“He’s going to want a diary,” said Diane. “The diaries don’t have the location of the gold mine—I’m assuming that’s what he’s after. We have to get Andie before we give him the diary or he’ll have no reason to let her go. But in the event he sees the diary, he needs to think it contains what he wants.”
“How are you going to do that?” asked Liam.
“I’m going to see that it says what we need it to,” said Diane.
“But how can you do that?” asked Liam.
“She runs a museum and a crime lab,” said Neva. “We can create documents. We can salt a mine if we need to.”
Diane and the others looked over at Neva. “Damn good thinking, girl,” said Jin. “We can do that. Yeah.”
“That can help us control the situation,” said David. “Off the top of my head, I can think of several scenarios where we’re in control.”
“That’s the challenge,” said Diane, “taking control and keeping it when he’s the one with the most valuable treasure—Andie.”
“I’ll call Mike,” said Neva.
Diane nodded. “We need to pick a cave.” She paused and looked at Neva and Izzy.
“You two are more officially with the police department than I am, and we’re not going by the book,” said Diane. “If you have any qualms . . .”
“Forget it,” said Izzy. “I’m not going to be a tight-ass with little Andie’s life.” He shook his head. “I know her and her parents. Count me in.”
“Me too,” said Neva.
“I want to be part of whatever you do,” said Liam.
“I’m counting on your skills,” said Diane. “They should be considerable.”
“In certain areas,” he said. “I can’t analyze frequencies, but I am very good at kicking ass, and I have a stealth mode.”
Liam sounded better, almost optimistic. For all David’s paranoia and pessimism, he had a knack for building confidence in those around him—because he was so competent. Diane smiled at Liam. Good.
Neva called Mike and told him to hurry as fast as he could and tell no one where he was going. Diane could imagine what he thought. Neva let him in the secured door when he knocked. Mike came in with his hands in his pockets. He grinned.
“What the heck’s up?” he said. He looked around at the grim faces and frowned. “What’s going on?”
“Mike, you have to promise to keep this completely confidential,” said Diane.
“You know me, Doc,” said Mike.
“Andie’s been kidnapped. We believe it’s by the person who killed the people in Rendell County.”
“What? No. Andie? No.” His gaze darted to each of them, as if he were hoping Diane was telling some terrible joke.
“We are going to get her back,” said Diane. “We have part of a plan and need your help.”
“All right. Just tell me what to do,” said Mike.
“The kidnapper wants a diary I have. He thinks it will lead him to a lost gold mine. It won’t, but we’re going to make it so it does. If we can get control over where this plays out, I think we’ll have the best chance of saving Andie. We want to salt a mine with gold. You and I need to pick a cave that will work.”
“Doc, we don’t have a lot of gold, but we do have pyrite. I can get quite a bit of it that looks like gold to the untrained eye. Do you think this person knows what real gold looks like?”
“I don’t know,” said Diane. “I was looking at the pyrite in the exhibit. Some of it looks more like gold than others. The cubes of pyrite don’t.”
“I have a lot for the reference collection, plus a lot of quartz with pyrite inclusions. I can make up a sample that looks real. How much do you need?”
“I don’t know that either. You’re the geologist; you tell me. Whatever will look real in a cave. I thought we would spread it on the floor and draw a picture in the diary to fit what we do.”
“Okay, that’ll work as long as he’s not a geologist,” said Mike.
“If it’s not a good idea, tell us,” said Diane.
“It is. Yes,” said Mike. “I can make it work. What you could do is fix a small piece of real gold in the diary somehow.”
“Yeah,” said Neva. “Use yellowed tape. This will work.”
While they figured out the logistics, David worked with the computer in one of the other workstations where he had acoustic software. Diane saw the intensity on his face and she knew what he was feeling. They hadn’t been able to save their loved ones from the massacre. They would save Andie from this killer.
Diane called Korey, her head conservator at the museum, and asked him to come to the crime lab. She sat down with Mike to work on a map, as soon as they could decide on a cave that they could use. Liam sat down with them, along with Izzy.
“What you need,” said Liam, “is a place that is a little harder to get into, kind of like that cave where Larken and Bruce were found. He’ll expect it to be hard and hidden, or somebody would have found it by now. It should also be one that is easy at first, but has a place where we can hide—if that turns out to be the plan.”
“King Cave. It fits the bill,” said Mike. “It’s not in Rendell County, but it’s just over the county line. Slim entrance. Starts easy and gets harder. It’s got a nice little cavern that would be good to salt.”
“Okay, can you draw a map?” said Diane.
“Sure,” said Mike.
Diane extended her arm to hand him the pen. That was when she noticed the sparkle on her sweater sleeve. The stuff gets everywhere, she thought to herself.
Neva let Korey in when he knocked.
“Hey, Dr. F,” he said. “What’s going on in the Dark Side?”
Diane told him what she needed. “It has to look real—just like the other pages. I’m hoping there are blank pages in some of the older diaries that you can remove and use. You’ll have to take it apart and rebind it, and it needs to be done in a couple of hours. Neva will help with the drawing. So will Mike.”
Korey looked at her. “The diaries that belong with the arrowheads?” he said. “You’re changing them?”
