Without remorse - Tom Clancy [302]
'If this girl was any higher she'd be up on the moon with the astronauts,' the Captain thought.
'Three dead people on a boat somewhere,' Trooper Freeland repeated. 'Names and everything.'
'You believe it?'
'Story stays the same, doesn't it?'
'Yeah.' The Captain looked up. 'You like to fish out there. What's it sound like to you, Ben?'
'Like around Bloodsworth Island.'
'We'll hold her overnight on public drunkenness ... we have her dead-bang on possession, right?'
'Cap'n, all I had to do was ask. She handed the stuff to me.'
'Okay, process her all the way through.'
'And then, sir?'
'Like helicopter rides?'
He picked a different marina this time. It turned out to be pretty easy, with so many boats always out fishing or partying, and this one had plenty of guest slips for transient boats which in the summer season plied up and down the coast, stopping off on the way for food and fuel and rest much as motorists did. The dockmaster watched him move in expertly to his third-largest guest slip, which didn't always happen with the owners of the larger cruisers. He was more surprised to see the youth of the owner.
'How long you plan to be here?' the man asked, helping with the lines.
'Couple of days. Is that okay?'
'Sure.'
'Mind if I pay cash?'
'We honor cash,' the dockmaster assured him.
Kelly peeled off the bills and announced that he'd be sleeping aboard this night. He didn't say what would be happening the next day.
CHAPTER 34
Stalking
'We missed something, Em,' Douglas announced at eight-ten in the morning.
'What was it this time?' Ryan asked. Missing something wasn't exactly a new happening in their business.
'How they knew she was in Pittsburgh. I called that Sergeant Meyer, had 'em check the long-distance charges on the house phone. None, not a single outgoing call for the last month.'
The detective lieutenant stubbed out his cigarette. 'You have to assume that our friend Henry knew where she was from. He had two girls get loose from him, he probably took the time to ask where they were from. You're right,' Ryan said after a second's thought. 'He probably assumed she was dead.'
'Who knew she was there?'
'The people who took her there. They sure as hell didn't tell anyone.'
'Kelly?'
'Found out yesterday over at Hopkins, he was out of the country.'
'Oh, really? Where?'
'The nurse, O'Toole, she says she knows but she isn't allowed to say, whatever the hell that means.' He paused. 'Back to Pittsburgh.'
'The story is, Sergeant Meyer's dad is a preacher. He was counseling the girl and told his son a little of what he knew. Okay. The sergeant goes up the chain to his captain. The Captain knows Frank Allen, and the sarge calls him for advice on who's running the case. Frank refers him to us. Meyer didn't talk to anybody else.' Douglas lit up one of his own. 'So how did the info get to our friends?'
This was entirely normal, but not particularly comfortable. Now both men thought that they had a breaking case. This was happening, it was breaking open. Not unusually, things were now happening too fast for the analytical process that was necessary to make sense of it all.
'As we've thought all along, they have somebody inside.'
'Frank?' Douglas asked. 'He's never been connected with any of the cases. He doesn't even have access to the information that our friends would need.' Which was true. The Helen Waters case had started in the Western District with one of Allen's junior detectives, but the Chief had turned it over to Ryan and Douglas almost immediately because of the degree of violence involved. 'I suppose you could call this progress, Em. Now we're sure. There has to be a leak inside the Department.'
'What other good news do we have?'
The State Police only had three helicopters, all Bell Jet Rangers, and were still learning how to make use of them. Getting one was not the most trivial of exercises, but the Captain running Barracks 'V' was