Ridgefield House, Georgia, Friday, February 2, 9:45 p.m.
Bobby hung up the phone, satisfied. It was wise to have one’s eggs in multiple baskets. Luckily there were several hospital employees on the potential personnel list. One of them had been dispatched to take care of Captain Ryan Beardsley and Bailey Crighton. Bailey’s demise would please Bobby on a number of levels.
It would have been more pleasing to kill Bailey myself. But it was best to keep personal feelings out of such things. Passion led to mistakes and enough mistakes had been made for one day.
In a matter of hours all the loose threads would be snipped and business could return to normal. A car door slammed outside. Speaking of which…
Haynes was here. It was time to make some money.
Atlanta , Friday, February 2, 9:50 p.m.
“Luke, these are for you.” Leigh Smithson, Chase’s clerk, put a stack of folders on the conference room table. “Dr. Berg sent these over. And Latent identified your dead guard. I pulled his priors for you.”
“So who’s our mystery man?” Chase asked, putting two cups of coffee on the table.
“Jesse Hogan,” Luke read. “Assault, B &E. Beardsley did the world a favor.”
“He’s awake,” Leigh said. “Captain Beardsley, that is. His father called a few minutes ago. Beardsley says you can come interview him any time. I gave him your cell.”
“I’ll go back over to the hospital when we’re done. Anything from Missing Children?”
Leigh shook her head. “No. They’re supposed to call you or Chase directly if they find any matches to the prints of the victims. But they said it might take a while. Most of the prints were taken at schools and shopping malls when the kids were smaller and if they were younger than four or five…”
“Their prints can change,” Luke said. “We’re crossing our fingers. What about missing girls named Ashley O-s-something?” He’d phoned her with the partial name from the cot frame as he’d driven to the fire scene.
“They’re searching. I also sent requests to missing persons departments in the surrounding states.”
“Thanks, Leigh.”
She turned for the door. “I’ll stay until your meeting is over, then I’m going to call it a night. I’ll be back tomorrow and three stenos just came on shift, answering calls. The phone’s been ringing off the hook since the press conference.”
“We expected that,” Chase said. “I’ve assigned more admin coverage for tomorrow. We’ll need to evaluate every call that comes in.”
Leigh tilted her head, the argument between two people growing steadily louder-one deep booming voice and one quieter, more melodious. “Pete and Nancy are back.”
She left as the two came in, Pete giving Nancy an exaggerated “after you” gesture. “He’s a stubborn fool,” Nancy declared. “The man has nine stitches in that cueball of his and he won’t go home.”
Pete rolled his eyes. “I got worse playin’ football. Chase, tell this woman to hush.”
Chase sighed. Pete and Nancy bickered like old married people. “What did the doctor say, Pete?”
“That I’m cleared for duty,” Pete said, disgruntled. “I even got a goddamned note.”
Chase shrugged. “Sorry, Nancy. Doctor trumps.”
Pete sat down, satisfied, and Luke leaned sideways to mumble, “Did you really get worse playing football?”
“Hell no,” Pete mumbled back. “And this hurts like a bitch. But I’m not telling her.”
“Smart.” Luke was saved from Nancy ’s ire by the appearance of Ed, Nate Dyer, and ASA Chloe Hathaway.
Chase seemed surprised. “Chloe. Didn’t expect you.”
Chloe sat, crossing her long legs. Luke thought the move was habit on her part, but he was certain she knew the stir it created. “My boss says I’m part of the team now. He wants to be sure every piece of evidence we bring in will stand up in court.”
“We want that, too,” Luke said, thinking of the five dead, the five missing, and the girl in the hospital bed across town. “Does everyone know Nate?”
Nate was already studying the autopsy photos and had pulled Angel’s photo aside. He looked up and nodded at the group. “Nate Dyer, ICAC.”
Chloe frowned. “ICAC? Why is Internet Crimes Against Children involved?”
Luke tapped the photo of Angel that Nate had set aside. “This one is one we’ve seen before. Hold on to the question, Chloe. We’ll get there. We’re all here now. Let’s get started.”
“I’ll start,” Chase said. “The brass has been informed, all the way up through the governor. I don’t need to tell you all that they will be following every move we make. I’ll handle the administrative floor and the press. Tonight I informed the media that Mack O’Brien had been killed and broke the news of the thirteen-year-old rapes. As of seven p.m. tonight, all the victims had been informed of the status of the investigation. Whether any or all choose to testify will be between the victims and the DA’s office.”
“I’ve already received calls from six of the victims on your list, Chase.” She lifted a brow. “And a voicemail tonight from a victim who wasn’t on your list.”
Susannah. Luke opened his mouth and closed it. That was between Susannah and Chloe now. But she’d kept her promise. A stirring of pride eased a little of the tightness in his chest. Good for you, Susannah.
Chase gave Luke a short nod, acknowledging he, too, understood and would keep Susannah’s name out of it until she chose to put it in. “Of course when we described the scene at the bunker, there was a furor of questions. We answered what we could, but it was pretty clear we didn’t have a lot of information to give them. Pandora’s box is officially open, people. Be watchful for the press. We’ll control what is communicated from my office. Do not talk to any reporters.”
“Aw, man,” Ed whined. “And that’s my favorite thing.”
Chase smiled briefly, as Ed had intended. “Your turn, Ed. What have you found?”
Ed’s forced levity disappeared. “Hell on earth, Chase. The filth, the stench… It’s indescribable. We’ve gathered samples of blood and other body fluids from every cell. From the state of the cots and waste left behind in the cells, we think there were five more girls taken. The waste in the twelfth cell was not as recent-we don’t think it was occupied, but we took samples just in case. We also found IV bags and syringes-some of them still have legible production lot codes. We’re tracing those back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer will know where their products were initially shipped. After that, we’re going to have to dig to trace how they ended up in that bunker.”
“Good,” Chase said. “What about the victims?”
“This one we’ve seen before,” Nate Dyer said, holding up Angel’s picture. “On a Web site Luke and I shut down eight months ago. We’ll send the photo to our partners worldwide. Maybe they’ve seen either Angel or the other two girls who were with her on the Web site.” He looked at Luke. “We need to go back over our records, see if there is anything we missed the first time.”
Luke nodded heavily. “I know. And that was my case. I know it better than anyone. I’ll be in tomorrow to look through the old files.”
“I’ll work on it some tonight,” Nate said, then sighed. “Either way, it’ll be a bitch.”
Luke knew what he meant, because the same thoughts had been flying around his own mind. What if he found something he had missed the second time around? That meant he might have helped Angel and the others then. What if he didn’t find anything new? They’d be stuck at square one. A man could drive himself crazy.
Luke straightened his spine. “So far we have two leads on the female victims in the bunker. Angel and the scratched name, Ashley O-s-something.”