Part 29 (2/2)
”Maybe because he's the owner of the discount stores that bear his name.” Raiker's voice was dry. ”A quick Google check shows there are two thousand Mulders in the country with several hundred more operations in Europe, Asia, and South America.”
The name had also struck a chord of recognition with Macy, but not for the same reason. ”Steven Mulder? His daughter was one of the girls rescued when you broke that child-swap ring a few years ago.” The case wasn't one she was likely to forget. Her testimony in the case helped put one of the perpetrators behind bars. It was also what had brought her to Raiker's attention.
”That's right.” For Burke's benefit he explained, ”Ellie Mulder was seven when she was s.n.a.t.c.hed while attending a friend's birthday party. FBI took control of the case almost immediately. She was found incidentally when one of my cases overlapped a couple years later. I broke up a child auction and her kidnapper was among those looking for a trade-in. By that point she'd been missing twenty-seven months.”
Macy's gaze had dropped to the opened folder in her lap, but she froze a moment later in the act of scanning the information he'd put together for them. ”She's been kidnapped . . . again?”
”Abducted sometime between eleven and two A.M. this morning.” Raiker's expression was grim. ”Denver was having a h.e.l.lacious blizzard and Ellie's mother went in to check on her. She discovered her missing from her bed and looked around the house. Woke up her husband when she didn't find her and they searched the estate. He called me an hour after they discovered her gone.”
”But not the FBI,” Burke put in shrewdly.
Macy caught Raiker's gaze on her and followed it to where her fingers laid against the folder. Her fingers were beating a familiar tattoo against the surface. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Throat drying, she deliberately stilled them and refocused her thoughts.
”The feds failed her before.” She met Raiker's stare, knew she was right. ”They had over two years to find her the first time. But you're the one responsible for bringing her home to them. So Mulder contacted you.”
Her employer inclined his head. ”If the Mulders had their way, no law enforcement would be involved at all. They're pretty devoid of respect for LEOs after the last incident. But I convinced Steven that he has no choice but to report Ellie's disappearance. He has a personal relations.h.i.+p with the governor. With both Colorado U.S. Senators. He'll use his influence to bring in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation as leads.”
”Elbowing aside the Denver PD,” Kellan muttered, still studying the contents of the file.
”The Mulder estate is located thirty minutes outside Denver. It actually falls under the jurisdiction of the Denver Sheriff's office. This could turn into a territorial tug-of-war of monumental proportions.”
Macy considered the ramifications. Being hired by a family member rather than the investigating law enforcement ent.i.ty made their appearance on the scene a bit more tenuous. In a case such as this, suspicion fell first on the family and those in closest proximity to the child. The LEO would worry that their allegiance to Mulder would take precedence over their commitment to teamwork. Without Raiker running interference, they could be shut out of the investigative end of things almost completely. He was going to have his plate full handling the politics of this one.
She glanced at Burke. Found him watching her through a pair of trendy framed gla.s.ses that were new since the last time she'd seen him. ”They're going to want to bring in their own people.”
”Of course. But it's my job to convince them they don't have anyone who can match the experience the two of you bring. Don't make a liar out of me.”
It took her a moment to realize Raiker was joking. It was always tough telling with him. ”You've checked on Cooper's whereabouts?”
”Art Cooper is still in prison in Yazoo City, fulfilling his thirty year sentence for the kidnap and rape of Ellie Mulder.”
”And . . . the others?” It took all her resolve not to fidget under the shrewd look Raiker aimed her way.
”All accounted for, still inside serving their sentences.”
She wouldn't have asked. Couldn't have formed the words. But in the next moment he added deliberately, ”Rodriguez has been bounced around some. He's currently housed at Flor ence in Wisconsin.”
”So are we looking at the original group you rounded up in that first case?” Burke demanded. ”Do any of them have the jones to reach out this way from prison?”
”They'll have to be checked out,” Raiker replied. ”Every avenue will need to be explored. We can't afford to overlook the possibility that Ellie's disappearance this time is somehow connected to that first kidnapping. I'll line up the interviews for each with the prison wardens and make personal visits.”
There was a sick knot of dread settling in the pit of Macy's stomach. With an ease born of long practice, she pushed it aside and looked at her boss. ”And then we have to decide who the real target of this crime is. Ellie Mulder, or her father.”
There were only three other cars parked in the wide drive that looped in a half-circle in front of the sprawling Mulder estate. Macy wondered if that meant Steven Mulder had been successful in limiting the scope of the LEO presence, or if others had already been and gone since Raiker received the man's call this morning. The still heavy snowfall made it impossible to tell. As it was, the trio of vehicles in the drive were already buried under several inches of wet snow that had turned the roads from the airport into thick puddles of slush. A drop in the temperature would make them treacherous.
