“I'm on it,” Neil replied. He tapped on the keys for a few moments, then held one finger pointed up toward the sky. “Bingo! Duane Harris, arrested about two months ago, prosecutors say he's looking at sixty years. And get this, local newspaper made a big issue over a Holy Death shrine in his living room when he was arrested. Apparently the local churches are throwing real fits about this cult coming into their city.”
Noah nodded. “Sounds like our patsy,” he said. He turned and looked at Moose, who was repotting flowers into the new pots the printer was turning out. Neil had found several flowerpot designs already loaded into the printer's database, and Noah had shown Moose how to program the detonators. Noah watched him for a moment, then turned to Neil again. “Let's stop at about a dozen floral arrangements, then get busy on the shrine. I think a life-size one might be a bit too grandiose, and probably pretty expensive for your average drug dealer. Let's go for one about four or five feet tall, one that looks like it had some effort put into it, but isn't quite perfect.”
“Making the skeleton isn't the problem,” Neil said. “I found a design in the 3-D image database that's built into the printer controller, and I can make it as big or small as we want. The real issue is going to be the way it's dressed. They dress them in different colors for different things they're praying for, but we have to make sure it looks realistic to one of the devoted followers of the cult.”
“Right,” Sarah said. “The question is, what color would she be wearing for a family crisis? I mean, you want to get the whole family together to pray to this thing, right?”
“Yes, but you're getting ahead of yourself,” Noah said. “We don't need to worry about how she would be dressed for that. We just need to think about how she would be dressed when she gets delivered. What would be the most common color for her to wear?”
“White,” Moose said from where he was working. “I got curious about it, too, so I googled it. When they're asking for something, they usually put her in white.”
“Okay, then the next question is where do we get something appropriate to dress it in. Any suggestions?”
“That's easy,” Sarah said. “You want white? Get a wedding dress. You can probably find one small enough for what you want in a costume shop. Order it online and pay for overnight shipping, you'd have it tomorrow.”
Neil opened another browser and started tapping on the keyboard. “She's right, there's plenty of them. White satin, complete with veil and everything.”
Noah leaned forward and looked at the picture on the monitor. “If you think it'll work, go ahead and order it. Get it here by tomorrow if you can, so we can start getting this put together.”
Neil put in the order while Sarah went to help Moose with the flowerpots. As soon as she was out of earshot, Noah leaned close to Neil again.
“So, what have you learned about the nanny?”
Neil turned to face him with a grimace. “Unfortunately, not a lot so far. I'm keeping an eye on the security cameras, trying to get an idea of when she might leave the house with the kids. No luck so far. You would have thought the DEA might have paid attention to little details like that, but no, they couldn't be bothered.”
“Keep watching. We want to give them all something to get together about, and I can't think of anything more likely to do it than for those two kids to get snatched. We get them out of harm's way and force a gathering of the cartel members in town in a single shot. I think it's our best move.”
“Yeah,” Neil said, nodding his head. “Just hope your girlfriend is up for it. She seemed pretty upset when the Dragon Lady mentioned those two little ones.”
“That's because she wasn't sure whether I'd actually kill them or not,” Noah said. “She doesn't want them to get hurt, of course, so she knows this is the best way to handle it. Don't worry about her, she'll do what I need her to do.”
He got up and walked over to look at the floral arrangements that were coming together. Moose had been smart enough to buy extra accessories, like ribbons and little plastic sticks that hold a card, as well as a selection of cards themselves. Noah's plan was to deliver the Santa Muerte shrine as soon as possible, and then abduct Alejandra Gomez’s two toddlers the next day. The cartel members would almost certainly think it was related to their drug business, so it was a safe bet that they would not approach the police for help. They would be far more likely to try to find the perpetrators on their own so that they could deliver their own brand of justice. For that reason, they would gather both to talk about the problem and to pray for the children’s safe return. He was betting that they would gather at the new, bigger shrine.