Veiled Threat by Alice Loweecey Read Free Book Online Page A

the note say?”
    “That the child is in the arms of her Heavenly Father.” Jimmy tossed his wrapper into the trash.
    Frank put a hand on Giulia’s arm. “I’ll say it. Bastards.”

eight
    Giulia gave Frank a tight smile. “I notice that the kidnappers kept the money both times.”
    “Of course,” Frank said. “It’s all about the money.”
    She gripped her Coke till the plastic buckled. “Captain, may I have a pen?”
    When she uncapped the ballpoint, she turned over the first printout. “Similarity number one: all three babies had a medical issue. The kidnappers could be working at hospitals. No. The victims lived too far apart. They could have hacked into hospital databases.”
    “Across three states?” Frank said. “Keep in mind that I’m playing Devil’s Advocate in this scenario.”
    “Drag yourself into the twenty-first century, Driscoll,” Jimmy said. “My neighbor’s kid hacked into the school district’s database to change his girlfriend’s GPA.”
    “I’ll give you that. But this could also mean we’re dealing with three different kidnappers. A small ring, but still a ring.”
    Giulia finished her sub. “That’s possible. Laurel and Anya’s contacts don’t think the police in Erie or Akron tried to connect the crimes.”
    Jimmy looked at her over the monitor. “There wouldn’t be an obvious reason to. Of course, if either set of parents had disobeyed the phoned instructions and called in the FBI, their resources might have found a connection where local authorities couldn’t. And I say that as a local authority.”
    “I know. The adoption assistance group did insist there was a pattern.” She folded her wrapper into a small square.
    A quick knock on the door and a detective poked his head in. “I kid you not, Cap, a geezer just rammed his ’55 T-Bird into a 7-Eleven.”
    “Is he hurt?” Giulia said.
    “Is the T-Bird hurt?” Frank said.
    “He’s okay enough to be cursing in German and kicking pieces of his bumper. The two clerks and a guy who was getting a Slurpee are trying to salvage the front displays. The T-Bird sustained minor front-end damage.”
    Frank and Jimmy groaned.
    “You two,” Giulia glared at each of them in turn, “need to rethink your priorities. Cars can be replaced. People can’t.”
    “Vintage T-Birds cannot be replaced.” Jimmy waved the detective out. “Get the uniforms’ report and plug it into your metrics. Close the door.”
    “Men.” Giulia said. She spread out the papers. “Look. All three couples use the same bank chain.”
    Frank and Jimmy followed her pen as she circled the bank name three times.
    “I know it’s possible to hack a bank, but it’s not easy.” Giulia tapped the pen next to one of the circles. “Laurel said that they used credit cards for most of the expenses and left their bank accounts intact. This way, when the agencies ran credit checks, they always had enough money to pay the bills.”
    “Yes,” Frank said. “Meaning I agree with you and we should discount that as a possible connection.”
    “You’re quick to shoot down an idea, but slow to help us look for possibilities.”
    Frank raised his eyebrows. “You’re channeling Sister Mary Regina … don’t tell me …”
    “Mary Regina Coelis.” Giulia bit off each word. “But you remember who won the FA Cup the past five years.”
    Jimmy said, “God help us, don’t get him started on soccer. Frank, I don’t know what’s up your ass about this case, but can you get with the program here?”
    “Fine.” He pulled over two printouts. All three of them studied the papers onscreen or on the desk for a few minutes.
    “Hey.” Frank scooped up the rest of the printouts. “Here,” he set one aside, “here,” another, “and … yes, here it is again.” He set those three pages on top of the rest. “They all went to someplace called the Wildflower.”
    “They did?” Giulia ran her index finger between the documents on the screen. “You’re