Chapter 10

Day 6

Danny wasn't sure how they had missed the little crosses. Now that he was looking for them, they were easy to spot. He had Dave with him, who was surprisingly a good tracker. It again brought up the old adage – never judge a book by its cover. Two New Jersey cops walked behind them, easy going and willing to let him lead as he took his time.

He had taken photos of the markers and then had proceeded to add them to a handheld gps map he held in hand. On the map the path became a clear linear line towards the ravine where they had found Mac. It went through the small clearing where he had found the plasters and evidence that Peter had rested.

What was interesting was the fact that the markers stopped short of the ravine. Danny couldn't see the ravine when he marked off the last of the markers. He sends Dave and the two policemen looking as he searches for the next marker.

There weren't any others. From where he stood, the ravine was about 200 yards to the west of him. It was obvious that Joe and Mac had deviated from the path. He looked at the app and overlaid a layer on top of the one he'd done that indicated the previous pathway he had forged with the two park rangers when they were looking for Mac and Peter.

There were some differences between the path they took originally and the path they took now. Peter's were close enough to bridge the gap between the two routes and there were enough points that interjected with each other that it as stages looked like a convergence of the two pathways before there was a slight deviancy again.

Joe had deviated from the path hallway past the second last marker and this one, pushing Mac towards the ravine before he shot him.

Which made this last marker a sudden interest as he returned to it after having searched the surrounding trees for any other indications of the trail continuing.

He was careful as he walked around the tree. The ground wasn't disturbed at all. The ground is compacted with old soil and leaves and small twigs. It smelled mouldy and wet when he crouched down and carefully stirred the soil with gloved hands. A spider scampered away, running over his hand and he hastily shook it off.

"They're a pest, you know."

He looked at Dave, who grimaced as he stepped away from a puddle on the ground where there was a slight indentation.

"It's a spider."

"Joro spider. From Asia originally. Still a juvenile looking at its size."

"You mean they get bigger?" Danny asked, his eyes wide behind his glasses.

"Yeah. They spin their webs between trunks. Not that great in summer when you walk into them."

"Okay. Think I'll stay in the city, thank you very much." He rose to his feet, cracking his back as he looked upwards, into the branches that spread out in concentric circles above him. A soft drizzle had started, and he blinked against the wetness. There was just enough moisture in the air to make things uncomfortable and fog up his glasses to make it hard to see but even then, he didn't miss the slight discoloration of a black bag against the trunk of the oak.

Adam still felt a bit wonky but in saying that, he did feel slightly better. He had finally been able last night to get at least some sleep in, in his own bed and be woken by his own coffee maker sputtering on at six in the morning.

The shower had been nice and he felt a whole lot more awake when he finally entered his lab early in the morning.

At least it wasn't 3 am. And then he had gotten the phone call from Stella, asking him about his friend at Grand Central Station. It seems that the men that had taken Mac could have met up there.

It didn't take him long to get the footage. He still had the blurry photo they had taken of Joe from the bank, and he had used that as a way to find and scrub through the hours of footage. He set off a second algorithm, running Derrick's facial through a copy of the footage he'd made. After that was done, there wasn't much for him to do but wait.

He used the time to get a bagel and a coffee in the cafeteria. After that, he entered the lab to see that his programs were still running. Slightly bored, he turned to another station and played around with maps, trying to see if he could find a route Joe possibly could've taken between New York and the park. Using Grand Central as a pivot point, he traced routes from there to the park. By the end of thirty minutes, he had an excel grid open with miles and times between the two points and the routes typed out when one of his machines dinged.

Rolling his chair over to the stations, he typed a quick command and then moving the mouse, he opened the list of images. There were four of them that had a high probable match.

It was the third photo that he recognised Joe and Derrick. They were standing, facing each other and having an animated conversation. Joe's hands were swinging wide and Derrick had a look of frustration.

Whatever it was that was going on, it was very clear that things weren't going to plan.

Why else would the pair still be in New York?

Adam tapped a pencil against his lips thoughtfully as his eyebrows furrowed. He let the scene play out, watching as Joe turned and walked away, leaving Derrick standing alone in front of the lockers. He tried to follow Joe, but the cameras were static and he lost Joe in the crowds barely ten seconds in. Reversing the footage, he went back to where both men had their argument.

Using software he had installed last night, he zoomed in on the lockers behind the two men and noted down the locker numbers. His fingers dialled a familiar number soon after.

"Hey." Flack said.

"I found them. They were standing in front of the lockers at the station."

"Do you have the numbers?"

