Chapter 32

Three hours later I was in danger of going cross eyed. I'd tried all sorts of tricks to find some hidden message and achieved nothing, nada, zilch. Ranger had tried every test possible on the book from ultraviolet light to looking for water marks and even asking Ram to send through the results of the tests that he'd done on the book originally. From X rays to dusting and tests that I'd never heard of before.

As I sat on the floor leant against the couch, I spread the photocopies in order in front of me in a row. Surely it would have to have been something available twenty years ago that Sully would have used. Scanning the sheets without reading them I became aware of one anomaly, it wasn't obvious until you really started to look, not at the letters, words or paragraphs but at the use of punctuation. There wasn't any. No commas, exclamation marks or question marks but there was one full stop, and it was right at the end of that verse that referred to the abused dog, next to the words, by those with power. Was it maybe a mistake and Sully had just added the full stop there at the end of the sentence? I looked from the papers over to Ranger, who was sat now engrossed in the searches that I'd done.

"I think I may have found something that's worth looking at"

That had his attention, and he was soon sat behind me, his legs on either side of me looking over my shoulders at the printed sheet. Okay, I was teasing him when I asked him to really look at the sheets but maybe I was feeling a little too cocky with what I'd spotted.

"Babe, I've looked at these a hundred times"

I relented at hearing the frustration in his voice.

"In all of the writing there's no use of punctuation except for the full stop at the end of that verse. Could it be one of those dots, you know, like in the film Mission Impossible Three where a secret message was hidden on the back of a postage stamp"

"A microdot"

I wasn't sure if that was said in an exasperated tone at my knowledge of films, my lack of knowing the proper name for it or because even he hadn't noticed it. The effect was for him to pick up the book and turn to the page with verse 9 written on it.

"We need to take this to Rangeman to find out if you're right. Ram should have equipment that can magnify it enough for us to read"

I was on my feet so quickly even Ansgar shot up looking around as though he'd missed something. I'd already changed when we came back from visiting Alfred so wasn't going to change again. The black leggings and long shirt would suffice for the visit that we were doing, though I reminded myself to ask while we were there if there were any other files that Les needed my help with. Ansgar had a harness on, which to be honest was a far better set up than the collar that Bob used to wear. Thinking of Bob did bring some remorse to me. Poor Bob had eaten something that contained metal and it had torn his stomach to pieces, so Joe had agreed with the vet to have him put to sleep.

I stroked Ansgar's head as he sat at my feet promising him that I'd be a better dog mommy to him, though I was sure that Ranger would make sure of that. I was surprised when Ranger pulled up and parked in the parking lot next to Cadwaladar Park, not aware that we were going to be walking Ansgar before going to Rangeman.

"I want you to walk Ansgar from here to the exit on Maple Avenue. Hector will be waiting for you there"

I looked at Ranger wanting to know what he would be doing, not sure that I was comfortable with walking through the park on my own.

"I'll be watching you but out of sight. Bobby is going to be picking me up. I need to be sure that no one is following us or recognizes you"

Okay, that sounded logical so with Ansgar on a short lead we exited the car and began our short walk. I made a conscious effort not to look around me and especially not to try and spot Ranger, after all I was just a woman taking her dog for a walk. The day was cloudy and cold, so I was glad of the jacket pulled tight around me and the woolen hat that covered my hair. There weren't many people in the park, and I was soon taking the exit that Ranger had told me about. Ahead of me was a black SUV with Hector leant against the side waiting for me. It seemed to have been an age since I'd last seen or spoken to him in fact, I felt quite guilty considering everything that Hector had done for me.

Once inside the car I was smiling as I watched Hector watching Ansgar, knowing that only Les knew about him.

"His name is Ansgar and he's a well behaved dog. He won't bite unless aggravated"

Even as Hector drove, he kept giving Ansgar a glance.

"Is he a good guard dog to you?"

I thought about what had happened to Juan and how Ansgar had attacked him so smiled as I replied.

"Very good. As long as no one threatens me"

Hector took several turns to get to Rangeman, I suppose to ensure that we didn't have a tail, so I was quite relieved when we eventually pulled into the Rangeman garage with no incidents. As Hector turned off the engine, I put my hand on his arm to stop him from getting out of the car.

