Free Deadly News: A Thriller by Zooey Smith Page B

fingerprints in Sellwood’s car. No blood. Nothing in his apartment, which I’ll probably get shit for getting a warrant for.” She ceased leaning on the back of her chair, and paced behind her desk.
    “I have an idea,” Abby said. She was tired of waiting for Fe to bring it up. Fe had procedure to worry about, upsetting her boss. Abby did not.
    The lieutenant looked at her. “Okay. What is it?”
    “Use me.”
    She stared at Abby. “Ms Melcer, I don’t like ciphers. Can you please be a bit more verbose in your ideas?”
    “They want me, yeah? Well, give them me.”
    “Give them you. So, you want us to just say, ‘Hey guys, that woman you wanted? Here she is, do what you like with her. No, no, we don’t want anything in return.’”
    Abby was silent. She clenched her jaw once, then, “That’s not what I meant. You could bug me, then you’d know where they were.”
    “Do you realize how dangerous that is?” Masterson asked.
    Delano was shaking his head. “We’re not going to give you to the bad guys, this isn’t some kids’ game. Things don’t always turn out okay in the real world.”
    “Do any of you have better ideas?” She looked at each of them. None looked happy, but they all remained silent.
    “Just because,” the lieutenant began, “we can’t think of anything else, doesn’t mean your idea is a good one.”
    “Look, he’s calling me. They followed me to Ecks’s, then kidnapped him. They know where I’m staying—”
    “You don’t know that,” Delano interrupted.
    “No,” Abby agreed, “but we don’t know they don’t. It’s possible they do. I don’t want to underestimate them.”
    “And yet you want to give yourself over to them?” Masterson asked. “That seems like a damn big underestimate.”
    Abby looked at her hands. “All I’m saying”—she looked up—“is that they know where I am. They’re capable of being careful when they commit crimes, which means they have experience. And now my friend has been kidnapped because of me. I got him involved.” She waved a hand. “Soren, I mean, yeah, I’m worried about him too, but I didn’t get him involved in this.”
    “Other way around,” the lieutenant said.
    Abby shrugged. “I guess. He couldn’t have known though.”
    “He knew something. I’m damn interested in knowing just what was in that folder.”
    “I’ve given you all I remember.” She paused. “What about that name?”
    Masterson pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No, nothing. It’s a common name, some are in the system around the area, but wrong initials.” He frowned. “Surprisingly, none for kidnapping. You’d think at least one of these guys would have, what with how many there were.”
    “So you guys have nothing.” She paused. “I’m your best choice.”
    Again, silence as Abby looked around at the faces.
    The lieutenant pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’re not handing you over. That’s idiotic. No offense.”
    Abby began to object, but the lieutenant stopped her.
    “But, we can bug your phone, see if we can get anything that way. Maybe set up a meet. A fake meet, maybe. I don’t know, these things are delicate. If they want to try to ransom your friend—”
    “Friends,” Abby said, uncrossing her legs, then bobbing the right up and down on the ball of her foot.
    “Right, if they have both. Hell, at this point, we don’t have any evidence that the have either.”
    “The footage—”
    “Showing them doing exactly shit-all that’s illegal.”
    “Actually,” Masterson said, “the front bumped looked to be about half an inch in the red.”
    “Well that’s good, at least we’ll have something to charge them with if we can’t find any other evidence. Should be good for one, two
hours
in the big bad traffic court.”
    “We should hurry. How long will getting my phone bugged take?”
    “Not long.”
    “Well, come on, what are we waiting for?”
    “You’re in a hurry all of a sudden,” the