John Anson stepped out of the courtroom. “We have one week to find something on this guy, or he’s going to walk.”
“We can make a case about kidnapping—”
“No, we can’t. We don’t even have the alleged victims, do we? And it will be pretty easy for the court to determine that Reid couldn’t have been involved because he was in jail all weekend.”
Catherine said, “My people will follow him. Can you please give me a heads-up when he’s cut loose?”
John nodded. “I’m sorry about Matt and Kara. I hope we find them, but I don’t know how to connect their abduction to Reid. We might think he’s involved and knew about it—an accessory—but it’s going to be damn hard to prove when he only made one call while in custody, and that call was to his lawyer.”
“Do you know anything about Graves?”
“Nothing. He’s a member of the Florida State Bar in good standing, which is all that is required.”
Catherine had already asked Ryder to look into Graves’s background, but she had hoped John had better information.
“What are the next steps?” John asked. “I’m open to any ideas on how we’re going to prove this guy is a killer in the one week we have to do so.”
“Dr. Esteban is working closely with the crime lab and medical examiner,” Catherine said. “His primary focus is to find any trace evidence that will help us determine where Reid kept his victims.”
“And?” John said, making a motion with his hand to hurry up, then pointedly looking at his watch.
Catherine tried not to be irritated at his attitude. “Agent Harris is reinterviewing staff at the resort. We may have found video of the individual who abducted our agents. The lab at Quantico is working on enhancing it and using facial recognition to identify the person of interest.” She paused, said, “It may be a woman. The face is unclear, but the body type suggests female.”
“None of this is going to give us evidence that Reid tortured and killed six people,” John said with growing irritation. “Oneweek—if I don’t have something tangible, Reid walks and it’ll be ten times harder to bring him in if we do find something.”
John walked away and Bianca sighed. “We’re fucked,” she said.
“I need your help,” Catherine said. “My team is going to be laser focused on what Garrett Reid does over the next forty-eight hours. Who he makes contact with, who he talks to. We need a warrant to tap Reid’s phone.” Catherine suspected he had a second phone, likely a burner or under a different name or business, which was how he communicated with his partner.
“I’ll need to talk to my boss. He wants this guy, but he’s going to take a lot of heat for the bail. And John is going to have to get the warrant, which I don’t think will come from this judge.” Bianca gestured with her thumb to the closed courtroom behind them.
“I can have my boss reach out,” Catherine said. She wasn’t sure Tony Greer would be of the right mindset at this point. He kept texting her for updates, but she had none, until now. And it wasn’t good news.
Bianca said, “I’ll talk to John first. I’ll let you know what, if anything, we can do. Bringing in the big guns from the FBI—when the sheriff is already pointing fingers in your direction for the screwup—isn’t going to get anything accomplished.”
“Don’t forget to let me know when he’s leaving and who’s taking him home.”
Bianca gave a quick salute and left. Sloane approached Catherine and said, “I heard.”
“You and Michael will follow Reid. I doubt he’ll drive directly to where Matt and Kara are, but we need eyes on him at all times.”
“Michael finished interviewing staff and is on his way in.”
Catherine glanced around. No one was within earshot, but she kept her voice low. “Whoever took Matt and Kara was very familiar with the resort. He—or she, as Ryder suggests—avoidedmost every camera and when they were in the range of one, they turned away or tilted their head and used the uniform and hat to avoid giving us a good image. They entered through the patio because there are no cameras beachside. There was a risk—someone could have seen them from the beach—but because of the way the cabins are laid out, it would be difficult to know exactly what the person was actually doing.”
“We interviewed staff twice. Reid was never seen with someone who didn’t work there. Oh,” Sloane said, realizing what Catherine was thinking.
“Yes, I think his partner is on staff.”
“And a woman.”
“Possibly, but we can’t state it with certainty.”
“Ryder is positive,” Sloane said. “He isn’t usually so emphatic when he has an opinion. And I see it, too, but don’t know if I see a woman because Ryder put it in my head. I remember the seminar you taught at Quantico last year—that the majority of female partners are subservient to the male partner.”
“I’m not comfortable making that determination yet,” Catherine said cautiously. Was she cautious because she’d been wrong about the partner from the beginning? Or because she didn’t have enough information? “But whether or not the partner is a woman, it makes sense that Garrett Reid recruited from his immediate sphere. Sociopaths recognize sociopaths.”
“If his partner is another employee, wouldn’t that make her easier to identify?” Sloane asked.
