or into the underground parking, we’ll pick it up. Now, we’re still combing through footage and you know facial recognition has limits. It’s possible she was dropped off away from the building and walked in.”