Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

to spy in people’s homes could be commercially lucrative.
    And it had been.
    Mitch tried it for the first time in the little house he’d rented in Miami. During the months he lived there, he experimented with camera brands – some worked better than others – and placement in the ceiling ducts. Too close and the camera would be visible. Too far away and the vent cover got in the way of the picture. He practiced installation over and over until he could place a camera in under five seconds flat.
    When he came back to Maryland he decided he was ready to try it for real.
    His first target? His stepfather, of course. It was incredibly poetic since the bastard had sent him to prison in the first place. Also, who was his stepfather gonna go to if he found the camera – the cops?
    Placing the camera was ridiculously simple. On the night he’d gotten Mutt drunk and obtained the code for his brother’s password file, he had also stolen his house keys and made copies. Discovering the security alarm code wasn’t much more difficult. Mutt kept the alarm access code, along with his ATM sequence and all of his other passwords, in the same iPhone app.
    All Mitch had to do after that was wait until Mutt and his daddy went away for the weekend to some stupid trade show, giving him time to install the camera. Waiting for his stepfather to open his damn safe was the hard part. He’d expected the old guy to open the safe every day. Instead, he’d had to wait three weeks.
    But it had been so worth it. Mitch had expected to find deeds and maybe a few bonds and some cash. And he did. But far better was the manila envelope labeled DE .
    The initials jumped out at him – he’d just found his mother’s diary a few weeks before. Just learned the identity of the woman who’d broken his mother’s heart. DE .
    Daphne Elkhart . Mitch had been tempted to look inside right there as he stood by the safe. But he’d controlled himself, waiting until he got home. What he’d found was a gold mine, a treasure trove of every detail of Daphne’s life.
    It was damn creepy. His stepfather’s obsession was evident in the detail. Detail after detail . Mitch now knew everything there was to know about Daphne Montgomery – her birthday, social security number, underwear size . . . The record stopped about the time of her divorce, but that was okay. The most important piece – the childhood trauma that left her terrified of underground places and four little words – was all there.
    With some old-fashioned ingenuity, a bit of con-artistry and the power of Google, Mitch used what he’d read in the envelope to locate Wilson Beckett and his cabin in the West Virginia woods. And all that lay beneath.
    And because Mitch had done his research, gaining Beckett’s trust was a snap. Hi, I’m Robert Jones . I think you knew my grandfather – you served in the same regiment in ’Nam . That Beckett had served in the military wasn’t a big leap – most men his age had, in some capacity. All Mitch had to do was locate a list of men who’d served with him and pick one with a very common last name, who’d already died.
    Then he laid it on thick. My granddad used to talk about how you two dreamed about going home and doing nothing but fishing . He always said he wanted to find you and catch those fish . I lost him last year . Would you mind if I went fishing with you, for old times’ sake? One day of fishing had led to more. A few months of fishing and a case of Jack Daniel’s later and Beckett was primed for the hook.
    You need money? I know this kid whose daddy is a rich judge . I’ll nab him and you hide him . That’s all you have to do .
    Mitch had always known Beckett was bad. He’d read it in his stepfather’s obsession file. So he wasn’t surprised by how easily Beckett had fallen, hook, line and sinker. Mitch just reeled him in. In Beckett’s mind, Ford’s escape was a terrible thing – ransom lost and the danger of capture.
    Mitch had made sure Ford never saw his face, but Ford had seen Beckett’s. Now Ford would hopefully get himself found soon. His mama would be so happy! Then Ford would tell her what he’d heard.
    Did you miss me?
    Daphne would know her secret was out. Ford would lead them back to where he’d been kept. Then the show would begin. Mitch had prepared the venue very carefully.
    That he’d miss her reaction to the basement and barn art wasn’t such a big deal because when he got Daphne exactly where he