Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

twitched this way and that, as though dancing to some erratic beat coming through his receiver.
    “That’s her,” Daniel said softly.
    The dark-haired woman was at the very edge of the screen, her face caught in profile. No wonder Jane had missed seeing it the first time: Maura was weaving through the lobby with half a dozen people standing between her and the camera. Only at that instant, as she walked past a gap in the crowd, did the lens capture her image.
    “Not a very clear shot,” said Queenan.
    “I know it’s her,” said Daniel, staring at Maura with undisguised yearning. “It’s her face, her haircut. And I recognize the parka.”
    “Let’s see if we can get any other views,” said Gabriel. He moved the recording forward, frame by frame. Maura’s dark hair reappeared, bobbing in and out of view as she moved past. Only at the very edge of the screen did she emerge again from the crowd. She was wearing dark pants and a white ski parka with a furred hood. Gabriel advanced one more image, and Maura’s head moved beyond the frame, but half her torso was still visible.
    “Well, look at that,” said Queenan, pointing. “She’s wheeling a suitcase.” He looked at Jane. “I think that settles the issue, doesn’t it? She packed her own bag and checked out. She wasn’t dragged from the building. As of Saturday, eight oh five, she was alive and well and leaving the hotel on her own steam.” He glanced at his watch and stood. “Call me if you see anything else worth noting.”
    “You’re not staying?”
    “Ma’am, we’ve sent her photo to every newspaper and TV station in the state of Wyoming. We’re fielding every call that comes in. The problem is, she—or someone who looks like her—has been sighted just about everywhere.”
    “Where, exactly?” asked Jane.
    “You name it, she’s been seen there. The Dinosaur Museum in Thermopolis. Grubb’s General Store in Sublette County. Eating dinner at the Irma Hotel in Cody. A dozen different places, all around the state. At the moment, I’m not sure what more I can do. Now, I don’t know your missing friend here. I don’t know what kind of woman she is. But I’m thinking that she met some guy, maybe one of those other doctors here. She packs her suitcase, checks out a day early, and they decide to drive off somewhere together. Don’t you agree that’s the most likely explanation? That she’s holed up in some hotel room with this guy, and they’re having such hot sex that she’s lost track of the calendar?”
    Painfully aware that Daniel was standing beside her, Jane said: “She wouldn’t do that.”
    “I can’t count the number of times people have said that to me, or some variation on those words.
He’s a good husband. He’d never do that
. Or:
She’d never leave her kids
. The point is, people surprise you. They do something crazy, and suddenly you realize you never really knew them. You must’ve dealt with that situation yourself, Detective.”
    Jane could not deny it; were their roles reversed, she would probably be giving the same little speech. How people are not who you think they are, not even people you’ve loved all your life. She thought of her own parents, whose thirty-five-year marriage had disintegrated after her father’s affair with another woman. She thought of her mother’s startling transformation from dowdy housewife into a lusty divorcée in low-cut dresses. No, people are too often not who you think they are. Sometimes they do foolish and inexplicable things.
    Sometimes, they fall in love with Catholic priests.
    “The point is, we haven’t seen evidence of a crime yet,” said Queenan, pulling on his winter jacket. “No blood, nothing to suggest that anyone forced her to do anything.”
    “There was that man. The one the hotel clerk saw with Maura.”
    “What about him?”
    “If Maura went off with this guy, I’d like to know who he is. Shouldn’t we at least check the videos from Thursday night?”
    Queenan stood scowling as he debated whether to pull off his jacket again. At last he sighed. “Okay. Let’s look at Thursday night. The clerk said they were headed out to dinner, so we can start the recording around five PM.”
    This time, it was easier to spot their target. According to Michelle, the couple had come up to the reception desk to ask for directions to the restaurant. They fast-forwarded through the video, pausing only when someone approached the desk. Passersby jittered back and