Cry Mercy

TWENTY-TWO

Susanna will be here in a minute,” Mallory told Emme as she came into the conference room. “She's on the phone but she's wrapping up the call now.”

Emme nodded and went over the mental notes she'd made on her way back to Conroy. She'd called Mallory from the car and brought her up-to-date, but Mal thought everyone should know where things stood. Nick had insisted on following her back and had wanted to sit in on the meeting. Since no one had objected, he'd taken a place at the table and now waited for Emme to begin.

“I figured out where I knew you from.” Robert slapped Nick on the back as he came into the room. “Six years ago, you had a 1970 Aston Martin for sale at an auto show in New York.”

Nick thought for a moment, then nodded. “I was selling it for a client. You were at that show?”

“Yeah, I wanted that car in the worst way.” Robert made his way around the table and seated himself across from Nick. “I couldn't afford it then. Now, when I can, I can't find one.”

“That year's tough to find,” Nick agreed, “but they do come on the market from time to time. I can ask around for you if you want.”

“I want.” Robert nodded enthusiastically. “As soon as I saw that Firebird out there, it jogged my memory. You deal in classics, right?”

“Mostly, yes.”

“I checked you out at the time. You had a good reputation.”

“I like to believe I still do.”

“Okay, boys, continue the man talk later.” Susanna, the last arrival, seated herself. “It's getting late.”

To Emme she said, “Father Kevin is on his way over but he said to start without him. He said to tell you he'll bring Chloe here so not to rush things thinking you have to get to school.”

“Thanks, Susanna. And thanks, Father Kevin.” Emme looked around. “Where's Trula?”

“She wasn't sure she was supposed to be included,” Susanna told her.

“Can we get her up here?” Emme glanced from one face to the next.

“Yes, she should be here. She always has good insights.” Mallory left the room. “I'll be right back.”

“So, Nick, about the car…” Robert tapped on the tabletop.

Mallory came back into the room and Trula followed moments later. Trula rested a hand on Emme's shoulder and leaned over to tell her, “I put those roses you brought back with you in a vase. They're on the counter in the kitchen. Make sure you take them with you when you go.”

“Thanks, Trula.” Emme patted Trula's hand before the woman took her seat.

Mallory sat at the head of the table at one end, Emme the other. “Okay, everyone, Emme's going to bring us up-to-date on the progress of our first case. Nick Perone, who sent the application in to us, is here. He's been working with Emme because of the number of young people associated with the case, some of whom might be put off by being questioned by a PI, but are okay talking to Belinda's uncle. Emme?”

Emme walked them through the case, from finding Heaven's Gate and discovering that Nick's sister had used a sperm donor to conceive Belinda, through finding the donor siblings, to finding the DNA report from the lab Belinda had used.

“I have a question,” Trula asked. “How many of these donor siblings did Belinda have?”

“Nine.”

“Of those nine, how many have you met or spoken with?”

Emme paused to think. “We've only met Hayley in person. But we spoke with Ali on the phone, and we spoke with Henry. We-Nick and I-were supposed to meet Lori and Henry at the zoo on Saturday, but they had car trouble and never showed.”

“So did you set another meeting with them?”

“Actually,” Emme said uneasily, “I haven't heard from them at all. I've called and emailed, but neither of them have responded.”

“Odd, wouldn't you say?” Trula asked.

“Very. As far as the others are concerned, I've emailed every one of them, and have posted on their message board.”

“How many of them answered you?”

“All except Ava, Jessica, and Justin.” Emme frowned and looked at Nick. “That's right, isn't it?”

He nodded. “Hayley said Ava is in Boston in grad school-I'm guessing she isn't real active right now on the message board, and maybe she doesn't keep up with the email from the kids.”

“The kids?” Susanna raised an eyebrow.

“Hayley said that Ava was twenty-four. Most of the others are in their late teens or early twenties. At sixteen, Hayley is the youngest, but Ava seems to respond to her via personal email. The impression I have is that she's busy with school and she doesn't really want to be bothered by the group.”

“What about Jessica?” Susanna asked. “Does she not want to be bothered either?”

“Hayley said her father was transferred to France last year, and the family relocated. They haven't heard from her since she left.”

