The Vanishing Point

33

Stephanie paused to drink from her water bottle. Vivian glanced at her watch. She’d missed lunch and it looked like dinner was going the same way. ‘You weren’t lying when you said it was a long story.’

‘I’m sorry. But you did say you wanted to know everything that might have a bearing on Jimmy’s disappearance.’

‘It certainly sounds like he’s had an exceptional run of experiences.’ And will spend most of his adult life in therapy. ‘I think we need to—’ Her attempt to suggest a break for food was sabotaged by a knock at the door. Vivian nodded to Lia Lopez, who opened up to reveal Abbott looking pissed off.

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he said. ‘But I need to speak with Agent McKuras.’

Vivian was on her feet before he’d finished talking. She took his arm and steered him back into the corridor. ‘Sorry, but I need to eat,’ she said, leading the way down the hallway towards the concourse. ‘I can’t concentrate for five more minutes unless I get some food in me.’

‘OK,’ Abbott said, trailing in her wake. He was a married man; he knew better than to argue when a woman displayed all the signs of low blood sugar. Vivian strode through the crowds of passengers, making straight for the Burger King on the food court. Once she had two cheeseburgers and a large coffee in front of her, he decided it was safe to speak.

‘We’ve tracked the boy and his kidnapper from the security area. They took the first available exit and emerged on to the landside concourse. They didn’t go near baggage reclaim. Instead they made straight for the parking garage across the way from the arrivals hall. Interestingly, the guy didn’t go to the payment machines. He didn’t seem to have a parking ticket to validate. He just walked straight in with the kid and they got into an elevator. And that’s where it gets interesting. They don’t show up on any of the footage of the elevator exits.’

Vivian frowned but couldn’t say anything through a mouthful of food.

‘Ask me how that could possibly be. I know you’re dying of curiosity,’ Abbott said.

Vivian swallowed and humoured him. ‘How could that possibly be?’ He was doing the scut work on the case, after all. He deserved a little slack.

‘At twelve fifty-seven, somebody sprayed black paint over the lens of the camera that covers the elevators on the thirteenth level. There weren’t many vehicles up there, so there wasn’t anyone around to witness what happened. Or if there was, they didn’t give a shit about somebody knocking out a CCTV camera.’

‘What images are there before twelve fifty-seven?’

‘Not much. There’s no sign of anyone approaching, which means they likely came up on the camera from behind and sprayed it kind of up and under. The control room noticed the camera was out of action about forty minutes later and reported it for routine maintenance. It was only when I started asking questions that they checked it out and discovered it hadn’t simply malfunctioned – it had been vandalised.’

‘To stop us seeing them emerging from the elevator,’ Vivian said. ‘Judging by the look on your face, we’re not about to cut to the good news.’

‘There is no good news. Not at this point. We don’t know what happened after they left the elevator. The presumption would be that they got into a vehicle. But which vehicle? We have no idea when they left the parking garage. They could have sat there for half-hour in the back of a panel van, for crying out loud. We have no way of knowing.’

‘What about the exit footage? Whatever vehicle they were in, they had to leave at some point.’

‘It’s a waste of time, Vivian. We don’t know what the guy looks like. It’s starting to look like he has an accomplice but there’s no telling whether that’s a male or a female. We are totally pissing into the wind.’

Vivian suddenly lost her appetite. With every lead that frittered away to nothing, the chances of recovering Jimmy alive grew smaller. It had been over five hours since he’d disappeared. The shrinking window of opportunity for his recovery left a bitter taste in her mouth that no amount of fast food could take away. She pushed her second burger away, then, on second thoughts, she picked it up. If she’d been starving, Stephanie would be too. ‘Thanks, Don. I appreciate you chasing this.’ She stood up. ‘I need to get back to the witness.’

‘Sure. The control room’s got a whole bunch of staff tracking back through the concourse cameras to try and get a fix on where he came from. I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything. None of the no-shows matched our guy, by the way. An elderly Hassidic Jew, a middle-aged black woman and a female student from Northwestern. So your witness was on the money with her suggestion.’ He followed her back down the concourse. As they grew close to the interview room, he put a hand on her arm. ‘Don’t take this too personally, Vivian.’

‘If you’d sat listening to that woman for as long as I have, you’d be taking it personally too, Don. Sometimes that’s the only acceptable route to go down.’ She shook off his hand. ‘I know you’re working your ass off on this,’ she added, softening her tone not because she was bothered about hurting his feelings but because she was happy to do whatever it took not to jeopardise Jimmy’s chances. ‘And I totally trust you not to leave a CCTV pixel unturned.’ She delivered her best smile but her head was already back with Stephanie, ready for the next instalment.