"In a real sense all life is inter-related. All persons are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly... I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of reality." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chapter Seven - Can't Find Frank
F.B.I. Missing Persons Unit Bullpen - Forty Five Hours Missing
Dead ends. In the past few hours, that was all his team was coming up with. That irritated Jack Malone . But not as much as the thoughts his team had all been having about this missing person. He stared at the photograph of Frank Runyeon hanging on the board and wondered exactly what went on in the mind of a man like Runyeon's. The more they found out about him, the less they liked him.
Danny came up behind Jack, throwing the case file on his desk. He looked up as Jack asked, "Nothing, huh?"
"With a young wife and newborn waiting for him at home, Runyeon had to know that finding himself out of a job was going to cause major stress."
Jack mulled for a moment before replying, "That gives the wife a motive."
"Yeah," Danny agreed, "but according to Theresa Runyeon, she had no idea that her husband lost his job the night that he disappeared. There are no calls to her from his work or cell phone, and no signs that he ever made it home that night. So at the very least, what we end up with is one more person with motive and an alibi." Together, the two men stood and stared at the case board. Finally Danny said, "Are we going to at least entertain the notion that this guy doesn't want to be found? Or is a suicide?"
"How do you figure that?" Jack wanted to know.
"Sometimes in life you have to face up to who you are. Maybe he couldn't handle looking in the mirror." Danny said simply. "Aside from raping Katie Mc..."
"Allegedly." Jack corrected, a dry tone to his voice.
Danny cast a sideways look at him before continuing, "Aside from allegedly raping Katie McNamara, we have found out that he was cheating on his wife, while she was pregnant no less, and got caught embezzling funds from his firm. Maybe he did have a sliver of a conscience and it finally caught up with him."
Jack thought for a minute, then shook his head. "We can't think suicide without a body."
"I think I can help you there." Martin said, coming over to join them and holding up a report. "NYPD pulled a body out of the river about an hour ago. No identification, but matches the physical description of our Matthew Francis Runyeon. Samantha and I are headed down to the morgue."
Jack drew in his breath. "Did they say anything about a preliminary cause of death?"
"Blow to the head." Martin replied. "Body had a gash on the side of his head, just above his left ear."
"Rules out my suicide theory." Danny said.
"If it is Frank Runyeon." Jack reminded. To Martin, he said, "Get down there and find out for sure." Martin nodded and turned, almost running headlong into an approaching Vivian. "Sorry." He smiled, reaching out to steady Vivian.
"Easy there, Speedy." Vivian said returning his smile, then watched Martin take off down the hall.
"Got anything?" Jack asked.
"We were able to trace that mystery number that kept popping up on the records for Runyeon's work and home phones the last few months." Vivian paused, looking at Jack and Danny. "You're not going to like it."
"There are a lot of things about this case that I don't like, so hit me with it." Jack said.
"The number was traced back to a cell phone tower in Brooklyn. The phone is registered to Tom McNamara."
"Katie's dad." Danny said quietly.
Both Danny and Vivian turned to look at Jack, but his face was unreadable. Finally he said, "Look's like we're going back to Brooklyn."
