The Narrows

at the completion of his report. Alpert took back the lead.
    "I want to go to Brass last, so let's hear about the soil."
    Mary Pond took it from there.
    "We've sifted all of the sites and it's all come up clean except for one piece we got yesterday that is exciting. In excavation seven we found a wad of gum in a wrapper. Juicy Fruit, according to the wrapper. It was between twenty-four and thirty inches down in a three-foot grave. So we really feel it is related and could be a good break for us."
    "Dental?" Alpert asked.
    "Yes, we have dental. I can't tell you what yet but it looked like three good impressions. I boxed it and sent it to Brass."
    "Yes, it is here," Doran said from the television. "Came in this morning. I put it in motion but I don't have anything on it yet either. Maybe late today. I agree, though. From what I saw we'll get at least three teeth out of it. Maybe even DNA."
    "Could be all we need," Alpert added excitedly.
    Even though she distinctly remembered that Bob Backus had a habit of chewing Juicy Fruit gum, Rachel was not excited. The gum in the grave was too good to be true. She thought there was no way that Backus would allow himself to leave such important evidence behind. He was too good as both a killer and agent for that. She could not properly express this doubt in the meeting, however, because of her agreement with Alpert not to bring up Backus in front of other agents.
    "It's got to be a plant," she said.
    Alpert looked at her a moment, weighing the risk of asking her why.
    "A plant. Why do you say that, Rachel?"
    "Because I can't see why this guy who is burying a body in the middle of nowhere, probably in the middle of the night, would take the time to put his shovel down, take the gum out of his mouth, wrap it in its foil, which he had to take out of his pocket, and then drop it. I think if he'd been chewing gum he would have just spit it out. But I don't think he was chewing gum. I think he picked that little wad up somewhere, brought it to the grave and dropped it in so we would spin our wheels with it when he decided to lead us to the bodies with his GPS trick."
    She glanced around the room. She had their eyes but she could tell she was more of a curiosity to them than a respected colleague. The silence was broken by the television.
    "I think Rachel is probably right," Doran said. "We have been manipulated from day one on this. Why not with the gum? It does seem like an incredible mistake for such a well-planned action."
    Rachel noticed Doran wink at her.
    "One piece of gum, one mistake, in eight graves?" said Gunning, one of the agents from Quantico. "I don't think that is such a long shot. We all know nobody's ever committed the perfect crime. Yes, people get away but they all make mistakes."
    "Well," Alpert said, "let's wait and see what we get with this before we jump to any conclusions one way or the other. Mary, anything else?"
    "Not at this time."
    "Then let's go to Agent Cates to see how the locals are doing with the IDs."
    Cates opened a leather-bound folder on the table in front of him. It contained a legal pad with notes on it. That he had such a nice and expensive holder for a basic legal pad told Rachel that he was very proud of his work and what he did. Either that or the person who gave him the folder had those feelings. Either way, it made Rachel like him right away. It also made her feel like she was missing something. She no longer carried that kind of pride in the bureau or what she did.
    "Okay, we started sniffing around Vegas Metro on their missing persons case. We're handicapped by the need for secrecy. So we're not going in there like gang-busters. We've just made contact and said we're interested because of the state line thing-victims from multiple states and even one other country. That gives us an in but we don't want to show our hand by blasting in there. So we're supposed to have a sitdown with them later today. Once we reach the beach, so to speak, we'll start back tracing these individuals and looking for the common denominator. Keep in mind these guys have been on this for several weeks and as far as we know don't have shit."
    "Agent Cates," Alpert said. "The tape."
    "Oh, excuse my language there. They don't have anything is what I meant to say."
    "Very good, Agent Cates. Keep me informed."
    And only silence followed. Alpert continued to smile warmly at Cates until the local agent got the message.
    "Oh, um, you want me to leave?"
    "I want you out