Taking up her mobile, Meinwen went to her web browsing app and searched one of the sites she would go to for the news whenever she checked the news — which wasn’t usually that often because she’d hear it from other people at work and at home — and found it, too, had a photo of Dr. Stiles, as well as the headline BREAKING NEWS: American Academic Threatened in Wales Missing in Brussels.
Disparu. Disappeared. It wasn’t that much of a stretch.
Meinwen tapped the headline and once the story had loaded and Meinwen was able to change to the reader view to minimise advertising from interfering with her reading, she read what the article had to say.
Apparently a hotel guest who’d been out on the town had come to the front desk in a panic that there was a dead man lying in the middle of the corridor. Although his inebriated state made the person at the desk question the validity of the story, someone was sent with him and identified the body as not dead, but showing concerning vital signs, leading to the summoning of an ambulance.
The hotel staff, having identified him by his passport, sought to rouse Dr. Stiles and several other people who were part of his travelling party. Dr. Stiles didn’t answer his door, but one of the others said the bodyguard — who’d been rooming with that person — had heard a noise and gone to investigate, but told him not to worry about it, so he’d fallen back to sleep.
Hotel staff had unlocked Dr. Stiles’ door and found the room empty, with evidence of a minor struggle, and the police had been called in to find Dr. Stiles.
According to the time the article had been published, Dr. Stiles had been discovered kidnapped less than an hour ago, but was suspected to have been kidnapped at least an hour before his bodyguard was found.
“They’ve made their move,” Meinwen said to herself.
She set her mobile aside and went over to Mr. Sheahan-Carrington, shaking him.
“Wake up!” she whispered loudly. “Dr. Stiles has been kidnapped!”
Mr. Sheahan-Carrington startled under her hand and sat up.
“What?” he asked, sounding breathless, his blanket sliding down to reveal his bare chest.
Meinwen was a little surprised at the skin, but made herself look at his face. “Dr. Stiles has been kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?” Mr. Sheahan-Carrington asked, rubbing his eyes, then swearing.
“Yes,” Meinwen replied as she flinched. “Here.”
She handed him her mobile and waited as he read the story.
“We need to go find him,” Mr. Sheahan-Carrington said once he’d finished.
“Find him?” Meinwen asked. “But the police are already doing that.”
“Police drive marked cars, we don’t,” he replied. “Besides, we have to if we’re going to prove ourselves innocent. They’re probably looking for us, after all.”
“We’re just giving them the chance to find us then,” Meinwen said.
“We can’t sit here and give the real criminals a head start,” he replied. “These kidnappers don’t want a ransom, they want him dead, and kidnappers rarely keep their victims long even if they mightn’t originally mean to kill them.”
Meinwen nodded. They had to run the risk of getting arrested in the hopes they could find the kidnappers and Dr. Stiles first.
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