Page 26 of Protector Unmatched

He looked at the photo again. Yeah, it was definitely a pinkie. He was about to put the phone aside when he noticed something in the bottom right corner of the picture. He zoomed in closer. It was part of a mark.

“Son of a gun!”

Daphne jerked her head up. “What?”

He pointed to the photo. “There’s a copyright symbol in the lower right corner.”

“Why would there be—”

Pearce chuckled. “Because this is not your brother’s finger. This is a photo the kidnappers grabbed from a website that’s watermarked and copyrighted its photos.”

Her tears stopped flowing. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure, but I can check to make certain.”

“How?”

“Do you mind if I email myself this photo so I can run a reverse-image search from my computer?”

“Why didn’t I think of that?” She shook her head. “I should have done it when I got the photo.”

As he sent the photo to himself, Pearce gave her a reassuring look. “You were distraught when you got it. The copyright mark can really only be seen when you blow up the photo. And I’m sure you didn’t really want to get a closer look at what you thought was your brother’s severed finger.” He placed Daphne’s phone on the kitchen table and rose. “Let me just get the computer so I can run a search.”

Pearce walked to the built-in closet in the living area and unlocked it. Inside were all kinds of electronics a Stealth Guardian might need if he had to remain in a safe house for a couple of days. He snatched the computer and brought it back to the kitchen table, where he booted it up.

Daphne watched him. “So, you’re really a computer programmer.”

He logged on and cast her a quick smile. “Yep. Told you I’m just a shy computer geek.”

“Who’s not afraid to follow a burglar into a house and save her from the police.”

“It was my one good deed for the day.” Pearce winked at her, his fingers already flying over the keyboard, retrieving the photo from his email, and composing a search for it on the web. “This won’t take long.”

And it didn’t. The search found the exact photo on a blog that reported on war crimes.

“There it is,” Pearce said, and pointed to the photo.

Daphne nudged closer and looked at the screen. “Oh my God. It’s the same photo.” She turned her head to him. “Why? I mean, why would they use a photo from the internet?”

“They needed to make sure you’d do the job. But they weren’t prepared to cut your brother’s finger off.”

“But they beat him up,” Daphne protested. “They are bad guys.”

“That may be the case. But whoever this Guido is, he doesn’t seem to cross the line into mutilation. That’s good for us.”

“Us?”

“I’m gonna help you find where they’re holding your brother.”

“You’d do that?” she asked, her eyes wide. “For me? After I accused you of being Guido’s goon?”

“I believe you used the word henchman.” He chuckled.

“I’m so sorry. But when we met in the supermarket, all I could think of was Guido’s threat. So naturally, I thought you were the one he’d sent to watch me. Honest mistake.”

Suddenly something clicked in his brain. “So you really did think from the moment we met that I was a bad guy?”

She nodded.