"I don't know exactly. Some kind of gang, maybe." "Shirley told you this?"
"Not in so many words. This is mostly my take on it." "Why did they want to kill a homeless person?"
His expression turned very serious. "There was never a homeless person."
"But what about the recorded phone calls? Surely they must have mentioned the target was a homeless person."
"They did. But it was like a code, you know. The homeless lady. Like Monica Lewinsky referring to Bill Clinton as the big creep."
"Then who was the real target?"
"I don't know for sure."
"Who do you think it was?"
"The woman who turned her in."
"Her mother?"
Kirby nodded. "Her mother."
The wheels were turning. Gangs. Serial killings. Targeted mothers. Missing wives. It wasn't quite as good as Shirley telling him precisely how she knew where Beth was, but it was another promising lead. "This could be very helpful."
Kirby rose. "I aim to please. But if you'll excuse me, I actually have a client to meet at the courthouse in less than five minutes."
"I won't keep you."
Kirby flashed a cheesy smile. "If there's anything else you need," he said as he tapped the pocket that held the check, "I'm sure we can work something out."
He extended his hand. Gus didn't shake it.
"I'll see you around, Kirby." He let himself out and headed down the stairs. As he hurried from the building, the words scum bag came to mind, but he settled on two others.
Stop payment.
He jumped in his car and sped away.
Chapter Forty-Six.
Andie caught an overnight bus back to Seattle and was back in the office on Wednesday in time for an impromptu but important team meeting. So important, in fact, that Isaac Underwood cleared his calendar to attend, along with Lundquist, her supervisor; Haveres, her contact agent; and two other members of the Wheatley kidnapping team. At Isaac's request, Victoria Santos participated by speaker phone from Quantico. Based on the advance briefing Andie had given him by phone, he expected to call on the expertise of a profiler experienced in the ways of New Age cults.
They met in a small, windowless conference room adjacent to the ASAC's office. Isaac made short work of the preliminaries and turned the meeting over to Andie. She quickly summarized the experiences at Second Chance clothing store that had led her to the gathering at Eagle Trace Motel, then spent several more minutes describing the impressive performance of Steven Blechman. She offered to play the videotape she had purchased, but it was too long for this meeting. The real groaning started when she mentioned the weekend retreat she wanted to attend. It was from Lundquist.
"I knew it," he said, shaking his head.
"Knew what?" asked Isaac.
"This is the problem with using inexperienced agents for cameos. We send her out on a three-day assignment, and before her three days are even up she's back asking for an extension. Before we know it, we're into a full-blown undercover operation with no way to pay for it."
Isaac said, "The most this could ever amount to is a Group Two operation with a seventy-thousand-dollar maximum. We don't even need headquarters approval for that."
"We don't even need anywhere near seventy thousand dollars," said Andie.
Isaac hedged, as if he knew how quickly costs mounted. "Let's put the budget aside for now. I want to know what you plan to accomplish and how you plan to do it. You got the floor, Andie. Sell us."
She silently thanked him, then moved the speaker phone closer so Victoria Santos could hear. "None of this makes any sense unless you back up and take a look at a few key facts about Beth Wheatley.
"First, she has some signs of emotional instability. She falsely accused her husband of spouse abuse, she suffered from bulimia, and she was apparently the most wealthy shoplifter in the history of Nordstrom department stores.
"Second, she physically resembles and shares some other personal characteristics with all three women who have fallen victim to our serial killer. But unlike the others, she may be alive. We've never recovered her body, her daughter got the 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' phone call, and Beth's fingerprints were found on the pay phone in Oregon from which that call was made.
"Third, Beth had some connection to the Second Chance clothing store in Yakima. One of her dresses was found. there.
"Put that all together, you're left with an emotionally unstable woman who mysteriously disappeared, who may be alive and held captive by a serial killer, and whose dress is sitting in a thrift shop frequented by members of a New Age cult."
"Andie?" The voice came from the speaker box. It was Victoria.
"Yes?"
"Has anyone checked to see if any of the serial killer's victims had friends or family members who disappeared? By disappear I mean they just ran off and never came back, the way people sometimes do when they join a cult."
Lundquist answered, "That's one of the projects our team is undertaking."