Chapter 4
Tony Greer walked into the conference room less than ninety minutes after Ryder learned that Matt and Kara were missing. Tony
was in his early fifties, of average height with the lean body of a lifetime runner. His steel-blue eyes looked around the
room as he demanded, “Where are we in locating my agents?”
Ryder and Michael were the only people in the room.
Ryder said, “We’ve retraced their steps up until late Sunday morning.” He crossed to the whiteboard and quickly ran through
the details. He hadn’t expected Tony to show up in person; he’d been prepping for a video conference. But he was ready, anxious
to get this over with because he had all of them booked on a flight that left in less than ninety minutes.
“Matt and Kara were at the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department Saturday morning from 8:00 a.m. until 3:45 p.m., except for a two-hour window where Kara joined Detective Fuentes to do a second search of Reid’s known apartment and vehicle.
Michael and Sloane were there until they left for the airport at noon.
Matt and Kara arrived back at the resort at 4:10 p.m. They left at 6:20 p.m. for dinner off-site, taking an Uber to and from a restaurant in Ormond Beach approximately twelve minutes south.
They returned to the resort at 9:30 p.m.
“At 8:30 Sunday morning they left their room and went to the gym,” Ryder continued, “where they worked out then played three
sets of racquetball, arriving back at their room at 10:50. They ordered room service at 11:10, which was delivered at 11:35
a.m. and signed for by Matt.”
“And?” Tony said. “No one has seen them since eleven thirty yesterday morning? Nearly twenty-four hours?”
“Brian Valdez, the security chief, is in the process of interviewing every staff member who interacted with Matt or Kara.
Housekeeping came at one that afternoon but there was a Do Not Disturb sign and they didn’t enter. When the security chief
bypassed the lock this morning, their weapons, credentials, and luggage were present. Flagler Sheriff’s Department is checking
the restaurant they ate at Saturday evening and will grab the security footage.”
“They can’t just have disappeared,” Tony said. “Theories.”
Michael said, “Our best guess is Garrett Reid has a friend who is trying to help him by making it seem like he’s innocent.”
“That’s fucking ridiculous,” Tony said.
Catherine walked into the room. “I don’t know what happened, but whoever took Matt and Kara had a very small window to do
so. Sloane just spoke with the head of housekeeping. They didn’t enter the room, but while servicing the cottage next door
shortly after 1:00 p.m., they spotted trays outside on the patio of cottage 14. They collected them and cleaned up. However,
they are holding the room so we can search ourselves.”
“Security footage?”
“Valdez is reviewing it now,” Ryder said. “If he sees something, he’ll call. I have reservations for the team to go down in—”
he looked at his watch “—seventy-five minutes.”
“By the time you land, I want answers,” Tony said.
“We’ll do our best, Tony,” Catherine said, “but we have another issue.”
“Nothing takes precedence over finding Matt and Kara,” Tony said.
“The case against Reid is falling apart.”
“How?”
“Flagler County has found nothing to tie him to the first six homicides. He fits the profile,” Catherine added quickly, “all
the way down. Single, thirty, Caucasian, attractive, nonthreatening, intelligent but working in a menial job which gave him
access to the victims. The lawyer is going to ask to release him on a low bond, and we need to keep him in jail. If he called
on someone to help make it look like he’s innocent, they could be holding Matt and Kara until he’s released, and then—well.”
She cleared her throat nervously.
No one wanted to think what Reid would do to them when he got out.
“If he’s released, we stick to him like glue. Work with the local jurisdiction, but if we have to take this case, we will,
understand?”
Ryder had never seen Tony so angry or worried. Tony and Matt had been friends longer than Tony had been his supervisor.
Ryder glanced at his phone, then said, “Our ride to the airport is here.”
“Zack will be back tonight, he’ll work from here unless you need him in Florida,” Tony said. “You also have full access to
my staff—they will get you anything you need.” He looked at Catherine. “Does he have a partner?”
Catherine blanched. “I—I don’t think so. Nothing has suggested that two people were involved in the abductions or murders.
It would be unusual, but not impossible.”
“It’s one thing to help a friend out of a jam,” Tony said, “it’s another to kidnap a federal agent to get a friend out of
a jam. Unless you’ve been involved from the beginning.”
Catherine looked like she hadn’t even considered the idea. “I’ll review all of the files again on the plane.”
“You’re going?” Tony was as surprised as Ryder. Catherine rarely joined them in the field, preferring to work out of the office.
