24 Hours

“Recognize him from a photo?”

“Yes.”

“Any distinguishing marks?”

Margaret covered her face. “He had a tattoo on his arm. An eagle. Very crudely done.”

“Do you remember which arm?”

“Left. Yes, the left.”

“And the girl?” Chalmers asked McDill.

“I’d know her anywhere. If you want to put me on a plane and fly me down to the coast, I’ll go through that whole hotel looking for her.”

“I’m not sure that’s the most efficient way to go about it. If she is in the hotel, she’s probably in a room by now. We can’t go through every room in the place looking for someone we don’t even know is there.”

“Not even for a kidnapping?”

“The Beau Rivage has eighteen hundred rooms. No judge would give us a warrant for that. Not without more evidence.”

“What about a bomb threat?” McDill asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the FBI. You could say you had a bomb threat on the casino. They’d have to evacuate the hotel. I could stand outside, watching as you bring the people through the front door. You could videotape them.”

Chalmers looked at McDill with a combination of surprise and respect. “You’re talking about a felony, Doctor. And violating people’s civil rights.”

McDill shrugged. “Desperate times, desperate measures.”

“I wish it worked that way sometimes. We’ll start by going through the Jackson police department mug books. And the NCIC computer.” He ran his tongue over his lips and glanced away from the McDills. Somehow this action telegraphed his next question.

“No,” the surgeon said.

“No, what?”

“No, we’re not going to involve our son at this point. The third member of this group was a semiretarded giant who claimed to be the leader’s cousin. He called himself Huey. He kept Peter in a cabin in the woods, somewhere within two hours of Jackson. He called the leader Joey. That makes me think Joe was the leader’s real name. From what my son described, the retarded man might have had trouble remembering an alias. He spent all night whittling. But that’s all Peter could tell you. We don’t want him involved.”

“Not even to look at mug books?”

“Not at this point.”

“But, Doctor-”

“If you try to involve our son, I’m going to call my attorney and break off contact with you. I’ve already spoken to him tonight, and he urged me not to speak to you without him present. I disregarded that advice. However, if you try to involve Peter, I will call him. He’s awake at home, waiting for just such a call.”

Chalmers started to respond, then apparently decided that McDill was not the sort to be intimidated by threats.

“Well, then. The next step is to go over to the JPD and go through some of their mug books. There’ll be a homicide shift working, and I know some of the guys over there. I can access NCIC from there, as well. Are you two ready to look at a hell of a stack of pictures?”

“We’re prepared to do anything you require, short of involving Peter. The sooner the better. I really think there are people in danger as we speak.”

Chalmers nodded. “From all you’ve told me, I’d say we have a few hours before they try to wire and collect the ransom. I’m going to wake up my boss and outline the situation. We can alert the coastal banks to flag all wire transfers of any size coming in tomorrow morning. We can have agents from the New Orleans office ready to respond the moment a suspicious wire comes in. We can also have a tactical squad here in Jackson, ready to hit whatever bank is the source of the wire, and arrest the leader while the wife is inside trying to send it. There are lots of ways to come at this thing-”

“Just a minute,” McDill interrupted. “You’re forgetting something.”

“What? The hostage?”

“Yes. If you arrest any of these people, the schedule of thirty-minute telephone calls they keep will be broken, and the man in the woods will kill the child.”

“Doctor, a minute ago you were talking about calling in a bomb threat to ID the woman involved.”

“Yes, but only to confirm that it’s really happening again. And they use cell phones, so that wouldn’t break their schedule.”

“What exactly do you expect us to do with the information you’ve given me? Nothing?”

“I’m not sure. But you can’t just ride into the middle of this thing like the Seventh Cavalry. You’ll get people killed.”

“That’s not how we operate, Doctor. We might follow them from the ransom pickup at the bank, using a helicopter. We could put a GPS tracking device on the doctor’s car while it’s parked at the bank. The leader and the woman are eventually going to meet somewhere with the money. Maybe even at the same Mc-Donald’s restaurant where your wife got your son back.”