Deadly Stillwater

Mac immediately recognized how difficult the process would be. He immediately arranged for the Wi-Fi hookup and organized the operation as best he could. He had people work in teams, matching an attorney from Lyman’s firm with groups of the retired cops. The groups worked through the documents, the lawyers explaining where the parties, families, and witnesses could be found in the various legal documents. The cops would read through the information and determine what to enter into Hagen’s program.

Riley called Mac from Lyman’s office to report that nothing had turned up as of yet, not even a nibble. He was sounding skeptical. “I don’t know Mac, we’re not finding anything. How much you got left?”

“We’ve just started out here,” Mac answered. “We’re maybe fifteen to twenty percent into the files. It’ll take a while to get through it. There are hundreds of boxes in these three storage units. I mean, if you have a better idea I’m all ears.”

Riles sighed. “I don’t. It’s just that the clock is ticking.”

“I hear ya,” Mac answered as he looked out a window. The sun was now bright in the sky, and a look at his watch told him it was 9:56 AM. “We’ve got eight hours. Something will pop.” He didn’t know if that was confidence or hope, but he didn’t have a choice. They had started down this path, and they had to see it through. “What’s going on at HQ?”

“Nothing like what we’re doing,” Riles answered. “Burton seems focused on the ransom and preparing for the phone call. Although…”

“What?”

“He did ask Peters about what we were doing.”

“What did the captain say?”

“He covered. Said we were on the safe house still. Peters thought it might be a good idea for us to make an appearance.”

“I hate to break away from this.”

“It’s what cell phones are for. Burton has called a meeting for eleven thirty. Peters said we should be there. We keep doing what we’re doing, but…”

“We keep people from wondering where we are.”

While Shawn McRyan watched anxiously, Jupiter Jones opened a computer program he developed to get as much out of pictures as possible. He set it to enhance the best frame of the reflection in the van’s rear window. The program worked slowly, but soon a new window popped up on the screen.

“Is it done?” Shawn asked.

“Let’s look.” Jupiter scrolled over the part of the picture with the reflection. The enhancement revealed a white receipt. On the screen, the label ran lower right to upper left and you could make out three letters reflected backward in the glass.

“So we have an H, then a small a and n.” Shawn said.

“And part of another letter,” Jupe added, pointing to a straight vertical line. “What has a straight line, lower case letters?”

Shawn grabbed a scratch pad, quickly writing down the alphabet, “We got b, h, k, l, or t.”

“What about d?”

“I don’t think so,” Shawn replied shaking his head and pointing to the screen at the gap between the n and the next letter. “The gap between the n and the next letter isn’t wide enough for a d, so it has to be one of the other letters.”

“Okay, so we have the PVC pipe, which is manufactured by Ampipe,” Jupiter said. “Now we have part of a receipt that’s likely from the store where they bought it.”

“Maybe,” Shawn said. “They could have taken this out of the scrap heap for all we know.”

“I doubt it,” Jupe answered. “The pipe looks newer. There aren’t scratches and the white color is bright, not yellowed or dirty. And we have a receipt sticking out of it. That wouldn’t be the case if you pulled it out of the scrapheap.”

“You could be right,” Shawn remarked, putting his face closer to the screen.

“Well, one way to find out is to see if we can get a hold of someone at this manufacturer and see who sells this stuff in Minnesota,” Jupiter answered, printing off a copy of the picture. “I’ve taken it this far. We need Mac or someone else to get us to that manufacturer.”

Shawn sighed. “And today is a holiday.”

27 “ If I didn’t know any better I’d say he’s up to something.”

11:03 AM

Heather Foxx looked in her compact mirror, finishing a last bit of work on her eyelashes in the cool air conditioning of her television truck. She turned and looked through the windshield. Things were starting to percolate around the police department. In these times of a twenty-four-hour news cycle, the story had gone national quickly, especially since it was the Fourth of July. All the heavy hitters were hanging around – FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and the networks. Rather than simply doing puff pieces about parades and fireworks, there was hard news to cover.