Page 106 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

A back-and-forth discussion ensued, and when Rania summarised it for us, it was clear she’d been assisting Will because the description she’d managed to tease out of Margaret blew Maria’s, Lil Shawn’s, and Grocery Store Guy’s out of the park.

“He was an inch or so shorter than Will and Reed, so around five feet eleven. Not fat, but soft around the middle like he doesn’t take much exercise.”

“His hair? We’ve had reports of blond and brown.”

“Blond, but Margaret could see darker roots coming through. Brown eyes, wide-set, and a sharp nose. Straight. His face was square like Wyatt’s, but with a weaker chin.”

“Any accent?”

“He didn’t speak.”

“Not a word?”

“Nothing. Hold on…” Rania suddenly smiled. Good news? “He was driving a big black car.”

“A Mercedes?”

“Margaret doesn’t know what a Mercedes is. Have you got a piece of paper and a pen? I’ll have to draw the badge.”

I remembered seeing a pad of paper in the dining room when Kim got more paper clips out of the sideboard. Her secret stash of stationery. Two minutes later, Rania had drawn a slightly lopsided Mercedes logo, but Margaret’s answer was obviously in the negative.

“Can you describe it for me, then?” Rania asked.

Line by line, a chunky cross took shape on the paper. A Chevrolet. Our man was driving a Chevrolet.

“It sounds like a four-by-four from the description.”

“A what?”

“An SUV,” Will filled in.

“Something like a Tahoe or a Suburban?”

“Can you get me pictures?” Rania asked.

After some dithering as Rania thumbed through images on my phone, Margaret finally settled on a Suburban. Eighty percent sure. Which gave Tim plenty of room to load both girls into the trunk and drive them to wherever he wanted, the sick fucker.

And then came the kicker.

“Margaret couldn’t see most of the registration plate because there was a bush in the way, but she said it was light blue with a red line at the top. A curved red line. Concave. She glimpsed it when the security light came on.”

A diplomatic vehicle. Another fucking diplomatic vehicle.

CHAPTER 32 - REED

WITH KIMBERLY’S HOUSE technically still a crime scene, we retired to Wyatt’s apartment while we worked out our next move. We were so fucking close, but that last step… It seemed impossible.

“I wanna ram the ambassador’s face into a wall,” Wyatt grumbled.

While it was good we were starting to agree on things again, I wished I didn’t share his sentiment. What kind of prick put politics above women’s lives?

“Hey.” Rania laid a hand on Wyatt’s shoulder as he paced the living room. “We’ll find her. RJ’s good at what he does.”

“RJ?”

“Our friend in England. Most of his work with computers is legitimate, but he likes to test the boundaries as sort of a hobby.”

Thank goodness Will and Rania were here. Their confidence gave me hope, whereas otherwise, I’d probably have been up on a murder charge before morning. Fucking diplomats.

---