Killer Ambition - [48]

“No problem.” It was already fully disrupted.

“-but I thought you’d want to hear from me as soon as I had something to tell you.”

It took me a moment to shift from surly to grateful. “Mr. Numan, thank you for calling.”

“Dr. Numan, and you’re entirely welcome. I’ll be preparing a formal report, of course, but I’ve made some notes and I have some preliminary findings that might be of help to you. Ordinarily I wouldn’t relay my preliminary findings. I prefer to wait until I’ve completed the analysis, but Dorian told me this is a matter of some urgency.” He cleared his throat again.

“Yes, that’s correct. Thank you for making an exception, Dr. Numan.”

“I only ask that you bear in mind that when I complete my analysis, I may alter my conclusions-”

“I understand.”

Numan cleared his throat again. “The plant debris and soil composition found on the vehicle associated with Hayley Antonovich’s body-”

“The Toyota, correct?” I was careful not to say it was Brian’s car on a cell phone.

“Correct. The levels of sand, silt, and clay revealed particulates most commonly found in the northwestern portion of the Santa Monica Mountain Range-”

“As in Boney Mountain?” Where Brian’s body had been found, and where I’d just been.

“Yes. Trails on Boney Mountain such as the Mishe Mokwa, for example.”

“Did you also examine soil samples taken from Fryman Canyon?” Fryman Canyon, where Russell had left the ransom money, was forty to fifty miles away, depending on what route you took. I needed to know whether the soil in Fryman Canyon was different from that on Boney Mountain.

“I did. And to answer the question I believe you intend to ask, no, the particulates I identified on the Toyota could not have come from Fryman Canyon.”

“And what about the soil and plant debris on Hayley’s body?”

“The same. The likely source was Boney Mountain.”

“How much could your findings change when you complete your examination?”

“Well…” He gave a formal chuckle, heh-heh-heh. “One never knows what one may find, but I wouldn’t expect my final conclusion to be radically different.”

I thanked Numan and ended the call.

“So the soil on the Toyota and on Hayley’s body comes back to Boney Mountain?” Bailey asked.

“Yep. And he excluded Fryman Canyon as a possible source.”

“Which means Brian and Hayley must’ve driven up here.”

“The question is, why?” I asked. “If the ransom drop was in Fryman Canyon, what were they doing forty miles away on Boney Mountain?”

Bailey frowned and shook her head. We rode back downtown in silence.

“I feel like I spent the night in a ditch.”

“I could use a shower myself,” Bailey said. “It’s almost six o’clock. I can justify knocking off for the day. How about you?”

“I don’t have any better ideas.”

We got to my room and headed for the showers. I changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a lightweight blue jersey tank top. We met in the living room and flopped on the couch.

“I’m wiped,” Bailey said. She’d changed into cutoffs and a T-shirt.

“Yeah. I guess it’s the heat.” And the constant gallop we’d been doing since we caught the case. This was the first time we’d knocked off before nightfall that I could remember.

“Room service?”

Bailey’s favorite thing. I’d just picked up the phone to place our orders when Bailey’s cell phone rang.

“Keller.”

I gave our orders to room service while Bailey took her call. Seconds later, she put down her phone.

“We got a ping from Hayley’s iPad,” she said.

Another effort to mislead us into thinking Brian was still alive? It’s what we’d been hoping for.

“An e-mail?”

“No. Just the signal that the iPad had been activated.”

“Where?”

“New York,” Bailey said. “NYPD’s running it down.”

I would’ve loved to fly out there and chase down the asshole myself, but it would waste hours in flight time, and we couldn’t afford an extra minute. We’d gotten lucky with that signal from Hayley’s iPad. Now we just had to hope we’d gotten that signal soon enough.

29

Abe Furtoni, the NYPD officer who’d given Bailey the news, had promised to call in with updates the moment anything broke. Waiting for a call like that is nerve-racking, so just to give us a little diversion, I turned on the television and found a mindless reality show about rich housewives.

“You think they really live like that? Just doing lunch and backstabbing each other?” Bailey asked incredulously.

“No. Sometimes they go to parties and backstab each other.”

Bailey’s phone rang and we exchanged a look as she picked it up. “Keller.”

After a few “okays” she ended the call.

“They’ve traced the signal to a deserted building near the Staten Island ferry station. NYPD’s on their way to Rosebank right now. Furtoni’ll call back when he’s got more.”

My pulse kicked up several notches, all traces of fatigue gone. Unable to sit still, I began to pace. Bailey, a sphinx in these situations, loves my pacing.

Bailey eyed me as I made my first two laps. “Why don’t you go to the gym? Work off some of that nervous energy.”

“I don’t want to miss the call.” Just saying it out loud made me pace faster. After three more laps, Bailey’d had it.

“You’ll miss the call if I lock you in the closet too.”