The Auction House Deal: Bought by A Billionaire

"Let’s ask around," Lauren said. "Come on." She took out her phone and swiped to find a recent picture of Hannah. Going around the groups, mingling outside the now empty club, Lauren asked if anyone had seen her.

A group dressed in black leather with interesting tats scanned the picture and shook their heads. As Lauren skittered one way, Lori and Kristin went another.

I turned toward a group of guys and girls in fashionable club wear, one guy wearing ripped jeans and a tight-shirt, the girls in mini-skirts, and held up Hannah’s picture. "Did any of you see this woman leave?" I asked.

"No. She’s attractive, though," one of the guys said.

"That’s my wife," I warned. He held up his hands.

I went to the next group, and the next. No one had seen Hannah.

Meanwhile Ed and Marcus were talking to the cops, trying to elicit any information they could. At first, the police officers were tight-lipped, but eventually Ed got them talking.

The officers really didn’t think there was much to go on. They’d seen the same thing happen time and time again, they said. Pretty woman leaves the safety of her group. Finds herself alone with someone she doesn’t know, and, poof!

"It’s the reason," one of the policemen with a pot belly said with a shrug, "why it’s best not to get separated from the herd."

Marcus could see me clench my fists.

Hannah wasn’t some wolf cub who had gotten lost or separated from the pack. She was my wife, and she never would have left the club willingly with some strange man.

"It’s just," Marcus explained to the cop, "we’ve been working this case. Big stuff. We’d love to let you in on it. It’s just this girl, she was the lynch pin in our bust. We thought everyone had been taken care of, if you know what I mean, but someone must have been after her."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said the officer. "Before we go jumping to conclusions, I have some questions." We all waited while the man fished around in his pocket for a pen and a small pad of paper. "Who was the last to see her?"

"I was," said Lori.

"Me too," said Lauren. "We both saw her walk out front here."

"I was the last to talk to her," I chimed in.

"So no one actually saw her being snatched?" the officer asked, putting his fingers to his chin.

"No," Lori dropped her head and shook it.

"I mean, that’s not a lot to go on," said the officer. "Did anyone here see - what did she look like?" the officer turned to me.

"Red hair, beautiful," I said.

"In a blue dress," added Lauren.

"A beauty in blue?" the cop yelled to the crowd.

"We’ve already asked around," I said. "No one saw her."

"You’re free to go," the officer yelled, and some of the club patrons began to scatter.

Others continued to mill about. Now that their club time had gotten cut short, they must have been curious about the kidnapping mystery that had just unfolded. But the danger facing us wasn’t a whodunit, and I felt protective of any information about Hannah’s disappearance.

"Seriously, we got it from here," said the officer.

"Oh no," I argued back. "You don’t have anything. You have no clue what to do first," I snapped.

"Look here, Buddy. I am part of law enforcement, and that means..."

"Slow down," said Ed. "I’ll take my friend Roman Thaddeus over here, and we’ll..."

"Did you say Roman Thaddeus? As in the billionaire?"

The cop smiled and rolled back on his heels. He reminded me a little of Humpty Dumpty from a book I had as a child of nursery rhymes.

"That’s the one," said Ed. "Just saying, take up this case, let us help, and maybe your unit gets a new squad car or two."

Ed nodded his head at me as if to indicate I should go along with his bribe.

I nodded, too. I’d do anything to find Hannah. Even though I believed I shouldn’t need to grease the wheels to get law enforcement to take Hannah’s disappearance seriously, I was willing to try.

"Well," said the cop. "I guess some more eyes wouldn’t be so bad."

"Can you get us the surveillance footage from in front of the club?" Ed asked.

"I’ll ask," said the police officer, and he sauntered over to the entrance to the club.

"It’s like pulling teeth," Ed shook his head. "That video footage should have been the first thing he asked about." Ed pointed to a store across the street. "I’m going to go over there and see if they have anything."

"Okay," I said.

I thought about Hannah - how she felt pressed against me. Longing to hold her in my arms, I ignored the familiar ding I heard on my phone. After it dinged again, I looked at who was contacting me. It was my old friend Nick asking what I was up to.

I texted back, telling him I was dealing with a situation. Then I thought about it - the more people out there looking for Hannah, the better.

I texted him back and told him to meet me at the club with Wade and Gabe. They probably thought I was inviting them out for a night on the town, but I just wanted their help.

Returning to where Lori was standing, I asked about her brothers. "Do you think you could get Freddy and Edward here?"

"Why?" Lori asked, confused.

"Because I think we need more manpower," I explained. "If we have everyone looking... no stone unturned, as they say."

"I see. Sure. I’ll call them."

I paced the sidewalk, thinking about who else might know anything. Hopelessness threatened to overtake me. I warned her, and then...

As I was pondering where else I could be searching for Hannah, Ed returned with a flashdrive.

"See," he smiled. "Nothing I couldn’t overcome."

His smug grin annoyed me. I still blamed him for losing Hannah in the first place, and he was all smiles that he’d obtained some crappy surveillance footage? It would probably be grainy as hell, but I figured it was worth a shot.

"My office isn’t far from here," I said. "We can look at it there."

Marcus and Lori return to the dark curb where Ed and I were standing, claiming the shiftless cop had gotten the club to email their footage. I checked my email and saw it forwarded.

"I told them your email address," Lori said. "I hope you don’t mind."

"It’s fine," I said. "Whatever brings Hannah back." "Marcus," I said. "Can you check if any of her cards have been used?"

"On it," he said and turned away.

I knew it wasn’t a probability, but maybe Hannah had been able to convince her captors to buy a pizza or gas or anything with her credit card. Any way we could track her, we needed to check out.

Her phone, I thought.

"Can we try to track her phone?" I asked Ed.

"When we get to your office, I can make some calls," he said.

I knew it was a shot in the dark, but I called Hannah’s number, hoping that maybe, just maybe she’d pick up and be able to tell me where she was.

When I heard it ring, I whispered under my breath, "come on, come on, pick up."

Four rings, and then it went to voicemail.

At the sound of Hannahs’s lilting voice, "Hi, you’ve reached Hannah. You know what to do," my heart pumped hard. I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t stand the thought of not hearing her sweet cadence again. We had to find her.

"Did you call her?" Lauren asked. She could probably tell by my drawn face that I hadn’t been successful. "I’m so sorry, Rom," she said, patting my back.

A few minutes later, Nick, Gabe, and Wade arrived.

Gabe was completely wasted, but Wade and Nick managed to look fairly sober.

"We’re here," they called out, seeing me standing by the curb.

"Where’s the party?" Nick said.

"Not here," I said. "I need your help."

"But... you said, meet you at this club," Gabe slurred.

"Yeah. This is where Hannah disappeared. Taken," I said.

Immediately, I could see Nick eye me, knowing something was wrong.

"Come on, guys," he said. "Fun’s over. Roman needs us, and if we want to help out our friend here, we need to sober up."

"Coffee down the block at the donut shop," the police officer pointed.

Nick made a gesture that Wade and Gabe should follow him.

Next, Freddy and Edward rolled up, and Lori waved at them. "Hi," she said, running over to their car.

"Everyone’s here," I declared. "It’s time to find Hannah."