The Big Bad Wolf

CHAPTER 36

THE NEXT MORNING, just about everybody attached to the White Girl task force

assembled in the main conference hall at Quantico. We hadn’t been told much yet, just that

there was breaking news, which was good; there had already been too much bureaucracy and

wheel spinning for me.

Senior Agent Ned Mahoney, the head of HRT, arrived when the room was already filled. He

walked to the front, turned, and faced us. His intense gray blue eyes went from row to row,

and he seemed more pumped up than usual.

“I have an announcement. Good news for a change,” Mahoney said. “There’s been a

significant break. Word just came down from Washington.” Mahoney paused, then he

continued. “Since Monday, agents from our office in Newark have been monitoring a suspect

named Rafe Farley. The suspect is a repeat sex offender. He did four years in Rahway Prison

for breaking into a woman’s apartment, beating and raping her. At the time, Farley claimed

that the victim was a girlfriend from where he worked. What alerted us to Farley is that he

went into an Internet chat room and had a lot to say about Mrs. Audrey Meek. Too much.

He knew details about Mrs. Meek, including facts about her family in the Princeton area, her

house there, even the physical layout inside.

“The suspect also knew precisely how and when Mrs. Meek was abducted at the King of

Prussia Mall. He knew that her car was used, what kind of car it was, and that the children

were left behind.

“In a subsequent visit to the chat room, Farley provided special details that even we don’t

have. He claimed that she was knocked out with a special drug and then taken to a wooded

area in New Jersey. He left it vague whether Audrey Meek is alive or dead.

“Unfortunately the suspect hasn’t gone to visit Mrs. Meek during the period we’ve been

watching him. It’s been nearly three days. We believe it’s possible he may have spotted the

surveillance. It is our decision, and the director concurs, that we take Farley down.

“HRT is already on the scene in North Vineland, New Jersey, assisting the local ?ld office and

the police. We’re going in this morning, probably within the hour. Score one for the good

guys,” said Mahoney. “Congratulations to everyone involved at this end.”



I sat in my seat and applauded with the others, but I had a funny feeling too. I hadn’t been

involved or even known about Farley or the surveillance on him. I was out of the loop, and I

hadn’t felt like this for over a dozen years, not since I started with the police department in D.C.