"Yi."
"What about it?"
"I typed in Yi instead of Tayyi and here's what it says." Sean read off the screen. "The Yi Syllabary's origins are lost in time but are thought to be influenced by the Chinese writing system. Each character represents one syllable. It was used mainly for religious and secret writings. It's spoken by millions of people in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan."
"So a secret Chinese religious society with a weird language is responsible for all this?" Michelle said skeptically. "But the letters are from the English alphabet, not Chinese."
"I don't know. I'm just trying to cop a lead." He punched in a number and held up a hand when Michelle started to say something.
"Hey, Phil, it's Sean King. Right, yeah, it's been a long time, I know. Look, I'm back in D.C. and I've got a question about a language. Right. No, I'm not trying to learn one, I'm trying to see if something is a language or not. Yeah, I guess I'm not making much sense. Look, do you know anyone at Georgetown who's familiar with a language called Yi? From China?"
Michelle tapped her fingers on the steering wheel while he talked.
"Yeah, I know it's not one of the major ones. But could you check and see if anyone in your department might know? Thanks, I owe you." He gave Phil his number and clicked off.
When Michelle looked at him questioningly he said, "Buddy of mine who's in the foreign language department at Georgetown. He's going to check and get back to me."
"Yi-pee."
He stared at her crossly. "You got any better ideas?"
She was about to answer when his phone rang. "Yeah?" He straightened up and then glanced out the window. "Now? Right, okay."
He clicked off and then looked puzzled.
"Who was it?"
"FBI Special Agent Waters. We've been officially invited to participate in the investigation."
Michelle slid the gearshift lever to drive. "Wow, Jane Cox really lived up to her billing."
CHAPTER 15
WATERS MET THEM at the front door. It was quite obvious that the FBI agent had been put on a short leash with a choke collar and didn't like it one bit. He had them put on elastic booties and instructed them to walk only where he walked. He was obviously taking great pains to sound polite, but it all came out as a near growl.
"It must be nice to have friends in high places," he said as they headed up the stairs to the bedrooms after passing the outline of Pam Dutton's body on the living room rug.
"You should try it, but then you'd have that whole 'getting friends' challenge to overcome," snapped Michelle. Sean elbowed her in the side as they stopped at the door to one of the bedrooms. Waters pushed it open. Sean and Michelle looked around as they stood just inside the doorway.
This was Willa's room, the one that had been empty when they'd searched the house before. It was neat and clean. There were shelves full of books and a slender silver Mac on her desk. The words "Willa Land" were written out on one wall that was actually a black chalkboard.
"John Dutton said he thought Willa was downstairs with their mother when it happened. But Colleen said she thought she heard Willa on the stairs," said Sean.
"The same thing they told us," Waters said curtly.
"Could you tell which version was right?"
"If Willa was attacked on the stairs there's no trace left there. What she might have heard on the stairs were the kidnappers."
"Any sign of forced entry?"
"We think they gained access through the back door. It wasn't locked. There's a rear stairs to the upper level from there." He pointed to his left. "Just down that hall."
"So is the idea that the attackers came in via the unlocked door in the rear and worked their way through the house, room to room, back to front?" said Michelle.
"Drugged Colleen, then John, knocked out Tuck, and then killed Pam and took Willa?" finished Sean.
"That's one theory," said Waters.
"Why not drug Tuck too? He told us he opened the bedroom door and something hit him."
"He's a big guy, not a kid. Maybe they didn't want to take a chance with the drugging part. Blow to the head was better."
"What drug did they use?"
"The docs took some samples from residue on the kids' faces. Looks to be a liquid form of general anesthetic."
Sean said, "And is your theory that Willa was the intended victim all along?"
"Not necessarily. It might just be that they ran into Willa first and grabbed her. Pam Dutton comes in the room, sees what's going down, and starts fighting to protect her daughter. Only natural. They kill her and take the kid."
Sean shook his head. "But the living room is in the front of the house. If they came in the back like you think they did and worked their way through the rooms, they would have come on Tuck first, John next, then Willa's room, and Colleen last. And only then gotten to the front. And if Willa had been in her bedroom they would've got her before Colleen. And I can't believe they would have killed Pam first and then taken the trouble to knock out Tuck and drug the other kids."
Michelle added, "And when we drove up we heard a scream. Probably Pam's dying one. The bad guys were already in the living room by then. Tuck and the other kids were already taken out."
Sean said, "So Willa probably wasn't in her bedroom at the time. She was maybe in the living room. She was the oldest, it was her birthday; Mom let her stay up late, or got her up when Dad got home so he could wish her a happy birthday."
Michelle picked up the train again. "Mom leaves the room, maybe goes to the kitchen for something, Tuck goes upstairs to change. Maybe the other kids are already drugged. They knock out Tuck, hustle to the living room, grab Willa, Mom comes back, sees what's happening, fights, and it costs the lady her life."
"But the point is," added Sean, "that Willa was the intended target. They would have already had access to the other kids."
From Water's expression the man had clearly not thought any of this through yet. He said, with as much confidence as he could muster, "It's early yet."
Michelle's face telegraphed her opinion of this answer. Lame.
"Did the ME say how much of Pam Dutton's blood was missing?"
"More than could be accounted for by the wound leakage and what we found on the rug."
"Who's the ME on this?"
"Lori Magoulas. You know her?"
"Name rings a bell. Any idea why they would take her blood?"
"Maybe they're vampires."
"How about the trace under the fingernails?"
"We're processing it," he said tersely.
"Prints? How about on the vials?"
"They must've worn gloves. They were good."
Sean said, "Not that good. They lost control of Pam and had to kill her, at least it looks that way."
"Maybe, maybe not," Waters said evasively.
"Did you find the Tundra?"
"It's registered to the Duttons. We found it in some woods about a mile from here. They'd driven the damn thing down into a ditch. Probably for concealment."
"Any signs of where they went from there?"
"Still checking the truck out for trace. They must've had another vehicle nearby, but we didn't find any evidence of that. We're canvassing, see if anybody saw anything. No hits yet." He eyed Michelle. "You sure it was two guys?"
"One submachine gunner, one driver. I saw the wheelman through the windshield. Tall. Definitely a guy."
Sean checked his watch. "With the time she's been missing and calculating driving radius in all directions you're looking at thousands of miles they could have covered, easily."
"By private jet, they could be anywhere in the world," added Michelle.
"I take it no ransom note has been received?"
Waters turned to face Sean. From the expression on the man's features it was clear that the short leash had just come off. "You know, I did some digging on you. Does it still hurt that you were thrown out of the Service on your ass for screwing up and costing a guy his life? That must be some serious shit to have to deal with. Ever think about eating a round because of it? I mean, it'd be understandable and all."