Page 162 of To Catch a Sub

What neither the police nor Interpol knew, was that Andrei’s hidden dash cam had gotten a fairly good shot of the plate as the vehicle pulled away. Andrei had shared the dash-cam footage of the kidnapping with all relevant parties. But he’d cut the footage at the point of Colette’s shipping container being loaded into the van.

What if she was still in that box? Trapped and screaming.

It wouldn’t have occurred to Landon to edit out usable information like the shot with a partial plate. Andrei’s distrust—even of the organization they both worked for—was something he needed to aspire to.

With the last half of the plate, Andrei had been able to track the van’s progress along the M25 and M1. The last shot they had of it was from a bank camera in Northampton.

Once Landon quit his Interpol job, he’d reached out to everyone he still knew from his time in London Metro. It was a long list, and included law enforcement professionals from around the country.

Then he’d started looking at transportation. Colette was bound for Russia, but transporting an unwilling person was difficult.

There were a handful of small airports around Northampton, and Landon had called in every favor, and promised any and everything, to anyone who could help him get information on flights that had either already departed, or were planning to depart from those small airfields. He’d have to exhaust all his savings to pay the promised bribes to various people who agreed to call him if any suspicious flights started boarding.

There had been several promising leads, but one by one they’d fallen through.

This latest tip was different. This felt right, even though it had nothing to with an airport.

“What were you looking up?” Andrei prompted.

“Catesby Garden Hotel, in Lower Catesby. It’s west of Northampton.” Landon held up his phone. “That was a mate I worked with in the Met, but he’s moved out to a territorial police service. He said that hotel has been empty for years, and just sold. Catesby is rural, not much to see except an old Roman viaduct. It’s why the hotel closed in the first place. But some locals were rambling, and saw the lights on. Saw people going in and out, and at least one white panel van.”

“It’s not much to go on.” Rolf cautioned.

“No, but one of the pensioners who took a look memorized the plate on the white panel van—the man apparently doesn’t trust anyone with panel vans. Says they’re only driven by thieves.”

The word stuck in his throat, and Landon had to swallow before he could finish.

“Most of the plate the pensioner gave matches what we have.”

“Most?” Rolf asked.

“More than half.” Now that he said it aloud, it didn’t sound like much.

“Remind me never to cross a British pensioner. Or we should recruit them.” Andrei turned his laptop to face them. “I’ve got our van, followed by three motorcycles, on camera coming through Daventry which is between Northampton and Catesbury.”

A wave of relief made Landon nearly light-headed. Yes, this was it. They’d found her, and she was still in England. He’d cast his search net wide, sure they’d try and smuggle her out of the country right away. Airport smuggling was something he knew well. One of the reasons he’d known what to tell his contacts to look for.

He’d feared Colette could be anywhere in the world. Instead she was a hundred kilometers up the road.

“When was this hotel purchased?” Rolf asked.

“According to records, two days ago. Bought for cash.”

“Two days. It would have taken at least a day or two to find and make an offer on a piece of property. That means Novak started feeding them information almost as soon as we arrived here.” Betrayal bit at Landon. Not just Novak’s but the rest of Interpol’s failure to listen.

Landon shoved his phone in his pocket and started pulling dark clothes out of his piles of laundry.

“What are we doing now?” Andrei asked.

“I’m going to go get Colette, and murder everyone who hurt her.”

“Would you like assistance?” Rolf asked formally.

“Are you offering to assist me with murder?”

“No. I’m offering to assist you with a rescue.”

“I’ll help you with the murder,” Andrei said.