“Or gossip,” I add.
“You know I hate that word.”
“Just because you hate it doesn’t mean it can’t be useful.” I happen to glance across the desk to where our resident hacker is hunched over his keyboard. “Teddy? You’re blushing.”
“I, um, already contacted a few of her neighbors on Facebook,” he admits. “As if I was, um, trying to reconnect with my cousin, Kathleen.”
If he’s been expecting disapproval, he’s wrong.
“Excellent ploy!” Naomi leans forward, elbows precisely planted on a foam mat situated on the glass surface of her desk. “What did they say?”
He shrugs. “Not much, really. Expressions of sympathy, but I got the impression Mrs. Mancero made people uncomfortable just by being there. She left Olathe about a month ago, supposedly to care for a sick relative, and it’s like nobody is exactly eager to have her back.” Teddy appears flustered, as well as embarrassed. “I don’t get it. It’s like she has an infectious disease or something.”
“In a way she does,” Naomi says. “She’s a reminder that bad things, unimaginable things, can happen to ordinary people. Sometimes, in some cases, a kind of shunning occurs, intentional or otherwise. In this instance the victim may have made it worse by being so openly disturbed, by showing and sharing her pain. It’s similar to social reactions experienced by individuals with terminal disease. Healthy people don’t want to be reminded that death is always around the corner, and find ways to avoid meaningful contact. An ugly and often cruel reaction but, alas, very human.”
“Same thing happens on a football field when a player get injured,” says Jack. “Nobody wants to look at the injured guy, or talk to him, like it might be catching.”
Naomi, who normally loathes sports analogies, does not object. She’s more interested in the timing. “For purposes of this investigation let’s work from the assumption that Kathleen Mancero was somehow drawn into this case by subterfuge. Her connection to Shane is clear, and very public. There are two possible explanations. Either Randall Shane is himself involved in the kidnapping of Joey Keener and involved Mrs. Mancero as an accomplice, or he has very powerful enemies who went to great lengths to link him to this case. Any thoughts?”
“No way Shane is a kidnapper or a killer. Cross it off the list,” Jack says adamantly.
“I tend to agree,” Naomi says. “Shane as villain has always been a low probability. At this point we’ll proceed on the theory that Shane has a powerful enemy, one willing and able to frame him as a kidnapper/killer. Our task is to identify this enemy and that will lead us to the boy, if he still lives. Are we in agreement?”
We all agree.
Naomi says, “Teddy, Jack, we need to go deeper into Shane’s past. A client who holds him responsible for a child’s death, or his failure to solve a case. Someone in a high government position who feels threatened by him. A friend who believes himself or herself betrayed. Someone who hates him enough to take great risks. Someone with power enough to do the types of things we’ve been witness to of late.”
Teddy hunches over his keyboard, fingers flying.
Jack closes his notebook, and prepares to leave the command center, cell in hand. He pauses, gives boss lady a sideways look. “On the subject of enemies in high places, have we been swept recently?” he asks, holding up his phone.
Naomi cocks an eyebrow. “This morning, as a matter of fact. Just as a precaution.”
“And?”
“As expected, your pals in the helicopter left a few presents behind. Also as expected, none of the devices were able to broadcast. Bear in mind that cell phone calls originating outside of the residence have no such expectation of privacy.”
“Big bro could be listening.”
“Always best to proceed under that assumption.”
Which makes me feel all warm and virtuous for having taken such precautions in the last few hours while out in the field, acting like a real investigator. Shaking tails, locating lost laptops, helping to break the case wide open. Until, moments later, I realize that unlike Teddy and Jack, I haven’t been given an assignment.
“Hey,” I say. “What about me?”
“Case notes,” boss lady says, without hesitation. “Bring the timeline up to date. It’s crucial that at this juncture we remain organized and coherent in our purpose.”
“So you want me to be a secretary,” I say, not sure whether to be indignant, insulted or disappointed, or a combination of all three.
“Recording secretary and chief factotum,” Naomi says with the hint of a smile. “None better. Now get to work.”
Chapter Thirty
Avoiding the Abyss
The Murder of Joseph Vincent Keener,
Ph.D. Investigation Timeline, updated:
DAY ONE
5:15 AM (approx.) Distress call
5:30 AM (approx.) Shane arrives Keener residence
5:35 AM (approx.) State police alerted
5:42 AM (exact) 911
5:57 AM (exact) Shane calls Jack
7:00 AM (approx.) Rendezvous warehouse
8:25 AM (approx.) Rendezvous Nantz residence
8:55 AM (exact) Smash & grab
9:10 AM (approx.) INVESTIGATION BEGINS
Staff: Naomi, Alice, Teddy
Operatives: Jack, Dane, Milton
DAY TWO
9:05 AM (exact) Milton enters QuantaGate
9:26 AM (exact) Teddy monitors QG interoffice system
10:05 AM (approx.) Alice confirms existence of missing child
10:20 AM (approx.) Jack interviews Jonny Bing
11:55 AM (exact) Dane confers with Monica Bevins, FBI
7:00 PM (approx.) Milton reports
9:40 PM (approx.) Jack interviewed re Jonny Bing murder
DAY THREE
8:46 AM (exact) Randall Shane admitted to Mass General
9:27 AM (exact) Shane reveals name of missing child
1:10 PM (approx.) Shane reports seeing video of boy on bridge
2:40 PM (approx.) Alice interviews Clare O’Malley at MIT, establishes backstory re mother & child
DAY FOUR
9:05 AM (approx.) FBI AD Monica Bevins visits Shane at MGH
12:10 PM (approx.) Shane tells Dane missing laptop location
12:45 PM (approx.) Alice reports to MGH, confers with Dane (see above)
1:40 PM (approx.) Alice & Teddy shake tail, assumed to be FBI
2:16 PM (exact) Jack recovers missing laptop
3:50 PM (approx.) Teddy ID’s mystery woman, Kathleen Mancero
4:15 PM (approx.) Operatives given assignments
4:16 PM (exact) Alice miffed, compiles boring timeline
Okay, maybe not so boring. And laid out like that, hour for hour, it does give me a much clearer picture of what has transpired since the case first began, and where the ongoing investigation has taken us. At a glance, the most important break in the case by far is the identification of Kathleen Mancero. As Naomi was quick to point out, that’s a game changer. Establishing a connection between Randall Shane and a woman involved in an abduction means one of two things. Either the legendary kid finder is up to his neck in a murder/kidnapping—guilty as sin itself—or he’s an innocent victim with a very powerful enemy who wants to destroy everything he stands for.
“We don’t know if this enemy is also responsible for Professor Keener’s murder, or if he simply seized on the opportunity to do Shane further harm,” Naomi says as she looks over the updated timeline. “We don’t know if those who interrogated Shane were involved in the assassination, or if they were simply doing what covert agencies do, investigating a possible security breach. Much is yet to be determined.”