Call Of The Witch by Dana Donovan Read Free Book Online Page B

assaults, as well. Unfortunately, even when a
ransom is part of the initial demands for release, after a sexual
assault takes place, the kidnapper often kills his victim anyway,
and then disposes the body.”
    “ To destroy any DNA
evidence,” I said.
    “ Yup.”
    “ That’s awful.”
    “ And the scary part
is––”
    “ Don’t tell me. Because
the kidnapper still hasn’t named his price, you’re worried the
ransom is just a smoke screen. He doesn’t want the money at
all.”
    Spinelli nodded faintly. “He may just be
milking it for the excitement, creating additional anxiety at arm’s
reach to heighten his perverted fetish. If that’s the case, it’s
our worst nightmare.”
    “ Then we might as well
prepare for the worst. We should contact Kelly Brewbaker’s
physician, and her dentist. See about getting dentil records,
X-rays…anything that may help us identify her remains.”
    “ No. Let’s not,” said
Dominic.
    “ Excuse me?”
    He shook his head. “I can’t think about that,
Tony. I have to believe she’s okay.”
    “ I have to believe she’s
okay, too. But let’s face it. We need to cover all the
bases.”
    “ Tony, she’s just a
child.” I could hear his voice cracking again. “I don’t want to
work this case assuming it’s a recovery mission.”
    “ I don’t either, Dominic.
I’m only saying––”
    “ Tony!” I turned to
Carlos. He drew a bead on me a sharp as glass. “We can do that
later.”
    “ Later?”
    He hooked his brow ever so slightly. “Yes.
Later.”
    I gestured a weak shrug. “Sure. All right.
We’ll do it later.”
    Carlos nodded at Spinelli. “What else,
Dominic?”
    I could tell that Dominic had lost focus
temporarily. His eyes drifted off again, down toward the floor and
along an imaginary line. I looked at Carlos, my expression
undoubtedly conveying my confusion. He shook his head faintly. I
took that to mean I should let it go.
    “ Dominic?” he said
again.
    At last, he responded. “Yes?”
    “ What else you
got?”
    “ Oh.” I could see him
reeling his thoughts in and stowing them away somewhere deep in the
back of his mind. He flipped to the next page on his chart. It was
a crude outline of the tri-county area showing a red X at two
locations roughly ten miles apart. In the center on the map was a
blue square with an A-frame top. He pointed to the blue box
first.
    “ This is the Brewbaker
home,” he said. “And these,” he pointed to the two red X`s, “are
the cell towers that relayed the kidnappers first two phone
calls.”
    “ He’s bouncing the signals
off different cell towers,” I said, “to keep us from knowing his
fixed location.”
    “ That’s right. He knows
we’re able to trace the relay towers without difficulty. The phone
records tell us that. In fact, the phone doesn’t even have to be in
use for us to know which tower it’s closest to.”
    “ So long as the battery is
in the phone.”
    “ Exactly. Unfortunately,
the kidnapper is smart enough to know that, too. We have traces set
up on all the phones in the Brewbaker’s house, landlines and cells.
The problem is, we need time to trace a call if we’re going to
triangulate and pinpoint the exact location of its
origin.”
    “ I don’t think that’s
going to happen. The caller seems smart enough to know we’ll
attempt to do that. He’s not going to stay on the line long enough,
and if he does, it looks like he’s going to keep jumping around so
that we can’t track him to any one place.”
    Carlos said, “We can only hope he slips up
and forgets to remove the battery from the phone after placing his
next call.”
    “ In the meantime,” I said,
“we can look at video from cameras around those two cell towers.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and spot that van the neighbor kid
mentioned.”
    “ Already on it,” said
Spinelli. “I got video coming in from three convenient stores, two
banks and a gas station.”
    I smiled, pleased and just a little amazed at
the