Chapter 21
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“As Patterson says, it’s a whole ’nuther level of theft. The scope of it is mindboggling, when you think about it,” Flint replied.
After a moment, Patterson asked, “How long does she claim she’s been living like that?”
“A few months.”
“And she wouldn’t tell you who she really is?”
“No. But while we talked, she slipped twice. She said she was headed to Langford from Europe and her friend Theresa Moreno lived there. Could have been misdirection, since we all know Moreno is dead.” Scarlett glanced around the table.
“I’ve been working on this since you all left and I think she’s Nancy Keane. ”
Patterson stared. “Nancy Keane is dead. She was on that Gulfstream.”
“Was she?” Flint said. “That plane exploded into so many pieces the bodies will never be found. The wreckage, to the extent any of it is identifiable, sunk into the Pacific. And the NTSB has other priorities. The Pacific is a vast ocean that hides many bodies. They never found Amelia Earhart. Why would that Gulfstream be different?”
“So she could be alive,” Patterson said, nodding slowly as he accepted the suggestion.
“Since Gaspar was busy with you for the past few hours, I did some digging,” Scarlett said.
“Nancy Keane’s online footprint still exists before the Gulfstream explosion.
I verified that someone using her identity was in that clinic in Europe for surgery at the time of the explosion.
After that, no records of any kind. The timing fits Oakley’s story. ”
“The records are probably not forged. That’s not how a forger works,” Drake pointed out. “Forgers create fake documents. Someone could have impersonated Nancy Keane on the Europe trip. But deleting federal and state databases, not to mention private industry records? Not hardly.”
“Gaspar could do it,” Flint said. “He’s got the right mix of expertise and operational knowledge of federal databases. These thieves need that level of skills to pull something like that off. Narrows the options.”
Patterson was the only one at the table with law enforcement experience and he’d grasped the situation. “What about the DNA? We can test Oakley. Compare her DNA to Nancy Keane, if she’s in a database anywhere. Confirm or reject the ID.”
“I did that. Oakley offered the DNA. I took a cheek swab and put it in my reader,” Scarlett said. “It came back no match anywhere in official databases. Now that Gaspar’s available, I’ve asked him to check the public sites. We could get a hit or, more likely, a genetic DNA hit from a relative.”
Patterson nodded. “We’ve had good luck with that in cold cases. Family members who voluntarily submit their DNA can sometimes be traced back to the subject.”
“What else do you have?” Flint asked, pushing Scarlett to lay more cards on the table.
“A separate thread or maybe a connection. I’m not sure yet, which is why I didn’t bring it up.
” She flashed him a quick frown before deciding not to argue.
“A woman I knew years ago died in West Texas. There’s a death certificate.
Earlier today, I checked with the hospital where her autopsy was performed.
They still have frozen tissue samples. They agreed to run the DNA on those samples. ”
“Good thinking,” Flint said.
“Why?” Drake asked. “I don’t get it. What does a dead woman in West Texas have to do with Nancy Keane?”
“Maybe nothing.” Scarlett took a deep breath. “But it gives us an excuse to ask questions.”
“Questions about what?” Drake asked.
“Nancy’s maiden name was Bishop. My background check on Nancy Bishop Keane showed she was also a patient in that El Paso hospital. When I go down there and poke around, I may find something useful,” Scarlett explained. It sounded thin, even to her. But she wasn’t ready to say more just yet.
“So you think Oakley is Nancy Keane.” Patterson looked at Scarlett and then Flint. “And you want to follow that lead because you think the same people who stole Oakley’s identity might also have something to do with what happened to Kyle?”
Flint didn’t answer immediately. He pulled the digital photo frame closer and turned it on. The pictures cycled. Craig and Nancy Keane on a beach. Craig at his desk. Nancy in a garden.
“Possibly. I’m assuming Kyle could have been wrong about Craig Keane’s identity but close enough that someone was worried he’d stumble onto the truth,” Flint said.
“Tell me what you think first. You and Kyle were on Quinn for ten years. What’s your best theory for how he managed to stay off the radar that long? ”
Patterson rubbed his neck. He looked tired in a way Scarlett hadn’t seen earlier. The day had been long, but this weariness was different. He blew out a long stream of frustration before he answered. “WITSEC.”
“Witness Protection?” Drake asked. “Federal or state of Indiana? Why would they offer WITSEC to a guy responsible for selling deadly drugs to school kids? That’s depraved.”
“Unless they needed something from Quinn and putting him in WITSEC was the only way to get it,” Flint replied. “That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?”
Scarlett had come to the same conclusion as Flint and Patterson, but she listened while Patterson laid it out.
