Page 53 of Tiger on the Prowl

An instant later, the list filled the monitor on the wall.

“Okay,” Jay said, “Ace, take line one, Yankee three, Phoebe seven, Lilly ten, Olivia eleven, I’ll take thirteen. Start with social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, whatever you can find. And if you can’t find any information on your target, hand the name over to Michelle or Fox, and they’ll hack the appropriate DMVs to get the driver’s licenses.”

They got to work. Some people were easier to find and eliminate, mostly the younger ones. They had Instagram accounts and tweeted, and even posted pictures of the wedding on their social media accounts, making it even easier to eliminate them. The older men were a little harder to find. Only a few had Facebook accounts, and very few posted photos, though some of them could be eliminated by their wives’ social media accounts. The men with rather common first and last names were the hardest to identify, guests like Mark Jennings for example. There were dozens of Facebook accounts under that name. Even narrowing down the hits by location didn’t help much, since many Facebook users didn’t disclose where they lived. Those were the names Fox and Michelle spent their time on getting information via the DMV or other governmental agencies.

Within five hours, they’d whittled down the list to a handful of names.

Jay exchanged a concerned look with Ace. “It’s not looking good.”

Two more names were crossed off the list, and Olivia looked at them, just as disappointed, while Fox and Michelle were working on the last two remaining names.

They too turned away from their computers a minute later and shook their heads.

“Those two are clear too,” Michelle said. “Sorry.”

“How can that be?” Jay said, rubbing his nape. “He was clearly at the wedding. He wasn’t a waiter, and he was around when the group photo was taken, but was smart enough to turn away.”

“Do you think he crashed the wedding?” Yankee asked.

“To what purpose?” Jay shook his head. “No, he must have been invited.”

“Then why didn’t he show up on the list?” Ace asked. “He must have come with somebody, right?”

Olivia suddenly gasped. “That’s it. He came with somebody who was invited. He was a plus one.” She started to tap on her keyboard and sorted the list in a different way. “There.” She pointed to the screen. “Three guests, all women, accepted the invitation and confirmed that they were bringing a date, but they didn’t give their date’s name. Smith must be one of these dates.”

“Brilliant!” Jay said and pressed a kiss to Olivia’s cheek. “Do you recognize any of the names, Olivia?”

She looked at the list again. “Yes, Evelyn Treadstone is Timothy’s mother. She’s divorced from Timothy’s father, and she hasn’t remarried. She’s using her maiden name again. And this one, Mercedes Bosch, I remember her name because it was so unusual, you know, two German brand names. She’s some relative from the Midwest, she’s in her fifties or sixties for sure, and she brought a young guy. He looked like a gigolo. I remember because my sister made a comment that she was the black sheep of Timothy’s family.”

“And the third woman?” Jay asked.

“Jane Karlinski? No idea, sorry.”

“Okay,” Fox said, “I’ll take her. Michelle, take Timothy’s mother and find out who she’s dating.”

They all watched Fox and Michelle do what they did best, scour the internet for information, and hack into government servers.

Fox was the first to report what he’d found. “Jane Karlinski was accompanied by William Karlinski, her seventy-year-old father. He’s not Smith.”

Jay sighed, holding out hope that Michelle would have better luck.

“You guys are staring holes into my back,” Michelle said without looking over her shoulder.

It took a few more minutes, during which nobody spoke, until Michelle finally turned around.

“May I present, Evelyn Treadstone’s date. She only refers to him as John.”

Jay stared at the monitor. Michelle had found a snapshot of Evelyn Treadstone dancing with Smith.

“So you think his name is actually John Smith? There must be thousands of men named John Smith,” Olivia said in disbelief.

“It’s not his real name,” Michelle said. “When I met him in that parking garage where he gave me instructions to hunt the person hacking into the CIA’s servers, I asked him who he was. And he said, and I quote how about Smith? His first name may well be John. But since his date doesn’t mention his last name anywhere, nor does she tag him in her post, we can’t be sure of his real name.”

“So we’re at a dead end?” Olivia asked.

“No,” Jay answered immediately. “If he’s dating Timothy’s mother, we can put surveillance on her. Eventually she’ll meet up with him, and then we can follow him and see where he leads us.”

Ace nodded. “Let’s tap her phone, and set up a camera outside her home to record him and his car if he’s showing up there. Fox?”

“No problem. I’ll get the phone surveillance started.”

“Yankee and I can install the camera tonight,” Jay said.

“Okay, we’ve got a plan,” Ace said. “Let’s get that bastard.”