“I’m not supposed to leave the area.”
“Bureau Rule Number One: You can go anywhere so long as you have your
guardian angel along.”
Reynolds looked troubled. “What do you think about calling in
reinforcements?”
He eyed her quizzically. “Well, I guess we could call Massey and
Fisher and let them take all the credit.”
Reynolds suddenly smiled. “Give me a minute to call home and then
let’s roll.”
CHAPTER 43
IT HAD TAKEN LEE MANY AGONIZING HOURS, but he had finally tracked down
Renee. Her mother had flatly refused to give him her phone number at
college, but in a series of calls to the admissions office, among
others, Lee had lied, begged and threatened until the number had been
given up. It figured. He hadn’t called his daughter for a long time,
and when he did, it had to be for something like this. Boy, she was
really going to cherish her old man now.
Renee’s roommate at UVA swore on her grave that Renee had left for
class accompanied by two members of the football team, one of whom she
was dating. After telling the young woman who he was and leaving a
number for Renee to call, Lee had hung up the phone and then gotten the
telephone number for the Albermarle County Sheriff’s office. He talked
his way to a deputy sheriff and told the woman that someone had made
threats against Renee Adams, a student at UVA. Would they please send
someone to check on her? The woman asked questions that Lee could not
answer, including wanting to know who the hell he was. Just check the
latest most-wanted list, he wanted to tell her. Sick with worry, he
tried his best to impress upon her the sincerity of what he was saying.
Then he hung up and stared down at the digital missive once more:
“Renee for Faith,” he slowly said to himself.
“What?”
He jerked around and stared at Faith, there on the stairs, her eyes
wide, her mouth open.
“Lee, what is it?”
Lee was out of ideas at the moment. He simply held up the phone for
Faith, his face an anguished mess.
She looked at the message and then stared at him. “We have to call the
police.”
“She’s okay, I just talked to her roommate. And I called the police.
Somebody’s blowing smoke at us. Trying to spook us.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re right, I don’t,” he said miserably.
“Are you going to call the number back?”
“That’s probably what they want me to do.”
“You mean so they can trace the call? Can you trace a cellular
call?”
“It’s possible, if you have the right equipment. Phone carriers have
to be able to trace a cell call to determine the location of a 911
caller. It uses a time difference of arrival method by measuring
signal distances between cell towers and kicks out a string of possible
locations.. Shit, my daughter’s head might be in the guillotine and I
sound like a damn walking science magazine.”
“But not an exact location.”
“No, at least I don’t think so. It’s not as precise as satellite
positioning, that’s for certain. But who the hell really knows? Some
gee ky asshole invents some new piece of shit every second that rips
away a little bit more of your privacy. I know, my ex-wife married
one.”
“You should call, Lee.”
“And what the hell am I supposed to say? They want to trade you for
her.”
She put one hand on his shoulder, rubbed his neck and then leaned
against him. “Call them. And then we’ll see what we can do. Nothing
is going to happen to your daughter.”
He looked at her. “You can’t guarantee that.”
“I can guarantee that I will do everything I can to make sure she’s not
harmed.”
“Including walking into their hands?”
“If it comes to that, yes. I’m not going to let an innocent person get
hurt because of me.”
Lee slumped back against the couch. “I’m supposed to be so good under
pressure too and I can’t even think straight.”
“Call them,” Faith said very firmly.
Lee took a long breath and punched in the numbers. With Faith sitting