Murder in the Forest, Chapter 22
"I know one thing we can do, especially now that we realize that this man Bamka may be involved." Hotchner took out his cell phone and dialed their Quantico office.
When Garcia answered, Hotchner told her what he wanted: "Garcia, we need the complete phone records of this man Bamka, all of his phones: cell, home phone, and the one in his store, the one in his office there. And get the phone company to tell you where he was on every day of the past two weeks, especially if he may have been at the old Miller farm that we've been discussing here. We want to know where he went if he left Elm Fork. Get us the latitude and longitude of the places if the phone company can't name a specific location, like a store or something.
"Even if he turned off his cell, we can track him through it. He has to actually remove the batteries to avoid being tracked. I doubt that he did that. Most people think we can't track them without the phone being on. And I want to know if he called or got calls from any one person who might be a more frequent caller than most. I'm hoping that we can ID anyone who may be close enough to Bamka to participate in a kidnapping. If we're lucky, we can even overhear them planning something. This is the only real lead we have now, so get on it. I'll authorize overtime pay for a few hours tonight. Those missing girls' lives are at risk! Understand?"
"Got it, Hotch," said the computer whiz. "Uh, can I order in some food and get the Bureau to pay for it, if I'm going to be here all night?"
"Yes, that's fine. Just don't have some famous restaurant cater filet mignon and trimmings or order a bunch of expensive truffles. And don't stay all night unless you hit a hot trail. Get what you can, and then go home and sleep. But if you find anything good, call me at whatever hour it is. And if you isolate a particular person of interest, see if he's ordered any lingerie or restraints and see if he has a criminal record."
"Got it, Fearless Leader. I'm smoking; I'm so on fire with looking for leads. Tell Derek hello. I'm sorry that we embarrassed you and the Bureau. I'll be really subtle about this stuff. Garcia, out!"
Ford smiled as Hotchner ended the call. "Aaron, that was a nice piece of work. I doubt that we can dig deep enough to get actual recorded phone conversations, but just knowing who he sees and talks to is a good first step. And I've requested a warrant to tap all of his phones. However, we already established that the girls' phones had the batteries removed until they were forced to dance onscreen. Otherwise, we'd have tracked them by phone from the first. These guys clearly realize that they need to remove batteries!"
Hotchner smacked his forehead. "Oh, damn, Grant! I forgot. But this may pay off if they forgot to take out their own batteries. It's worth a try: they may not think we'd ever check their own phones, just those from the kidnapped girls. So, Garcia may yet find what we want."
Ford nodded. "Makes sense. Many criminals have enormous egos and a lack of ability to realize that they aren't invulnerable. "
"How's our expedition to that murder site going?" asked Morgan. "Shouldn't those guys call here soon, to at least say that they got there?"
Ford looked at his watch. "They haven't had time to get there. We'll give them another hour and radio the crews if we don't hear from them by then."
"So, that's all we have now," summed up Hotchner. "Maybe the leads that Rossi and JJ got will offer something."
"I sure hope so, "declared Ford. "The clock is ticking, and the sooner we learn who to arrest, the better. I want those girls back unharmed. I'm pretty sure that they've been raped. The least we can do is to keep anything worse from happening to them ."