"Hector I just wanted to say thank you again for how much you've helped me. I feel as though I've not seen much of you"

Hector must have needed a distraction from me saying that because he bent over and carefully and gently held his hand in front of Ansgar's nose for him to smell him.

"Estefania, I always look out for you but from a distance. Even I know not to upset the boss man and he will always keep you safe"

I think that I understood what Hector was saying so leant toward him and kissed his tear drop while saying "Gracias"

I certainly wasn't aware of my surroundings because I jumped when my car door suddenly opened. Hector laughed but Ansgar took exception to the interruption meaning that Bobby's smile soon disappeared when he was greeted with a deep growl and Ansgar baring his teeth at him.

"No Ansgar, he's a friend. Hold your hand to him Bobby, for him to smell you"

Bobby really didn't look happy about doing that but in the end he did as I asked and then stood back with a look on his face that intimated that he'd slain the dragon one handed. Yeah, you think that Bobby. It seemed that news of our arrival soon spread but to my surprise it was Ansgar who the men wanted to see. To be honest I was getting fed up of having to introduce them to Ansgar and looked at Ranger hoping my ESP was kicking in. One look from Ranger and the men soon disappeared allowing us to move through to the staircase.

Ram was fascinated with the idea that we presented to him with regard to the possibility of a microdot in the book. He was soon going into his storeroom to retrieve equipment that turned out to be a microscope, not what I'd used in biology lessons at high school, but what he called a digital microscope where the microscope camera connected with an HDMI cable directly to a monitor in front of us for live image viewing.

I was fascinated as I watched Ram very carefully tease the black dot from the book with a scalpel and place it on a glass slide. That was when I started to feel really nervous. I suppose worried in case I was totally wrong in my assumption. Ranger stood behind me with his arms around my waist as we watched the screen for any results and as Ram stood back and looked at the screen as well, I was holding my breath. On the screen in front of us words began to come into focus which I was eagerly trying to read.

I am hidden

But in plain sight

I am old but modern

Shiny but lately tarnished

I should be useful but am unused

My secrets forgotten by some, but not by me

A life of watching, oh the shame

But I cannot speak out

So that I can protect the secrets inside

Cross the street safely to find me

I just kept reading the stupid riddle but nothing obvious jumped out at me, then again Sully wouldn't expect that to happen. He'd want whoever was reading this to study the nuances and even know him personally.

"Make a printout Ram and then keep the microdot down here, somewhere safe. I'll make sure that the book is in a safe place"

I understood that Ranger would want the book somewhere where no one could find it but was curious why separate the book from the microdot. I'd ask him later but for now I needed to talk to Les and ask him if he had any new files for me.

"Ranger, I'm going to find Les"

I said to him so that only he would hear me. The nod of his head was his response, so I assumed that he'd find me when he was finished. I took the elevator up to five with Ansgar by my side just hoping that any men who had not met him didn't overstep my welcome by getting too close to me. Of course, my life was never that easy and the first person to see me just had to be Tank, one of the men who hadn't come down to the garage.

"Little Girl, I heard that you and Ranger were in the building"

As he approached me Ansgar stood slightly ahead of me as though on alert and even the size of Tank didn't seem to intimidate him. I decided that I should avert a confrontation between the two of them because I really didn't want to see either of them hurt.

"Tank this is Ansgar. He's very protective of me so if you can let him smell your hand then he probably won't attack you"

I saw the expression on Tank's face, as though he thought that I was mad for suggesting a dog could possibly get close to him. At the sound of a deep throated growl Tank pushed away his macho mentality and crouched down with his hand extended allowing Ansgar to recognize him. As Tank stood up, I spied Les coming down the corridor and then how he clicked his fingers and shouted of Ansgar. That wasn't happening and it was only after touching Ansgar on his head and saying "Go" that he was wagging his tail as he went to Les.

"Any files for me Les?"

I asked as he ruffled Ansgar's head.

"Just the one but we have a couple of weeks. That FBI information came through, so I've sent that through to you, but there's no rush on it. What was interesting was that I got a call from Les Sebring. Seems his people can't find a high bond skip and asked if we could help out"

I knew of Les Sebring but had never had anything to do with him, so it surprised me that he would be asking for help from Rangeman.