“They do have the Internet in France, right?” Trula said dryly. “And what about this kid, Justin, why hasn't he checked in? Did he respond to your email about the DNA swab?”

“No one did,” Emme told her.

Trula frowned. “Where are all these kids?”

“I've been wondering that myself,” Emme admitted.

“Maybe they decided they don't like outsiders interfering with their lives,” Mallory suggested. “Right now, the important thing is that we have the DNA profile.”

“What are you going to do with it?” Susanna asked.

“We're going to do what this sixteen-year-old, Aaron, did,” Emme told her. “We're going to send it to every one of the online genealogy services until we find one that can give us a match.”

“What are these genealogy services?” Trula asked.

“They're online search services,” Emme explained. “You can search for relatives-living ones or your ancestors-in a number of ways. You could have them search by surname, or you can have them search for DNA matches. You provide your DNA, and they compare it to DNA that's been submitted by other people.”

“The world is becoming a complicated place.” Trula shook her head. “Imagine finding your relatives that way.”

“A lot of people are doing it, apparently. There are several of these services available. We're going to hit all of them at the same time. Then if we're lucky, we'll find matches, and we'll try to locate those persons using the Internet.”

“To what end?” Susanna persisted.

“To locate Donor 1735,” Emme told her. “Who may or may not be involved in Belinda's disappearance.”

“You mean, maybe she figured out who he was, and he was someone who didn't want to be found and maybe…” Trula left the thought unfinished.

“That's certainly a very real possibility.” Emme nodded.

“Have you considered that if he didn't want her to find him, he isn't going to want you to find him, either?”

“It's possible, Trula, but I'm not a starry-eyed nineteen-year-old girl looking for her daddy,” Emme replied. “I think I can take care of myself.”

“So it's a matter of running those”-Robert pointed to the papers on the table in front of Emme-“through some databases?”

“Databases on specific websites that contain DNA profiles.”

“Oh, I can do that,” Robert said.

Five pairs of eyes stared at him. Robert stared back.

“Excuse me,” he said, with no small amount of sarcasm, “you're talking to the man who developed the most sophisticated search engine on the planet. I think I can handle this part.”

“Seriously?” Emme asked. “How would you?”

“I still have some pretty mad computer skills,” he said, as if amused. “Besides, my former partner designed a computer that will never see the retail market. That sucker can… well, never mind what it can do. I'm going to fax your report to Colin and see what he can do for us. If the database exists that has a match to that profile, he'll find it. Then we'll see what we can do about tracking down the matches.” He waved a hand impatiently in Emme's direction for the papers.

“Okay, then, Robert's on the DNA.” She passed him the report.

He looked it over. “Was there anything else for today?”

“No,” Emme said. “That should do it for now.”

“I'll be in my office.” Smiling, Robert left the room.

“Well, he looked happy,” Mallory said.

“He has a project.” Susanna's eyes were still on the door Robert had just exited. “He hasn't had work to do in a long time. I think he's missed it.”

“I didn't want to appear rude, but this partner of his-”

“Colin Bressler.” Susanna stood and pushed in her chair. “He's the ultimate computer geek. He'll have that DNA traced through every database that exists.”

“How can he do that?” Emme frowned. “Without subscribing, that is?”

“I trust he'll find a way.” Susannah appeared amused.

“Is he going to hack his way in?”

“Emme, ‘hack’ is such a harsh word.” Susanna drained her coffee cup. “And besides, hacking is for amateurs.”

“Robert did seem pretty confident,” Nick noted.

“Seriously. If there is a database out there that contains those sequences, believe me, Colin will find it,” Susanna said as she left the room. “And way faster than anyone else could.”

Childish giggles echoed from the hall.

“That sounds like Chloe,” Trula said. “I'll take her down for a snack while you fill Kevin in. I know he'll want to be kept up-to-date.”

By noon the following day, Emme was a believer.

“Robert wants you to go straight to his office as soon as you get your coffee,” Trula told her when she entered the house.

“Good news or bad news?” Emme frowned as she read through the selection of coffee mugs. She'd had practically no sleep the night before, having relived and rethought and reconsidered her relationship with Nick-did they even have a relationship or had they just had sex?-and wasn't in the mood for any of what Susanna called Trula's smart-ass mugs. She settled on Never judge a book by its movie.