Desecration, to a conservator, thought Diane.
“I know what I’m asking, Korey. I need you to do it and not ask questions and not tell anyone,” said Diane. “It’s a matter of life and death.”
“Someone in Archives said that they can’t find Andie. Is that what this is about?” he asked.
Tears blurred Diane’s eyes and threatened to overflow.
“I can’t say, Korey. Please do this,” she said.
Korey frowned. “Sure, Dr. F. I can do it so it would take an expert to discover it.”
“Thank you, Korey,” said Diane.
Mike and Neva went with Korey to Conservation. When the door closed, Diane heard the ping of the computer.
Another message had come in.
Chapter 54
Diane shook as she called up the message. Get control of yourself, damn it. She had to calm down.
“Do you know where they’re coming from?” she asked David, a little too sharply.
“Internet café,” he said. “The first one.”
“Where?” said Diane.
“Rockwood,” he said, but she barely heard him as the video started.
The image again was of Andie. She was sitting in what appeared to be the same location as before. Her forearms were bound to the arms of the chair with duct tape. Her shirt was off. From the waist up she was dressed in only her red-stained bra. She squirmed in her seat. She had a note in her hand.
She shook and tears rolled down her cheeks as she read. Starting and stopping, looking at her tormentor, sobbing.
“ ‘I’m still having too much fun to stop right now, so be patient. Andie was a sweet little thing in her T-shirt. She said it’s something called the Vitruvian Man. What is that? Is that stupid or what? Don’t forget the diary. I’ll be tired of her little titties and cunt soon, and after that I want my diary, or—well, you know.’ ”
Andie so
bbed after she finished.
“He’s a dead man,” said Liam, curling his lip and gripping the back of the chair. “If it’s the last thing I do, he’s dead.”
Then he fell into the silence that the rest were in—Diane, Izzy, Jin, and David.
“He hasn’t been raping her,” said David. “Her jeans are on. I doubt he would let her partially re-dress. He would want to see her. This is show.”
Liam turned on David. “How the hell do you know, damn it? How the fucking hell do you know?”
Diane could almost see the frustration pouring over him. She felt it too. Fear and frustration.
But David was bent over, staring closely at the still image of the stopped video. “Because,” he said, “everything is exactly the same as the last video, except for the T-shirt. He’s staging this. I’m willing to bet he’s already made the messages Diane will be receiving, and he’s moving from one Internet café to another, sending them to Diane.”
David stood up and turned to Liam. “If we are to save her, we have to do what it takes, even if that means to chill. We don’t have time for self-indulgence.”
Liam looked at him for a moment before he nodded. “You’re right. I know that. I know that,” he whispered almost to himself.
“Jin,” said David, “help me with the acoustic program while I trace this last message.”
“Don’t worry, boss, we’ll get Andie back,” said Jin before he went into the workstation with David.
“What can I do?” said Izzy.
“You and Liam work on a plan. All we have is parts of one. We need a real plan.”
The two of them nodded. No one could take their eyes off Andie, yet none of them wanted to look at her. Diane felt so sick she couldn’t think.
“It should be what I’m good at,” said Liam. “I know I didn’t do right by Andie. But from the first I cared and wanted to see where we went with each other.”
“Like Jin said,” said Izzy, “we’ll get her back.”
“I called Frank,” Diane told Izzy.
Izzy bobbed his head up and down. “That’s good. Frank’s got a good brain. Between all of you guys’ smarts and my comic relief, we’ll solve this.” He reached out and touched her shoulder and squeezed. Diane put a hand on his.
There was a time when Izzy and Diane didn’t get along. He was Frank’s friend and didn’t think she was good enough for him—his opinion helped along by the rumor mill. But they had a shared tragedy: They both had lost a child. Izzy looked at a lot of things differently now. And now they were friends. Normally, Izzy was a very blunt friend, and she appreciated his attempt at comfort. Diane dropped her hand and sat down to think.
“When was Andie taken?” she asked. “I last saw her when she poked her head in my office. That was sometime after three yesterday afternoon.”
“We went up to see Beth in Archives right after that,” Liam said. “Then we had an early dinner in the restaurant. We finished a little after four. I left for the nursing home and she was going back into the building.”
“Did you see her go back in?” asked Diane.
“No, she waved until I was out of sight. I watched her in my rearview mirror.”
“It was daylight still,” said Diane. She paused and looked at Izzy.
“The parking-lot cameras.”
Diane pressed her hands to her forehead. “Think, damn it,” she whispered.
She sat down in front of the computer and called up the program that ran her security videos. She started with the videos from three o’clock. Izzy and Liam pulled up chairs beside her.
Diane sped through the three-to-four-o’clock period quickly, taking note of cars coming and going, looking for anomalies, particularly vans, campers—enclosed vehicles that could conceal a victim. There were many that could have concealed Andie. None looked like they were trying to hide or showed anything out of the ordinary.
At four fifteen, Andie and Liam walked out of the museum and to his car. They kissed, rather passionately, before he got in his car. Liam drove off and Andie waved for a few moments. She looked so sweet standing there. Andie—optimistic, happy with life, naive, trusting. Andie, who decorated her office as if she were expecting Peter Rabbit’s mother for tea.
