have any information on his whereabouts to please call them immediately. The number is …”
The recently taken picture showed a grinning five-year-old Maximillian with his thick, blond hair parted to one side and slicked back with gel, a stylish purple silk bow tie under his chin, and a perfectly fitted custom-made three-piece suit covering his small frame. The boy’s face faded from the screen and the face of the anchorwoman reappeared on theHogarty television just as Gabriel came in through the kitchen door holding a socket wrench and a set of sockets.
He must have noticed the sullen expressions on our faces. “What’s up?”
“A story about Ida’s old boyfriend was on the news,” I said. “His son was abducted from DIA earlier today. It’s breaking news.”
“On Christmas Eve?” Gabriel said. “That’s horrible.”
Frances leaned her head against his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her in a comforting embrace. Elizabeth and I just stared at the TV in shock.
Frances asked, “Do you think one of us should call Ida?”
My mind was focused entirely on the story of the missing boy, wondering if Streeter had been called in to investigate and if he had, why he hadn’t called me.
My cell phone rang.
CHAPTER 12
PHIL KELLEHER OFFERED STREETER a tight smile as they entered the nearly bare room. Along the walls were several chairs and a folding table with a coffee pot, stacks of cups, sugar, and creamer. In the center of the room were two pods of folding tables. One had been set up in a large square with two computers, two printers, a video camera and recording equipment, and partitions to separate four distinct working areas with separate phones. Office space. The second grouping, the interview area, consisted of two folding tables lined with chairs, and it also included more video and recording equipment.
Streeter was amazed at how quickly Kelleher worked and how resourceful he could be at getting all of this equipment past security. He’d called Calvin, his boss and Denver Bureau SAC, the second he had closed the door to his truck at Gates’s house. Then Streeter called fellow agents Kelleher and Liv—in that order—despite Calvin’s unsettling news about assigning first office agent Bergen as lead on this case. On a follow-up call to Calvin, Streeter convinced Calvin to let him lead the case and, instead, to mentor Liv on her first assignment. The phone call nearly consumed the entire trip from Gates’s house to DIA. Once he arrived at the airport, Streeter spent only twenty minutes or so in the BlueSky office beforeheading straight over to the makeshift headquarters Kelleher had already set up for them.
Streeter couldn’t help but notice that Liv Bergen hadn’t even arrived yet.
Streeter said, “Thanks for coming, Kelleher, for leaving your family to help us.”
Kelleher nodded imperceptibly and got down to business. “Here are two computer systems. This one is secure, the other, not so much. Not yet, anyway. We’re working on it. We have a video and still camera set up on both so we can capture all images from interviews, review airport security videos, whatever you need. So be careful until we can figure out how to secure this beast.”
Every time he was around Phil Kelleher, Streeter thought of Felix from the Odd Couple , only Kelleher probably would have been offended by the comparison, considering the fictional Felix Unger was not quite as fastidious as Kelleher was.
“Here is the information we’ve pulled on the boy and the escort.” Kelleher indicated the smaller of the two piles of files stacked on the bare interview tables.
Streeter pointed at the other, thicker pile. “And these?”
“The parents,” Kelleher said with a scowl, his thin face folding like a crumpled paper.
Streeter whistled. The pile of documents was massive, indicating the parents were going to be trouble. He introduced Gates to Kelleher.
“Heard about you,” Chief Tony Gates said. “If
The recently taken picture showed a grinning five-year-old Maximillian with his thick, blond hair parted to one side and slicked back with gel, a stylish purple silk bow tie under his chin, and a perfectly fitted custom-made three-piece suit covering his small frame. The boy’s face faded from the screen and the face of the anchorwoman reappeared on theHogarty television just as Gabriel came in through the kitchen door holding a socket wrench and a set of sockets.
He must have noticed the sullen expressions on our faces. “What’s up?”
“A story about Ida’s old boyfriend was on the news,” I said. “His son was abducted from DIA earlier today. It’s breaking news.”
“On Christmas Eve?” Gabriel said. “That’s horrible.”
Frances leaned her head against his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her in a comforting embrace. Elizabeth and I just stared at the TV in shock.
Frances asked, “Do you think one of us should call Ida?”
My mind was focused entirely on the story of the missing boy, wondering if Streeter had been called in to investigate and if he had, why he hadn’t called me.
My cell phone rang.
CHAPTER 12
PHIL KELLEHER OFFERED STREETER a tight smile as they entered the nearly bare room. Along the walls were several chairs and a folding table with a coffee pot, stacks of cups, sugar, and creamer. In the center of the room were two pods of folding tables. One had been set up in a large square with two computers, two printers, a video camera and recording equipment, and partitions to separate four distinct working areas with separate phones. Office space. The second grouping, the interview area, consisted of two folding tables lined with chairs, and it also included more video and recording equipment.
Streeter was amazed at how quickly Kelleher worked and how resourceful he could be at getting all of this equipment past security. He’d called Calvin, his boss and Denver Bureau SAC, the second he had closed the door to his truck at Gates’s house. Then Streeter called fellow agents Kelleher and Liv—in that order—despite Calvin’s unsettling news about assigning first office agent Bergen as lead on this case. On a follow-up call to Calvin, Streeter convinced Calvin to let him lead the case and, instead, to mentor Liv on her first assignment. The phone call nearly consumed the entire trip from Gates’s house to DIA. Once he arrived at the airport, Streeter spent only twenty minutes or so in the BlueSky office beforeheading straight over to the makeshift headquarters Kelleher had already set up for them.
Streeter couldn’t help but notice that Liv Bergen hadn’t even arrived yet.
Streeter said, “Thanks for coming, Kelleher, for leaving your family to help us.”
Kelleher nodded imperceptibly and got down to business. “Here are two computer systems. This one is secure, the other, not so much. Not yet, anyway. We’re working on it. We have a video and still camera set up on both so we can capture all images from interviews, review airport security videos, whatever you need. So be careful until we can figure out how to secure this beast.”
Every time he was around Phil Kelleher, Streeter thought of Felix from the Odd Couple , only Kelleher probably would have been offended by the comparison, considering the fictional Felix Unger was not quite as fastidious as Kelleher was.
“Here is the information we’ve pulled on the boy and the escort.” Kelleher indicated the smaller of the two piles of files stacked on the bare interview tables.
Streeter pointed at the other, thicker pile. “And these?”
“The parents,” Kelleher said with a scowl, his thin face folding like a crumpled paper.
Streeter whistled. The pile of documents was massive, indicating the parents were going to be trouble. He introduced Gates to Kelleher.
“Heard about you,” Chief Tony Gates said. “If
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