"Does he normally come to you for help?"

Thinking that maybe it was something that I wasn't aware of.

"No, so they must be struggling. You up to helping, we'll charge for the service"

Why not? It would be Sebring's bounty hunters who would be going after the FTA.

"Sure, just email the details and I'll see what I can find"

As both of the men disappeared, I looked around wondering what to do. I wasn't sure where Ranger was or if he'd finished talking to Ram so decided that I might as well go to my office because I was curious about that FBI file that Les had sent me. He'd just added it as an attachment to the email that I'd sent to him on Latasha and forwarded it to me.

It took me an age to get my head around that information. No wonder there was such a large reward for the woman because the evidence that the FBI had was tenuous to say the least. There were five photos of her, all showing what seemed to be a different woman, but the results of a facial recognition program had determined that there were features that supported the fact that it was the same woman. If that was right, then this woman was a master at disguises with the five photos seeming to range from a woman in her twenties to an elderly mature woman. Each photo came with a different name so running a search on those wouldn't help and I was pretty sure that the FBI would have done that already.

I turned to the next page that gave the crimes that held warrants against her learning that she was a cold blooded killer. There were other murders that the FBI had tried to tie into her as well, but this woman was nothing but professional with what she'd done. Forensic evidence was non-existent because she left nothing of herself behind or the crimes were committed in public areas which held a lot of contaminated clues. I was impressed that the FBI had caught who they suspected on camera.

"Estefania"

I looked up to see Hector waiting at the door looking warily at Ansgar, who was laid down between my desk and door.

"Ranger asked for me to implant a tracker on him"

Hector pointed to Ansgar, but I was pretty sure that he wasn't keen on the idea of doing that. As I stood up so did Ansgar, but he was showing no hostility toward Hector, so I walked with him up to Hector.

"He knows you now, he won't attack you. Ansgar, sit"

As Ansgar sat down beside me I attached a lead to his harness and handed it to Hector hoping that was enough for Ansgar to understand that he needed to go with Hector. Sure enough, Ansgar happily followed Hector from my office. Returning to my desk I continued to read the file from the FBI but decided to look at the victims that had been murdered. I'd just set up the first search when a notice appeared on my screen telling me that I had one new email from Les. Curious I opened my Rangeman email and then downloaded the file that was attached, sure that this would be the information on the skip that Sebring couldn't find.

Harley Chroma had been charged with vehicular homicide when he'd lost control of his car and hit a pedestrian on the sidewalk. Chroma was a high bond because he didn't stop and carried on driving, leaving the scene of the accident. He also had a previous conviction for causing the death of an elderly man when he'd failed to stop at a crossing. It seemed that a stint in prison hadn't changed his behavior because he had a string of driving violations against him, from unlawful use of the median strip for racing to intoxication while driving. Looking at his record he'd probably had so many points that he'd been banned from driving so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have insurance. It had been his misfortune that the incident had been captured on camera belonging to a pharmacy across the street, so it had been easy for the police to capture him from the plate and model of the car.

A look at the report that was included with the file gave all of the places where Sebring's men had looked to no avail. I had to admit that they seemed to have followed up all sorts of leads so was surprised that they couldn't find him. I wasn't sure what I could do to provide any other leads and decided to look at the victim instead. I was sure that I was frowning when I read the name because I was pretty sure that I'd come across it before. Then it came to me, Joanna Reeves, the bitch who went for me with a knife. She'd been out on bail which meant that after all the trouble that I'd had capturing her, Vinnie had rebonded her out again. She'd died in the hit and run before she was due back in court.

If I remembered correctly, she'd stabbed her boyfriend, but I got the impression when she was trying to get to me with a knife that she'd stabbed a few others but had never been caught, or at least never charged. Though I was sure that Eddie had mentioned that they were looking at other possible victims. Seeing as Sebring had no ideas to move forward on, I decided to take a totally different tack and looked at Reeve's dead boyfriend. Maybe Chroma aimed the car at Reeves on purpose, just as I had done when I'd been driving Big Blue and saw Joe walking along the sidewalk.