Damn it, thought Diane. Damn him, whoever he is.
In the video Andie turned and started walking back to the museum but stopped, turned to the east, and smiled at something out of range. Diane switched cameras, starting from three o’clock. She couldn’t see anything or anyone that might have attracted Andie’s attention. As the time stamp passed four fifteen, there it was—a puppy, trotting along the side access road leading to the back of the museum. Andie chased after it and it ran into the woods. Andie followed, out of camera range.
“Oldest lure there is,” said Izzy. “Who won’t go after a puppy?”
“It’s a Walker hound,” said Liam.
“Walker hound?” Izzy looked over at him. “You mean . . .” He looked over at Diane.
“They still have Slick, don’t they?” Diane said, more to herself than to any of them. She called Agent Mathews on his cell.
“Slick and Tammy are still in custody, aren’t they? Did they make bail? Escape?” she asked when Mathews answered.
“No, no, we still have them under lock and key. Why?” he asked—reasonably.
“A question came up about his dogs,” said Diane, hoping that lame answer would suffice.
Mathews laughed. “Those dogs. You know who he calls when he gets his telephone privileges? Not Tammy, not his lawyer. He spends his quality time talking to some guy named Hennessey who’s keeping his dogs.” He laughed again.
“How about Leland Conrad? Has he made bail yet?” she asked.
“He won’t be making bail. What’s this about?” he asked.
“Paranoia,” said Diane. “Thanks. I’m sorry to have disturbed you. We’ll have to have a drink over this later.” She hung up before he could ask more questions she would have to make up silly answers to.
“He’s still in jail,” said Diane.
“I’m sure lots of people in lots of places have Walker hounds,” said Izzy. They’re a popular hunting dog. I like a retriever, myself. Fun to play with.”
Diane looked over at a door she heard squeak. David and Jin came out of their glass room. David started to speak when he caught sight of the video screen where Diane had stopped it.
“A puppy?” said Jin. “A puppy? He could have gotten any of us.”
“Jin, I want you to go outside and search the woods for any evidence that might help us,” said Diane.
Jin nodded. “Sure, boss.” He rushed to get a crime scene kit and was almost out the door before Diane could give him instructions.
“Canvass all of the woods by the east side of the museum, especially the dirt road that used to access the nature trail before we blocked it.”
Jin nodded, bobbing his whole body like he had his engine idling. “I’ll keep in touch,” he said, and he left with his kit.
“What have you got?” Diane asked David.
“The latest message was from an e-café in Blairsville, about twenty miles from the last café,” said David. “We’re succeeding in taking the white noise out of the video. Want to listen?”
David didn’t wait for an answer; he called up the message and they listened to Andie read again.
“Hear the reverb?” he said.
“They’re in a cave?” said Diane.
“Possibly,” said David. “Maybe a large empty building. I’m still working on it.”
“Good,” said Diane. “This is progress.”
“How does it help us?” said Liam.
“Anything that narrows the search field helps,” said David. “As Diane said, this is progress. It hasn’t been that long since she got the first message.”
“I know. I just don’t like helplessly watching these videos,” said Liam. “I need more information to form the best plan, so I agree—anything that supplies new intel is g
ood. It’s just that . . .”
“That what?” asked David, stroking his balding head. Diane could see he was under as much stress as the rest of them, trying to hold it in. He wanted to yell at Liam. She knew David. He wanted to tell Liam that he, David, was doing the best he could. But he simply stood there, waiting for an answer.
“What if you’re right and he got her to make all the messages—however many of them there are—and then he killed her? I can’t get that out of my head,” said Liam.
Diane understood. She had worried about the same thing, but for one important factor.
“He has to know that I’ll ask for proof she is still alive before I turn over the diary. I don’t think he will kill her before that.”
“Maybe,” said Liam. “Maybe he thinks he’s in total control and any hope you have at all to get Andie back is to just hand over the diary.”
“I think he is smart enough to keep her alive,” said David. “We have to believe that and believe that he wants the gold more than he wants to kill.”
Liam nodded.
The crime lab’s elevator started up, which meant someone was coming from the outside to visit the lab. Diane went to the elevator and waited. It opened to Frank and one of the lab guards who had escorted him up. Diane put her arms around him and hugged him as tight as she could after the elevator doors closed.
“What’s up?” he asked. “I think this is the first time you have ever summoned me.” He gave her a small, cautious smile.
Diane knew Frank would come. He was among the few truly dependable people she knew. He was also a good thinker, and that was what she needed, especially since her brain shut down every time she had a spasm of fear.
“Andie’s been kidnapped by the killer—the one who killed the Barres and Watsons in the night. He’s taken Andie, Frank,” she said.
“Jesus, no,” said Frank. “When? How?”
Diane showed him both the videos plus the security-camera videos. Afterward, the four of them filled him in on what they were doing so far.
“That’s quite a lot in a short amount of time,” he said. “What do you need me to do?”
“Think. Look at the video. Find anything we’re missing. I need your eye. We need as much information as we can get,” said Diane.
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