Deadly Stillwater

“Overall, really good,” Burton answered confidently. “Like I said, they have to expose themselves to get the ransom, that’s when we can catch them.”

“What about doing the money electronically?” Lich asked.

“Nah,” Mac answered before Burton could answer, “I’d think it would be easier for the FBI to track that. Especially as good as the government has gotten on that with the war on terror.”

“You’re mostly correct about that,” Burton answered. “Since 9/11, I haven’t had anyone try it on me that way, at least on a domestic kidnapping. If you have someone, however, who’s really good at the electronic transfer process, and moves it to countries that have been less than helpful, then it could be an issue, although in the end we’d still probably be able to track it down.”

“We’re talking money here, aren’t we being just a little presumptuous. I mean they didn’t demand the ransom when they called,” Mac stated and then he turned to Burton. “Does that strike you as odd?”

Burton was nonplussed. “A little. But I’m pretty confident they’ll get to it. Given how they’ve operated thus far, I sense we’re only part way into whatever it is they have planned.”

“You’re thinking this is only about money though?” Riley pressed.

“Not necessarily,” Burton answered. “I suspect there is a personal element to this as well. These guys aren’t crazy. What they did was well planned, well thought out. They picked Shannon Hisle for a reason, and that reason may well have something to do with her, or…”

“Or more likely her father,” Mac finished. “Lyman has represented a lot of high-profile people and taken on a lot of high-profile cases. Somebody certainly could have it in for him.”

“So I’ve been told,” Burton said. “So we need to be looking at his associates, clients, everyone he’s come into contact with over the years.”

“Man that’s a lot of people,” Lich said, running a hand over his bald head. “That could be hundreds of people.”

“More likely thousands, given clients, friends, political contacts, business contacts,” Riles tallied.

“Speaking of clients, that will be the deepest pool we’ll fish from, have we started that process?” Burton inquired.

“I’ve started the process of looking through his client files,” Peters said. “I’m not getting too much flack from his law firm. We’ll have files to look at first thing in the morning. They’re trucking them over to our place.”

“Criminal and civil?” Mac asked.

“We should probably focus on his criminal clientele,” the chief said.

“What about his civil cases?” Mac asked. “Lyman’s done a lot of work there. I don’t want to forget those.”

“We can and should look at those well,” Burton answered, looking to Peters for confirmation.

Peters nodded.

“Good,” Burton replied. “However, I think the chief is right. The criminal files are the better bet, at least to start with.”

“Even looking at just the criminal files, it’s going to be a long list,” Peters pointed out. “And if we find someone in these files worth looking at, it’ll be a bear to track them down.”

“Indeed,” Duffy said. Burton snorted his disagreement.

“Difficult? Yes. But we have all of the FBI’s resources at our disposal,” he said. He turned to Peters, adding, “What’s mine is yours. We’ll hook you up with everything we’ve got, including manpower. Just let me know what you need, and we’ll make it happen.”

“I appreciate it,” Peters said, taking out his cell phone and calling downtown.

“No problem,” Burton replied. “Look, technology is our strength. We can find patterns, tap phones, conduct electronic surveillance, run censuses, and create spreadsheets like nobody’s business.” Nodding to Mac and the boys, he smiled. “You guys are good street cops, not always the bureau’s strong suit. I need to have you guys looking over the data we get, checking the possibilities we find, talking to your folks on the street. A cop is only as good as his informants, and around here, you guys are the ones who have them. Let’s share and stay in touch.”

“We can do that,” Riles agreed.

“Good,” Burton answered, rubbing his hands together, on a roll now. “I’m going to have my team in first thing tomorrow, three men and two women. Everything we collect, no matter from where, we feed in to the team and see what we come up with. It’s a process that’s worked well for us, helped us get people back. Add that to your resources and we have a shot at bringing the girl home in one piece.”

“Sounds good,” Peters replied. “Where do you want to work out of, your local office?”

“You can run out of your place,” Duffy added, “We’ll run out of our…”