eyes and turned to his friend. “Sorry. What was that?”
“I wanted to know if you told the cops how many people were involved.”
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I told them that Mr. McNally saw more than one person, but wasn’t sure how many.”
“Well, thanks to the Listener, I’d say that there were probably three of them.”
Payne sat up in his chair. “How did you figure that out?”
“Simple. I programmed the device to filter out everything but the footsteps, and after listening to the disc, I could hear three distinct sets. But, as they were leaving, I could only hear two.”
“You mean someone stayed inside Ariane’s apartment?”
Jones shook his head. “At first, that’s what I thought, too, but as I listened to the disc again, I noticed a scratching noise in the background. I filtered out all the other sounds, isolating the scratch, and this is what I got.” He pushed his mouse button once, and a rough grating sound emerged from his system’s speakers. “What does that sound like to you?”
“Feet dragging on a carpet?”
“Bingo!” Jones was impressed that his friend had figured it out so quickly. It had taken him several minutes to come up with a hypothesis. “Remember what McNally said? It looked like your girlfriend was snookered because they were practically carrying her to the van? Well, my guess is she was drugged or knocked out. The three sets of footsteps that the Listener originally detected were Ariane and the two assailants. They broke into her place, gagged her, drugged her, then dragged her out. That’s the only thing that fits.”
“But I thought you said there were three guys involved. Where was the third guy while the abduction was going on?” Before Jones had a chance to answer, the solution popped into Payne’s head. “Oh, shit! They probably needed a driver to stay outside in the van.”
Jones nodded. “That’s what most criminals would do.”
CHAPTER 14
PAYNE and Jones gathered all of the information they’d accumulated and took it directly to the police. When they entered the local precinct, Payne headed for Captain Tomlin’s office. He had met Tomlin a year earlier at a charity golf event that Payne Industries had sponsored, and they had stayed in touch since.
“Do you have a minute?” Payne asked as he tapped on Tomlin’s glass door. The captain, who had curly hair and thick arms, waved him in. “Have you ever met David Jones?”
Tomlin introduced himself, shaking Jones’s hand with a powerful grip. “Jon has told me all about you. I almost feel like we’ve met. I understand that you served under him in special ops.”
“Yeah,” Jones answered as he took a seat next to Payne. “We relied on each other so much we ended up attached in the real world.”
“That happens all the time. There’s something about life in the military that draws soldiers together—a kindred spirit that bonds all warriors.”
Payne winced at the suggestion. “I don’t know about that crap. I think D.J. stuck with me so I could get him a job.”
Jones nodded. “To be honest, he’s right. I actually can’t stand the bastard.”
Tomlin laughed loudly. “So, I take it from your comedy that Ariane’s all right? Where was that gal hiding?”
The comment drained the humor from the room.
“Don’t let our joking fool you,” Jones declared. “It’s just our way of dealing with things. The truth is we’re still looking for her.”
Payne held up his cell phone, showing it to Tomlin. “I’m having all of my calls forwarded. If she tries to contact any one of my lines, it’ll ring here.”
“Good, then you won’t have to sit at home, killing time.”
Payne took a deep breath and nodded. To him, waiting was the hardest part. “How are things on your end? Did you have a chance to send any officers to her apartment?”
“I sent a small crew over. Unfortunately, we didn’t notice anything new. You guys must’ve done a pretty thorough job this morning.”
“We did,” Payne said. “I hope we didn’t step on any toes by entering the scene.”
“Heavens no. I would’ve done the same thing if a loved one of mine was involved in something like this. Of course, my answer as a police officer would’ve been different if I didn’t know you. But you’re professionals, so I trust your judgment when it comes to a crime scene.”
Jones stood from his chair and handed the captain all of the information he had acquired from Ariane’s DVD. “We did get some data on one of the suspects