Reluctant thief Baz Barret is tasked with stealing from the formidable archaeologist Rei Collingwood--who happens to also be his college crush and rival--but when Rei goes missing after the burglary, Baz must find her before he's blamed for her disa...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter Four: The Kidnapping
Baz froze, suddenly more awake.
Rei was missing?
"Okay..."
Baz hit speakerphone, letting Jasper talk while he scrolled through Twitter for some kind of news article on the subject.
"What did you do last night?" Jasper repeated, his pitch rising. "Give me your play-by-play."
"I got on the elevator, ran into a friend of Rei's that wasn't twice my age and who I haven't robbed. We talked. She offered to show me around. We killed some time in the library..."
Jasper groaned. He'd seen enough evidence of that.
Baz continued, "she had to make a speech and went to check her makeup or something. I waltzed right into the master bedroom, grabbed the box. I had to hide in the closet while Rei had an argument with her brother. They left. I snuck up to the roof and peaced out."
End of story, except that it wasn't. Rei Collingwood Missing was indeed a headline. Baz clicked.
"You just found the box?" Jasper asked.
"It was sitting on her nightstand."
Baz skimmed the article. Jasper had a good reason for asking.
While it's too early for police to confirm, there is strong suspicion of foul play and kidnapping in Collingwood's disappearance. The bedroom of her penthouse suite in Fairlane Place's Hillside complex was ransacked during a fundraiser hosted in the residence last night.
"Baz," Jasper pressed.
"Have I ever ransacked a place?" Baz protested, "it wasn't me. Rei was in there after I grabbed it. I think she would've noticed if I tossed all her shit around."
The line was silent for a moment. Jasper couldn't deny that Baz always did a clean job. Half the time, once he found his way in, usually an open second-level window, all he had to do was punch in the security code Jasper provided and it was a free-for-all. No one ever hid their prized Roman papyrus scrolls. They kept them in plain sight to get dinner guests talking. Only once did Baz accidentally crack a mirror in a jewelry box while he shimmed the lock to get to a brooch.
"You didn't touch anything?" Jasper asked.
"It was a party. Of course I touched things, but so did a hundred other people there." Baz forced himself out of bed, teeth gritting at the uncooperative muscles protesting.
"Did you leave anything behind?"
"I kicked my shoes off the roof, if someone manages to somehow connect that to the party," Baz said.
"You can't be serious."
"I rappeled down the damn building. Was I supposed to do that in black tie dress?"
