with a typed, numbered list of names. Nothing else. He studied it: seven names, none of whom he recognized.
1. Steven Loomis
2. Dr. Susan Beaumont
3. Deborah Piper
4. David Worth
5. Michael Dunlopen
6. Dr. Frank Johnson
7. Dr. Atul Pradhan
Beneath the list, written in blue ink, were the initials DKW. Mallory recognized the handwriting as his brother’s.
“Who are they?”
Church touched his coffee cup handle. “At least four of the people on the list are dead.”
“The other three?”
“Unknown.”
“So …? What ties them together?”
“Don’t know. I’ve run a couple hours of data searches. Checked with police agencies. Four were scientists involved in weather research. That’s the closest I’ve found to any sort of link. But the projects they worked on had no apparent connection. All in different parts of the country. Number five was a newspaper reporter. He’s one of the confirmed dead.”
“What happened?”
“Shot. A remote wooded region of Alaska.”
“Unsolved?”
“Unsolved.”
“And the others?”
“Susan Beaumont was murdered in a motel room near Caspar, Wyoming. Dr. Atul Pradhan died in the tsunami in the Bay of Bengal.”
“Last week?”
“Yes. September twenty-fifth.”
“What about this weather research? What specifically were they working on?”
“Very different arenas, as I say. Steven Loomis, to start at the top, was involved with the Defense Department from the 1960s through the 1970s. He worked for a time on Project Stormfury.”
“The hurricane mitigation project,” Mallory said. “Now largely discredited.”
“Yes. About ten years ago, he signed on as a consultant for a private industry weather mapping project in California. He also workedfor a company called Energy and Atmospheric Research Systems, or EARS, which was a big government contractor for a while.”
Mallory nodded. He knew a little about them.
“Dr. Beaumont was a forensic meteorologist. She was a researcher at MIT. Frank Johnson was a physicist who created weather tracking computer models. Died of a heart attack, apparently. No connection between the two, though. At least none that I’ve been able to find. Deborah Piper, I’m not sure. Not much on her yet.”
Mallory glanced at the names. “And their paths never crossed? None of the seven?”
“Not that I’ve been able to determine.”
“Who were the other confirmed dead?”
“The confirmed dead are numbers two, five, six, and seven.”
He glanced at the four names. “And the three disappearances. Any signs of violence?”
“In one case, yes. Number four. There were signs of a struggle at his home,” Church said. “In three of the deaths, interestingly, DNA was found at the scene which was not that of the victim and could not otherwise be identified. Not spouses or anyone else who was considered a possible suspect.”
“And not part of the FBI’s DNA database.”
“Exactly.”
“Any connection among those DNA samples? Indicating it could have been the same person?”
Church pressed his lips together, showing the faintest trace of a smile. “I actually planted that idea with one of the detectives. Said I’d received an anonymous tip that the cases might be connected.”
“And?”
“He followed up. The DNA doesn’t match. In one case, it belonged to a woman.”
Mallory was forming an idea.
“It’s possible, of course, that they’re
not
related,” Church added. “That this is some kind of elaborate ruse. Or a mistake.”
Mallory glanced at the paper again. “And these initials at the bottom?”
DKW
.
Church sighed. “She’s the one your brother was talking with forhis story. Dr. Keri Westlake. Based in College Park. Now officially a missing person.”
“She’s the one who gave him this list?”
“Evidently. I wish I had asked him more, in a way. He was very reluctant to discuss any of this with me. It was very dangerous information, he said. Which is probably true. But he seemed quite
1. Steven Loomis
2. Dr. Susan Beaumont
3. Deborah Piper
4. David Worth
5. Michael Dunlopen
6. Dr. Frank Johnson
7. Dr. Atul Pradhan
Beneath the list, written in blue ink, were the initials DKW. Mallory recognized the handwriting as his brother’s.
“Who are they?”
Church touched his coffee cup handle. “At least four of the people on the list are dead.”
“The other three?”
“Unknown.”
“So …? What ties them together?”
“Don’t know. I’ve run a couple hours of data searches. Checked with police agencies. Four were scientists involved in weather research. That’s the closest I’ve found to any sort of link. But the projects they worked on had no apparent connection. All in different parts of the country. Number five was a newspaper reporter. He’s one of the confirmed dead.”
“What happened?”
“Shot. A remote wooded region of Alaska.”
“Unsolved?”
“Unsolved.”
“And the others?”
“Susan Beaumont was murdered in a motel room near Caspar, Wyoming. Dr. Atul Pradhan died in the tsunami in the Bay of Bengal.”
“Last week?”
“Yes. September twenty-fifth.”
“What about this weather research? What specifically were they working on?”
“Very different arenas, as I say. Steven Loomis, to start at the top, was involved with the Defense Department from the 1960s through the 1970s. He worked for a time on Project Stormfury.”
“The hurricane mitigation project,” Mallory said. “Now largely discredited.”
“Yes. About ten years ago, he signed on as a consultant for a private industry weather mapping project in California. He also workedfor a company called Energy and Atmospheric Research Systems, or EARS, which was a big government contractor for a while.”
Mallory nodded. He knew a little about them.
“Dr. Beaumont was a forensic meteorologist. She was a researcher at MIT. Frank Johnson was a physicist who created weather tracking computer models. Died of a heart attack, apparently. No connection between the two, though. At least none that I’ve been able to find. Deborah Piper, I’m not sure. Not much on her yet.”
Mallory glanced at the names. “And their paths never crossed? None of the seven?”
“Not that I’ve been able to determine.”
“Who were the other confirmed dead?”
“The confirmed dead are numbers two, five, six, and seven.”
He glanced at the four names. “And the three disappearances. Any signs of violence?”
“In one case, yes. Number four. There were signs of a struggle at his home,” Church said. “In three of the deaths, interestingly, DNA was found at the scene which was not that of the victim and could not otherwise be identified. Not spouses or anyone else who was considered a possible suspect.”
“And not part of the FBI’s DNA database.”
“Exactly.”
“Any connection among those DNA samples? Indicating it could have been the same person?”
Church pressed his lips together, showing the faintest trace of a smile. “I actually planted that idea with one of the detectives. Said I’d received an anonymous tip that the cases might be connected.”
“And?”
“He followed up. The DNA doesn’t match. In one case, it belonged to a woman.”
Mallory was forming an idea.
“It’s possible, of course, that they’re
not
related,” Church added. “That this is some kind of elaborate ruse. Or a mistake.”
Mallory glanced at the paper again. “And these initials at the bottom?”
DKW
.
Church sighed. “She’s the one your brother was talking with forhis story. Dr. Keri Westlake. Based in College Park. Now officially a missing person.”
“She’s the one who gave him this list?”
“Evidently. I wish I had asked him more, in a way. He was very reluctant to discuss any of this with me. It was very dangerous information, he said. Which is probably true. But he seemed quite
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