“We’ll find them,” Jim said firmly, as if to convince himself. Then he said to Ryder, “You think it’s a woman.”
“Yes, I do,” Ryder said. He turned back to the computer screen, looked at the frozen image, then restarted the feed so he could go through it yet again.
“What does Catherine say?”
“She hasn’t responded.”
“Well, Michael’s still working with the Jacksonville office, but I talked to him before I came in here. We have a good idea about what happened yesterday.”
Ryder paused the recording again and gave Jim his full attention. “And?”
“Matt and Kara came back from racquetball and had breakfast on their patio, which overlooks the beach. There’s evidence that someone was hiding in the bushes that separated their cottage from the neighbors’. The ground there is a combination of sand, rocks, and soil, so we don’t have footprints, but there were freshly broken branches and the ERT is going over the entire area looking for trace evidence—blood, skin, hair. In your picture, hair was trapped in the ball cap. Still, the suspect could have taken off the cap or dropped a cigarette butt.”
Ryder almost laughed. Highly doubtful, but the point was taken: criminals often left something behind by which they could be identified.
Jim continued. “We found a tranquilizer dart with dried blood on the tip. It’s already on the way to the lab for processing, and since we have both Matt and Kara’s blood types and DNA on file, we should be able to identify it quickly.”
“They were shot with darts? I don’t remember reading that there were any injuries consistent with a tranq on previous victims,” Ryder said.
“Because there was nothing identified in the autopsies. I sent the information to the ME and he’s going to review the reports and photos again, but if they had been shot with a dart, the wound might not have been noticed because of other injuries, time lapse, decomposition. And maybe the suspect used the darts with Matt and Kara because they are trained law enforcement and he didn’t know if they were still checking their food.”
“Or because she’s a woman and might have needed them to remain unconscious for longer,” Ryder guessed.
“Good point,” Jim said.
“How fast would something like that knock them out?”
“Depends. A few seconds to a couple minutes. They’ll test the dart for common sedatives. Could be one of maybe a half dozen—my bet is on ketamine or Telazol, but there are other options. Maybe a combination of drugs, if the shooter knows what they’re doing. The fact that he or she took Matt and Kara gives me some comfort that they’re still alive.”
“And how long would they be unconscious?”
“I couldn’t say.” Jim leaned forward, put his hand on Ryder’s knee. “You listen to me, okay? They’re alive. They’re stashed somewhere to make it seem like Garrett Reid is as innocent as the day he was born, but we know he’s behind it. They will be fine. Wewillfind them.”
Jim sounded confident, but his voice cracked at the end.
“Anyway.” Jim cleared his throat, continued. “There’s a chance we can trace the drugs. Ketamine, not so much—it’s very common—but if it’s a mix or a different drug, we have a chance.”
How long would that take? Ryder wondered. How much time did Matt and Kara have?
Michael walked in, his face rigid and unreadable. “Jacksonville is rushing the labs. We don’t think that our suspect went into their room. Nothing appears to be taken or disturbed, but they printed the place just in case. Two agents went to the restaurant Matt and Kara ate at Saturday night, talked to staff—no one saw anything out of the ordinary, and the manager remembered them because Kara ordered tequila straight up.” Michael’s lips twitched a bit, but he didn’t smile. “They talked to both Uber drivers, neither believed they were followed, and one said Matt talked to him about Miami when he found out the driver grew up in the same neighborhood. Neither driver has a criminal record, and both have family in the area.”
Brian stepped into the crowded room. “Agent Harris, the staff that interacted with your agents yesterday are all waiting outside my office.”
“Thank you,” Michael said to Brian, then turned to Ryder and Jim. “You both good here?”
“I’m heading back to the morgue,” Jim said. “We’re going to take another look at the trace evidence, focusing on anything that may help us narrow down where Reid took his victims.”
“Don’t go anywhere alone,” Michael snapped. “Jacksonville will assign you an agent.”
“Is that necessary?” Jim asked. “I’m not the face of this investigation and I wasn’t involved with the arrest.”
“No exceptions,” Michael said firmly. “Matt would insist, you know that.”
Jim relented. “Fine.”
“I’ll have an agent meet you here and escort you to the morgue,” Michael said. “Are you ready to leave?”
“Yes,” Jim said.
