Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

noticed. He had his phone out, dialing Dr Brodie. ‘Come on, wake up.’
    ‘Joseph?’ Brodie sounded sleepy. ‘Meeting’s not till seven, right?’
    ‘Right, but this can’t wait.’ His heart was racing. ‘We need to get your techs back to that drugstore. The one that tried to card Doug.’
    ‘We tried to get the surveillance video, Joseph. I told you they’d taped over it.’
    ‘Did you get the superglue?’
    ‘What?’ There was a long pause. ‘No. We didn’t. We should have, but we didn’t.’
    ‘He wasn’t selling weapons to the Millhouses. He was just being a normal guy, buying school supplies for his brother. Maybe his guard was down. He could have left a print on the package.’
    ‘I’ll get right on it. It’s a twenty-four-hour store. I’ll get a uniform out there to watch the shelf until my techs can get there. It’s a long shot, but worth a try. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something.’
    Hanging up, Joseph smacked a kiss on Simone’s cheek, then Maggie’s. ‘Wish me luck.’ He left them staring, and was still grinning when he got outside with Tasha, despite the fact it was snowing again and he’d left his coat in the hotel room. His cell rang and he answered it with near euphoria. ‘This is Agent Carter.’
    ‘Joseph, it’s Bo.’
    ‘Did Brodie call you already?’
    ‘About what?’
    Joseph told him about the superglue, fighting the urge to dance.
    ‘That’s great,’ Bo said, but he didn’t sound enthused.
    ‘What’s wrong? How did the raid on Antonov’s warehouse go?’
    ‘Not well. It was empty when we got there. They’d just moved hundred of crates. Bomb dogs found traces of ammunition, but no actual evidence.’
    ‘Damn. I’m sorry, Bo.’
    ‘Me too. Antonov has been on ATF radar for months. Stopping him would have kept Russian organized crime from getting a toehold in the area, but now we’re back to square one. But that’s not why I called.’
    ‘Then why?’ Joseph’s mind clicked. ‘Oh. Yeah. Sorry. I haven’t had coffee yet. I sent you an email last night, asking for Agent Claudia Baker’s info. You got anything?’
    ‘Yeah. She doesn’t exist. She never did. The Bureau has no record of a Special Agent Claudia Baker, in the DC field office or anywhere else.’
    ‘Shit,’ Joseph snarled. ‘I was afraid of that.’
    ‘Are you sure Daphne wasn’t mistaken?’
    ‘As sure as I can be considering I wasn’t actually at their meeting twenty years ago. Did you check married and maiden names?’
    ‘I checked everything. I’ve been working it for hours. We need to talk to Daphne, because assuming she really did talk to someone, it wasn’t an FBI agent.’
    Assuming? ‘She’s not lying, Bo. Somebody lied to her.’
    ‘And you weren’t there twenty years ago, Joseph. Playing devil’s advocate, it wouldn’t look good for her to have kept that information secret all these years. She’s a prosecutor now. She might have found herself grasping for an out.’
    Joseph’s temper rattled its chains. ‘I’ll talk to her. Find out exactly how and where she met this alleged agent. I’ll have her sit with a sketch artist if necessary. Because whoever was pretending to be Claudia Baker stopped her from reporting a murder.’
    ‘Why would anyone want to do that?’
    ‘I don’t know. I do know she was living with the Elkharts at the time. If they found out her plans, they might have feared she was going to cause a scandal. Most rich families don’t like scandal, especially if they have political aspirations. Travis Elkhart is a judge – that wouldn’t have looked good for him.’
    ‘He wasn’t a judge then.’
    ‘Maybe he already wanted to be. I don’t know. I can stand here speculating all day long but it won’t get us any closer to the truth, plus I’m standing outside freezing my ass off. We’re having a status meeting at seven. Should I patch you in?’
    ‘Yes. I’d like to hear Daphne’s story for myself. Be careful, Joseph. You might think you know this woman, but remember you weren’t there. You can’t know.’
    ‘I’ll talk to you at seven,’ Joseph said, grimly re-entering the hotel. He took the stairs, needing the mild burn of a seven-flight run to cool his temper and figuring it’d be a good work-out for the dog as well.
    When he came out of the stairwell into the hall the first thing he heard was a bloodcurdling scream coming from down the hall. Daphne .
    Joseph started to run, passing a few hotel guests