Page 102 of Greed
“So, Doppenger got to her between then and half an hour ago.”
“You mean Donnie?” the overweight man asked, face going pale. “He wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.”
“Are you quite certain of that? Do you know the man personally?”
“Well, no, but… it’s Donnie.”
“Got it,” Evernty said, pointing to footage of Lilo at her desk. “Here she is returning from the bakery.”
“Fast forward until she gets a phone call and leaves.”
The video footage was black and white and a little grainy, but with every minute, every second of watching, a sense of rising dread gripped his heart. And when she took a phone call and her lips pursed, Griffin knew that was the one. Within seconds she stood and said something to her office-neighbor, then left. He checked the time stamp and his watch. Thirty-nine minutes ago.
Tick-tock.
“She left her bag which meant she probably didn’t think she had to travel far to meet him. Do you have street front cameras?” Griffin added urgently.
The young man flicked to another monitor, typed in some directives on his keyboard, and brought up the front of the building. There was Lilo meeting Doppenger at the front, and there he was looking haggard and feral-eyed as he grabbed her arm and forced her down the road with something pressed into her back. Most likely a gun.
Tick-tock.
Griffin slammed his hand on the security desk, rattling the foundations. Damn him for keeping Doppenger’s real identity from her. If she knew the extent of his psychopathic tendencies, she would never have agreed to meet him.
His phone rang. Parker.
“You’re late,” Griffin growled down the handset.
A few seconds of silence and then Parker spoke. “Well, I’m calling you now.”
“Now is too late. He’s got Lilo. You promised me that wouldn’t happen.” Griffin stormed out of the security office, ignoring Evernty asking whether they should notify the police. “You said you were watching him.”
Griffin kept walking until he got to the elevator and stopped. Up to the roof, or down to the basement?
“Shit,” Parker said. “I was calling to tell you to suit up because we got him moving to a location on the south-end of the Quadrant.”
“The footage on the CCTV cameras had him going north. Are you sure you had him going south? Check again.”
The phone sputtered and crackled.
“Parker?” he called. No answer. He checked the handset, and it had blanked out. His damned power prevented him from using it. Dead. The phone was dead. He let an almighty growl of frustration out and then threw the phone against the metal elevator doors. How was he going to find her now?
Think, Griffin think.
Relax. Focus.
Remember your training.
Tick-tock.
Panic caught in his throat. He was running out of time. Statistically, the longer a kidnapping victim was taken, the harder it was to find them. Worse. Seventy-four percent of kidnapping victims were at risk of being murdered if not located within the first few hours. If something happened to her...
He forced the thoughts away and shut out all noise and sensation and focused on his breathing. In. Out. In. Out.
Roof. He was going to the roof.
Being masked would give him the freedom to fight unhindered, and with his industrial grappling hooks and bo-staff, traveling via rooftop could be more expedient than running through traffic. He punched the up button on the elevator and traveled to the highest level, then took the stairwell up to the roof, two steps at a time. When he breached the building, he discovered he was on a flat roof with air vents, large antennas and no one else but a flock of pigeons he disturbed. He was alone.
Quickly, he dressed into his combat gear and released his metal baton to extend to its full length. He stashed his backpack behind a vent, crouched low at the lip of the roof, and concentrated on the city. He would never feel Lilo, but Doppenger—he was another story. His greed was astronomical, and if Griffin focused enough, hard enough, he would find him.
