Best Laid Plans(82)

“She’s from Nevada,” Lucy said.

“Because that’s the oldest ID?”

“That, and because she had a second ID with her being over twenty-one. Important if you’re hooking in bars or clubs. Nevada also has legalized prostitution,” Lucy said. “She could have started there.”

“But she’s underage,” Barry said. “Legalized means regulated.”

“And she had false identification,” Lucy repeated. “You don’t think she could be eighteen, do you, Tia?”

“Slim to no chance. I talked to the doctor—based on x-rays, he put her age at sixteen, and he says that’s within six months.”

Lucy tapped the Elise Hansen ID card. “I don’t know if that’s her real name, but I’ll bet that’s her birthday, plus two years. All these cards have her birthday on April fourteenth.” She also thought it was her real name because it was the first card issued.

Tia said, “I’ll talk to my pal at NCMEC and run with that. We can focus on Nevada and the West. It gives us a place to start. Plus, I’ll narrow the missing-persons search to Nevada and surrounding states.”

“She lied to us,” Lucy said.

Barry and Tia turned to her.

Lucy continued. “She said she’d been here a week before meeting with Worthington. But she came in three weeks earlier.”

“Maybe,” Tia said.

“Maybe?”

“It could be she didn’t specifically lie, she was just being vague. These girls don’t like details. They don’t want to get pinned down on anything, so if they keep it vague, they can simply say we misunderstood, or they were being general.”

Lucy wasn’t certain that was the case here, but considering that Elise had been shot and had just gone through surgery—with the requisite pain-killers—maybe she should give her the benefit of the doubt.

“What’s this?” Barry held up a plastic envelope with a sheet of stationery. On the paper was an address, date, and time. “This street is near where she was shot.”

Stu said, “That’s not the girl’s handwriting. We found a black book in her bag. We’re making a copy because there may be information in there for your investigation—dates and times and clients. Assuming the black book is hers—and I’m pretty certain it is—I can definitely say she didn’t write down this address.”

“So whoever gave her this note set her up,” Barry said.

“Is it Mona Hill’s handwriting?” Lucy asked Tia.

“I don’t know. But I have a statement she wrote at the office on an unrelated matter. I’ll check.”

Stu added, “It’s expensive stationery—watermarked as well. We have a database of paper samples, and we’re running through it now. I should know at least what brand by the end of the day. If it’s as expensive as I think it is, there’ll be very few places that sell it. There’s also an interesting threading in the paper, which tells me that it’s a special order of some sort.”

“Good job, Stu,” Tia said. “Anything else we need to know before you finish up your report?”

“I’m waiting for the ballistics report, but we should have that by the end of the day as well. I did a fingerprint comparison, and her prints match the prints found at the Worthington crime scene. We’re running her prints wide now, but so far, nothing else in the criminal database.”

Barry glanced at his phone and excused himself. He left the room to take the call.

“There’s something missing,” Lucy said.

“No, this is everything,” Stu said, looking at the log.

“Keys. There’s no key. No hotel key card, apartment key, car key. Nothing. We don’t know where she was staying. This isn’t all her stuff—she was seen in different clothes Friday night, and those clothes aren’t here or in the dryer.”

“Think she was staying with Mona?” Tia asked.

“Or with one of her girls. Gives us another cause for the warrant.” But Barry was right—it was going to be hard to convince the AUSA that they needed a warrant when their probable cause was so thin.

Barry opened the door. “Kincaid, we have to go. Now.”

He looked worried, and Barry had the straightest face of any of the agents Lucy had worked with. Something was wrong.

She thanked Tia and Stu, then followed Barry out of the building. “What happened?” Lucy asked.

“Shit if I know, but we’ve been summoned to headquarters immediately for a meeting with Naygrew and Juan. Zach’s the one who called, he didn’t know what it was about. Said it was urgent and to drop everything.”

Lucy’s phone vibrated. It was a message from Sean. She immediately showed the text to Barry.



The FBI planted the bug in Worthington’s office.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX



As soon as they stepped into the headquarters they were directed to go immediately to SAC Ritz Naygrew’s office. If the meeting was connected to the bug that Sean had found—and the FBI techs had identified it as one of their own—then she wasn’t worried. Juan had approved the operation and would cover for them if they inadvertently had stepped on another agent’s case.