58
“Right there,”Liv said, pointing a shaking finger at the grainy image of Alan Rogers. “It’s Claudia’s son.”
Zeke braced his hands on the table and leaned in, squinting. “I’ve seen him before.”
“What?” she asked, pacing behind him. “When?”
“At the conference hotel in Charlotte. I thought of him as Intense Dude for the way he was”—he glanced at her over his shoulder—“staring at you.”
“Alan was in the restaurant?”
He nodded. “I couldn’t decide if he was suffering from unrequited love or simply struck stupid by the beautiful redhead at the bar.” He scowled at the screen again. “Then my brother arrived and I lost sight of him.”
“That would have been about three weeks ago.” Liv thumbed through her memories, searching for a connection. The process took longer than she would’ve liked, but she gave her tired, battered brain some grace. “I didn’t set eyes on Alan until after the conference. The time I saw him outside his parents’ house after following Claudia home.”
“You’re sure you never met him before that?”
“Positive.”
“Maybe his appearance at the water park is a coincidence.”
“Then why is there no video of him entering the building?” Before texting Zeke to get back to the conference room ASAP, she had replayed the video twice more, specifically looking for Alan.
“You mentioned another lone male who arrived at the same time the kidnapper was on the phone with you. Let me see him.”
Liv rewound the video, then hit play once he appeared on the screen.
Zeke tapped a finger against the screen. “Does the towel draped across his shoulder appear bulky to you?”
She remembered thinking the same thing when she first saw him. “He’s wearing a wig.”
“With an extra change of clothes beneath the towel.”
Their eyes met. Held.
“It would explain why you weren’t able to locate his arrival.”
Liv shot out of the conference room, Zeke close behind. She stopped by her cubicle to grab her purse, then went in search of Mitch.
His office was empty.
“Are you looking for the boss?” Peppy Patsy asked as she streaked by.
“Have you seen him?
“I saw him leave about fifteen minutes ago.”
“What about Cameron?”
“No clue.”
She looked at Zeke. “We’re on our own.”
A predatory smile creased his face.
Liv ran-walkedout of the FBI building, digging into her purse for her car key. Her fingers tripped over hand sanitizer, lip balm, sunglasses, travel-size Excedrin bottle, and something that stabbed the pad of her pinkie.
“Dammit!” She checked the wound to make sure it wasn’t bleeding before doing a free dive back into her bag.