“Because my team is the best at what we do,” I say. “Now, do you know anything about this person you killed?”
They all shake their heads. “Not the first thing,” Barlow tells me. “Our parents kept us insulated from it all.”
“Wonderful,” I say.
“Needle, meet haystack,” Astra replies.
I fold my arms over my chest as I turn it all over in my mind. “I think I know how we’re going to find that needle,” I say. “Let’s get to work.”
FBI Operational Black Site, Foggy Bottom District; Washington DC
“Did you get them all set up?” I ask.
Lieb Tal nods. “They aren’t happy about it, but I put them in a safe house surrounded by my men,” he says. “Do you want the location?”
I shake my head. “No. Better that I don’t know. All I need to know is that they’re safe.”
“Nobody will be able to get to them. You have my word.”
“Thank you, Lieb.”
After we got everything there was to get out of Barlow and his former friends, I asked Lieb to put them somewhere out of reach and keep them safe. Anxious to do something to help, he quickly agreed and made plans. He sent an armored transport filled with a heavily armed detachment to escort them to his safe house. The Georgetown Four, as I’m calling them, were less than enthused to go along, but we were finally able to make them see reason. Or maybe, beat them into submission is more accurate. Either way, they’re tucked away and out of my hair, and I don’t have to worry about them spilling anything. That’s enough for now.
“Do you really believe they are responsible for Ashley being taken?” he asks.
“Along with Peter, Angelica, and Justin. Yes. I do,” I reply. “Call it an unintended consequence of past bad behavior.”
His face darkens, and he clenches his jaw. To get him to cooperate, I had to tell Lieb the basics of the situation, but I kept most of the details from him. He doesn’t need to know everything. And besides, it’s not my story to tell.
“Can you find the man who took her?” he asks.
“We’re doing everything we can,” I respond. “And we’re a lot closer today than we were yesterday. I promise you we’re not going to stop trying to find the kids.”
He nods but doesn’t look mollified. If anything, he looks even angrier. I just hope he doesn’t go back to the safe house and try to beat the answers out of Barlow and the others.
“Is there anything else I can do?” he asks.
“Not right now. But keep your phone on you since I don’t know how this is all going to shake out just yet.”
“I will,” he says. “Please, Chief Wilder, find her. Bring her home.”
“We are working hard to make that happen, Lieb.”
He gives me a nod, then heads out to carry out his mission. As close as I feel like we’re getting to finding the identity of the kidnapper and solving this case, I still feel like we’re a million miles away. I’m filled with frustration and angst. Letting out a slow breath as I center myself, I try to get my head back on straight and focus on the task at hand.
“Are you guys up on their electronics?” I ask.
“We’re tapped into their devices,” Rick says. “If they get a call, we’ll see it.”
“Good. That’s good.”
We confiscated their devices once they entered Lieb’s safe house for obvious security reasons and then with their permission tapped into all their lines. It’s been almost two days since the black cards with the Shakespeare quote arrived at their homes, and almost a full day since they got the text message with the Bible verse. I’m rolling the dice here, but I expect that the kidnapper is going to try to make contact with them again.
This waiting period between contacts is a form of psychological torture. But now that he has all their kids and their undivided attention, I believe he’s also going to want to be able to tell them what he wants. This is his endgame, and now, after letting them twist in the wind a little to heighten the emotional torment he’s put them through, he’s going to make his final play. He’s going to tell them what he really wants from them. I’m sure of it.
“Okay, what about the accident records?” I ask. “How are we doing with that?”
“Still searching,” Nina says. “Based on them telling us this was post-midterms, we were able to narrow it down to a month, but the midterm schedule sometimes varies. So, without an exact date to work with, we’re having to comb through a lot of reports. But over that month, there are dozens of accident reports.”
“There are a lot of names to run down,” Astra says. “Have you tried filtering it out by fatalities only? Might make that haystack even smaller.”
“We haven’t,” Rick tells her. “If the parents were able to sanitize the reports, we don’t want to miss something by including fatalities only.”
“Surely, they weren’t able to keep a death off the record,” I say.
Rick turns to me and pulls a face. “You’ve seen what people were able to hide with the JFK assassination, right? People in power can hide anything.”
“Please don’t get him started on the whole conspiracy theory thing,” Nina says.
“It’s not a conspiracy theory if it’s true,” Rick says.
“Better we take nothing for granted,” Mo says. “It’s a little more time-consuming, but it’s best if we’re thorough and look through everything.”
“Fair enough,” I tell her.
