“Not much,” Shane said. “Lennox told me that you had the deets.” He motioned to the envelope Gavin had in front of him. “So what are we doing?”
“A businessman and his wife have been kidnapped, apparently. That’s as far as I’d gotten.” He sat up straighter, and, grabbing the envelope, he said, “Let’s take a look.” He pulled out several stacks of paper, took half of it, and handed the rest of it off to Shane. “When I worked with Lennox, I had more details than he did.”
“A file was supposed to come with me,” Shane said, “but it didn’t make it.”
“Paper copy?”
“A USB,” he said. “So Lennox told me to just talk to you.”
“Great,” he said. He pulled out his phone and quickly sent Lennox a text. Shane’s here. But he didn’t come with anything.
He came with enough, Lennox replied. Check your phone. I’m uploading information.
Gavin watched his phone downloading every link as it came through, since he didn’t know when they would lose internet. At the same time he kept looking through the physical file. Most of it was background information into the family members, but no red flags popped at Gavin’s cursory review. So the paper intel was bulky but provided little to pursue.
“So the businessman, his wife, and two daughters were on a trip through Japan,” Gavin continued, as he shared what bits he knew with Shane. “They moved on from Japan to Hawaii.”
“Sure, that makes sense,” Shane said. “And then what?”
“Then they dropped off the face of the earth,” Gavin said. “Last-known sighting was at the Marriott in Honolulu.”
“Well, it would be pretty easy to disappear in that crowd,” Shane said. “Talk about a major tourist draw.”
“Exactly.” Gavin nodded. “The question is, did they disappear willingly or were they ‘disappeared’ by somebody else?”
Shane cracked up at that. “Well, chances are it wasn’t by choice,” he said. “Do we have a clue where we’re going?”
Gavin went on. “I presume we’re heading toward Hawaii, but who the hell knows. They went missing two hours ago.” He stopped and shook his head. “No way.”
“No way what?”
“Seems like the report of them going missing coincides with the kidnapping event. How did we get that intel so fast? I’m not seeing anything about that in this packet.” Reaching for his phone, Gavin quickly sent a text asking Lennox. The reply message came back immediately.
Daughter called 9-1-1, and they could hear her screams on the phone.
So why the hell haven’t you got somebody local there?
We do, Lennox texted. Don’t get comfy.
Gavin snorted at that. Great. I’m already what, seventy miles from the coast?
Yep, you are. Flights will be picking you up pretty quick too.
Not even time for coffee?
Hell no.
Gavin stared at that and shook his head, but then he got a knock on the door. Immediately the two men hopped from their bunks, grabbed their bags, and collected the paperwork from the file that they still hadn’t had a chance to read fully. They followed the seaman at the door. Still trying to download as much of the material as Gavin could onto his phone, he and Shane continued up to the deck, where the helicopter awaited them. They were quickly loaded and immediately took off out over the water. Gavin sent one message to Lennox. In the air.
For this leg, yes, Lennox replied.
Gavin shook his head and pocketed his phone. Looking at Shane, he said, “If nothing else, the methods of travel are pretty interesting.”
“Anything but commercial works for me,” Shane said. “I’m too big for those damn tiny airplane seats.”
As he said it, Gavin eyed Shane’s 250-pound frame with broader shoulders than his own. “Haven’t ever considered what a commercial flight would be like for you.”
“Absolute hell, that’s what,” he said. “Absolute hell. But, hey, I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again.”
“Good to know,” Gavin said, “because, in this business, it seems like it’s nothing but craziness.”
“Exactly.” Shane resumed looking through the material and said, “So the father was there for a business meeting on medical implants and prosthetics. He’s a doctor, a researcher, and a scientist. Looks like his wife works with him in the same field.” Shane continued to read out loud their biographies. “Both are in their sixties with two adult daughters. One is missing a leg and wears a prosthetic, which started them down this path. The other one is a scientist and a doctor and a researcher in her own right,” Shane said, with an eyebrow raised.
“More brainy people,” Gavin noted, as he studied the water under them. “What the hell is going on in the world that all the brainiacs keep getting into trouble?”
“The problem is,” Shane said, “that other people want use of their brains.”
“Good point,” Gavin said, as he looked at the images in his part of the physical file. “Standard gray-haired male professor and matching wife,” he said. “Nothing very distinguishable about either of them.”
“Nope. The one daughter appears to be twenty-two, no, forty-two, sorry. She’s divorced with two children and went on this as part of a family trip. Her fiancé and children are in Honolulu and are safe.”
Gavin frowned. “Interesting that the four of them were taken but not the extended family.”
“Wrong place at the wrong time, maybe,” Shane wondered.
“Yeah.” Gavin’s gaze fell on the image of the other daughter. “So, the second daughter looks quite a bit younger.”
“Thirty-one,” Shane read off his stat sheet. “Scientist in her own right and also working in the family business.”
“But not the daughter who’s missing a leg?”
“No. Not from what I’ve got here anyway.”
“She’s also very striking,” Gavin said.
“Yeah, nobody’ll miss seeing her walk down the street.”
“Beauty and brains,” Gavin said. He faced Shane. “We’ve had several cases where those two were combined already.”
“So, in this case, was she the target, and everybody else was collateral damage, or were the parents the intended targets? They own a significant interest in Trident Corporation. Like 33 percent of the shares, technically 16.5 percent for each of the parents.”
“Anybody own 51 percent?” Gavin asked.
“Just checking,” Shane replied, and then he whistled. “Each of the daughters owns 10 percent as well, giving the immediate family a controlling interest.”
“Well then, 53 percent of the company. The major shareholders.”
“Not exactly,” he said. “The rest, the 47 percent, is in a family trust, granted by the paternal grandfather. With funds not to be released until two years after his passing.”
“Is that normal?”
Shane gave a one-arm shrug. “I wonder if this could be more of a business play.”
“Hard to say,” Gavin replied. “For all we know, somebody just knows they have lots of money, and it’s a simple ransom deal.”