Superstar

Chapter 11

Kolivan examined the area. "Just- right here? On the ground?"

"Yeah. Why- when we said it was Keith, you were suddenly interested. Why?"

Kolivan hesitated. "Keith's mother is... on a watchlist, you might say. As such, we've taken a bit of interest in her son. We've been keeping an eye on him, making sure he's not getting into trouble."

"Fat lot of good it did him," Pidge remarked gloomily, "He still ended up getting kidnapped."

"Yes." Kolivan got up from where he'd been kneeling. "As far as I can tell, I'd hazard to guess that he broke away and tried to call someone, but they caught him again, probably knocking the phone out of his hands. We'll check the phone for fingerprints, just in case, but I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you."

Pidge sighed. "What are the police even for?"

Kolivan shot her an irritated look. "We'll do the best we can under the circumstances. You three need to get home, though."

Veronica nodded. "Yes sir. Come on, you two."

Pidge gave a little sniffle as she climbed into the backseat. "I'm never going to see him again."

"Nah, Pidge, don't say that! They'll find him!"

"No," she muttered thickly, "Once people go missing, you never get them back."

"I still think that it was an attack on Keith," Veronica stated.

Lance's face lit up. "Oh, yeah! Pidge, did Keith have any notable enemies? Not just old fight opponents, but fight opponents that would be likely to try and get revenge?"

Pidge sniffed. "Yeah. I've got a list. We- well- I- kept tabs on them, in case they tried anything."

Lance twisted around in his seat. "You kept tabs on them?"

"Y-Yeah. I knew where they lived, and I can run their faces through my database to find any traces of them on security cameras." Pidge's eyes lit up. "Oh! I can cross-reference their locations with the time that you got attacked, and see where they were at that time last night!"

Veronica frowned into the rearview mirror. "But what if they were just at home?"

Pidge clicked her fingers. "Most of them live in apartment buildings. Most of those apartment buildings have security cameras at the doors, although not anywhere else. It'll be tricky, but I can also set up the system to record who went into their apartment and didn't come back out. Of course, they could just climb out their window, but in the busy street? Too many people to stop and stare. It'd be easier to walk through the doors; none of them would figure that just walking out of their apartment building at the right time could incriminate them."

Lance tilted his head. "What about travel time?"

"I'll have to factor that in as well; I can combine the programs with maps to see who could've left their apartments in time to reach the scene of the attack. And the studio's got cameras as well; maybe I could get a couple of their faces on tape as they started off after you."

Veronica whistled. "Sounds like you've got this well in hand." She pulled up to Lance's house. "Oh, nice place, little brother." She squinted at the doorway. "Who's that?"

Lance froze in place as a huge, shadowy figure moved off of the porch. He breathed a sigh of relief as the person stepped into the light, and he hopped out of the car to wave. "Hunk! You are not going to believe everything that's happened!"

Xxx

Hunk blinked. They were sitting in the kitchen, the burglar alarm switched on, and all of the downstairs lights turned on.