Spelling pulled into the single-story, stand-alone building that housed Green Space Landscape Services. With the cruiser parked, we crossed the lot to the side fence and peeked over the railing. Work trucks in all sizes—some equipped with plastic barrels containing liquid fertilizer—filled the space behind the six-foot-high security fence, along with self-propelled and riding lawn mowers and cabinets of trimming equipment.
After a scan of the area, we headed to the front door. Inside the building and just beyond three mismatched chairs pushed against the chair rail, a counter spread out in front of us. A sign hanging from two hooks on the back wall described the services Green Space offered along with the daily rates for renting equipment.
The man behind the counter looked up from his computer screen and lowered his glasses. “Can I help you folks?”
I gave him a thoughtful smile. “I sure hope so.” I pulled out my badge and showed it to the man. “We have a few questions for the manager.”
“You’re looking at him, ma’am.”
“Great, that was easy. So, to begin, I understand your company does the landscape services at Summerset Commons Condominiums. Is that correct?”
“We sure do. Was there a problem with our work that needed the FBI’s assistance?” He shot me a quick grin.
I chuckled. “I wouldn’t know that specifically, but what I do need to know is if your crew rotates their locations, or do the same people always work at the same places?”
“Each crew is assigned their locations, and that’s where they work throughout the season. That way they know what needs to be done and what equipment to take with them.”
Spelling spoke up. “Who usually works at Summerset Commons?”
“Give me a second to check the schedule.” He stuck out his hand. “By the way, I’m Rick Dobbs.”
We shook his hand, then he went back to tapping the computer’s keyboard.
“Here we go. Manny Gomez, Lance Johnson, and Phil Hardy work on that side of town. Actually, they’re scheduled to do Summerset Commons right after lunch tomorrow. They have two of the larger complexes on Thursdays. In the morning it’s Blueberry Woods, and the afternoon is Summerset Commons.”
I pulled out my cell phone from my pants pocket. “Would you mind taking a look at this picture and tell me if you know these men?”
“Sure, no problem.”
I brought up the picture from the text Joe had sent me, enlarged it on the screen, then turned my phone toward Rick. “Do these men work for you?”
“Do you mind?” He reached for my phone.
“Go ahead. Give it a long look, please.”
Rick spread the picture with his fingers. “Well first off, if these are supposed to be workers from our company, they’re dressed completely wrong. Our guys don’t wear coveralls. They’re too hot, especially in summer. Maybe in fall during yard cleanup, but that would be the only time.” He enlarged the picture as wide as he could and stared at the men’s faces. “Hard to identify them from the side, but they don’t look like anybody I know.”
Spelling took his turn. “And your crew never goes to Summerset Commons first, and never on Wednesdays?”
“No, sir, they have a regular schedule they stick to.”
Spelling pulled out his card and slid it across the counter. We shook Rick’s hand, thanked him for his time, and left.
Back in the cruiser, Spelling asked me to call the day care center. We needed to search through their videos, going back several days.
“Ask the young lady you spoke with if she’ll forward the footage to you from the camera that faces the condo. We need to go back a week.”
“Not a problem. Those men had to be watching Julie and J.T. for a while to know what time they leave for work. I’m guessing those landscaping coveralls were just a ruse so they wouldn’t attract attention.”
Spelling switched lanes and merged onto the freeway. “Call Joe too and see if he can capture facial recognition of those men with the image he has. If not, we’ll have a week of tapes to go through in hopes of getting those men to look directly at the camera.”
I called Dee Dee, told her what we needed, and gave her my email address. She said I should see the footage in my in-box by the time we got back to our office. Joe said he would let us know whether he had any luck getting a match with the FBI’s facial recognition software.
Spelling pulled into the back parking lot of our office, and we exited the car. Inside the building, our group of agents were hard at work trying to come up with reasons Julie or J.T. might have been kidnapped. Val spoke with Adam Beres, Julie’s boss, and asked whether any disgruntled patients or staff members had a reason to be angry with Julie. According to Val, Mr. Beres said everyone loved Julie, and no complaint had been filed against her from the hospital staff or radiology patients.
We took our seats in the conference room, and Spelling led the meeting.
“J.T. has to be the target. We just have to figure out why. An FBI agent is far more likely to have enemies than a radiology technician. If it was about Julie, then why take J.T. too?”
I sighed. “Okay, then let’s focus our energy on anybody who’s had a beef with J.T. The question is how far back do we go? Our current branch has only been in operation for a year. Prior to that, all of you were located at the downtown headquarters. J.T. was in the violent crimes division, wasn’t he?”
Spelling leaned back in his chair and sucked in a deep breath. “Do you have any idea how many cases he worked on in the five years he was in that department?”
“Boss?”
“Go ahead, Jade. You’ve got the floor.”
“Apparently these men, or somebody they work for, wants J.T. but took Julie along too for leverage. That says J.T. either knows, or has, something they want and they’ll get it through Julie. She’s in as much danger or even more than J.T. is.”
Cam spoke up. “J.T. has been in our current division for a year, so what has changed, and why now?”
Spelling rubbed his chin with a deep groan. “Okay, guys, let’s focus on one thing at a time. We have plenty of video footage to go through.” He jerked his chin toward me. “Jade, you want to see if the videos have arrived?”
“Sure thing. I’ll be right back.”
I took a right out the door and entered the second office on the left. Our division branch held only four offices for agents and the conference room. The remainder of the building consisted of common areas used by everyone. I turned in to the office that I shared with J.T. and stared at his empty desk.
Where are you, partner? I hope to God we get you and Julie home safely.
I jiggled the mouse and woke my computer. The newest email in my in-box was from Dee Dee. I opened it and saw a week of videos, each in its own Media Player folder.
Thank you, Dee Dee. That’s exactly how we needed them sent.
I forwarded a folder to each agent, starting with the first folder from last Wednesday morning. We’d have seven tapes to go through, and hopefully we’d see these men again on the footage, sooner rather than later.
I tapped the print button and headed to the next room to retrieve copies of the still shots of the men in question. When I returned to the conference room, I passed a copy to each agent. “These are the men to watch for on the videos. I just sent a video link to each of your in-boxes.”
Spelling pushed back his chair and rounded the conference table. “Okay, people, we have work to do. Once we find out who these thugs are in the green coveralls, we’ll be able to start putting the puzzle pieces together.” He smacked the doorframe and crossed the hallway to his office.