Once Wylan and Jesper returned to the Slat they asked some of the more trusted members of the Dregs to join them in Kaz's office. The members were sceptical, knowing Kaz disliked and punished anyone entering his office without consent. The Dregs only took orders from Kaz, or the ones he left in charge when he was absent. That had never been Wylan or Jesper. After a lot of arguing, the members eventually agreed to hear them out as Jesper and Wylan were part of Kaz's inner circle, and as they promised to take the fall for everything if Kaz disapproved.
After entering Kaz's office Jesper and Wylan told them that Kaz and Inej had been kidnapped, and that they needed help finding them. Most of the members had burst out laughing, thinking it was a bad joke. Several members had seen Kaz earlier that night, and Wylan and Jesper had no proof to back up their story. Added to this, the kidnapping story sounded implausible at best. No one would be stupid enough to go up against their boss, let alone manage to kidnap both him and his Wraith. They had argued for close up to an hour before a few members had reluctantly agreed to do a single recognisance round to see if there was any truth to the story.
While waiting for the members to return Wylan had to calm Jesper down as he was ready to start threatening the members with his bullets. Jesper was fuming at not being believed, and fretting over the fact that both Inej and Kaz could be in danger. Wylan was desperate to find Kaz and Inej as well, but he understood the Dregs reaction, and he knew threats from Jesper would only make the members turn on them. The members were used to Kaz's threats, and Jesper threats didn't hold a candle to threats from Dirtyhands himself. Jesper was known for being rash and making uncalculated decisions, and he himself was new to the crew. None of them were considered very trustworthy, and their standing was only high while in the presence of Kaz. Without Kaz, they were considered ordinary, no higher or lower than the other members of the crew.
Only Inej had managed to keep her status high regardless of Kaz's presence. Despite her warm and normally mild manner, the Dregs feared her, her ability to appear and disappear as if magic, scared them. They would sometimes joke, but with real fear, that if they didn't keep the light on, the Wraith would get them. Another reason they feared her was Kaz. They had learned the hard way that they were to respect her, no matter what, or they would have to deal with a vengeful Kaz. They believed Kaz owned and controlled Inej, and that that was the reason he never permitted anyone near her. Wylan had believed the same at first, before he had gotten to know Kaz and Inej better, learning the protection was to shield Inej from the terrors of her past. It made him see Kaz in a warmer light, knowing how far he would go to protect the ones he cared for. And now they needed to return the favour.
Thankfully, it hadn't taken long before the recognisance party returned with news that several gangs had been approached about a kidnapping scheme for Dirtyhands. From what they learned none had accepted the job. No one wanted to end up on Dirtyhand's bad side, especially after what he had done to the former king of the Barrel, Peka Rollins. Apparently, the money hadn't justified the risk either. A few more of the Dregs had agreed to help after that, but they were still unconvinced, doing the job half heartedly. They believed that Kaz had intentionally let himself be kidnapped to flush out his enemies. Once he had them, he would crush them, and return to the Dregs unharmed and victories. They believed that if he had wanted or needed their help, he would have ordered it before leaving, and since he hadn't, their help wasn't wanted or needed. Their unwavering faith in the myth that was Dirtyhands was both impressive and frustrating at the same time.
Wylan and Jesper found the situation, and the unwillingness of the Dregs members, hard to deal with, but they couldn't really blame the Dregs members as they might have thought the same thing if they hadn't seen it for themselves. And the Dregs weren't entirely wrong, Kaz had let himself get kidnapped, but not to trick his enemy, but to save Inej, but they couldn't reveal that information to others. Instead they would take whatever help they could get, even half-hearted help.
They also had to be careful about what information got out as several people and gangs would be taking advantage of the situation if they knew Dirtyhands wasn't on watch. Jesper and Wylan had set up their own head quarters in Kaz's office, utilizing his maps and informant lists to try to find leads to follow. They didn't dare use Kaz's bed, and had instead gathered a pile of pillows and blankets by the fireplace from Jespers old room at the Slat in case the search dragged on.
Before long they had eliminated almost all the known gangs in Ketterdam, and had started chasing down the message boys in hopes that they would have more information. They finally got a hit on one of the outskirt gangs.
They were not true gangs, more a collection of sad and failed individuals, often former gang members. It was apparently a small group of 5-8 people who lived on the outskirts of Ketterdam, barely scraping by. They would probably have been better off trying their fortune elsewhere. The members had been troublemakers and rulebreakers, and had been thrown out of their regular gangs for disobeying, or for being generally bad at their jobs. Most of them had been bruisers and muscle for their former gangs, but that only worked if they managed to show up to the appointed place on time. These men had apparently spent most of their time drunk in a ditch or off at establishments like the Menagerie.
The Dregs members had more laughed than been convinced they gang could kidnap Dirtyhands, but they all agreed that this gang would be both desperate and dumb enough to take the job. Except for information on the gang members themselves, and their normal whereabouts, there were no information to be found on who had hired them, where they had gone, or where they were now, forcing them to abandon the lead.
After several more searches and talks, mainly with the errand boys, they had managed to gleam that the man who had hired them had been an old, grey-haired man with a belly and expensive looking suits. Sadly for them, that could describe about half of the wealthy population in Ketterdam. He had met them at a small café near the business district, but the owner could only inform them that he wasn't a regular and that he hadn't had any distinctive features or manners. Just an ordinary person.
They also tried asking around for information about a man by the name Mr. Keller, but apart from a few dead ends on people with the same name, the man didn't seem to exist in Ketterdam. No one seemed to have met him, or even heard of him. Without anything more to go after they had to abandon that lead as well.
They next tried the different carriage stations, thinking it was likely the man had hired a carriage to carry off Kaz and Inej from the church. No one had rented out to a Mr. Keller that evening, and he wasn't on their list for long-term hires either. The cabbies suggested it might be under a different name. Kaz could probably have managed to locate the one person who shouldn't be there, but neither Wylan or Jesper had that kind of knowledge of the city's inhabitants. To them it was just a bunch of random names, and it would be useless to pour over the different lists, especially as they didn't know what the correct time frame for the hire would be as it could both be a long-term or short-term hire. It was yet another trail they had to discard.
After a full evening and night of searching, they were still no closer to finding Kaz and Inej, or who was holding them. They were both tired, heads and feet aching from futile search. Frustrated, they decided to give up the search for now, and try to get some rest, hoping new leads or ideas would find them in the daytime.