Page 47 of Sensual Nights

He sat back. She could hear the rustling of his clothes. He wore some sort of material that made noise. Like a ski jacket or something.

"Well, I guess my next step will be to go talk to someone else that might know something. Maybe your sister."

A sob broke out Carley's throat. She didn't mean for it to, but it did. "Please, please don't bother her. Please don't. Pleaseleave my sister alone. Please. Please leave my sister alone." She begged.

"Well, if her husband has something that belongs to me, she and I are going to have a problem. And if she confirms her husband actually did turn my property over to the police, I'm going to have to move on to Plan B or C. Someone's not telling me the truth somewhere along the way and that bothers me. Plus, if I have your sister, I can trade her for my property."

"I'm telling you the truth. I swear it." She swallowed, "I gave it to Jace. Jace gave it to the police. I don't know what else to tell you. I don't have what you're looking for. I don't have it. I gave it to Jace."

"Well, we'll see about that. If Jace has it, I'm sure your sister knows where it's at. Maybe a gun to her head will help her locate what I'm looking for."

She sobbed, and her body shook. He got up abruptly and moved toward the door. He slammed the door behind him, sliding the key into the lock once again. She listened as his footsteps faded away.

She started sawing madly at the zip tie on her wrist. She needed to get out of here.

28

The door opened and Mitch DeMario stepped in. Mason recognized him immediately, he looked exactly the same, just a little bit older, probably like all the rest of them.

Mason limped across the room, grabbed Mitch's hand in his, and shook hard.

"Thanks for coming. Thanks for helping." His voice cracked slightly. "Quinn has the video cued up now. We were just beginning to watch it."

Mitch nodded. "Happy to help out in any way I can."

He shook Jace and Quinn's hands, then Quinn cued up the video. They watched as Carley pulled into the lot.

Quinn slowed the video down as she drove past the cars in parking spaces. She parked her SUV at the end of the building closest to Mason's patio. His stomach rolled as she leaned over the seat and grabbed her purse. When she exited the vehicle and reached in to pull the documents she needed out of the accordion file and tuck them into her brown folder, his breathing came in spurts, as that's when the man came up behind her. He wore some sort of a lightweight ski jacket, dark, long-sleeved,which in itself was weird. It was nearly eighty-nine degrees outside today. He pulled what looked like a pillowcase or hood from his pocket and shoved it over Carley's head.

She began squirming, kicking, fighting. He grabbed a syringe from his pocket and injected her at the back of her neck. Mason wanted to throw up just watching that. His heart raced, and his knees shook slightly. What was she going through right now? He dragged her over to one of the cars in the parking lot and tossed her in the back seat haphazardly. Her body was limp as a rag, and he could see her bounce as he tossed her in. He jumped in the driver's seat and as he backed the car up, Mason said, "Stop!"

They looked closely into the camera, and you could see his face, though it was shadowed and certainly not a clear picture.

Mason said, "I know who that is. I know who that is."

Jace looked at him. "Well, who is it? Does he know her? How would he know she was going to be here?"

"He's been here before. That's Layton Terry, a client she was here to meet. She didn't like him an said he gave her a bad vibe. I asked her to wait until I got here to show him the place. She was likely going to come inside and wait."

Mitch DiMario stepped closer to the camera and stared at Layton Terry's face. "How many times has she met him before?"

"Once that I'm aware of. That was yesterday. That was when she found the thumb drive you're here to get. The landscapers were out front digging and putting in plants. As she stood there with Layton Terry, she found the thumb drive in the fresh dirt and picked it up. He seemed terribly interested in it. She just said, 'Well, Quinn Kurtz owns this place, so I'll give it to Quinn. He can decide what to do with it.' Terry insisted on seeing it a few times, and then I stepped in. Told him it was hers to do with as she wanted, and she was right. Quinn Kurtz was the owner of these condos, and he would be the one to take possession ofthe thumb drive. Terry didn't seem especially pleased with that explanation, so I'm guessing that's when he devised this plan."

Mitch's brows furrowed. "Why didn't he just grab it and run?"

Mason let out a deep breath. "I'm quite a bit bigger than he is. He probably didn't think that he could take me or outrun me, so he devised this plan instead."

Mitch glanced at him and sized him up. He must have felt satisfied with the explanation.

Mitch grinned. "I can see that. Okay, keep rolling the video. Let's see what else happens."

Quinn replied, "Not much else happens here. He drives out of sight and then off he goes."

Mitch nodded. "Okay, so the first thing we have to do is run Layton Terry through the system. Did police see this?"

Quinn responded, "Yeah, they saw it, but they wouldn't let Mason in while they were viewing it,, so he wasn't able to identify Terry for them."

"I see. Okay, so I'll contact the local police and tell them we have a possible ID. Let them know who we're looking for and see if they'll help us out by running some reports on Terry's address and any properties he might have here or close to town. How about in the meantime, while the police are doing that, I retrieve the thumb drive from you and see what's on it. It might help us determine what he's after."

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