“Ethan did. Truman’s a solid businessman, never been in trouble.”
“Then you had no reason to think it would have been dangerous. It was a real estate office, for God’s sake. I swear to God, sometimes I think you think you are.”
David met Tom’s angry eyes with a frown. “I think I’m what?”
“God.” Tom hit the desk with his fist. “You can’t always be the goddamned hero.”
David blinked at Tom’s fury, unexpected and… incorrect. “I’m not.”
“Whatever.” Tom drew a breath, let it out. “I shouldn’t have yelled. You couldn’t tell Grandma what to do. Nobody can. Stop blaming yourself and start using your brain.”
David closed his eyes. The kid was right. “What do we know about Mary O’Reilly?”
“Besides that she’s a card-carrying whack job?” Tom patted his computer bag, his mouth flattening to a grim line. “Let’s get out of here and find out.”
“Let me tell Olivia,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” David tapped on Abbott’s door and she came out, motioning him into an empty conference room, closing the door.
“Nothing new,” she said. “Every available body is looking. IT’s tracing texts from Mary’s phone and e-mails from the laptop we found in her car outside the realty office.” She looked up, her blue eyes intense. “We’ll find your mom. Mary has nothing to gain by harming her.”
“What about the cell phone number?” he asked hoarsely. “The one Lincoln called?”
“It was Mary’s phone, in her purse. We’ve called your mom several times, but it goes to voice mail. We can’t track a GPS signal, but we’ll keep trying. We’ve got detectives talking to anyone who knew Mary in the dorm, anyone who sat next to her in class. Trying to find out where she might have gone.” She lifted her hand to his cheek. “I’d tell you to go rest, but I know you won’t.”
He turned his face into her hand. “I can’t think,” he admitted. “I can’t breathe.”
Her thumb caressed his lips, soothing, not sexual. “Then let me think for you, for just a little while. Go see Glenn. I promise I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”
“What about Lincoln?”
“Dr. Donahue’s with him. They sedated him this morning. He overheard two guards talking about another arson and he lost it. She says when he’s lucid, she’ll arrange for me to talk to him. I’ll call you, so you can be there.”
He pulled her to him, holding on tight, his voice breaking as the words tumbled out. “I keep seeing her with that gun to her head.”
“I know,” she whispered. She held on a moment more, then pulled away. “I’ve got to get back. I will call you the second I hear anything. We will find her, David.”
He knew she would do anything in her power to keep her word, but he couldn’t sit idly. Steeling his spine, he returned to Tom. “Let’s go, kid. Show me what you can do.”
Wednesday, September 22, 3:45 p.m.
Olivia stood at Abbott’s window, watching David and Tom walk to the elevator. “I hate this,” she murmured. Two priorities. A man who shot bullets and a woman who shot drugs. Both were killers. But the woman had a hostage.
“We all do,” Abbott said. “Sit down and let’s get a plan.”
They’d reviewed the texts from all the students’ phones, piecing together the timeline. Replays of the video made it clear that the four students hadn’t known Tracey Mullen was in the building.
“The first fire they did for a cause,” Noah said. “Joel was the champion, but Mary, who is friends with Lincoln, left the glass ball as the tribute to Moss.”
“She was only eleven when Moss set that last fire,” Micki said.
“But he’s a legend in radical circles.” Barlow shrugged. “Somehow she heard of him. Maybe through a teacher, a parent, her own Internet wandering.”
Olivia reread Mary’s personal information that they’d gotten from Truman Jefferson and the university. “She’s twenty-three, single. Parents deceased. She paid for her own tuition, no loans or financial aid. She has to have some alternate source of income. Her job at the real estate office didn’t pay enough for room and board.”
“Emergency contacts are left blank,” Noah added. “She was a loner.”
“With an IV drug addiction,” Olivia said. “Her transcripts say she was majoring in philosophy and took Environmental Ethics last spring. That’s where she met Joel.”
“The car she parked in front of Truman’s office was paid for,” Noah said. “Other than her laptop, we found nothing unusual. The car was registered to her dorm address.”
“Where does she live during the summer?” Micki asked.
Olivia tossed the paper to the table, frustrated. “PO box. Dammit.”
“Okay,” Abbott said calmly. “We’ve gone over Mary and we’re stuck. Let’s talk about the blackmailer, because somewhere they intersect.”
Olivia nodded. “The night of the condo fire, the blackmailer knew they’d be there, because he showed up with a camera. He also knew Tomlinson and Dorian Blunt. They tie somehow. On some plane, they all intersect. Where?”
“The blackmailer is the shooter,” Micki said. “He went around to the dock side of the condo where Austin was hiding.”
“Austin said he ran when he smelled smoke,” Abbott said. “He made it out the door on the dock side and realized Tracey wasn’t there. He never saw the arsonists-they were on the other side of the building. Austin saw the shooter come around the building. Weems confronted him, the man fired, got in a boat, took off his ski mask and sped off.” He tossed a sketch on the table. “Our shooter.”
“I’ve seen that face a thousand times, a thousand different places,” Olivia said.
“I know, but right now, it’s the only face we’ve got.”
Noah studied the timeline. “The blackmailer knew Eric had bought a ticket to Paris, because he texted Albert’s cell with the flight time. How would he know that?”
“Same way he knew the interpreter was helping us,” Olivia said. “He followed us.”
Noah shook his head. “He didn’t physically follow Eric. Eric paid for his plane ticket over the Internet, straight out of his bank account. He had access to Eric’s computer.”
Olivia suddenly remembered the sight of David’s cell phone next to hers on his nightstand. “Or his cell phone,” she said slowly. “That’s why he took their phones.”
“But he didn’t take Eric’s phone,” Barlow said. “Mary did.”
“Maybe because he didn’t kill Eric,” Olivia replied, “and Mary did. He needed Eric to have his own phone and the prepaid he provided. It’s how he communicated with him.”
“But that doesn’t explain how the blackmailer knew Eric had bought a plane ticket,” Noah said. “Unless he was monitoring Eric’s cell activity.” He turned to Micki, whose suddenly narrowed eyes told them she’d figured it out. “So, how did he do it?”
“Sonofabitch. Somehow he got access to their passwords and user names. I’ll bet he snuck in through an unsecured wireless connection.”
“In other words, airports, bookstores, coffee shops,” Abbott said and Micki nodded.
“People get the warning that any data they send can be seen by others, but don’t realize that with the right software, it’s not just data you send. It’s any data on your device.”
“So if Eric saved his bank account information…,” Noah said.
Micki took Eric’s phone, hit some buttons, and made a satisfied sound. “Eric’s info is all right here. I’m in his bank account now. Somebody wiped him out yesterday, right about the time Albert received the text warning him Eric was going to flee the country.”
“Trace where the money went,” Abbott commanded crisply.
“It’s not just bank info. Phones store e-mail server information and passwords. Once he got that, he could look at their e-mail from anywhere. Find out about all kinds of things.” Micki paged back through Eric’s stored messages, then turned the phone to show them. “Like saving the wetlands. It’s all here. Eric and Joel’s whole plan.”