Snatched Read online

  Snatched

  Blayze Carlson Series, Volume 2

  Zak Yates

  Published by ZPY Publications, 2022.

  Copyright © 2022 Zak Yates

  All rights reserved.

  SNATCHED

  First edition. July 4th, 2022.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and dialogue are

  either drawn from the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any

  similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or

  mechanical means without written permission from the author, except for the use

  of brief quotations in a book review.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

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  Chapter 1

  During the holiday season, kids in Orlando loved the Christmas theme parks and how they brought to life all of their favorite fairytale characters. Although some parks were open all year round, they all begin their Christmas themes mid-October, and it had been a tremendous hit for many years. Every year, new parks would open in different areas of Orlando, just for the one season, which would attract more attention. With over a million visitors per week, on average, across the many different-sized parks, it was a highlight for children growing up. Well, for most children, that was.

  Blayze had never seen the attraction, though. That could have been due to where he grew up. Being a child in a large city like New York, everything looked massive and there was always something to grab your attention. But mainly it was because his parents had little money to spend on trips out. Having two young boys to bring up and his mom being off sick quite a lot, his dad’s income was sometimes the only money coming in. Burying his head in free books from the library was how Blayze spent most of his time growing up. He lived his childhood through the imagination of others.

  Blayze was sitting in his same small, one-bedroom apartment that the FBI had found him a few months ago. He had been in that apartment from the moment he had joined the task force to help capture the drug lord, Manuel Rudzinski. This man was not only wanted for the distribution of Class A drugs all over the world, but also for the murder of five people of various nationalities. Blayze had intercepted Rudzinski’s flight out to Europe one evening and found ten million dollars’ worth of cocaine on his plane. He had closed the case, arresting him and three other men from his gang.

  It was the night before he was to meet the team and he wanted to see just what he was being asked to help with. He had found various articles and videos online saying that over the past three years, they had reported seven children missing. Three the first year, two the following year, and then another two again last year. It was hardly ever the same theme park and so authorities had never caught the kidnapper, just nicknamed them ‘The Holiday Snatcher’. He saw that the children were all aged between five and eight and were all from different ethnic and economic backgrounds. He knew that trying to pin down and profile a specific person would be difficult. Trying to predict when or where the perpetrator would strike next would be worse. This didn’t bother Blayze —— it just made it more exciting as he loved a challenge.

  He continued for a while, reading the various news articles, but knew that the genuine answers would be in the files waiting for him the following morning. He looked at his watch, and with a last sip of his whiskey, got an early night.

  ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Stone had brought Blayze up to speed, as the FBI had been called in to investigate after the latest two children had been reported missing. Blayze was sitting on a two-seater black leather sofa inside Stone’s office, reading through all the children’s files, while Stone herself was sitting behind her desk on the computer, pulling up a list of all the theme parks in the area that were due to open with their Christmas themes. They had both been sitting in her office, which was on the top floor of the FBI Orlando headquarters, for almost an hour as Stone had wanted to find out how Blayze was doing after his cruise. Silence had filled the room as Stone left Blayze to read through the rest of the files, and just as Blayze was about to speak, a knock came at the door.

  “Come in!” Stone shouted. “Ah, good, Rebecca, you're here. Special Agent Rebecca Scott, meet Special Agent Blayze Carlson.”

  Blayze noticed the firmness of her movements, from the way she entered the room with eagerness, to the way she had quickly turned to close the door. Dressed in her black suit and heels, which not everyone wore these days, she looked, and came across, powerful.

  Rebecca walked over towards Blayze, who had put the files he was reading to one side and stood up, already offering his hand.

  “Nice to meet you, finally,” Rebecca said while shaking his hand. “I heard about your interesting vacation.”

  “Interesting is one way to put it. Nice to meet you,” Blayze said and retook his seat on the sofa.

  “Rebecca is the lead investigator on this case and has been working hard on it for two years now, since the local PD passed the case over to us,” Stone said, gesturing to Rebecca to take a seat across from her at her desk.

  “The files are very thorough, and you have a lot of information on each child that has gone missing,” Blayze noted. “And yet there is no connection between any of them at all.”

  “None,” Rebecca replied. “This has stumped us over the years. There’s never a ransom demand, or any sort of contact with the families of those that are taken. They just vanish, never to be seen again.”

  “Do you presume they are dead?” Blayze asked.

  Stone stood up from behind her desk and walked towards the window, which looked out over a modest but peaceful park surrounded by large trees on all four sides. The park had a small lake and bridge across and had benches dotted all over, which filled up every lunchtime when the weather was good. “We are hoping not, and we have told the families that we are still looking, and asked them not to give up hope. Though some kids have been missing now for almost three years and there has still been no sign of their return.” She turned back into the room and looked at Blayze. “Therefore, we need your help.”

