Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

can coax it out of her mind, it’s our guy.’
    ‘He knows how to do that correctly, right?’ Daphne asked. ‘You push too hard, you can make it worse. You can break the child.’ This she knew from personal experience.
    ‘He understands that. He’s good with kids. I’d trust him with my own daughter.’
    ‘I hope he’s successful,’ Joseph said, looking annoyed. ‘We thought we had Doug’s face on video at a local drugstore, but their system tapes over itself every two weeks. We missed it by a day. We’ve got a sketch artist meeting with the one witness who saw him. We’ll compare sketches, but a photo would have been really nice.’
    ‘What about the house you mentioned?’ Ciccotelli asked. ‘Any prints there?’
    ‘Tons of prints,’ Joseph said. ‘None that match any of our databases yet. Latent is still processing the scene. What about mall security tapes? Any possible face shots?’
    ‘No. Pamela was walking through the parking garage with a man, five-nine, one-eighty-five, but a hoodie hid his face. They walked between two cars right about the time the au pair got out of her van. Neither Elmarie nor Pamela reappears on the tape. A black van pulls away, driven by what appears to be a woman.’
    ‘But was really hoodie-guy wearing a wig,’ Novak told them. ‘I’ve studied the tapes. This guy’s build is slight enough that he passed for a woman.’
    ‘How did Pamela get to the mall?’ JD asked. ‘Was she with anyone?’
    ‘Pamela told her parents she was going to a friend’s house,’ Wiznewski said. ‘We pulled her cell LUDs and she got a text from 443-555-2320. Pre-paid.’
    ‘Mr Maynard told us about the call Kimberly made from Laurel Gargano’s birthday party,’ Ciccotelli said. ‘We’ve requested Kimberly’s back phone records.’
    ‘We have them,’ JD said, thumbing through the printout. ‘We requested them when we discovered Kimberly’s arrest record. And . . . yeah. The 2320 number is the same one Kimberly called the night of Laurel Gargano’s birthday party.’
    ‘So we’re one step closer to Doug,’ Joseph said. ‘Those pre-paids are traceable, but we’d have to lure him into making a few phone calls so we can triangulate.’
    ‘How about Richard Odum?’ Hector asked. ‘He’s Bill Millhouse’s second in command. Odum might be able to persuade Doug to call a few times.’
    Joseph shook his head. ‘He’s dead. One of the SWAT teams found his body in one of the houses he bought with Reggie Millhouse’s defense fund. His throat was slit. As was his wife’s.’
    ‘The CSU team I sent to that house typed the blood,’ Brodie said. ‘Odum’s type matches what we found in the basement with Ford’s watch. Unfortunately, we’ll have to find someone else Doug trusts enough to call from his cell phone.’
    ‘We might be able to trace him another way,’ Ciccotelli said. ‘Yelton from IT is working on tracing the webcam he put in the ceiling of Trooper Gargano’s house to his own server which must have downloaded the images.’
    ‘How long will that take?’ Joseph asked.
    ‘Depends on how clever he is,’ Yelton said. ‘An hour or a day or never. The webcam was no longer connected to its host server. It had run out of battery. We’ll know if it’s still transmitting within a minute after hooking it back up. We’ll let you know.’
    ‘Good,’ Joseph said. ‘Anything else from your end, Lieutenant?’
    ‘We thought Dr MacGregor was going to let us search his medical cabinet without a warrant, since, you know, both his daughters are missing. But his attorney was there when we arrived and advised the father not to allow it.’ Ciccotelli sounded extremely annoyed. ‘He told the father that if Kim had stolen any of the drugs she could be found complicit in the death of Officer Zacharias. So we started a warrant app for Dr MacGregor’s supply cabinet.’
    ‘Dr Quartermaine?’ Joseph asked. ‘Did you get my message about one of the abductees’ fathers being a vet?’
    ‘I did,’ Quartermaine said. ‘I was late because I was waiting for the results of Officer Zacharias’s tox screen. Short answer is that you shouldn’t have any trouble getting a judge to sign the warrant. The victim had high levels of fentanyl and ketamine in his system, both of which would be found in a vet’s drug supply – especially a large animal vet. I’m happy to fax a copy of the autopsy report with the tox screen results to your office, Lieutenant