The Whole Truth

CHAPTER 87

THEY SAT IN KATIE’S HOTEL ROOM going over the video for the hundredth time. A room service table was stacked with plates and cups since they had not bothered to leave the room to eat. The drapes were drawn and the room was dark so they could see every detail on the screen better. They had enlarged all angles of the shots on the laptop and dissected them grid by grid.

And they had come up with absolutely nothing.

Shaw lay on the floor gazing at the ceiling. An exhausted, red-eyed Katie was on the unmade bed moodily doing the same. She slipped off her pumps, padded over to the room service table in her stocking feet, and poured out a cup of coffee.

“You want one?” she asked Shaw.

He shook his head and kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling.

“Frank checked the overseas account he set up for the money drop. No twenty million yet.”

“Great,” Katie shot back. “I’m clueless and still poor.”

She sat down at the desk chair, sipped her coffee, and stared at the screen.

“What’s the latest on the diplomatic efforts?” Shaw asked.

Katie hit a few computer keys, accessed the Internet, and read the news. “They’re still meeting in London. China and Russia haven’t even agreed to send delegations. But they’re hopeful of some sort of peaceful resolution.”

She clicked off the Net and ran the video of the Mercedes again, this time in slow motion.

Shaw glanced over at her.

She was dressed in a skirt, stockings, and a blouse and her face was wrinkled in concentration.

“Katie, we’ve done that to death and gotten zip. And the damn toll people still can’t tell us anything. And every minute that goes by…” He didn’t have to finish the statement.

Katie wasn’t listening. Her gaze was suddenly riveted on the screen.

“Shaw! Look!”

He hopped up and joined her at the desk. “What?”

“There.” She pointed the bottom of the screen where she’d enlarged the grid section.

“It’s the rear fender of the Mercedes. So what?”

“It’s a black Mercedes.”

“Really? Hell, I thought it was white,” he said a little heatedly. “Get to the point.”

“Hey, keep your pissy attitude under control.” She nicked the screen with her fingernail. “The car is black, but that spot is blue. And gold.” She pointed to another smudge of color. “And red.”

“I noticed that before. We all did. It’s a sticker on the bumper. But that’s all you can see. No writing. It could be anything. The techs already enlarged it and came up empty.”

“I know that. But wait a minute.” Katie was hitting keys, enlarging the section even more. Now was revealed a red top bar, a short line of gold, and a background of deep blue. Katie hit another key, zooming in on the gold and red parts.

“We’ve seen that, Katie,” Shaw said, studying her intense expression. “What’s the big deal?”

“When I saw it the first time, I thought I knew that pattern, but nothing came to me so I just thought I was mistaken. But now that I’m looking at it again I know I’ve seen it before. Somewhere. It’s bugging the crap out of me.” She looked at Shaw’s jacket hanging on the chair. She touched the breast pocket. “Damn, that’s it. That’s it!”

Her hands flew over the keyboard. She got back online and did a Google search.

When the screen revealed the answer to her query Shaw gaped as he stared at the top of the page.

It was a crest with a red top bar, a blue shield, and a gold X with a red crown in the center. It seemed a fleshed-out match for the bit of sticker visible on the bumper.

Shaw read the name at the top of the screen. “St. Albans School?”

She nodded. “I told you my dad grew up in Washington? Well, he went to St. Albans. It’s an exclusive private boys’ school in D.C.” She held up the sleeve of Shaw’s coat. “He still has a jacket with that crest on it. That’s where I remember seeing it. And I bet our guy has a son that goes or went there.”

A second later Katie was lifted into the air. Shaw’s strength was such that he had done it solely with his good arm.

“Great work, Katie,” he said into her ear.

He put her down and turned his attention to the screen while she looked slightly flustered.

She said, “So we tell Royce and Frank. They can search St. Albans’s database, get a list of names, we match it to vehicle registrations, and we find the black Mercedes and our guy.”

“Do you think we can find that out without calling Royce and Frank?” He didn’t look at her when he said this.

She answered hesitantly. “I don’t know. I mean, you’d probably need a search warrant.”

“But you said your father went there. That might make a difference.”

“Maybe, but I can’t access vehicle registrations. And why don’t you want to call them?” She looked uncomfortably at Shaw.

He turned, towering above her. She unconsciously took another step back.

“Why do you think?” he said bluntly.

“I don’t know what to think.”

“Sure you do. You’re a smart woman.” He nodded at the screen. “Smart enough to have seen that when none of us did.”

“I can’t help you do what you want to do, Shaw.” Her voice was tinged with a quiet desperation.

“Getting squeamish on me all of a sudden? Worrying about the rights of others? Innocent until the trial lawyers cover up the truth so no one can find it and the guilty walk free?”

“I don’t give a damn about the people who did this. They can rot in hell.”

“So what’s the problem then?”

“The problem is you. You take the law into your own hands, you go to prison. Or worse. I won’t be a part of that. I can’t.”

He sat in the desk chair and stared down at the carpet.

“Shaw, you can’t throw your life away over this.”

Shaw didn’t appear to be listening. “I thought I knew what real pain was, Katie. What it was to hurt like you’ve never hurt before. But when Anna died, I discovered exactly what it felt like.”

Katie crept forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “You need to let it out, Shaw, before it destroys you.”

He stood so quickly that she had to jump back. “I’ll call Frank and get him going on this.”

“Just like that?” she said, bewildered.

“Just like that. It’ll be faster that way,” he added ominously.

As he made the call, Katie stared at the crest of St. Albans School and then over at Shaw as he relayed her discovery to Frank.

When he clicked off, Shaw said, “Get your shoes on. We’ve been stuck in this room long enough. I’ll take you to dinner while they bang through the database.”

Katie retrieved her shoes, sat on the bed, and slipped on her heels.

He put a hand on her arm and guided her out the door. As they walked down the hall, her heart was thumping in her chest. She didn’t believe Shaw. Not at all.

And she was afraid. Not for herself.

She was afraid for him.