Saving Anne [Complete]

Chapter Twenty-Six (Unedited)

UNKNOWN NUMBER: ~Pic of Liam and I walking, holding hands~

UNKNOWN NUMBER:  THIS FUCKER IS REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF

UNKNOWN NUMBER: ~Pic of Liam and I sitting at the cafe together~

UNKNOWN NUMBER:  I am ALWAYS watching you

UNKNOWN NUMBER: ~Pic of me wrist locking Miranda~

UNKNOWN NUMBER: I see you got some fight in you

UNKNOWN NUMBER: I can't wait to break that new found spirit

UNKNOWN NUMBER: to BREAK you!

   My body froze. Ice pumped through my veins as I was temporarily frozen by my fear. 

"Baby, look at me." Liam's deep soothing voice broke through to me, washing over my nerves like a calming balm.  My eyes snapped up to his as if by command.  "Anne, this is what we wanted.  Right?"  Liam continued to comfort me by framing my face in his hands and gently stroking my cheeks with his thumbs.  I got lost in his eyes, they were so soft and tender, filled with emotion. "Right, baby?"  He asked again, breaking the hold his eyes had on me.

   "Yes...yes, of course it is."  I shook my head to clear my thoughts.  "Now what Liam?"  I felt a soft kiss on my nose and the bed shift beside me.  Looking next to me I could see Liam grabbing his cell off of the bedside table.

   "Now, I call a few people and we get some sleep and start fresh in the morning."  After a quick kiss, Liam made two phone calls to be exact.  First he called Mike to fill him in on the most recent development and to set up a meeting to view and analyze the pictures at 7:30 am. I am not much of a morning person, but I am not arguing here.  He also had Mike add a patrol car to my security detail.  Someone to drive up and down the streets, looking for something out of place.  His next phone call was to Tanner.  After a quick debriefing, Tanner agreed to come over tomorrow morning too and is bringing an extra computer.  This computer had some sort of high tech imaging software, whatever that meant.  After getting off the phone, Liam had him and myself set our alarms for 6:30 in the morning, so we can shower after our amazing night and get some food before they arrive. I snuggled in close to Liam and gave him a soft kiss.  Our warm skin firmly pressed up against each other.  I fell asleep to Liam rubbing soft circles on my back and the words of love on his lips.

*** 

   Tanner and Mike arrive almost simultaneously at 7:30.  Liam and Mike helped Tanner set up the additional computer in the room while I made pancakes and bacon for all of us.  I felt kind of bad for making them come over at such an early hour.  Especially after looking at Mike.  It doesn't look like he even put a comb to his hair and his clothes all wrinkled.  He looks like he rolled out of bed, put some shoes on and came over.

   After eating, we all headed to the room.  "Can I see your phone, Anne?"  Tanner asked with his hand already outstretched, ready to receive it.

   "Sure."  I placed the phone in his hand and he quickly hooked it up to the surveillance computer first and downloaded the photos, next he connected it to my laptop, and finally to his fancy computer.

   "First, we are going to try to get a location and approximate time for each of these pictures. Then we are going to use the camera feeds from local business to try to catch an image of him. That is where my baby comes into place.  I have a federal software program on here for facial recognition.  That should add to our ability to pin him down.  We just have to get the when and the where first."

   Since we only had one day's worth of pictures to sort through, it was not to difficult to narrow down the location from which the pictures were taken and approximate time.  The first picture sent of Liam and I holding hands was a close up.  We couldn't pick up much of a background.  We decided to put that one to the side for now and look at the next.  This one we had an exact location and would yield better results.  After pulling up a google map of the area surrounding the Side Street Cafe and analyzing the angle from which the picture of Liam and I sitting at the cafe were taken, we were able to narrow down the security feeds that we needed to two local business.  There was also only an hour window of time that needed to be checked due to the length of time we were there.  Tanner quickly linked to their feeds and started to run his facial recognition program, hoping for a hit.

   With Tanner and Mike focusing on the surveillance, Liam and I decided to check out the last picture.  This one, I liked.  Miranda getting put in her place.  I was admiring my handy work and the look of pain on Miranda's face when Liam broke the silence.  "Baby, look at this."  I shifted my eyes over above the cafe's railing, where Liam was pointing and cocked my head.  I saw nothing but an empty car parked on the street, nobody on the side walk and a couple of store fronts.  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

   "I don't see what your looking at, babe.  I don't see anybody in the street or the sidewalk."  I turned my head to search his eyes.  I could see that his mind was working there was a puzzle there that he was trying to solve. 

   "Anne, that's the point.  You are looking at the street.  That means that this picture was taken from inside the cafe."  My eyes grew as big as saucers.  Liam was in the cafe.  That must have been that uneasy feeling I had when I was walking to and from the restroom.  My GOD, I was that close to him.

   "Are you sure?  Shit!  Of course you are sure.  Does the Side Street Cafe have a video feed we can look at too?  Both inside and outside."  I shouted over to Mike and Tanner.  They promised to pull that up next after they program was done running.  I turned back to picture when something caught my eye.  My heart beat out of my throat and I quickly turned and threw up on the floor next to me.

   "Jesus, Anne!  What's wrong."  Liam leapt to myside with a waste basket.  With a shaky hand I pointed to the screen.  There, across our table was a shadow of man holding up a phone.

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