Page 31 of Strangers in Love

The video stopped before she looked down again, and I could see now that her eyes were green. A light green shade I didn’t think I’d ever seen before.

“Notice anything?”

I jumped. For a moment, I’d forgotten that I wasn’t alone. I did a quick scan of Aline’s surroundings, but there was nothing that hinted as to her location. Bland shit that could’ve been anywhere in Iran. Or any other country, for that matter.

“Not much that’ll help us figure out where she is,” I said with a sigh. “At least not with a first pass.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” Cain said. “Plain cloth hanging in the background. Impossible to tell if it’s tan or beige or even white and just dirty. A chair that’s impossible to tell if it’s wood, metal, or plastic.”

I straightened, a thought occurring to me. “They’ve done this before.”

“What?”

I pointed at the screen. “Whoever these people are, they’re professionals. They have the chair perfectly positioned to show us Aline and the fact that she’s reading a script, but not so low that we can see her hands so she could signal anyone. Nothing on camera that could even give us a hint of where she is. No one’s that good the first time.”

“Shit.” Cain leaned back. “You’re right. I should’ve seen that.”

“Like you told me when I called about my niece, you’re emotionally involved,” I reminded him. “That’ll fuck with anyone’s head.”

He ran his hand over his face. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

“Pretty much word for word.”

“I need a beer.” He stood up. “Want one?”

I nodded, and he disappeared through a doorway that I assumed led to his kitchen. I looked back at the screen where Aline Mercier was frozen. It was Monday morning in Iran, and she’d been taken on Friday in that same time zone – assuming that she hadn’t been moved out of the country – which meant they’d either waited to do the ransom video, or they’d waited to release it.

Cain handed me a beer and sat down next to me. “What else are you seeing that I’m not?”

“Aline was taken Friday morning or afternoon, right?”

“Right.”

“Then why did it take so long for the Merciers to get the ransom demand?”

“Good question.” He frowned. “It doesn’t make sense. Most groups that kidnap for ransom get in touch right away. They know that the longer they hold their captive, the more things can go wrong, and the more resources they must use to keep their hostage alive.”

“So what reasons could there be to wait that long to reach out?”

“A lot of possibilities there.” He picked up a notebook and started making a list. “The video could’ve been made right after Aline was taken, but she has since been injured or killed, and they had to decide if they were going to still ask for the ransom.”

His tone didn’t change, but I could see how hard it was for him to even suggest that Aline was dead.

“Or they could have waited to film it because she’d been hurt initially, and they didn’t want that to show on the video,” he continued. “Or maybe they’re not even in Iran anymore. They snatched her there on Friday, but it took them a couple days to move to wherever their base is.”

“That sounds like it’d be a lot of extra work, moving her that far away,” I said. “We know these guys know what they’re doing. They probably have a system. A set way of doing things. I think we need to look for other kidnappings in that area, find out if this is typical or if something changed. If it takes that long to release other ransom videos, then maybe they do have a base far away from Tehran.”

“Good idea,” he said. “Any other thoughts on the reason for the delay?”

I hesitated. Something had been buzzing in the back of my head since I’d asked my original question.

“Whatever you’re thinking, say it.”

“All right.” I met his gaze full on. “Maybe it took so long because they had to get the family’s contact information.”

Cain’s eyebrows went up. “You don’t think she was a planned target.”

I shrugged. “My gut says that she was more of an opportunity grab than one that’d been thought out and planned. Wrong place, wrong time. Something like that.”

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