Page 44 of Ethan's Command

“Which means we need to retrace his steps,” Ethan said. “They tried to grab him Tuesday and we think, my team and I, that it wasn’t planned. Like they suddenly discovered that Liam had the USB drive that day and made a grab for him to stop things from escalating very quickly.”

Brooklyn frowned. Her brain was buzzing. Ethan was trying to tell her something, but she struggled to pick up on it. “What are you thinking?”

“I think Liam must have gotten the USB drive on Monday, possibly Sunday but that might be a bit far out.”

“Uh…”Think, Brooklyn, think.

“Okay,” Ethan said as he went over and filled the kettle.

“Why are you making tea? I don’t want tea!”

Ethan turned the burner on. “We’re going to take this step by step. If we panic now, we can miss something or make a mistake. We have to focus.” He pointed to the stool at the breakfast bar. “Take a seat and take a few deep breaths. Then I want you to think back and see if you can remember what Liam and his father did this past weekend.”

Brooklyn sat down and drummed her fingers on the counter. This wasn’t helping. She started to rise again but Ethan shook his head. “Deep breaths.”

She clamped her jaws shut, settled back on the stool, and closed her eyes. She took long, slow breaths and tried to calm her mind. Ethan was right. Panicking wouldn’t help anything. She opened her eyes as he set a cup of tea down on the counter in front of her. She wrapped her hands around the mug to warm her chilly fingers. Her body felt frozen in place.

“Last week,” Ethan prompted.

Brooklyn closed her eyes again. “I was with Liam and Jackson on Saturday. We surfed in the morning and then went for a drive to Hilo in the afternoon. We ordered pizza and watched a movie Saturday night.” She opened her eyes. Normally, she would be embarrassed to admit she’d spent Saturday night with her brother and nephew, but they were well beyond that now. She didn’t care about anything except getting Liam back.

“Could someone have given Liam a USB drive on Saturday?” Ethan asked.

Brooklyn took a sip of her tea and pondered that question. “No,” she said finally, “I don’t see how it could have happened without me or his father seeing it and we would have asked questions.”

“Okay. What about Sunday?”

“Liam and Jackson stayed home to work on the science fair project. They worked on it all day. In fact, I remember my brother saying they hadn’t left the house all day and he needed to get a few things before his trip on Monday, but he was too tired to do it then. He decided he would do it after he dropped Liam off at school the next day.”

Ethan nodded. “Monday. Do you know what Liam did?”

She shrugged. “Went to school.”

“Anything else?” Ethan prompted.

She froze. Locking gazes with Ethan she said, “He went to Dave’s Café after school to play video games with the boys.”

Ethan nodded. “How do they get to the cafe?”

“Walk,” she supplied. “But if anyone had given Liam anything during the walk, the other boys would have said something. They were all there, even Ren on Monday.”

“Liam went to the café. Then what happened?”

“My brother picked him up and they went home, as far as I know. They ordered in and Jackson packed while Liam did his homework. I dropped by that evening to say goodbye to my brother and get any last minute instructions. My brother dropped Liam at school on Tuesday and I picked him up at the café and, well, you know the rest.”

She crossed her arms over her chest as if that could hold in her anxiety. “Shouldn’t we be looking for the USB stick? You said they wouldn’t have grabbed Liam if they weren’t sure he had it.”

Ethan’s phone rang. He answered it and immediately put it on speaker. “Rusty, any news?”

“Just searched the house. Nothing. I found a few USB drives, but all in the father’s office. None of which would be of any interest to the Yakuza.”

“Wait,” Brooklyn said as she stared at Ethan, “Is he at my brother’s place? Are you at Jackson’s?” she demanded.

“Yeah,” Rusty confirmed. “No joy though. I’ve been through Liam’s room and all the closets. He doesn’t have any hidey-holes, at least none I could find.”

“Hidey-holes?” Brooklyn struggled to keep her anger at bay. “Liam is a good kid.”

“Yes, ma’am, he is. But he’s also almost a teenager. I searched, and even though I couldn’t find a special hiding spot, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one. Is there anywhere he goes on a regular basis that he might hide something he didn’t want anyone to see?”

---