Page 48 of A Pawn for Malice
Claire was in the middle of conversing withMissy, and Zachary, as his office door flew open, taking them allby surprise.
“Did you hear from her? Has Jessica called inat all?”
Heads shook fervently in response, and he didnot wait for them to verbalize their thoughts either. He stormed tothe back office, finding Connor’s door open.
“She’s not here! Something’s wrong. I justknow it.” He pulled out his cell phone and showed Connor her lasttext message.
Connor read it quickly and popped up out ofhis chair. “That was thirty minutes ago. She should be back bynow.”
Bryan turned and found the rest of his staffthere, standing in wait of instructions, fear clearly mirrored upontheir faces. He raised his hand for pause, as he depressed thegreen phone icon next to Ayden’s name.
“Hey –“ Ayden said, before being cut off.
Bryan’s voice was curt and fearful. “She’smissing. Tell me you found something.”
“I’m waiting on a fax as we speak. I managedto get the tapes. After running through the first ten minutes ofthe first three days of the trial, he appears in every one ofthem.”
“God damn it,” Bryan snapped.
“Bry, look. I’ll find out his name in thenext few minutes. All felon cases tried at the courthouse now,mandates that all court visitors sign in and show a photo idea,which is scanned into the system. I’ve got them pulling day onefrom the archives and faxing them a.s.a.p. We’ll have a name tomatch the face right away. Be patient, Bry. I’m 90% percent certainhe needs her. She’s safe for now.”
“It’s the other 10% that worries me.” Bryanreplied and disconnected the line.
He looked at his office manager and gave anorder. “Claire, I have a photo on my desk I need you to show to theguide, who headed the Capitol tour, Jessica was on today thatstarted at noon. See, if she recognizes the man in the photo. Also,get a list from here of the names of the people, who participatedin that tour.”
Claire moved swiftly into Bryan’s office,found a picture on his desk and returned.
“Is this the one, Senator?”
He nodded and she was out of the office doinghis bidding quickly.
“Whoever did this, Senator, probably wasn’tstupid enough to sign up for that tour.”
Connor interrupted.
“I know, but it’s good to check everythingoff. More than likely he followed her from a distance, and caughther unawares up on the sixth floor. If only …”
He shook his head in dismay. ‘If onlys’,didn’t matter right now. Her curiosity wasn’t at fault here. Themadman, who chose to abduct her was, and he had to get on histrail, while it was still hot.
He looked at the faces of his staff, stillmilling around him, waiting for some direction. He ran his fingersthrough his hair and sighed, as though the weight of the world wasjust placed upon his shoulders.
Connor came up beside him, clasping hisshoulder firmly to let him know they would all work through thistogether.
Bryan directed his staff calmly.
“I have reason to believe that the man, whoattempted to accost Jessica a few weeks ago, did so this afternoon,shortly after her tour of the Capitol came to an end.” The look ofhorror on their faces and gasps of dismay, made tears pricklebehind his eyes. “We have some strong, solid leads, as to who thisguy is. I’m waiting to hear from my former partner at Albany PD inthe next few minutes, as to our next move.
I know you’re all as concerned and worried asI am. We’ll get through this together. If I hear anything positive,I promise you all will be the first to know.”
He nodded toward his office for Connor tofollow him, and then closed the door behind them, when he entered.Right then his cell phone rang, and he recognized Ayden’s number.He depressed the button for speaker, so Connor could hear aswell.
“Speak to me, bro.”
“Good news, Bry. That guy in the photo, isSylas Corbat.”
“Corbat! Is he related to that wacko, whogunned down Michaelson’s son?”
“The one and the same. He was in thatcourtroom every day, Bry.”