“It’s my profile that gave Flagler County the idea for the undercover operation, and my profile that netted us Garrett Reid.
If I’m wrong, or partly wrong, then I need to be there to watch and assess him.”
“Keep me informed every step of the way,” Tony said. “I’ve already talked to the SAC in Jacksonville, and he’ll have agents
at our disposal when and if we need them. I’ll contact them now to send an evidence response team to process the room. If
there is any trace evidence, they’ll find it.” He looked from Ryder to Michael to Catherine. “Find them, whatever it takes.”
He turned and walked out.
Partner. Garrett Reid has a partner, Ryder thought.
“There are no signs that Reid worked with anyone,” Catherine said as if reading Ryder’s mind.
“Meet out front in ten minutes,” Ryder said. He left the conference room and went to his office, closed his door.
A partner. That made sense. Matt and Kara were caught off guard. Hard to do, but not impossible.
Guilt ate at him. He’d convinced Matt to stay for the weekend. Maybe he hadn’t needed a lot of convincing, but it had been
Ryder’s idea and Matt ran with it. Otherwise, they would have flown back Saturday after meeting with Detective Fuentes and
the DA in the morning.
Ryder called Brian Valdez. “My team is coming down. We’ll be there in three and a half hours. The Jacksonville FBI office
may arrive before us—please allow them to search the room.”
“I’ll get a couple rooms ready for your team. I haven’t even cleared out the conference room you were using because the deputies
were here all weekend.”
“I appreciate it.”
“I may have found something,” Brian said. “At 11:57 a.m., an individual we can’t identify wearing a maintenance uniform with
a baseball cap is seen pushing a laundry bin down a path near Agent Costa’s room. The cottages don’t have cameras nearby,
but the path leading from the main hotel to the outlying cottages has some coverage. He is spotted on two of them, then disappears.
I’m checking parking lots for additional footage, but haven’t found anything yet.”
“Email me what you have,” Ryder said. “Thank you.”
Ryder hung up. Catherine was standing in his doorway.
“Learn something?” Catherine asked.
Ryder told her what Valdez discovered.
“We need that footage,” Catherine said. “We can enhance it, run it through facial recognition—maybe we’ll recognize the individual.”
“He’s sending it to me and looking for more,” Ryder said, “but there are no frontal shots.”
“I still want to see it,” she said. “There’s a chance that someone Matt investigated is behind this, and it has nothing to
do with Garrett Reid.”
“That seems unlikely,” Ryder said, then regretted it. He was an analyst, not an FBI agent.
Catherine said, “Perhaps, but I’m not ready to change my profile, not yet. I haven’t been this wrong before, at least since . . .”
She stopped herself.
Ryder raised an eyebrow. Though he had never discussed Catherine’s background with her or anyone else, he knew the big picture.
Two years ago her sister had been killed by a man obsessed with Catherine, and Catherine’s profile about her stalker had been off.
She had determined that he wasn’t violent.
She blamed herself, and then Matt. After a sabbatical, she seemed to be doing better, but Ryder knew how old traumas could return to wreak havoc in your life when you least expected it.
He wondered if it was wise to have Catherine join them in Florida, but it wasn’t his call to make.
Ryder glanced at his computer when a message popped up, reminding him that their driver had been waiting for ten minutes.
He forwarded it to the team, then said to Catherine, “Our driver is here. We’ll meet at the portico.”
“Thank you. I’ll tell the others.”
“I’ve already messaged them,” he said.
She gave him a wan smile. “Of course you did. I’ll get my head together. I’m just worried about Matt.”
“And Kara,” he said pointedly.
“Of course,” she said.
She left and Ryder pulled together the rest of his things. He checked his sidearm and extra clips, then secured them in the
bag he would check. Though he was an analyst, Matt insisted that he carry while in the field. That meant Ryder qualified at
the range just like a sworn agent.
The email from Valdez came in a minute later. Ryder texted the driver that he would be a few minutes, then sat down to watch
the footage he’d sent. There wasn’t much to go on. He’d study it more carefully on the plane. But he sent it to his contact
at the computer lab with a note that this was the individual suspected of kidnapping Costa and Quinn and asking if he could
enhance the video as soon as possible.
They needed a direction. But the best source of information was Garrett Reid, and he had no reason to talk to them. If he
spoke, he would be incriminating himself.
But they had to try.