Reeve's boyfriend, Carter Wallace had been a mental health nurse who had worked for an outreach center here in Trenton on Martin Luther King Blvd. His work was to provide assistance with problems ranging from homelessness, hunger, alcohol and drug treatment so he probably came across a lot of desperate people. Wallace was ten years older than Chroma so I doubted that they would have known each other through school, and they had lived in different neighborhoods, but I was interested to discover that Chroma had been ordered to attend the center by the courts after a previous drink driving violation. So maybe Wallace and Chroma did know each other.

"Good afternoon, Trenton Behavioral Center, Janice speaking. How may I help you?"

"Hi Janice, I'm not sure if you can but you're my last chance. I'm really worried about my friend's brother, Harley Chroma, because we just don't know where he is. He was so upset after Carter died and I'm so scared for him"

I knew that this was a long shot but if I could verify that Chroma and Wallace were close friends then that might give me some other places to follow up on.

"Oh dear. We were all devastated when we learnt about what happened to Carter, not just the staff but a lot of the clients as well. He was so well liked, such a kind hearted man"

Damn, I needed more detail than that so decided to push my luck with some inventive explanation for why I needed this Janice to give me more explicit information.

"I know, Harley was, well as I said so upset, but he's disappeared so I was wondering if there was a place that you knew of that might have been special to Carter and Harley?"

I crossed my fingers as I waited for Janice to answer me because my spidey senses were telling me that Harley was emotionally shocked with Carter Wallace's death. Okay he had a reem of driving offences but to me driving up onto the sidewalk and hitting Joanne Reeves seemed extreme for Harley Chroma, unless he wanted some sort of revenge.

"Sorry, I was just asking Dianne if she knew of anywhere that they might have gone. She mentioned that Carter would sometimes take his mentees to Rancocas Creek Canoe Trail. He found that by doing something physical together that it broke down any barriers to talking. We have use of a cabin a couple of miles down the creek to stop at. Harley hasn't been for his usual sessions, so I hope you find him"

I knew that I was smiling as she gave me that piece of information and for some reason was pretty sure that was where Harley Chroma would be hiding out.

"Thank you so much Janice, you've been so helpful"

Finishing the call, I was soon looking on Google maps for the location of where this Rancocas Creek trail was and became aware that there were a couple of parking areas close by. I was back in that mind set of whether or not I was confident with what I'd found out. I mean it was a tenuous link that I'd followed. Damn, I just wanted to go there myself and check it out first but knew that I couldn't. Ranger would kill me, and Sebring would be annoyed if he thought that I'd gone looking for his skip. Instead, I put together a report of the links that I'd followed and included the address and details of the cabin by the creek before emailing everything to Les. I'd let him talk to Sebring and deal with passing on the information.

I wasn't in the mood to do any more work, so placed the new folder that Les had left on my desk into the top drawer, thinking that it could wait for another day and as Ranger hadn't turned up decided to try and find him. I was surprised to find him sat in his office focused on the computer, in fact I was pretty sure that he didn't even realize that I was looking through the small gap of his open door. He looked up as I entered but was quickly back at the computer so that when I walked around to his side of the desk the screen was blank. If I didn't know better, then I'd say that he didn't want me to see what he was working on.

"I've finished for the day but wasn't sure when we were leaving"

He pulled me down onto his knee and teased a curl that had come lose from my ponytail behind my ear before answering me.

"I'm trying to get on top of some reports from the other offices so maybe it would be better to stay here for tonight. In fact, this is going to take the rest of the night to get cleared so why don't you ask Ella to organize a meal for you and then relax. I'll be up later"

Maybe I didn't like his response, but I knew that if we were going to make any kind of relationship work then I'd have to understand the need for him to focus on the business. It would be selfish to complain so I held back saying anything. I gently kissed him on the cheek before getting to my feet and as I reached turned to say that I'd see him later, but he was already busy back at the computer. To say that I felt ignored was an understatement. I actually called at Ella's apartment to ask if she could provide a meal for me upstairs and one for Ranger in his office. As usual she was very accommodating.

By 11.30 I was almost falling asleep on the couch and decided that I couldn't stay awake anymore waiting for Ranger. I'd been tempted to go down to his office but decided that he wouldn't want me disturbing him if he was busy. Hector had brought Ansgar up to the apartment so at least I had some company. As I got into bed, he settled on the floor next to me and I was fast asleep within minutes.