"Uh…yeah. Hold on…" Adam picked up his list and rattled off the numbers.

"Okay, we're probably going to need a warrant to search them. I might get away with probable cause but just to be safe, let Stella phone a judge."

Stella wasn't in her office when he went looking for her. In the end, he sends an email and a text just to be on the safe side. Working on some maths, he now focused on the routes Joe could've taken. If he could identify the car the man was driving, it could be a big lead.

Men had been caught on less. Laziness in parting with vehicles had been more than one bad guy's downfall.

He spends lunch time setting up and coding the parameters for his algorithm before letting it loose on two of the most probable routes.

By three, he found Joe and the car he'd been using.

Lindsey went back to the apartment, escorted by two policemen that she vaguely recalled having worked with before. Even though she knew she and Danny had gone carefully over the apartment, she assessed it again. This time she moved slower, taking her time now that she knew Mac was safe.

At the end, she was satisfied to know that they hadn't missed anything. She closed and locked the door, reapplying the tape to seal it off before they made their way to the bank.

The bloodstain was still in the vault as was the chaos of strewn paper and debris that made its way to the floor. The bag Joe had used to shackle Mac still lay beside the table.

She started from the bag on the floor and moving away behind the teller tables, she searched and catalogued what she could find.

In the end it was a sticky-it note that gave her pause.

It was tacked into a drawer of one of the tables, the little pink note innocuous amongst the clutter. It had a date on it and a time.

It was the same date as the bank heist but the time was wrong. It looked like a reminder for an appointment. It could be anything really. Hair or dentist or doctor. Or picking up kids from school although the time did look wrong for that.

She sat down at the desk and started to carefully go through everything. She found another one balled up in the rubbish bin. Unfurling it, she found a name written on it that wasn't familiar.

Ethan Scott

And underneath that was written a phone number.

She took more photos before bagging it and writing down the date and location on the evidence bag. Finally done, she went back to the crime lab.

Danny had returned from his assignment and there was a black bag was on the table. Stella was with him, kitted up in gloves and a white coat.

"Hey," she said as she placed what she had found on the table. "Where did you find that?"

Danny gave a little chuckle. "Hanging from a tree."

Her eyebrows raised. "Really."

"Yup. Last one in a long line of marked trees. I swear, it would make a good orienteering course. Kids would love it." He picked up the bag. From the leftover sparkle, Lindsey could see that they've already dusted for prints.

"Okay, we're about to open it up. Wanna join us?"

"Okay." She kitted up as they opened the top. It was one of the waterproof bags you can buy at camping stores, to keep things dry when wading through rivers or in rain. One of her friends that loved to go hiking, had shown her once the versatility of the bags.

Danny pulled out a Ziploc bag, filled with what looked like passports. There was another one filled with drivers' licences. The last thing he pulled out was a prepaid mobile phone, still in its cover.

"I think we found his go bag." Danny stated as he spread out the drivers' licences.

"Lots of different names here." He said, bending over the cards. A name stood out as Lindsey scanned them. Frowning, she reached over and snagged the evidence bag from where she had left it

"Uh, look at this." She said, comparing the driver's licence with the note.

"Where did you find that?" Stella asked. She was already reaching for her phone.

"At the bank. There was another note with a date and a time on it. Same day as the bank heist."

"Okay, I think we can work with this." Stella said as she nodded before stepping out of the lab. Lindsey gave Danny a look and she followed Stella to Adam's lab.

"Can you put a trace on the following number?" Stella asked Adam, giving him the phone number when he had opened the triangulation software.

Only when she was in the lab did she see the second screen with a registration number and Joe's face as he bent down to pick something up from what looked like a toll booth. It was a blue SUV and the licence plate was registered to a Lauren Salinas.

"Hey, that's the name on the desk where I got that sticky note from." She said as she stepped closer to the screen.

"What?" Stella turned to her, her finger hovering over the call button.

"Lauren. It was her desk I found the number and name on."

Stella's eyes focused laser sharp onto Lindsey before darting to the screen and down to the number she had in her hand. She deleted the number from her phone and then pressed another number.

"Hey Flack." Stella said, as she tapped Adam on the shoulder to close the app down.

"I think we found your link."

Stella listened and Lindsey could hear the tinny of Flack's voice come over the phone. Stella was grinning when she turned to them.

"I know why they were looking for a key. I think one of them made a mistake. Taking Mac wasn't part of the plan so they had to adjust their timeline. They left the cash in one of the lockers to pick up later."

"So Flack…"

"…found the locker and there are two duffel bags in there full of the stolen cash."