Like all CBI employees, she has a public server and a private server—the private clearly marked so they can exchange sensitive information and case-specific files without worrying about external hacking. The government has no quibble with her going online during work hours, but they frown on mixing the outside world with their internal confidential information. She opens her personal server and pulls up Facebook, logs in under a false name she often uses to look at people’s private accounts. It wouldn’t do to have her real name out there. Hi, I’m with the CBI, wanna be friends? doesn’t always go over well.
Once she’s become Jessica Baker—busty and icy blonde, exactly Juliet’s opposite—she searches Kyle’s name.
She scrolls through several Kyle Noonans, frustrated that none look familiar. But there is an entry for the Douglas County High School Alumni Group. Perfect. His high school is a great jumping off point.
It is an open group, meaning all she has to do is join and then she becomes a part of the page. No one has to approve her. A stroke of luck. Closed groups are harder to infiltrate. Not impossible, but harder.
She searches through the page a bit, doesn’t see him listed. Undeterred, she reads through the page, gets a sense for the language and approach people use when trying to hook up with their long-lost friends, then posts a status update.
JESSICA BAKER: Hey ’87! What’s up? I’m looking for Kyle Noonan. Anyone got the 411 on him?
She feels like an idiot, but it is her only shot.
She stretches again, refills her coffee mug, and sits back down only to see she’s already gotten an answer.
MO CABOT: Hey, weren’t you in Mr. Williamson’s science class? I totally remember you. Looking good!
Oh, no. Has she picked the name of someone already in the group? She does a quick Control-F and searches the name Jessica Baker, finds nothing. Eight Jessicas but no Baker. Two of the Jessicas can be mistaken for her, and since it’s so many years later...married name...
Before she can respond, a few more people pop onto the thread.
OSCAR FIELDING: Hey, Jess, welcome. Noonan, haven’t heard his name in a while. I thought he moved overseas or something. Haven’t seen him around here. What are you up to now?
WILL LINDSY: Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I think Noonan is no longer with us. I remember hearing something about a diving accident years ago.
CAROL CHILDS: That wasn’t Noonan, that was Robert Sanford. Remember?
WILL LINDSY: No, you’re not remembering correctly. Sanford got caught in an avalanche somewhere in the Alps. Remember he was always talking about summiting K2? He died on a climb.
ELIZABETH FLYNN: Man, we’ve lost a lot of friends over the years.
OSCAR FIELDING: I just did a search of the archives we posted in the group section and found this from 2000.
Sad to report the news that Kyle Noonan, class of ’87, died in a scuba accident off the coast of Baja, Mexico. He will be remembered fondly by all who knew him.
Juliet is floored. Kyle, dead? Why hadn’t Lauren told her?
15
Juliet types in another question.
JESSICA BAKER: Who reported that? Do you know?
ELIZABETH FLYNN: I don’t remember you, Jessica. What class were you in again?
JESSICA BAKER: ’87, but I moved right at the beginning of sophomore year. I was going through my yearbook and saw Kyle’s name. I hadn’t talked to him in a long time and wanted to say hi. I can’t believe he’s gone.
ELIZABETH FLYNN: Oh. Yes, it’s very sad.
OSCAR FIELDING: I can’t find who posted this, but I’m sure you’ll be able to Google his obit or something. So where’d you move when you left?
JESSICA BAKER: California. Very different from home. Gotta go, my lunch is over. Thanks for the info you guys. Go Huskies!
She closes the page and sighs. If it’s true, this is terrible news—she doesn’t feel so bad about the loss of Kyle, he was a boozy, arrogant jerk—but the chance to prove to Lauren once and for all Mindy was switched at birth is gone.
She needs confirmation, so moves on to the Mexican newspapers and does a character search for the names Kyle, Noonan, American, drowning, and scuba.
While she finds plenty of entries that match the American, drowning, and scuba entries, they all scratch out the name Kyle Noonan.
Okay, Juliet, think this through.
Kyle Noonan disappeared off the radar in 2000. A snippet on an alumni board claims he’s died. Maybe he’s changed his name. Which isn’t out of bounds, he was a jerk and hadn’t wanted Mindy anyway. A new identity would be a good ruse to avoid paying child support to Lauren.
“What a dick,” she says to herself.
Bai stops a foot from her desk. “I’ll just...go away then.”
“No, no, no, come here. I need you.”
“I need you, too. We got a match on the Crusie case. They want you in the conference room to go over the DNA with the investigators.”
Juliet tucks her hair behind her ears and stands. “Right. While I’m gone, can you do me a favor? Look into a guy named Kyle Noonan. He used to live here in Denver, moved to San Diego circa 2000, and I have an unsubstantiated report he died in Baja, Mexico. He was a lawyer with Spencer Landry. Be discreet, okay?”
“You mean don’t tell anyone what I’m doing?”
“Yes. I mean that exactly.”
Bai gives her a crooked smile. “I always love it when you rebel, Juliet.”
She pulls the Crusie file off her stack. “Yes, well, let’s not get fired over this, okay?”
*
Two hours later, on total meeting fatigue, Juliet staggers back to her office. Bai is gone for the day but has left a note on her desk, folded in thirds, with TOP SECRET written on it in his perfect architectural-plan block lettering.
Mighty subtle there, buddy.
She opens the note.
You know the weirdest people. See your personal email for info.
She practically throws herself at the desk. As she did when she went on Facebook, she switches to her personal server and opens her email. There is a note from Bai.
Looks like your dude is dead. All I could find was this. Sorry. Hope the meeting went well. See you in the morning.
Attached is another obituary report, this time a small news article from the Denver Post. It is dated August 31, 2000. For some reason, she hadn’t been able to find it in her searches.
Kyle Noonan, 32, a Highlands Ranch, Colorado, native, was killed last week in a diving accident off the coast of Baja, Mexico. Noonan, a member of the Colorado and California Bar, was an associate at Spencer Landry in San Diego at the time of his death. Noonan was known for his blustery court appearances. As a public defender, he had a record number of cases seen in the Arapahoe County court system. He went to Douglas County High School in Castle Rock and was briefly married to local artist Lauren Ryder. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Noonan’s
favorite charity.
There is no byline, which means this could have been written by a family member. She wracks her brain, thinking about Kyle’s family. He was an only child, and there was a great-aunt. Juliet remembers Lauren being excited they’d gotten some money when the woman passed away.
She sinks back into the chair. At some point, she is going to have to admit this is a dead end.
Still, she can’t believe Lauren has never seen fit to tell her Kyle is dead. She’s going to have to ask her about it, but at this moment, she is too tired to do anything but go home and crash. No matter what, Kyle is not going to be Mindy’s savior.
She calls her niece’s cell phone but gets voice mail. She debates trying Lauren but decides against it. Lauren will just ignore her anyway. When Lauren gets angry like this, it could be days before she’ll cool off enough to answer a call. Juliet will have to wait until the weekend, when she goes back to Vail, and talk to her then. In person.
Switched at birth.
So where is her real niece?
She has no choice. If they can find Mindy’s birth parents, there will be a better chance of saving her life. She must talk to someone about this, even if it costs her Lauren and Mindy. Mindy’s life is worth more.
Juliet knows there is only one way to investigate without anyone knowing. She picks up her phone and calls Cameron.
“Two calls in a week? Whatever have I done now?”
“I need your help. Some advice. I have a problem.”
“Want to meet for a drink and talk about it?”
“Can I come to your office instead? I need...privacy.”
His tone changes. He must hear the worry in hers. “I’m here. I’ll wait for you. Buzz when you’re at the door.”
“Thanks, Cam.”