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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Matthew
Matthew was back at headquarters when Andy Fraser called to let him know that Grace was safe. Matthew wanted details, but Andy ended the call quickly. He needed to be with his family. Presumably Grace had done exactly as Jeremiah Lambe had predicted and ditched school for a few hours to get away from the pressure. Matthew felt almost weighed down by relief that Grace Fraser was home and safe with her family, where she belonged. Sarah Jane was still at the school. He called her and asked her to come back in. After that he called his prosecutor friend to talk through a possible warrant application for the Jordans’ home in Waitsfield.
“You don’t have enough,” his friend said, bluntly. “Rory Jordan is connected. He has the best law firm in the state on retainer. The K-9 alert is a start, but you need something more.”
Matthew went to buy a sandwich. He needed time to cool his head and think things through after the chaos of the day so far. Also, he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. He bumped into Kim Allen at the café and they walked back together.
“How’s Naomi?” she asked.
“Well, thank you,” he said.
“You’ve got John Reid’s girl running around for you on your case. How’s she doing?”
“Good work, so far. She’s keen and she’s smart. No complaints.”
Kim nodded. They walked on. It was getting late and the temperature was dropping. The sun went down early at that time of year.
“You’ve worked with her?” Matthew asked.
“Some,” Kim said. She gave him a sideways glance. “Pretty girl, but she’s all about the work. Josh Heard, Dave Beecham, and Anna Arlidge all asked her out and got turned down.”
“Beecham asked her out?” Matthew shook his head. That sad son of a bitch. Sarah Jane couldn’t be much more than twenty-three or twenty-four and Beecham was in his forties. Also, married with three kids.
“Shouldn’t be a surprise. Man’s a dog.”
Inside, Sarah Jane was waiting for him. Her head lifted as soon as he came into the room. She gave him just enough time to get settled, then came over to his desk.
“Uh, the security tapes from the bar in Boston have just arrived.”
They watched the recordings in an interview room. The caller who’d reported seeing Nina in the bar had been very clear about the timing. He’d said he’d spotted her at 10:15 P.M. exactly, and he knew that because he’d seen her just before he’d left the bar, and after that he’d called a cab and he had a record of that call on his phone. Matthew and Sarah Jane fast-forwarded to 10:00 P.M. and watched every minute up to 10:30. Matthew paused the recording and sat back.
“I don’t see her.”
There wasn’t any doubt. It wasn’t like the bar was packed. There was one possibility. A girl sitting in the corner with friends. She’d come to the bar to order drinks just before 10:00 P.M., and she matched Nina’s general description—tall, with long dark hair—but only in the most general terms. The camera caught her very clearly when she came to the bar. She had smaller eyes and a longer nose, not to mention a large shoulder tattoo that peeked out from her tank top. Nina had no tattoos.
“Do you think he got the time wrong?” Sarah Jane asked.
“It’s possible.”
They rewound the recording and watched it at triple speed from 9:00 P.M. right up until closing.
“She’s not there,” Sarah Jane said.
“Nope.”
“But what about the other caller? The woman who said she saw Nina buying drugs around the corner from this place?”
“We still need to check that out.”
“It seems like a weird coincidence.”
“Might not be a coincidence.”
Sarah Jane turned to look at him, a question in her eyes.
“The guy who called us about seeing Nina at the bar, did he also post about it online? I worked a case once where we got four sightings of a missing girl, all from different callers, all for the same city block in Burlington. We were sure we were onto something. Turned out the first caller had made a genuine mistake. He really thought he saw our girl. But after he called us to tell us, he went online to tell the world. Which brought some crazies out of the woodwork. The other three calls were all copycats. Attention seekers.”
