Dead Hunt

‘‘I’m sure you recalled your BOLO on Clymene once Diane was accused of having killed her.’’
‘‘Only because you guys said she was dead,’’ said Drew. ‘‘We don’t normally issue BOLOs on corpses.’’ He wasn’t defensive so much as exasperated.
‘‘I think Clymene did a good job of fooling all of us,’’ said Diane. ‘‘All cons are good magicians and that’s just what she did, a little sleight of hand.’’ She stood up and stretched her legs.
‘‘So,’’ said Merrick. ‘‘Where do we look now? Do we plaster her photograph everywhere?’’
‘‘Maybe, but it might force her deeper into hiding,’’ said Kingsley.
‘‘I think we should,’’ said Neva. ‘‘She has a real problem. She has two sisters who look just like her. That makes our chances of finding one of them three times as good. All three will have to go into hiding. How far does their loyalty go, to disrupt their lives that way?’’
‘‘I think they will be plenty loyal,’’ said Shane. ‘‘If they’ve gotten this deep in it together, it means that they’re devoted. You won’t break them apart.’’
‘‘Who are you?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Yeah, who are you?’’ echoed Drew.
‘‘Oh, of course, you don’t know me.’’ He grinned. ‘‘I’m Shane Jacobs, FBI agent from the art theft division.’’ He held out his hand, which Garnett and the others shook in turn.
‘‘So, Clymene’s been stealing art too?’’ said Drew with raised brow.
‘‘The girl gets around,’’ said Merrick.
Jacobs laughed. ‘‘There is the possibility that in her effort to make Dr. Fallon’s life miserable, she misdirected some stolen artifacts to this museum. I have no proof of Clymene’s involvement, but I thought I’d crash your party anyway. As for my statement about not being able to break Clymene and her sisters apart, I’m also an identical twin and I know the attachment of twins to each other.’’
‘‘Really?’’ said Drew. ‘‘Your brother’s in the FBI too?’’
‘‘He’s a professor of art history at Brown,’’ he said.
Drew nodded. ‘‘Less stress, I guess.’’
‘‘Yes, I couldn’t handle the politics in academia,’’ said Jacobs.
They all chuckled.
‘‘So,’’ said Merrick, looking from Diane to Kingsley, ‘‘Drew and I are open to any suggestions you have on where to start looking for Clymene. You guys seem to know her inside out, so to speak.’’
‘‘Diane and I have been discussing that,’’ said Kingsley. He nodded toward her as if yielding the floor.
‘‘Clymene and her sisters may or may not be in our databases. But we can search for a relative,’’ said Diane.
‘‘If we don’t know who she is, how the heck are we going to find a relative?’’ said Drew.
‘‘By looking for a close match of her DNA in the various databases we have access to. Instead of an exact match, look for anyone with alleles in common,’’ said Diane. ‘‘We might get lucky and one of our databases will contain the DNA profile of a cousin or other relative. They could tell us who she really is.’’
‘‘I guess the whiz kid over here can manage that,’’ said Drew.
‘‘We can fax or e-mail her photo to estate and family lawyers,’’ continued Diane. ‘‘Clymene’s husbands that we know about were wealthy men. One of those kinds of lawyers is likely to have met her. That might lead to her identity and give us clues to other victims.’’
‘‘Great idea, but do you know how many lawyers there are in the country? Even pared down to estate lawyers, that’s a lot of e-mails and faxes.’’ said Merrick.
‘‘I know it is,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Maybe we can think of a way to pare it down even more.’’
‘‘Her mug shot isn’t that good,’’ said Garnett.
‘‘We don’t want to use that anyway,’’ said Diane. ‘‘These lawyers are people who don’t normally deal with criminal cases. They have chosen to associate with wealthy clients who don’t get into that kind of trouble. They would probably dismiss her mug shot out of hand, thinking that it couldn’t possibly be anyone they would know. We need to get one of the photos the media took of her coming out of court— where she was dressed up and looked the part she was playing.’’
Merrick nodded. ‘‘Okay. I’m buying all of this. What else?’’ he said.
‘‘This is a little more’’—Diane searched for the right word—‘‘a little more Hail Mary. Get someone in