“What's the difference? He's the boss and he wants to see you pronto,” Trula reminded her.

“Good point.”

Emme fixed her coffee and went directly to Robert's office. She tapped lightly on the half-opened door.

“You wanted to see me?” she said.

“Come on in.” He had his back to the door, his attention focused on a very large screen that sat on the sideboard next to his desk.

“Is that a TV or a computer?” she asked.

“Yes.” He looked up and smiled. “Both. Either. Whichever I need it to be.”

“I never saw one like that.”

“And it will be awhile before you do. This is one of Colin's toys,” he explained. “Now, here's your list of names. Note that the spelling of…”

Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”

“Sure. I told you, Colin is quite brilliant when it comes to finding things. He apologized for not having it to us sooner but he was out last night.”

“I'm stunned. I thought it would take a few days.”

“Get unstunned, ye of little faith.” Robert was clearly enjoying this. “We have quite a few names. Where do we go from here to narrow them down?”

She stared over his shoulder at the screen.

“All of those men share the same Y chromosome as Donor 1735?”

“So say the databases.”

“Gardner. Gardener. Gartnor. Gartner.” She read the long list of surnames aloud. “I guess we'll start with those who were born in Philadelphia.”

He hit a few keys, then looked up. “It wants to know which Philadelphia. I'm assuming you mean the one in Pennsylvania and not the one in Mississippi?”

Emme nodded and he selected the entry.

“That took out quite a few. Next?”

“Birth date. August first, 1961.”

He entered the date and sat back and waited. After a moment, he leaned back, smiled broadly, and said, “I believe this could be your man.”

Emme exhaled, barely believing it. Donor 1735 had a name.

John Jennings Gardner.

“Now, we'll see where our Mr. Gardner is these days…” Robert tapped into the search engine that bore his name. Data flickered onto the screen. “Uh-oh.”

“What?” Emme drew closer. “Couldn't you find him?”

“Oh, we found him all right.” Robert moved away from the screen so she could read for herself.

John Jennings Gardner, state congressman from the state of Maryland.

“Wait, didn't he just-” Wide-eyed, Emme pointed at the screen.

“Announce that he was running for the U.S. Senate?” Robert nodded. “Yeah. That would be him.”

“Let's see what else we can find out about him.” A few more strokes of the keys and Robert had pulled up Gardner's bio.

“He went to Mount Penn law school,” Emme read over her boss's shoulder. “That fits like a glove.”

“Mount Penn's about an hour from here,” Robert noted.

“And it's about twenty minutes from Heaven's Gate, the fertility clinic,” she told him. “Looks like we have our man.”

“Damn good reason not to want a passel of children coming out of the woodwork to claim your DNA.” Emme called Nick's shop to give him the news. “I imagine it could prove embarrassing if the press got hold of that story.”

“Yeah, puts him in an awkward position,” Nick had snapped angrily. “Do I acknowledge them? Do I try to ignore them? Seems to me whatever he does, it's going to prove to be a distraction during his campaign.” He paused, then added, “Unless, of course, he got rid of the distraction. Permanently.”

“Don't jump to conclusions, Nick. We don't know if Belinda ever contacted him, or that he even knew about any of these kids.”

“So let's go ask him. Point blank.”

“Let's find out where he is first, then we'll make an appointment, then we'll-”

“No. First we find out where he is, then we show up.”

“Let me give some thought to the right way to go about this. I'll get back to you.”

She was still holding the phone in her hand, debating the best way to approach John Gardner, when Robert strolled into her office.

“You get in touch with Gardner yet?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I have the numbers of his local office and his office in Annapolis.”

“Forget the Annapolis office,” he told her. “It's summer. No one's going to be there now.”

“Good call.”

“I'm trying to decide the best way to go about this, the best way to get in touch with him.”

Robert reached past her for her desk phone and hit two numbers. “Suse, call Maryland state congressman John Gardner and tell him I'd like him to meet with a few of my people as soon as possible. No, don't give any reason. Just that I'd appreciate it if he could clear his schedule, as soon as he can swing it.” He hung up the phone and sat in one of the wing chairs facing her desk. “She'll let us know. So, Emme, how do you like Conroy so far?”

