The Missing

Chapter 73

Darby followed him through tight corridors humming with conversations and ringing with phone and fax machines.

Banville brought them into the large conference room where he had outlined the details of the trap to catch Traveler. The chairs had been stacked together and pushed to one corner to make space for presentation-style corkboards mounted on wheels. There were about a dozen boards in here, and each one held 8? 10 pictures of severalwomen.

'Someone from the computer division came out this morning and broke the security on Boyle's laptop,' Banville said. 'All these pictures you're looking at were stored on there. We transferred the pictures to CDs and printed them out here. Fortunately for us, Boyle had the pictures organized in folders named after the states he visited. We think Boyle started here after he left Belham.'

Banville stopped in front of a board marked 'Chicago.' The top picture was of a pretty blond woman with a bright and inviting smile. Her name was Tabitha O'Hare. She had been missing since 10/3/85.

Underneath Tabitha O'Hare's picture was another 8? 10: Catherine Desouza, missing since 10/5/85.

Next: Janice Bickeny, missing since 10/28/85.

Four more women were listed, but they didn't have any names or dates, just pictures. Seven women, all missing.

'We called Missing Persons in Chicago and had them email all their cases from eighty-five and matched the pictures to the ones stored on Boyle's computer,' Banville said. 'So far we've identified three of the seven missingwomen.'

'Where are they buried?' Coop asked.

'Don't know,' Banville said. 'We haven't found a map.'

Darby looked to the next board, 'Atlanta.' Thirteen missing women, all prostitutes, according to the information posted beside their pictures.

Boyle's next stop was Texas. Twenty-two women went missing from Houston over a two-year period. After Texas, Boyle moved on to Montana and then Florida. Darby counted the pictures on the two boards. Twenty-six missing women. No names, no dates to indicate how long they were missing, just pictures.

'We just started contacting police agencies across the country,' Banville said. 'They're going to fax or email their missing persons cases. It's going to be a massive effort. It will take weeks – months, probably.'

Darby found the board marked 'Colorado.' Kimberly Sanchez's picture was up at the top; eight more women were tacked underneath her.

'What I can't figure out is the story Manning told us about being attacked,' Banville said. 'You think it was Boyle who attacked him?'

'Yes,' Darby said.

'He was already planting evidence to pin it all on Slavick. Why go through the trouble to stage that?'

'By attacking Manning, Boyle made Manning an eyewitness who could turn around and pin it all on Slavick, when the time came.'

'And Boyle needed to keep Manning close to control the investigation,' Coop said. 'I'm thinking that's why they bombed the lab and the hospital. They could label it as a terrorist attack, allowing the feds to step in and take over the investigation.'

'Allowing Manning to pull the strings,' Banville added.

Darby nodded. 'Of course, we could be wrong. Unfortunately, the only two people who can answer any of these questions are dead.'

A cop poked his head into the room. 'Mat, you've got a phone call. Detective Paul Wagner from Montana. Says it's urgent.'

'Tell him to hold, I'll be right there.' Banville turned back to Darby. 'They did Boyle's and Manning's autopsies this morning. Manning was the one who entered your house. They found a hairline fracture on his left arm. I thought you'd want to know.'

Banville left them standing in the room full of missing women. Darby looked off at a board marked 'Seattle,' more pictures of missing women, more boards running down the long wall, each one crammed with pictures of missing women, some identified, some blank.

'Take a look at this one,' Coop said.

This board held the smiling faces of six missing women. There wasn't a state listed at the top. None of the women had names.

'Judging by the hairstyles and clothes, I'm guessing these pictures were taken in the eighties,' Coop said.

The woman with the pale skin and blond hair looked familiar for some reason. Something about the woman's face, Darby felt as though she knew her -

Darby remembered. The picture of the blond woman on the board was the same picture the nurse had given her – the one the nurse had found inside the clothes Sheila had donated. Darby had shown the picture to her mother. 'That's Cindy Greenleaf's daughter, Regina,' Sheila had told her. 'You two played together when you were kids. Cindy sent it to me one year in a Christmas card.'

Darby took the picture down from the board. 'I want to make a copy of this,' she said. 'I'll be right back.'