Part 7 (1/2)
”Yeah. They have a copy of her driver's license.”
”How much did she get?”
”About twenty thousand. Now she has money to hold her for a while. And I just ran her credit card again. There's been no activity.”
”Confirms she's a runaway,” Jan said.
”She may not have had a gun to her head, but we don't know if she's being coerced or how much she's under someone's influence. She's only a kid, Jan.”
”I know that. You know that. Maddy probably doesn't feel that way, and we know her parents don't.”
”We've got to find a place to start. I'll go check the bus and train stations,” Peet said.
”And I'll get started on her Web activity. Has Harrington gotten back to you with their router information?”
”I left a note at the office with the pa.s.sword to the router.”
”Okay. I'm on my way there.”
She finished her beer and said good-bye to James. She did know one thing. She didn't want to make any decisions about her job until she'd found Maddy Harrington and made sure she was safe. Every kid deserved that much.
Now that it was after five, the offices and desks upstairs were nearly empty. On her side of the floor there were a couple of people in the small conference room with Dave Collins. It looked like he was taking a statement. Jan stopped by her desk to start up her computer and then went into the break room to make a pot of coffee. She heard the sharp tap of high heels behind her.
”h.e.l.lo,” Catherine said brightly.
Jan nodded h.e.l.lo and watched the coffeemaker, not trusting herself to speak. She thought her voice might squeak. The brown liquid seemed to be trickling down like sap from a maple tree.
Catherine rinsed her mug out at the sink and then came by to stand and watch the coffeemaker also.
”I noticed you had to leave the meeting early,” Catherine said.
”I'm working on a case.” That came out all right, Jan thought.
”Please tell me about it. I'm interested in what sorts of things the investigators handle here.”
Catherine stood with her body angled toward Jan, holding her empty mug in her hand as if it were a gla.s.s of champagne and she was at a c.o.c.ktail party. It was annoying as h.e.l.l, and completely intoxicating. Jan wanted to say nothing to her new boss, but everything to this beautiful woman.
She took the empty mug from Catherine's hand and poured the fresh coffee into it, then handed it back handle first. ”I'm working a missing teen case, very new, with lots of information still to gather and a.s.sess. In other words, I'm pretty busy.”
Catherine sipped the black coffee and peered at Jan over her mug. ”I can see you approach your work very seriously. Do you plan to be here for a while this evening?”
Jan focused on blending a huge amount of sugar and creamer in her coffee. Was Catherine flirting with her?
”I suppose I don't really think or care about the overtime right now,” Jan said. ”Time is of the essence in a case like this. Her parents are getting daily reports on our progress and our charges.” Jan struggled to keep her tone business-like.
”Of course.” Catherine stepped aside as Jan walked out of the room, and then followed her to her desk. ”I think what I meant to ask is how you approach a case such as this. I don't care about the overtime either.”
Jan sat at her desk and looked up at Catherine. ”I think I'd better get back to it. I have to check out what websites the missing girl was visiting before she left.”
”Ah. Now you're within my realm,” Catherine said.
”What do you mean?”
”I have a background in computers. It's one of the things I think you'll like in working for a bigger company. We'll have the personnel and equipment to help you track down information in a fraction of the time it probably takes you now.”
Jan shrugged. ”We do okay the way things are.”
Catherine looked amused. ”You aren't going to say something about good old shoe leather and gut instinct, are you?”
”We're not hayseeds here, you know.”
”Of course not. I'm so sorry if I sounded like I thought you were.”
Catherine looked amused still, but her eyes were kind. Jan found it confusing. She turned from Catherine and put her hand on her computer mouse, waking up the screen and opening her remote access software.
”May I ask how you're going about this search? Perhaps there's a way I can help.”
Now Jan began to sag a bit. One thing she loved about working for TSI was the nearly total autonomy she enjoyed. The last thing LJ wanted to know about was the details of their investigative process, unless he could use it to look good in front of someone. If she was going to have to detail her work to her new bosses, perhaps it was time to move on.
”I'm about to access Maddy's home router and wireless network. I'll log in remotely from here and access the websites she visited while she was on that network,” Jan said.
She typed in the IP address of Maddy's computer and the screen filled with Web addresses. Jan peered at the long list, with words like ”militia,” ”Michigan,” ”patriot,” and most disturbingly, ”Idaho” popping up throughout. These could all have been a part of Maddy's recent research on right-wing militias. Or they could be a clue as to where she was now. The words seemed like little bombs going off on the screen, so loaded in meaning were they to Jan. Catherine leaned over her shoulder, pointing a finger at a Web address for a Michigan militia group.
”Why was she on these websites? They're a little scary.”
”I don't know at this point, other than her social studies teacher showed me a paper Maddy wrote on right-wing militias.”
Jan pulled her chair closer to the computer, farther from Catherine. No good would come of touching.
”Listen, I need to get back to work here. If you want to be briefed on this case I'd be happy to do that, but at a different time. I hope you understand.” Jan addressed the screen as she talked, with Catherine still behind her, her hips just behind Jan's shoulders. Catherine placed a warm hand on top of Jan's right shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
”Of course. I do apologize. I see that you're getting the information much as I would and I'm properly impressed.”
Jan looked up at her, waiting to see if she had more to say. Catherine stared down at her, as if waiting to see if she would speak. The silence lengthened.
”Well, I'll see you around,” Jan said.
”Right. Good luck, then.”
Jan watched her walk down the hallway, unable to look away She couldn't help it. Naturally, Catherine turned back and caught Jan staring. Her smile was just a little wicked.
Hours after David sent the crew out the door, Maddy sat at the rickety kitchen table working on her computer. He had handed lists and cash to everyone but Maddy, telling them to pick up the items they'd need to make their start to Idaho. Some of the items they'd truck out west, some they would purchase when they got there. They had it all planned out to the last literal nut and bolt. Now David was out running errands and the house was silent.
Maddy worked on the database she'd developed that would keep track of provisions, a budgeting system that would keep the money handlers accountable, and an intranet that would keep their communications with the outside world secure. She was proud of her work. She knew what programming to steal from other bits of software and what to make uniquely her own. She loved being in total control of the software world she lived in. What she didn't have control of was the people David had chosen to make the move to Idaho with them. They'd all been friends of his for years, schoolmates who had long run as a pack. There was no question that David was their leader. Maddy a.s.sumed they were skeptical about her, despite their warm welcome. But she was skeptical of them in turn. She doubted that any of the people she'd met that morning had the same purity of purpose she and David did about making their new society work. For the most part, they looked like they didn't have much else going on in their lives rather than being on fire with a vision of a new way to live. It didn't matter how big their new place was in Idaho. If she didn't like her compatriots, it was going to feel like close quarters.
David was trying to run a tight s.h.i.+p, though. He made it clear he wanted everything organized and everyone trained before they made their start out west.