Free A Dangerous Business by Lorelei Moone Page A

server." Kyle pointed at his screen. "There. That's the cell tower Heidi was connected to when her phone went dead."
    "All right..." Aidan rolled his chair up to Kyle's desk and took a look. It was just a number, a code, it might as well have been Greek to him.
    "So cross-referencing the tower ID, with the grid, here," Kyle opened another screen, and showed his two colleagues a map of Edinburgh, which was divided into zones with equally confusing looking numbers in them. "It seems Heidi was roughly in this area." Kyle circled one of the zones with his index finger.
    "Okay, well… that's something." Aidan scratched his head. "Jamie, you said she was going to meet people for drinks. A public place, a pub?"
    "Yeah, a pub."
    "How many pubs are in that area, there?" Aidan braced himself for the answer. This city - as well as most of the country - actually, was famous for its numerous drinking establishments.
    "Let's see..." Kyle clicked a few buttons, and super-imposed another map over the grid he'd looked at earlier. "About... thirty?"
    "Thirty." Jamie let out a dejected sigh. "We don't have enough people to canvas thirty pubs in time to figure out where she went. Not without drawing attention to ourselves anyway."
    "Perhaps we don't have to... What else do we know about these people? If they've taken Heidi at the meeting, they would have done it somewhere where they felt comfortable. Somewhere, where nobody would have called the police on them... They're nationalists, right? Separatists. How many of these pubs are independent, not owned by large breweries - especially not English breweries?"
    "About half are free houses, not tied to any brewery."
    "How else can we narrow this down? How about location? It's unlikely Heidi would have been taken from a pub that is in full view of a main road..."
    "That leaves us with five. Five unaffiliated pubs that are set back from main roads." Kyle sat back, crossing his arms. "That's not half bad. Good thinking there, Aidan!"
    The printer in the corner purred into action, and soon spat out a list with all the addresses. Jamie got up to retrieve it, read through it, and handed it to Aidan.
    "Let's go, then. No time to waste."

    The first two pubs on the list didn't feel right to Aidan. He couldn't catch a whiff of Heidi's scent there either, so they quickly moved on to number three.
    After picking up his brother, Derek, on the way, they parked up a few buildings down and walked up to the third pub. There was a Scotland flag in the window, and the place had a particular vibe to it that made Aidan suspicious.
    "This could be the one," he remarked.
    Jamie, next to him, nodded. "Very private, service alley leading to the back. I agree."
    They decided to split up, with Jamie heading inside to look for clues there, and Aidan exploring said alley, while Derek went back to the car to keep an eye on the surrounding area. Aidan had barely made it to the back of the building, before he found what he'd been looking for.
    Right next to a stack of piled up garbage bags, was unmistakable proof that they had come to the right place. A discarded hair band, a couple of strawberry blond hairs still attached to it. He picked it up and immediately caught Heidi's scent. She'd been here.
    He made a quick call to Derek, telling him this was the place and to stay put. Then he decided to head inside to join Jamie, who had taken a seat at the bar.
    Inside the dimly lit establishment, Aidan immediately saw that the crowd looked right too. The clientele was overwhelmingly male, working class, a lot of tightly cropped or shaved heads around the place. They fit the profile down to the combat boots and occasional nationalist tattoos. And they were all were staring at him.
    Actually, both Aidan and Jamie stood out like sore thumbs. Considering how built they were, of course, it would take a lot more than wearing your hair the wrong way for any of these people to confront the two bears. After a quick greeting, they ordered