Chapter 40
Sean sat in the cramped security room, the door shut, the phone in front of him as he was on a speaker call with three other groups.
Two FBI officials were on the call, along with Sheriff Johnson and his deputies, and rounding out the ensemble was Rivers, who Sean had insisted on joining despite Johnson’s complaints.
“This isn’t your investigation,” Johnson said, arrogantly. “I’ve already told you that my team is working on getting to you right now, and I told you that you need to stand down. Hell, he found the murder weapon in his own room!”
The line fell silent, and Sean had hoped to speak to that before Johnson had a chance to talk about it.
“Is that true?” FBI Special Agent in Charge Ryan Murphy had a calm, level-headed demeanor.
Sean had worked with the man before, and while certain agencies might have had a problem with the Feds, they had always been helpful to him.
“Yes,” Sean replied. “But with the time-sensitive nature of the missing person, I wanted to get things moving quickly.”
“Do you know what a DA is going to do with any evidence you find?” Johnson asked. “They’ll throw it out!”
“I hear where you’re coming from, Sheriff Johnson,” Murphy said. “All the same, I think it might be a good idea to keep Sheriff Callahan working the case. I’ve worked with him before, and I’ve never had any reason to believe he wasn’t on the level.”
“He should have been working with one of my deputies from my department,” Johnson said, but he refrained from making any further comments, and Agent Murphy continued the meeting.
“All right, so it’s safe to say that the proof-of-life video doesn’t mean anything right now,” Agent Murphy replied. “I’d like to think it’s real, but without any timestamp or verbal confirmation, we’re unable to know for sure.”
“Can’t you boys do some kind of voodoo magic?” Johnson asked. “Isn’t that what all of our tax money goes into for you all to do this sort of thing?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Murphy answered. “We were able to do a facial recognition match, and we did confirm that it is Karla Grayson in the video, but when that video was taken, we’re not sure.”
Sean checked the time. “It’s almost two o’clock now, which means we’re less than four hours away from the deadline.”
“This guy won’t kill the girl,” Johnson said. “These kinds of people are always cowards, never going to do anything that gets their hands dirty. He’s looking for a payout, that’s all.”
“In some cases, you might be right,” Murphy said. “But we’ve taken a look at the police report that the family filed from the stalker letters, and our analysts don’t believe this person is joking.”
“You can tell all of that from a letter, but you can’t trace where this video was taken,” Johnson said, laughing. “Boy, I tell ya, ain’t that something else.”
Sean wasn’t sure if Agent Murphy was keeping his cool or not, since he couldn’t see the man’s face, but Sean had lost his patience with Johnson. “I need an ETA on your team’s arrival, Sheriff,” Sean said. “The faster you get here, the faster we can have forensics analyze the evidence.”
“Hang on,” Johnson said, and then he didn’t even bother putting the phone on mute as he raised his voice and shouted to someone across the office. “Mark! Where are them snow cats at right now?”
The reply was more muffled. Sean couldn’t hear it very well, but Johnson grunted and then spoke in his normal, arrogant tone.
“Two hours, but maybe sooner,” Johnson said.
Sean checked the time. It was two o’clock, which put their arrival an hour before the kidnapper’s deadline. Unless they could find the girl before then, it would take another four to six hours to analyze the DNA samples.
“Look, I’m managing things here as best I can,” Sean said. “We’ve got power back on, but people are getting antsy. I’ve already had a few fights break out. The longer we’re cooped up here, the worse it’s going to get.”
“Sounds like you’re having a bit of a problem taking care of business, Sheriff,” Johnson said. “Is that how you handle pressure back in your county?”
“My county doesn’t have as many kidnappings and homicides as yours, Sheriff, so you’ll have to forgive me,” Sean said.
Rivers snorted, holding back laughter.
Sean had never been the kind of person who wanted to belittle others, but Johnson needed a reality check, and after Sean’s comment, the man piped down, either out of spite or embarrassment. But Sean didn’t care which, as long as the call moved forward more productively.
“I think the bigger issue is finding out where the girl is being kept,” Agent Murphy replied. “Sean, have you seen any place like the one in the video?”
“No, and I’ve been down into the basement,” Sean answered.
“Makes me think the video might have been taken somewhere else then,” Murphy said.
“But where?” Rivers asked. “According to the timeline we’re working with, the girl didn’t go missing until after two this morning, and that was when the blizzard was in full force.”
“If she’s not in the hotel, then there really isn’t another option,” Murphy said.
“Can you pull the blueprints of the hotel?” Sean asked. “This place is old. Maybe the original blueprints will show a building nearby that people don’t know about?”
“I’ll see what we can pull up,” Murphy replied.
“It also might be a long shot, but if you can ping the bride’s phone, that might help confirm the device is still here,” Sean said. “Considering the kidnapper used the bride’s phone, I also think that we have to consider that these cases are related.”
“Is there any other evidence besides the phone that supports that theory?” Murphy asked.
“I found the bride’s locket in Karla Grayson’s room,” Sean answered. “The pair had interacted with each other the morning the Graysons checked into the room.”
“Well, if the bride’s dead, then the girl can’t be far behind,” Johnson said.
“Keep hunting for a stronger connection,” Murphy said. “We’ll do what we can to find the woman’s phone.”
After everyone was brought up to speed, the meeting ended, and Sean found himself in the uncomfortable position of waiting. Everyone had been interviewed; he had searched the hotel top to bottom and found no sign of the girl, and no one else was willing to talk.
Sheriff Johnson might have been content with just sitting around, but Sean had never been one to enjoy being idle, especially during a case.
Sean drummed his fingers on the table, and then thought about room 109 again, the murder room where the bellhop had killed that family back in the fifties.
It had been the only room he hadn’t revisited, and considering he had found Marco Donovan’s receipt there that had magically found its way into the bathroom trashcan, he decided to take a closer look.
When Sean returned to room 109, he wasn’t really sure what he was looking for.
Sean searched through the trash cans, the closet, the bathroom, and under the beds, but found nothing different.
“This is a waste of time,” Sean said, and then he headed for the door.
But when Sean stepped back out into the hallway, after having been in that room for longer than he should have, he was struck by the heat. Sean frowned, then stepped back into the room.
It was colder in the room, which he thought was strange, but if the room was never used, then the thermostat was probably off to save energy. But when Sean checked, he found it was on, so it should have been warmer.
The power had kicked on over an hour ago now, and the rest of the hotel had warmed up. So, why was this room so cold?
Sean frowned, unsure why this temperature difference bothered him. The hotel was buried under snow after all, but the rest of the hotel had remained slightly warm even after the power outage. He was missing something.
Then, Sean noticed the vent above the bed next to the wall.
Without taking off his shoes, something Jennie would have been furious about, considering she hated when people put their shoes on furniture, especially the bed, Sean reached for the grill.
When his hands hovered near the vent, he didn’t feel any air.
Sean didn’t have a flathead, but he used the end of his car key to slowly pry the screws at the four corners of the vent. Once they were out, Sean removed the vent, shone his flashlight inside, and found the blockage.
Even before Sean removed the items, he knew what they were. He had been in law enforcement long enough to be able to recognize bricks of heroin and cash, tightly wrapped in plastic.
And Sean had a sinking suspicion of who these drugs belonged to.