Macy stepped out of the SUV and scanned the grounds. They'd been detained at the iron gates at the base of the drive, more than a quarter mile back until the CBI agent posted there had scrutinized their IDs and waited for permission from someone inside to admit them. That had given her plenty of time to eye the twelve-foot stone walls that surrounded the property. The discreetly placed security cameras that topped them at regular intervals. The matching stone security station in front of the gates was meant to be manned by a live operator, and looked to be equipped with full audio and video feed. Whoever had gotten in and out of the estate undetected wasn't an amateur.
The front door of the home swung open as Raiker was getting out of the vehicle, cane in hand. From the grim-faced visage of the man in the doorway, Macy knew immediately he was another LEO. Which meant he was a CBI agent.
He waited until they'd ascended the stairs to demand their IDs again. It occurred to her that the extra precautions were a bit late. Ellie Mulder was gone.
”Special agent in charge, Cal Whitman, is waiting for you in the study with Mr. Mulder. This way.”
They were led through a marbled floor hallway that was lined with paintings and punctuated with large abstract sculptures. Macy recognized some of the artists, had no doubt the pieces were original. With Mulder's billions, he could afford just about anything. Except the one thing his money apparently couldn't buy.
His daughter's safety.
”Not too shabby,” Kellen said in an undertone as he strolled along at her side, casting an appraising look at the s.p.a.ce. ”What do you figure? Ten million? Fifteen?”
”I wouldn't know.” It was usually best to ignore Burke. But the man made it difficult. Even now she could feel his pale green eyes on her, alight, no doubt, with amus.e.m.e.nt. It always seemed to be the primary emotion she elicited from him.
The hallway seemed endless. They trailed Raiker and the CBI agent who had let them in. ”Pretty easy to get lost in a place this huge,” Burke said, unzipping his navy down jacket and shoving his hands in its pockets. ”How long do you think it would take them to locate us?”
”Why don't you find out?”
He gave her a lazy grin. The prism of lights from the crystals on the overhead chandeliers shot his thick brown hair with reddish glints. She'd bet he'd been auburn haired as a youngster. She could be certain he'd been incorrigible even then.
”If you promise to lead the search and rescue party, I might consider it. I can imagine it now. Me, weak from lack of food, maybe injured. You, bending over me in concern, wiping my brow, the strap of your lacy camisole slipping down one satiny shoulder . . .”
She resisted an urge to smack him, which was the overpowering effect he had on her. ”Why would I lead a search and rescue mission clad in a camisole?”
His smile turned wicked. ”Why indeed?”
”Burke.”
They both jumped at the crack of Raiker's voice. He was several feet ahead of them. They'd been speaking too quietly for him to have heard them. Hadn't they? ”Yeah, boss?”
”Shut up.”
He slid a sideways glance at Macy and winked at her, clearly undeterred. ”Shutting up, boss.”
And those, she considered, as they were ushered into a large dark paneled room, were the most promising words she'd heard all day.
The man who rose to his feet to step toward Raiker, his hand outstretched, was immediately recognizable. Steven Mulder. He hadn't appeared at the Rodriguez trial Macy had testified at, but there'd been plenty of news stories devoted to his family since his daughter's first disappearance. He was prematurely gray, with a long, lean runner's build outfitted in a tailored suit. Its cost likely exceeded two months of her salary. As the two men clapped each other on the shoulder and leaned forward to murmur a few words, her gaze went beyond them to the men still seated behind a long polished conference table. It was easy enough to guess which one was Whitman.
The SAC had a decade on Raiker, she estimated, which would place him in his early to mid-fifties. It was difficult to tell his height while he was sitting, but she'd bet under six foot. He had a shaved head and thick neck. He wore a suit, too, but his was ill-fitting, pulling across his beefy chest and shoulders. His flat brown gaze flicked over them, giving Macy the impression they'd been sized up in the s.p.a.ce of an instant. There was nothing in his expression that gave away his thoughts about their inclusion in this case.
Mulder stepped away from Raiker and inclined his head in the direction of her and Burke. ”Thank you for coming. I have tremendous respect for your boss. He's performed a miracle once.” There was a barely discernible break in his voice. ”I'm hoping he's got another one up his sleeve.”
”Where Raiker is concerned, achieving the impossible is a daily expectation,” Burke a.s.sured him soberly. Macy remained silent. She was always leery about issuing a.s.surances to victim's families. Life didn't always come complete with happy endings.
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