The Lost Years

76

After speaking to Lloyd Scott, Detective Benet called Judge Brown at his chambers and received authorization to place a trace on Mariah’s cell phone and to get records of the incoming and outgoing calls, both for that phone and the one at her parents’ house.

“Judge, there’s a strong probability that Mariah Lyons is missing,” he explained. “I need a list of the last five days’ calls so that I can see who she’s been talking to, and I need access to her call log for the next five days so I can see who calls her.”

His next call was to the designated contact at the telephone company who handled emergent judicial orders.

“I’ll get right on it, sir,” he was told.

Ten minutes later Simon had the location of the cell phone. “Detective Benet, we’ve got a hit from Route 4 East in Fort Lee, just before the bridge. It’s coming from the immediate area around the Raines Motel.”

Rita Rodriguez was watching Simon’s expression and knew he had received bad news.

“We’ve got a major problem,” he said. “The signal is coming from around the Raines Motel. That place is a total dump. We can be there in ten minutes. Let’s go.”

They raced down the highway with their lights flashing and were soon standing outside Mariah’s car. The driver’s door was slightly ajar. They could see a woman’s shoulder bag on the passenger seat. As they opened the door carefully to preserve any fingerprints, the sound of a cell phone ringing came from inside the bag.

Simon reached for the phone and looked at the caller ID. It was Richard Callahan. Simon quickly scanned the log and saw that it was his fourth call in the last two hours. There were two others from the Lyons home, which he knew would have been from the housekeeper, and two more from Alvirah Meehan in the last hour.

Two days ago when Lillian Stewart disappeared, Richard Callahan claimed that he had been trying to reach her all day, Simon thought. He’s covering his tracks again.

“Simon, look at this.” Rita was shining her flashlight on the unmistakable signs of smeared blood on the rear door on the driver’s side of the car. She pointed the flashlight to the ground. Drops of dried blood became visible on the cracked macadam of the parking lot.

Simon crouched down to examine the droplets closely. “I don’t know what the hell she was doing here, but it looks like she was grabbed when she was getting out of the car. Rita, we’ve got to get that composite right away.”

“The guys picking up Wally Gruber should be on their way back now,” Rita said quickly. “I’ll call and tell them to turn on the flashers and be there as soon as they can.”

Almost beside himself with frustration, Simon barked, “Do it. I’ll get the tech unit to come here and go over the car for prints.” He paused. “And I’ll have to let Lloyd Scott know what’s going on.”

Three missing women in five days, he thought grimly. All of them connected to Jonathan Lyons. And probably connected to that parchment.

His introspection was interrupted by Rita. “The guys with Gruber are already over the bridge. They’ll be waiting for us at the office.”