The Auction House Deal: Bought by A Billionaire

Several people filed in to my office.

"Wow," said Lori. "I didn’t expect it to be so big." She turned to look around.

Being that it was my father’s old office, it was rather large with expansive views of the city. A big wooden desk sat in the back with a large bookcase behind it.

On the walls were several framed paintings of architectural landscapes and a few photographs as well. Atop the desk were the usual files, pens, etc. and a framed picture of Hannah.

Her eyes gazed at me across the desk, twinkling green. She was wearing one of my favorite outfits of hers, and she had a warm smile, as we had been taking a tour of the botanical gardens. Holding a beautiful white rose, her red hair blowing behind her in the wind, she looked so happy.

I invited everyone to take a seat on my soft brown leather couch and chairs, having an almost full living room set in the front of the office facing the large screen I had installed for meetings, but that I mostly used to watch sports when I had to work late.

"This will be our war room for now," I said as if I was a soldier rallying the troops.

My desire to find Hannah pushed me to take control of the situation. In my job, I was used to delegating, and as the boss, I was used to getting my way. That night was no exception.

"Everyone check out this footage. See if you notice anything. The more eyes the better. Then we’ll set up a plan," I told them. I stepped back to my desk and cued up the video footage on my computer.

We could see the dark street in front of the bar. Moments before Hannah stepped out, people were walking by, talking. Nothing seemed unusual.

When Hannah exited, holding her phone to her head, the street appeared empty. The camera didn’t capture a broad picture, so not much else was in the frame. Hannah had her back to the door as she stepped out further, pressing the phone closer to her ear. Perhaps she couldn’t hear that well.

That went on for about forty-five seconds before a figure in black, face covered, appeared essentially out of nowhere, putting a gloved hand to Hannah’s mouth and pulling her out of frame.

I felt a deep cold settle in my stomach as I processed this. The room went quiet, everyone reflecting on what they just saw. Ed stepped up to the screen to get a better look.

"We can’t see anything. Not one stitch of skin that could help us," he sounded frustrated.

I re-started the footage at the part where the man came in. Just as I had suspected, the camera angle wasn’t helpful, and the quality of footage wasn’t doing us any favors either. It looked terrible. If the man had been a gorilla that had come up across the curb, and we wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

"Well, when we share this with the police, at least they’ll know she was taken," said Marcus.

Fuming inside at the lack of clues the video footage provided, I silently jabbed in the fire stick on the side of my computer. Accessing the file, I projected it up onto the flat screen as well.

That angle didn’t show as much of the club. Hannah seemed to be far away, and the street appeared front and center in the video footage.

Again, they all watched as Hannah came out, then stood around. The guy grabbed her, and they were gone. Just as I was about to turn off the footage, Nick spoke up.

"Keep going," he said. "A little faster?" he questioned.

I played the footage at a quicker speed, unsure what Nick was looking for.

"There," he said, pointing at the screen and a frame with a black car passing by and two passengers.

"Look for the car on the other footage," Wade suggested.

I did as he asked, and before Hannah ever arrived out front, a black sedan sped by going in the opposite direction.

Freddy elbowed Edward.

"I think we’ve seen that car around," Freddy said.

"Yeah, yeah," Edward said, and I was unsure if he was just agreeing with Freddy or what.

We all watched the car drive by, the darkness and crappy video quality hiding the license plate.

"I think I’ve seen that car before," Lori added. "Right around our house," she said to her brothers, who nodded.

I pushed my hand through my hair. "So if I’m to understand this right, you - no, not you - Hannah - was being stalked by someone in a black car and you chose not to tell anyone?" The amount of blunders committed so far in our security and investigation was just staggering.

"Stop," said Marcus. "Zoom in there," he said.

Looking at him trying to squint at the picture was almost comical.

"I’m not in the crime scenes investigative unit," I muttered.

"It’s just me, so wait a second. This isn’t a weekly procedural show," I didn’t know what I was doing, scrambling at the keyboard to blow up the image.

After I figured it out, Marcus stepped closer to the screen and focused his eyes on the car and the license plate.

As I zoomed in, everyone stared at the screen. The car had a small dent on the side, but was otherwise nondescript.

"I saw that car around last week, but I didn’t think anything of it," said Freddy.

I was about to blow a gasket. They knew people might be after Hannah. Why hadn’t they spoken up? If someone had mentioned the car before, Ed and Marcus could have checked it out before Hannah had been abducted.

"I think you’re right," Ed said. "We need to find that car. There weren’t any eyewitnesses that we know of, so, we have to assume that, for now, no one saw what happened."

I turned toward Lauren, Lori, and Kristin. "You girls, it looked like Hannah was followed. How did this person figure out where you’d be? Check and cross-reference your texts. Who knew where you were going?"

"Nick, Wade, Gabe, watch the footage from when the girls arrived at the club. Were they followed? Who went in and out around the same time? Keep a list."

I stood in the middle of the room, commanding everyone’s attention. "This is it. We need to find Hannah. Let’s get to it."

With everyone around in a tizzy, working on the tasks I set out for them, I returned to my desk. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or the stress, but Hannah’s smile in the picture on my desk seemed to brighten.

Hang on, Hannah, I thought. We’re coming for you.

Having two FBI agents involved helped, but there were some problems even they couldn’t solve. I was a little surprised they let me take the reins, but I guessed I had left them no choice.

We all worked late into the night, trying to piece together the chain of events. I kept a list of the key information, and when I began piecing it together, it seemed as though the kidnapper had acted alone.

Who knew, however, where they had taken Hannah?

Against Ed and Marcus’ advice, I sent a message to all local law enforcement with a picture of the black car, offering a reward if anyone found it or saw it parked or driving on the road.

"You can’t do that," said Ed. "Bribing law enforcement is against the law."

"You didn’t have a problem with it when you were offering new squad cars. The faster we find the car, the faster we find Hannah," I said. "Besides, they’d be catching a bad guy."

I turned toward my windows that covered almost one wall of my office. The traffic below had thinned out at that hour, but as I watched the cars chugging along the city streets, looking almost like toy cars from the distance, I thought about the sheer numbers of cars and people in the city.

Hannah could be in any of them. Anywhere.