  Blayze turned to look at Rebecca, as he could feel her staring right at him. This was her case, and had been for years, and the look she was giving him made that known. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to get in your way. I’m here to help.”

  Rebecca stood up and made her way towards the door. She turned the handle and opened it before glancing back at Blayze. “I don’t know why you’re still sitting there, then. You’ve got a lot to catch up with if you’re going to get fully up to speed.” She turned away and walked out, leaving the door open.

  “She’s an excellent agent,” Stone said, as Blayze got up from the sofa, collecting the files she had given him. “She’ll warm to you, but she has a bite, so be careful.”

  “Good to know,” Blayze replied, also heading for the door. “We’ll catch whoever this is. This will be the l
ast year any child goes missing.”

  “I really hope you’re right,” Stone replied as she sat back behind her desk. “Here, you’ll need this,” she continued, handing him a piece of paper.

  Blayze glanced at the document. “Thanks for this.”

  “Now, close the door behind you and catch this son of a bitch.”

  BLAYZE QUICKLY FOLLOWED Rebecca down the stairs to a room that she had blocked off just for this case. He had tried to keep up, but she walked like she was on a mission and he was always a good few feet behind. This was not a time to run. He eventually caught up with her and as he walked in, he was in awe of the work that she had done. ‘She is just like me,’ he thought, as he put the files he was holding down on the large oval table in the centre of the room. He looked around to see that she had covered the walls in pictures and timelines of the disappearances of each child, with the names of witnesses and people of interest.

  “Like I said, you’ve a lot to catch up with,” Rebecca said. “The rest of the team will be in shortly, so until then, I suggest you start here.” She walked past Blayze to close the door slightly and pointed to the wall. “It starts here and continues chronologically.” As she spoke, she turned around, following the room with her finger.

  Blayze was in the middle of rolling up his sleeves and had already taken his tie off, loosening the top two buttons of his tight fitted white shirt while watching the direction Rebecca was pointing.

  “You get started and I’ll get some coffee. How do you like yours?”

  “Strong and black will be great, please.”

  “I’ll be back shortly.”

  Rebecca left the room and Blayze headed straight for where she had pointed behind the door. He loved the amount of detail she had included in her timeline. She had been meticulous and nothing was overlooked. He knew then the frustration she must go through not to have caught the person after all this time. Not to find one clue to link all of this together could only mean one thing. The snatcher has their own plan and motives, which are personal to them. This makes finding them ever more difficult.

  Blayze had only made it halfway around the room when Rebecca returned with coffee in hand, placing his on the table and keeping hers in her hand.

  “You find anything yet?” she asked.

  “Only that whoever it is taking these children has their own motive and we will find nothing out by trying to link the children.” Blayze didn’t look at Rebecca. He was still following the timeline carefully, as he wanted to be up to speed before the rest of the team arrived. “Thanks for the coffee.”

  “You are quick. I like it. We spent too much time at the beginning focusing on what the children had in common and came up with the same conclusion. As you will see, the list at the end of each section is a full staff manifesto from the theme park involved and the ones highlighted are those that were interviewed. They had been the ones near the abductions.”

  Blayze continued around the room, slowly looking at all the information he had in front of him. So much more than he had found on the internet the night before. “I have noticed already that some names appear on all these lists.”

  “Well, most of the staff travel round to each of the parks throughout the season, especially those that are performing as characters. Some of the smaller theme parks are owned by the same corporation, so each year they rotate some staff, while keeping others where they were the previous year.”

  “I’m sure you have cross-referenced all of their names alongside all the people questioned in the park the year of each abduction.”

  “All accounted for, apart from anyone who covered sickness days during these times, as they did not add their names to the staffing lists. Thousands of people go through these parks daily and it could be anyone. The question is, where will they hit this year?”

  Blayze took a seat at the table and opened the top folder he had placed down. “Stone gave me this earlier,” he said, pulling out a full list of all the theme parks that were due to open this season. There were twelve names listed.

  “It’s just impossible to search these, day and night, for the next three months.” Rebecca took a seat next to Blayze and read out the three parks that the Holiday Snatcher had targeted previously. “The Ice Kingdom, Light Valley and Snow Park were the last three, and it seems like they never attack the same place twice. Well, so far, anyway. That still leaves nine parks to watch this year.”

  “We cannot rule any of them out. We need their lists of staff now before they open, so we can be one step ahead this year.”

  “I agree. We also need as many background checks for all employees as we can get. I know that’s a lot of people, but I don’t care how long it takes to go through it all. We have to do more this year.”

