The Narrows
himself Shandy."
"Did they check all of that out yet?"
"Yes. There's no trace line on Shandy yet-it was probably just a name he gave Terry. But photographic analysis and comparison of the photos Terry took and photos of Backus are under way as we speak. The initial report is they're going to come in as a match. It was Backus."
"And Terry didn't recognize him."
"Well, he obviously recognized something. He took the pictures, so there was some sort of suspicion. But the guy had a beard, hat and glasses. The analyst on it said he'd also changed his nose and teeth and maybe had cheek implants. There's a lot of things he could have done, even a surgery that would have changed his voice. Look, I looked at the photos and didn't see it for sure and I worked directly with Backus for five years, much longer than Terry. Terry got moved out to L.A. to man the Behavioral Sciences outpost."
"Any idea where he got all of that done?"
"We're pretty sure we know. About six years ago the bodies of a surgeon and bis wife were found in their burned-out home in Prague. The home had a surgical suite and the doctor was the subject of an Interpol intelligence file. The wife was his nurse. He was suspected of being a face man-a surgeon who would change your face for a certain price. The theory was that someone he changed murdered him and his wife to cover the trail. All records he might have kept on the faces he changed were lost in the fire. It was ruled an arson." "What connected Backus to him?"
"Nothing for sure. But as you can imagine, everything Backus did or touched as an agent was gone over once he was revealed. His entire case history was audited as much as possible. He did a lot of consulting on cases abroad. Part of the FBI image machine. He went to places like Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, you name it."
"He went to Prague?"
She nodded.
"He went to Prague on a case. To consult. Young women disappearing and ending up in the river. Prostitutes. The doctor-the face man-was questioned in the investigation because he did the breast augmentations on three of the victims. Backus was there. He helped question the doctor."
"And he could have been told about the doctor's suspected sideline."
"Exactly. We think he knew and we think he went there to change his face."
"That wouldn't have been easy. His real face was on the front of every newspaper and magazine back then."
"Look, Bob Backus is a psychopathic killer but he is a very smart psychopath. Outside of the made-up guys in books and movies, nobody's ever been smarter at this. Not even Bundy. We have to assume that he had an escape plan all along. From day one. When I put him out that window eight years ago, you better believe he already had a plan in place. I'm talking about money, IDs, whatever he would need to reinvent himself and get away. He probably carried it with him. We assume from L.A. he made his way back east first and then split to Europe." "He burned down his condo," I said.
"Right, we give him credit for that, which puts him in Virginia three weeks after I shot him in L.A. That was a shrewd move. He torched the place and then got to Europe, where he could lie low for a while, change his face and then start again."
" Amsterdam."
She nodded.
"The first killing in Amsterdam occurred seven months after the face man burned in Prague."
I nodded. It all seemed to fit together. Then I thought of something else.
"How is the director going to announce the surprise that Backus is alive when four years ago you had Amsterdam?"
"He's got all kinds of deniability on that. First and most important, that was another director's watch. So he can lay anything he needs to off on him. That's FBI tradition. But realistically, that was another country and it wasn't an investigation we were running. And it was never absolutely confirmed. We had handwriting analysis, but that was really it and that is not in the same league as fingerprinting or DNA when it comes to confirming. So the director can simply say nothing was for sure about Backus in Amsterdam. Either way he's safe. He just has to worry about the here and the now."
"Manage the moment."
"FBI one-oh-one."
"And you people are going along with his going public?"
"No. We asked for a week. He gave us the day. The press conference is at six p.m. eastern time." "Like anything's going to happen today."
"Yeah, we know. We're fucked."
"Backus will probably go under, change his face again and not turn up for another four
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