The Missing

Chapter 56

Darby parked the crime scene vehicle in the delivery area behind a liquor store. Safe from prying eyes, she called Pappy back on his cell and quickly filled him in on what had happened. She asked him to repeat the information on the paint chip and wrote everything down in her pocket notebook.

'I meant to ask you this earlier: Who sent the paint sample to the Germans?'

'I did,' Pappy said. 'I sent them a sample in case the feds weren't able to identify it. Plus, the Germans said they would look at it right away.'

'So as far as the feds are concerned, the paint chip wasn't identified.'

'As far as I know. My contact at the federal lab sent me an email and said he struck out.'

Evan Manning had told her the same thing.

'Darby, if the feds find me, I'll have to turn over what I have.'

'Which is why you need to go someplace for the day.'

'Well, I was thinking of heading over to the MIT library for awhile.'

'Good. Stay there – and stay off your phone unless I call.'

Next she called Banville on his cell.

'I take it you heard the good news,' she said.

'Our federal friends are at the station right now, going through my office files and computer.'

'What are they looking for?'

'Beats the hell out of me. They keep throwing out Title Eighteen as the reason for taking over the investigation.'

'Title Eighteen,' Darby said. 'Doesn't that have something to do with the Patriot Act?'

'You've got it. It basically gives the FBI domestic investigative powers in cases involving terrorism. I don't know anything more than that. My guess is, by the way they're racing through here, we've stumbled across something potentially embarrassing and now they're here to sweep it under the rug. When it comes to burying secrets, nobody does it better than our government – especially this administration.'

'I found an entire set of -'

'We shouldn't be talking over a cellular phone. Call me back in five minutes at this number.'

Darby wrote it down and headed out to find a pay phone. There was one just outside the front doors of the liquor store. She went inside to get change and, armed with quarters, called Banville. She kept an eye on the parking lot, paranoid that Agent Vamosi was going to pull up at any moment.

Banville picked up right away. Behind him was the steady drone of traffic.

'Are they monitoring our phone calls?' Darby asked.

'When it comes to the feds, I don't take any chances. Tell me what you found.'

'We found a skull. I had it partially dug up when the feds showed up and took over. Coop told me the feds got a hit on CODIS.'

'I wonder if that's what triggered all of this.'

'CODIS will give them a name and a last known address, but I have a way we can find Carol Cran-more.' Darby filled him in on the paint chip.

'Aston Martin Lagonda,' Banville said. 'That's a very select market.'

'The cars brought into the U.S. should be easy to track down since they had such a small production run. We'll concentrate our search on anyone living in or around New England. Traveler isn't flying into Boston, he's rooted somewhere close. What he does with these women requires privacy. We'll look for owners with isolated houses.'

'Manning told us they couldn't identify the paint chip.'

'So?'

'Maybe they were lying to us,' Banville said. 'Maybe they're already trying to track Traveler down through the paint chip.'

'Or maybe Manning was telling the truth. Maybe their lab couldn't ID the paint chip and they're planning on tracking down Traveler through the map.'

'I'm not following.'

'The map was printed from a website,' Darby said. 'The website's URL was printed at the bottom of the page. They'll track Traveler down through an IP address.'

'I have no idea what an IP address is. The computer stuff is way over my head.'

'All the feds need to do is to identify the people who accessed this particular section of the map. They'll go to the company and have them print off a log of IP addresses – it's a unique string of numbers assigned to your computer every time you log on to the internet through your ISP – your internet service provider. Those IP addresses can be tracked down to an individual computer.'

'So these IP addresses, they're like a digital fingerprint.'

'Not only is it like a digital fingerprint, the IP address acts as an individual map which will lead the feds directly to Traveler's home. The feds will get a list of IP addresses and start targeting anyone living in and around New England. That's going to take some time. Tracking Traveler down through the make of the car will be quicker.'

'Okay. Give me your notes again on the paint chip.'

'Tell me where to meet you. It will be quicker.'

'You need to go to the Boston office before you get into any more trouble.'

'I want to help you. You're going to need people you can trust.'

'It's not a matter of trust, Darby. The feds can't hurt me. I'm set to retire at the end of next year, but if they find out you're still investigating this case, they'll make your life difficult. I've seen it happen before. Too many times. Go downtown. I'll call and keep you up to date, I promise.'

'If you want the notes, then I'm coming along for the ride.'

'Getting involved in this could cost you your career. You may want to give that some thought.'

'I want to find Carol Cranmore and bring her home. What do you want?'

Banville didn't answer. Darby spoke into the silence.

'We're wasting time. Carol may still be alive. We need to jump on this now.'

'You said you're parked at a liquor store.'

'Joseph's Discount Liquors on Palisades,' Darby said. 'I'm parked out back, in the delivery area.'

'I still have one of the surveillance vans. We can run the investigation from there. Give me twenty minutes.'