Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (classic books for 10 year olds txt) 📕

very vain, but she liked to dye her hair and wore some pretty bold makeup, so it seemed she cared at least a little about her appearance.

“It’s fine if it does,” Miranda shrugged. “I already told you, scars are sexy. And it’ll make a fun story. The time we got hit headlong by a truck and survived.”

It didn’t sound like a fun story to me, but Miranda seemed happy about it, so I didn’t argue.

“Chapman, Castillo,” A voice interrupted our conversation. I looked up to see Wallace and Nelson heading toward us. “Are you both alright?”

“I’ve been worse,” Miranda shrugged.

“Yeah, the car took the brunt of the damage,” I replied.

“Good,” Wallace remarked. “I’m glad you both walked away with minor injuries.” He and Nelson sat in the chairs across from us.

“What exactly happened?” Nelson asked. “Can you give us a play-by-play of the events leading up to the crash?”

“Beginning from when?” I asked.

“From the moment you secured the child,” Nelson replied.

“I brought her out of the gas station,” I began, trying to remember as many details as I could. “There were a lot of people standing around, cops and onlookers, so I took her around the back to give her some space.”

“Did anything stand out about any of the people there?” Wallace asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I wasn’t really paying attention, to be honest.

“What about you, Agent Castillo?” Nelson asked.

“I don’t really remember either,” she frowned. “After Junior left with the kid, I was trying to calm down the cops. They were pretty angry about him rushing in like that.”

“I heard about that,” Wallace nodded, throwing me a disapproving glare. I shrank down a little in my seat. “We’ll discuss it later. Right now, we need to focus on what happened with the crash.”

“What happened after that?” Nelson asked.

“Miranda came and talked to me,” I replied. “She went to call social services. I was behind the gas station the entire time, so I’m not sure what was happening up front. Irie arrived, then I gave her Lakshmi, and they left.”

“Nothing else?” Nelson prompted.

“One of the cops got in Junior’s face,” Miranda scoffed. “He was all bent out of shape about what he did and was yelling at him. I told him to step off, and he left.”

“You think he had something to do with it?” I asked.

“It’s difficult to say,” Wallace frowned. “But I don’t think so. You mentioned that it was a delivery truck, right?”

“I think so,” I nodded. “It happened so fast. I just remember it was big and a dark color. Brown or black.”

“It was a delivery truck,” Miranda interjected. “The kind that delivers mail packages. I remember it was pulling away when I got out of the car. I saw the logo on the side. I wasn’t thinking straight, or I would have gotten the license plate number. I was still rattled by the crash.”

“It’s okay,” Nelson replied gently. “Just having the logo will allow us to narrow it down and figure out it was. Even if it was unrelated to the trafficking case.”

“But you think it was?” I asked.

“It’s a possibility,” Wallace nodded. “After all, you were on a long stretch of road out in the desert. Few other cars were around, and you had just located one of the missing children. It’s a pretty big coincidence.”

“I don’t think it was a coincidence,” Miranda suddenly interrupted. I looked over at her. Her face was pale, and her brows were knit in worry. “I think I’ve seen that truck before.”

“Are you sure?” Nelson asked. “If it was just a regular package delivery truck, then it’s possible you’ve seen similar ones.”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “But you just said yourself, it’s a pretty big coincidence, right? So what are the odds that I saw an identical truck parked right in front of the office five nights ago?”

“You’re certain?” Wallace asked.

“Yes,” Miranda nodded. “It was the night that we found out about the tracking devices and stayed late at the office. Charlie and I were in the parking lot, and this delivery guy startled us when he dropped a bunch of packages. Charlie even mentioned how weird it was that he was still out making deliveries so late at night, but I just brushed it off. How could I be so stupid? He ran off as soon as we saw him and got into a truck just like the one that hit us. I thought he was just embarrassed that we saw him dropping all his stuff, but what if he was actually trying to flee?”

The four of us fell silent as we considered the implications of what Miranda was saying.

“You’re right,” I nodded. “A brown delivery truck is spotted outside our office the day we get a huge lead on the case, and then we happen to be hit by a similar brown truck just minutes after finding one of the kids? That doesn’t sound like a coincidence to me.”

“Because it’s not,” Wallace frowned. “This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been tailed by the enemy, and it wouldn’t be the first time that a suspect used a disguised vehicle to mask his movements. We need to call Hills and Patel and warn them that the trafficking group has been on to us and tracking our movements for at least five days.”

“I’m on it,” Nelson replied as he fished into his pocket for his phone.

“How did they find us so quickly, though?” Miranda asked, her voice tinged with frustration. “I know that the bust in the upstate neighborhood caused a lot of buzz, but we were never specifically mentioned in the news, right? They only said that it had been a raid conducted by the FBI.”

“That’s right,” Wallace nodded. “I deliberately made sure that MBLIS’s name was never mentioned in an effort to keep the trafficking group in the dark for as long as possible. That clearly didn’t work.”

“Maybe it was the tracking device,” I suggested. “The one that Fiona got back online. It’s literally a tracking device.