  Just as Rebecca finished talking, there was a brief knock on the door, and, without awaiting a response, in walked two men and a woman who headed straight to the table and got themselves set up with pads and pens at the ready.

  “Time to meet the team,” Rebecca said. She paused until each member of her team was ready.

  Blayze watched on, noticing the eagerness of them all, early and ready to go.

  “Agents Shannon, Wright and Davis, meet Special Agent Blayze Carlson,” Rebecca said as she looked at her team, who were opening their laptops, ready to be briefed on the day’s tasks.

  Like a trio of singers in unison, they all said “Hey” while Blayze looked up from his file and nodded.

  Rebecca looked at Agent Shannon, who was sitting closest to her, and stated, “You start first. Introduce yourselves and your role on this task force.”

  “Hi, I’m Agent Luke Shannon and I’m an intelligence analyst.”

  Blayze nodded, noticing that Luke looked like the youngest of the trio in front of him, with his baby face and glasses.

  “Hey, I’m Agent Larissa Wright, and I am a surveillance investigator.”

  Blayze nodded again. Agent Wright didn’t seem that much older than the two men sitting either side of her. He looked over at the last member of the team. Another young lad.

  “And I’m Matt Davis, a linguist.”

  “Nice to meet you all——“ Blayze started, but Luke interrupted him.

  “And you’re The Closer. Well, that’s the name going around the office.”

  “I’ve been called that before, plus many other things.” Blayze chuckled to lighten the mood in the room, and to react to the youth that was in front of him, but as he looked at Rebecca, he noticed she wasn’t in the mood for any light-hearted jokes. Her face told Blayze that she was now calling him those other names in her head.

  He quickly continued. “Really, I’m here to aid you guys in tracking down this Holiday Snatcher.”

  “And on that note,” Rebecca jumped in, “let’s get started, shall we? Assistant Director Stone has given Blayze a list of all the parks due to open this holiday season. Agent Wright, grab a marker, and Agent Shannon, get the map off the wall and lay it out on the table.”

  Both agents quickly did what she asked, while Blayze pulled out the list of names. Blayze noticed the map was a detailed road map of Orlando with three circles on already. “Are those...?”

  “Yes,” Rebecca butted in. “The last three parks we talked about earlier. Okay, Blayze, start from the top of your list and read each park name out, one at a time. Agent Shannon, you search online for the address while Agent Davis, you write the name down on a post-it note and pass it to Agent Wright who will stick it in the right place on the map. Let’s go.”

  It didn’t take the team long to get the nine remaining parks all listed on the map before they put it back up on the wall for better viewing. Blayze stood in front of the map, as although he had been in Orlando a few months now, he had still seen little of it and didn’t know his way around that much. The previous case he had worked on, before his cruise, he had spent most of his time in the office finding clues from case notes and paperwork. The only part of Orlando he had seen was from the local runs he did m
ost evenings straight after work to de-stress from the day’s activities.

  Rebecca walked up and stood next to him to look at the map. “Anything sticking out yet?” she asked.

  “Nothing. What would be really helpful though, now we know where all the parks are, is to find out how long it takes to get to each park from here. We need to react quickly to any report we get, so to have ETAs to each park would be helpful for everyone involved. If we could take the rest of the morning doing that, the team can start with the staffing lists and background checks we discussed earlier.”

  Rebecca turned to the agents who were sitting awaiting their next instructions. “We are going to visit all of the parks so that Blayze can get to know the area better. I need you three to contact all the companies and get their staff lists for this holiday season. Once you have their names, I need a background check done on them all.”

  “That’s going to take hours,” Luke said as he noted down what he was being asked to do.

  “Well, I suggest you get started then,” Rebecca replied while picking up her bag from the side of the room. As she reached the door, she looked back at Blayze. “No time to waste. Come on.” And with that, she was out of the room yet again.

  Blayze looked at the team, who had already started searching. “Is she always like this?” he asked.

  Larissa looked up at him. “This is nothing.”

  “Great. See you guys later,” he replied and left, needing to catch up with Rebecca.

  Chapter 2

  Blayze had finally caught up with Rebecca, who had quickly made it down to the lobby on the first floor.

  “Have you decided where we are heading first?” he asked.

  “Best way is to start at the beginning. The Ice Kingdom, where the fist abduction took place.”

  “How far away is it?”

  “About ten to fifteen minutes, depending on traffic, that is.” They made their way out into the parking lot and Rebecca pulled out her keys. “Come on, get in,” she said as she pressed the button on her keyring to unlock the doors of her big, black Chevrolet Suburban.