Page 97 of Sweet Deception

At the sound of the front door opening, I turn to find Gio coming inside. "Find anything?"

"No. I've swept both apartments upstairs, and just talked to the lady in this one." I point over my shoulder. "She hasn't seen Kylie since yesterday. I haven't checked the last apartment yet." I nod to the door across the lobby.

"What about this door here?" Gio walks past the mailboxes to push open the door facing the back of the building. "Fuck, man. Did an animal die back here?"

I follow him into what turns out to be a laundry room, and he's not joking. The foul odor indicates that something did, in fact, die in here. Something thathas been decomposing for a few days. "Look, check that door." I point to the door just past the machines, figuring it leads outside.

Gio pushes it open wide enough to show the alleyway behind the building. "Anyone could have grabbed her and taken her out back without Joseph knowing. Did we know this was here?" He asks as he peers around the door.

"No. I should've, though. A camera should've been placed back here." I step outside to search for any cameras from the surrounding buildings. At the back lot, is a tall brick building with multiple balconies facing this way. Finally, I find a camera on the second floor aimed at the apartment's small parking lot below. The lens should expand enough to cover the back of this building.

"What do you need to hack into it?" Gio asks, staring at the same camera.

"Find the apartment number and I should be able to get in."

Gio takes off across the alley and jumps over the chain-link fence. I head back inside, then out to the SUV. Grabbing my laptop, I settle into the passenger seat, leaving the car door open as I wait for Gio to return.

While I wait, I get a text from Rome stating no sign of Kylie from his men following the syndicate. I scrub a hand down my face then attempt to hack into the street cameras, just in case she was taken out front before Joseph arrived.

Gio comes jogging around the building when a call comes in from Luca.

"Talk to me," I answer.

"Check for cameras at the back of the building."

"On it. I'm also pulling the footage from the street cameras in case she was taken before Joseph got here." I inform him while I keep at the computer, never taking my eyes off the screen.

"Good. And what did Rome say about Robert?"

"He has two men on him. He hasn't left the bar, and he's getting shit faced and chatting up a woman as we speak."

"Fuck." Luca's frustration is clear through the phone.

"Rome has his men trailing the syndicate to make sure it wasn't them, but they've seen no signsof her so far."

The sound of Luca taking a deep breath comes before he says, "Okay, call me when you hear anything or if you find anything on the footage." He ends the call, not waiting for my answer.

I continue to view the camera feed from the street until it shows Joseph's arrival. Finding nothing, I open another tab and look at Gio.

"Apartment 212 D."

I type in the info, finding the camera link and hacking it all within fifteen minutes. Gio leans in to watch the feed with me. I put it on fast forward, so it only takes a few minutes from the time Luca drops Kylie off to current time.

No one can be seen entering or leaving the building.

I switch back to the street camera feed and continue after Joseph arrived. A person can be smuggled out in many ways.

"Fuck." Gio spits out when we get to current time on the feed and still no signs of anyone coming and going.

"She has to be in the building. There's no way these two cameras wouldn't have caught something."

"Let's go check the last apartment. If she's not in there, we need to double check the old lady's apartment." Gio suggests.

Just as we're jogging up the steps to the lobby door, my phone rings.

As soon as I accept the call, Luca is yelling, "Hank Miller has her! Find out everything you can about him. Kylie's dad put him away for sexual assault." His voice goes hoarse and my stomach drops at the information.

"Wait!" a woman screams in the background. "I've seen him in the building. He was there when I dropped Kylie off the other day. He gave me the creeps, and I told her to be careful around him." The terror in her voice is unmistakable.

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