“I… it's fine. Great.” She nodded, surprised at his intervention. From what she'd seen so far, except for putting his computer skills to work, he hadn't seemed too engaged in the foundation.

“Chloe seems like a really happy kid,” he went on. “She's really something. You never know what she's going to say.”

Dear God, what has she said? Emme went cold inside.

She must have gone white because Robert immediately said, “Oh, nothing bad. Just funny stuff. And we all know that Trula adores her. I haven't seen her have this much fun since… well, not in a long time.”

A shadow crossed his face and Emme suspected that he was thinking of the joy his own child must have brought Trula.

Her phone rang and he answered it. “Great. I'll tell Emme. I'm sure she can make it. Thanks, Suse.”

He handed her the phone to hang up, and said, “One of the good things about having an easily recognizable name is that when you call people, they usually respond.”

“She found him?”

“He's at his summer home on the Eastern shore. He'll see you at ten tomorrow morning. Stop by Susanna's office and get his address and the directions.” He slapped a hand on her desktop before rising from the chair, a smile on his face. “Good luck. I hope this leads to the break you've been looking for.”

“So do you know what you're going to ask Congressman Gardner?” Nick asked.

“I'm working on it.” Curled up on the love seat in the sitting area of her hotel room, Emme juggled the phone with the remote for the TV. “I know what I want to ask. I just want to be sure to approach him in a way that will give us the answers we need.”

She channel surfed through the cable news stations and settled on her favorite talking head. It was the top of the hour, and the day's headlines were being read.

“On the one hand, I think we need to go slow and easy and build into it, and on the other, I'm thinking we need to go the direct route, hit him with it right up front. Then we-” She stopped, her attention drawn to the newscast. Uncertain of what she'd just heard, she increased the volume.

“Then we what?” Nick was asking. When she didn't answer, he repeated, “Emme, then we what-”

“Oh, dear God in heaven.” In a flash, she was on her feet, standing directly in front of the TV screen. “Dear God, no.”

“Emme, what's wrong?” She heard the alarm in his voice, but was powerless to respond. “What's happening, baby? What's wrong? Is it Chloe?”

“It's…” She felt as if she were underwater, struggling to breath. “Turn on your television. Carolyn Craft's show.”

“… investigators say they have no suspects in the shooting death of Henry Carroll-Wilson, whose body was found in a dumpster in a rest area off Route 213, and the disappearance of his sister, Lori Carroll-Wilson. Anyone having any information is asked to call…”

“Henry.” She gasped. “Henry's dead. And Lori… dear lord…”

“Are they saying when they think this happened?” Nick was asking. “Emme, come on. Get a grip. Did they say when this happened?”

“They're saying that they haven't been seen since Saturday morning.” She repeated to him what the newscaster was saying. “Henry lived with his girlfriend in Hartford… Lori staying in New Haven with a roommate over the summer, working at a restaurant… the roommate said Henry picked up his sister very early on Saturday morning… she's saying it was around 6 A.M. The roommate was leaving for a weekend at the Cape, so she isn't aware of when-or if-Lori ever came back to the apartment. The investigation is continuing.”

“Did they say if this is a suspected carjacking, some random shooting, what?”

“They don't know. They did find blood on the ground near a car that matches the description that Henry's girlfriend gave the police, but the tags are off it. And now they've moved on to another story.” Emme sat on the sofa and opened her laptop. “Let me see what's on the wires.”

“Are you still there?” Nick asked after a few quiet moments passed.

“Yes, I thought maybe I could find some more detailed information online but there really isn't much yet.” She closed her laptop and blew out a long breath. “This is just crazy. Henry dead and Lori gone. First Belinda, now these two… I don't like what I'm thinking, Nick.”

“I don't like what I'm thinking, either. What are we going to do about it?”

“Let's take this one step at a time. The first thing I'm going to do is call the detective who's investigating Henry's murder. I'll tell him about the meeting we were supposed to have on Saturday and I'm going to tell him why. I'm also going to tell him about Belinda. Then tomorrow, we're going to keep our appointment with Congressman Gardner. After that, well, we'll just have to see where it all takes us.”