"I'll mark some of the bills so they can be traced. Aisha and I will take photos of several bills for proof of serial numbers to make verifying it isn't really Athena's money too." Jon was happy Karyn had put this much thought into things. With any luck things would go how he wanted. He had learned how unpredictable the stone was, but he was content everyone would be in place. What happened after was anyone's guess.
"Where'd you get the idea to mark the bills?" Aisha asked her.
"I searched for ransom online and apparently, in the movies, the kidnappers always ask for unmarked bills. So I looked up marked bills," Karyn said.
"All we have to hope now is that she doesn't search for the same thing," Aisha said. She looked at Jon. "When we were your age, it was before everyone had the internet in their pocket."
Which was, unknown to Aisha, yesterday.
Karyn looked at him. "Jon...just try to get through the rest of the day...this will all work out."
Unknown to any of them, there was one more wrinkle. An anonymous tip had been phoned in to the police station that something would be going down at the high school after school let out. While it was hardly a credible one, the dispatcher notified one of the patrol cars to drive past the school after dismissal. Sometimes the mere presence of a police car driving past could stop things. The officer was Danielle Chase. She usually worked with a partner, but both she and her partner had been rotated onto a different roster, with her patrolling solo.
