As they arrived at the lab Cal ended his call with his daughter and headed straight to where Ria Torres was sitting as she set up the video recordings from the search. Gillian moved towards Eli Loker who had the voicemail recording set up and waiting for her, already having completed the technical side of the analysis. Gillian motioned to Mark to observe Cal and Ria, knowing that it would be important to review what he had already witnessed with his own eyes. This was the best way for him to learn at this stage of his training. She would go over the findings from the voice analysis afterwards. They each worked through their respective tasks quietly for a while before Gillian was satisfied that she had done what she could for the time being with the audio analysis. She consulted briefly with Eli about a few elements of the voices that she hoped could be cleaned up and analysed for stress indicators and key markers, it was unlikely they would be able to identify the male voice in the background based on the muffled sound of the struggle that had been captured, but she was going to try everything within her power to find this child before it was too late. She desperately hoped that it wasn't already too late.
Gillian moved up behind Cal and Mark then, asking if they had found anything that might help.
"Nothing", Cal said, turning to face his partner. "No sign that anybody in that group knows anything about what happened".
"Hopefully that's a good thing", replied Gillian, nodding tensely.
Mark looked to her with confusion at this. "Why would that be good, I thought we wanted to find the guy quick?"
"We do. But if the person who took Amy were in that group, it would indicate a higher chance that Amy was already dead, or at least unable to get away if unattended", Gillian patiently explained to the young man.
"But he could be hurting her", he returned.
"Don't assume it's a male. I know all evidence points that way, but particularly when discussing the case with the family or any suspects, don't assign a presumed identity to the person who may have her. Keep it general, more anonymous. That'll help to keep people thinking of any possible option. You say 'he' and they'll only think of men who may be involved. Open language, open questions. Don't lead them in a presumed direction", Gillian was in full teaching mode as she talked to Mark. The two had really hit it off in his first days at The Lightman Group, and he responded better to Gillian's teaching methods than to Cal's most of the time. Cal had all but accepted that he was in fact Gillian's protégé, but Gillian maintained a philosophy of shared custody, reluctant to allow Cal to shirk all responsibility for the further development of the young man's natural skills and sometimes Cal found it difficult to step back anyway.
Mark nodded, not fully buying into Gillian's theory given that he was entirely convinced they were looking for a man, and the small trace of evidence so far seemed to support this. He thought they would be quicker to get results if they followed what they knew to be true. Sometimes he thought that Gillian was far too devoted to the scientific methods instead of following her gut, but he trusted her to know best in these matters.
Turning back to Cal, Gillian suggested he should listen to the audio material that had been analysed and isolated from the voicemail. There was nothing of value to identify the perpetrator, but there were some clues to be had.
It seemed almost certain that the person who had taken Amy was in fact male, and that the missing teenager did not know her attacker. This didn't presume that he was acting alone, it was still possible he was working with or on behalf of someone. Nor was it a certainty that Amy didn't know the man whose voice had been captured. She hadn't called his name, just screamed and begged for him to leave her alone and let go of her. But with only the audio to go by, they couldn't know if the child could see his face or not, meaning his identity could have been concealed to her.
The recording indicated that Amy had been caught off guard but had time to call the last number dialled on her phone, her mother. There were no sounds to suggest a vehicle had been used to grab the child either, although if it were a Prius or if it had been further away the cell phone may not have picked up the ambient sound. When the phone was dropped, the sounds of the struggle became more muted before fading away entirely, leaving only atmospheric sounds until the voicemail timed out and the call was disconnected. This proposed several options; either the kidnapper was bringing Amy to somewhere very close by, or was taking her to a nearby vehicle before transporting her. They couldn't rule out the possibility that the assailant wasn't working alone even though there was no evidence of an accomplice at this point.
It seemed unlikely that the kidnapper had planned the abduction in advance. Amy had such a strict routine, that her deviation would not have been predictable to anyone who may have planned to take her, especially if she was known to them. There was a possibility that whoever took her had been watching her and that the deviation from her normal routine presented an unexpected opportunity that was quickly seized upon, but even if this was the case Amy was a terrible target for a prospective abductor. It was possible that the kidnapper was opportunistic and disorganised. If this was the case, it wasn't looking too good for Amy. Someone who abducts a child without planning ahead was unlikely to have a plan for what to do once he had her. They would have to wait for the police to dig up more leads now.
Getting out all the discussion points and theories, Cal finished the discussion by standing up and turning to the group before saying, "Alright, that it for tonight. We need to get an early start tomorrow. Mark, Loker, you two take another look at the search party volunteers before they set out in the morning. Torres, you me and Foster will tag along with the door-to-door canvassing. After that, you and me", he said looking at Gillian, "we'll have a chat with the family, see if we can spot anything there. Torres, before you head off, give Wallowski a call; update her on where we're at with this."
The group glanced around at one another, tension filling the room now that they were at a temporary impasse in their efforts.
"Come on then, let's all get home and get a couple of hours sleep. Long day ahead", Cal said, reaching out for the end of Gillian's coat sleeve and gripping it with fingertips, leading her from the room.
