Fueled by this thought, she looked at her watch again and decided to take a chance.
She punched in the number Lambert had given her and waited while it rang on the other end.
On the second ring an anxious voice said, “Yes?”
“Mr. Priest?”
“Yes?”
“Edward Priest?”
“Yes, who is this?”
“I’m Special Agent Atlee Pine with the FBI in Arizona.”
“Oh my God. It’s Ben, isn’t it? He’s dead. Oh shit. Oh, sweet Jesus!”
Pine could hear the man start to sob.
She said firmly, “No, Mr. Priest. No, that’s not why I’m calling. I’m investigating your brother’s disappearance, but we haven’t found him yet. For all we know he’s still very much alive.”
She listened as his breaths slowed.
He barked, “You scared the holy crap out of me. Why are you calling this late?”
“I apologize for that, but in a situation like this time can be of the essence. You told one of my colleagues that your brother worked at Capricorn Consultants?”
“That’s right. He does.”
“They’re a Beltway firm?”
“Yes!”
“Do you have an address and contact info for them?”
Now Priest hesitated. “Contact info?”
“Or an address.”
“I... I don’t have that information. I just recall my brother telling me that’s where he worked.”
“When was that?”
The tone turned from gruff to suspicious. “Why is this so important? He went missing at the Grand Canyon, not on the DC Beltway.”
“The thing is, I looked them up, but I can’t find a firm by that name located in the DC area.”
Silence. Then: “I... I think it was about six months ago when he told me.”
“So, he never took you to his office?”
“No.”
“Did he ever talk to you about his work?”
“He... he would make that joke, you know, the usual one when dealing with... stuff around DC.”
“You mean, ‘he could tell you, but then he’d have to kill you’?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay.”
“Agent Pine, what is going on?”
“I’m not sure right now. Could you fill me in on your brother’s background? Education, early life, family, that sort of thing.”
“I already told the other guy.”
“It would really help if you told me, too.”
A long sigh was followed by, “We were mostly raised on the East Coast, but we moved around a lot. Our father was in the Navy. Retired as an 0–7.”
“Rear admiral, lower half.”
“Yes, that’s right. Were you a Navy brat?”
“No, but I have friends who were. What else?”
“Ben was, I mean, is, my younger brother. We have two older sisters. Ben lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. One sister lives in Florida, and the other near Syracuse.”
“I understand your brother isn’t married.”
“No, he never took the plunge. His work was his life.”
“Education?”
“Georgetown. Undergrad and grad.”
“Political science?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Lucky guess. Can you give me his home address?”
“Look, I want to cooperate, but it just occurred to me that I don’t actually know if you are who you say you are.”
“Colson Lambert from the U.S. Park Service contacted you before. I can give you my badge number and a phone number to call at the Bureau to confirm I’m an agent with them. You can call me back on this number tomorrow, if you like.”
Priest didn’t say anything right away. “No, I guess it’s okay. I mean, why would you be calling me if you weren’t with the FBI, right?”
I can think of a few reasons, Pine thought to herself. But she told Priest none of them.
He gave her his brother’s home address.
“So, no word from Ben?”
“No. Look, I asked this Lambert guy if I should fly out.”
“I think you need to stay where you are. Anything develops I’ll call you immediately. And feel free to call me with any questions or concerns. Or if you think of anything that might be helpful.”
“Do you think this has to do with Ben’s work?”
“I can’t say that it doesn’t. At least not right now.”
“Do you think he’s dead?”
“I don’t think anything. We don’t know enough. But just to cover the obvious angle, did your brother have any enemies?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Okay. Have you talked to your sisters?”
“No, should I?”
“Yes. Just in case he might have contacted them.”
“Oh, right. I hadn’t thought of that. But I think he would contact me before them. We don’t live very far away from each other.”
“Still, just in case. You don’t have to alert them to anything being wrong. Just casually ask if they’ve heard from their brother.”
“Okay, I’ll do that. And let you know if they have.”
“Thanks, Mr. Priest. I appreciate it.”
“Do you think you’ll find Ben?”
“I’m going to give it my best shot. One more thing. Do you have a recent photo of your brother you can send me?”
“I do. My wife’s birthday party last month. It’s me, my wife, and Ben. I’ll email it.”
“Great.” She gave him her email and then clicked off.
A minute went by and then the photo dropped into her inbox.
She opened it up and looked at the picture of three people standing side by side. One was a tall man about six three, and lean. This was obviously Edward Priest. In the middle was his wife. On the other end was a shorter, thickset man wearing glasses who could only be Ben Priest.
She thought of a few more questions and decided to call Edward Priest back.
“I got the picture, thanks. Couple of quick questions. In the picture, your brother is wearing glasses. Does he also wear contact lenses?”
His reply made Pine’s eyes widen and her thoughts swirl in completely new directions.
“No, Agent Pine, you’ve got it backwards. I’m the one wearing the glasses, not Ben. He’s the tall one on the left.”
Chapter 8
“Good morning, Special Agent Pine.”
Pine had just unlocked the door of the FBI’s office in Shattered Rock. It was a hardened portal with a pickproof lock and an intercom-and-video system. It might seem like overkill in a place like this, but there was a good reason for such enhanced security protocols. In the late seventies two FBI agents in El Centro, California, had been shotgunned to death in their unsecure office by a social worker under investigation for misuse of funds. Ever since then the Bureau had hardened pretty much all their offices in the field, from the largest to the smallest.
Carol Blum had greeted Pine from her desk in the front room of the two-room office. The other building tenants included a law firm, a dentist, a home contractor, and a title insurance company.
And another federal law enforcement agency.
Pine shut the door behind her.
“You know, Carol, we’ve been working together for a while now. You can just call me Atlee.”
“I like to keep things professional. I understand that was the way Mr. Hoover preferred it.”
“Well, the offer remains open. And Mr. Hoover was a long time ago.”
Pine had on jeans held up by a wide leather belt with a large square brass buckle, dusty boots, and a white shirt with a windbreaker over it. By contrast, Blum was dressed in a navy blue jacket and white pleated skirt. Low heels, nylons, and her thick, auburn hair carefully done up in a bun. Her makeup was minimal, and Pine actually thought she needed none. She was a striking woman who had kept herself fit, possessing enormous emerald green eyes that contrasted vividly with the reddish hair, an angular chin, elevated knuckles of cheekbones, and an air about her that seemed exotic, as silly and dated as that term seemed now. But the other term someone would unfailingly apply to her would be: professional.