Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

long measure.’
    ‘Would Mrs Ciccotelli help us?’
    ‘She’s eight months pregnant, so I doubt it. But I’ll call him and see if she can recommend someone. Otherwise I’ll start calling universities.’
    ‘Good plan.’ Joseph looked back at the cabin. ‘I’m handing off this part of the investigation to you. Whoever the victims are, retrieve the remains and any belongings you can find hidden in the house or garage. Let’s get these girls back to their families.’
    ‘What about the notifications?’
    ‘I’ll coordinate them. We’ll do them together, all of us on the team.’
    Deacon’s eyes shot back to meet his and in them Joseph saw panic. ‘You’re better with the families than I am, Joseph. Any of the others are better than I am.’
    ‘None of us do it well.’ Twenty-three more victims . Twenty-three families waiting for girls who will never come home . Joseph had an overwhelming urge to run away as fast as he could. But he knew that wasn’t a possibility. ‘We have to prepare ourselves for a wave of grief that can sweep even a strong man away.’
    ‘Go take care of Daphne,’ Deacon said kindly. ‘I’ll take over from here.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    Thursday, December 5, 2.30 P.M.
    Holding his breath, Mitch clutched a fresh syringe of Fentanyl, hidden in his coat pocket. Agent Carter was coming toward the SUV in which Ford and his mother sat in the back, silent and numb. If Carter came any closer, it could spoil everything.
    And everything had been going so well. He’d watched Ford help his mother into the back of Carter’s Escalade, then had stepped up to the vehicle before any of the real cops could do so. He was dressed as a state trooper and everyone assumed he’d been assigned to guard Daphne and her son.
    To protect them from big, bad  . . .  me .
    Now Carter was approaching and Mitch clenched his teeth, wondering how to distract him. But at the last moment Mitch was aided by the white-haired Fed who ran over and grabbed Carter’s arm. ‘Joseph!’
    Mitch let the breath out. The white-haired Fed, who had gotten a phone call and pointed Carter back toward the cabin where the signal was clearest. Thank goodness for the limitations of technology , Mitch thought. It would take him about ten seconds to incapacitate her son, then about a minute more to walk her to his Jeep.
    Carter’s back was still turned. It was time to move.
    Thursday, December 5, 2.35 P.M.
    ‘Who is it?’ Joseph asked.
    ‘Ciccotelli,’ Deacon said. ‘I was about to call him to ask about finding a ground-penetrating radar specialist, but he called me. I’ll put him on speaker.’ He hit a button. ‘You still there, Lieutenant?’
    ‘I am. I understand you found Beckett’s center of operations.’
    ‘We did,’ Joseph said. ‘And photos of twenty-six victims. Only two survivors that we know of.’
    ‘Ah, hell. I’m so sorry, Joseph. I can’t change what you found, but I might be able to help you with Doug. Our sketch artist just finished with the little girl who witnessed her au pair’s murder. He sent me the scanned file about a minute ago. I forwarded it immediately, but it’s a big file.’
    Deacon gave his phone to Joseph. ‘I’ll go get my laptop from my car,’ he said. ‘It’ll download faster than the phone. Be right back.’ He took off at a jog, his black trench coat trailing behind him like a cape.
    ‘Can you recommend someone to do the GPR scan of this property?’ Joseph asked Ciccotelli. ‘We’ve got about two feet of snow on the ground.’
    ‘Snow won’t matter so much, except for the mess,’ Ciccotelli said. ‘We found our grave site in February and we had a lot of snow too. I just texted my wife with your question. She says she wants to come down and do the scan herself.’
    ‘I hear she’s more than a little pregnant,’ Joseph said doubtfully.
    ‘She’s a lot pregnant, but she’s not foolish. If she thinks she can handle it, she can. She’ll arrive tonight and get her team out there to start mapping at first light tomorrow.’
    ‘I want to start as soon as possible,’ Joseph said, ‘but I want to be safe. I think Doug’s around here somewhere. I think he came to see Daphne’s reaction to Beckett’s little room. I don’t want your wife in harm’s way. How about we assess at the end of the day and I let you know?’
    ‘I appreciate that Joseph. So will Sophie.’
    Joseph turned in a full circle, doing a scan of the trees around Beckett’s property. ‘Doug