“Quinn was a middle-school teacher. He didn’t manufacture drugs. He got the pills from somebody, and whoever sold to him had a supplier, and that supplier had a supplier,” Patterson said. “And that means many more children at risk than the three Quinn killed in Carterville.”
“Which explains why that chain runs back to people the federal and state government would trade plenty to get,” Drake nodded. “No wonder Kyle was so determined to find that guy. Any father would be.”
Patterson looked at the photograph of Keane on the sidewalk. “If Quinn gave them his supply chain and agreed to testify, and the source was big enough, they could have put him in WITSEC. Rebuilt his identity. Set him up somewhere quiet. Told him never to contact anyone from his old life.”
“It fits Keane perfectly. Small-business man in a quiet Texas town. Kept a low profile. Married a local woman. Never came back to Indiana. Stayed out of the news. That’s exactly what a protected witness would do.” Patterson’s voice had gone flat.
“Explains why Kyle couldn’t find him for ten years. He was chasing a man the government was actively hiding, putting all their resources behind it,” Flint said.
“Which is also why I’ve been telling myself for months that Kyle may have walked into something he was never going to walk out of, even if he was right about Quinn. Federal witness protection isn’t something you destroy without consequences,” Patterson said.
Scarlett understood Patterson’s worries. He’d developed a theory that almost let him accept his brother’s death. He’d been a cop. He knew about plea bargains and deals with scumbag killers. WITSEC made Quinn’s disappearance before justice could be done almost tolerable.
Quinn vanishing through WITSEC was realistic and painful but understandable. The greater good and all the rest. A retired cop could live with a story like that even if a grieving father could not.
“Solid theory,” Flint said. “It supports how Quinn became Keane and Kyle’s ten years with no real progress trying to find him.”
Scarlett said, “If Kyle’s search alerted Quinn’s suppliers, it’s likely they would have come after Keane, too.”
“And Kyle could have been caught in the fallout,” Patterson finished the thought. “But none of this fits Nancy Keane into the puzzle. Quinn wasn’t married when he lived in Carterville. He married Nancy sometime later. Quinn’s enemies might have killed Keane, but why kill his wife?”
“I don’t know. More importantly for our purposes, Quinn’s enemies didn’t kill Nancy Keane, if I’m right,” Scarlett said.
“They might have tried but failed. But the theft of her identity and the timing of it coinciding with the Gulfstream explosion suggests a connection between what happened to her and what happened to her husband.”
“Or WITSEC staged the Gulfstream,” Drake said. “If Kyle’s pursuit blew Keane’s cover, WITSEC could have faked Keane’s death to extract him. Bomb, no bodies, passenger list reconstructed after the fact. Move him to a new identity in a new place.”
“What about Nancy Keane then?” Patterson asked.
“Maybe they erased Nancy because they planned to reunite her with her husband and she flipped out before they found her. She says someone’s after her.
Could be them. That’s all within what WITSEC can do,” Drake said.
“I mean, how do we even know there was a Gulfstream explosion? The only evidence is the video. Could be a deep fake.”
“Which would mean both Keanes could be living somewhere under new identities right now,” Scarlett said.
“Agreed.” Flint turned the photo frame off. “We don’t know whether both Keanes are dead or relocated. Same goes for Kyle. We don’t even know if the Gulfstream actually existed. We haven’t ruled out all the possibilities.”
“And whether Kyle was on the Gulfstream is its own question,” Patterson said. “I’ve been going back and forth on it for weeks.”
Flint slid his chair back. “So we’ve got two theories that fit some of what we’re looking at but not all of it.
Quinn’s old enemies found Keane through Kyle’s pursuit and eliminated him and his wife.
WITSEC extracted Keane and his wife when his cover broke.
Each theory could explain the Gulfstream, Nancy’s identity theft, and Keane’s current whereabouts.
Could be Quinn’s enemies have access to the right people or WITSEC did the work themselves. ”
“What none of that explains,” Scarlett said, “is what happened when they abducted Patterson today. Which means the responsible parties are still active.”
Patterson summed it up. “We’ve got several pieces here and we need a cohesive story.
Oakley’s identity theft, the Gulfstream explosion, Kyle’s disappearance, and my abduction.
WITSEC or Quinn’s enemies could account for some of this, but neither solves everything.
And the timing suggests coordination that doesn’t quite square with two separate operations running in parallel. ”
“There’s a third possibility that fits the facts, but it’s less likely,” Flint said. “A private operator with capabilities like WITSEC and motives like Quinn’s enemies. A private operator with resources we haven’t seen before.”
“Possible,” Drake said. “Or multiple operations overlapping because Kyle pulled threads from more than one direction at once.”
“Which one of the three do you think it is?” Patterson asked Flint. “Or are we missing something else?”