Jeffery Deaver - The Never Game

“It’s Sophie’s mobile. I found it in San Miguel Park. Where she’d been cycling just before she disappeared.”

Wiley glanced at it, then back to Shaw, who explained about the video at the Quick Byte Café, the possibility of the kidnapper following her, the park, the car’s collision with the bike.

“A tracker?” That was his only response.

“Maybe. I’ve got a copy of the video and you can see the original at the Quick Byte.”

“You know Mulliner or his daughter before this reward thing?”

“No.”

The detective leaned back. Wood and metal creaked. “Just curious about your connection with all this. It’s Shaw, right?” He was typing on his computer.

“Detective, we can talk all about my livelihood at some point. But right now we need to start looking for Sophie.”

Wiley’s eyes were on the monitor. He’d probably found some articles in which Shaw was cited for helping police find a fugitive or locate a missing person. Or checking his record, more likely, and finding no warrants or convictions. Unless, of course, the powers that be at Cal had learned he was behind the theft of the four hundred pages yesterday from their hallowed academic halls, and he was now a wanted man.

No handcuffs were forthcoming. Wiley swung back. “Maybe she dropped it. Didn’t want to go home because Dad’d paid eight hundred bucks for it. She went to stay with a friend.”

“I found indications there’d been a scuffle. A rock that might have blood on it.”

“DNA is taking us twenty-four hours minimum.”

“It’s not about confirming it’s Sophie’s. It suggests that she was attacked and kidnapped.”

“Were you ever law enforcement?”

“No. But I’ve assisted in missing-person cases for ten years.”

“For profit?”

“I make a living trying to save people’s lives.”

Just like you.

“How much is the reward?”

“Ten thousand.”

“My. That’s some chunk of change.”

Shaw extracted a second bundle of tissue. This contained the small triangular shard of red reflector, which he believed had come from Sophie’s bike.

“I picked them both up with tissues, this and the phone. Though the odds of the perp’s prints being on them are low. I think after she fell down the hill she was trying to call for help. When the kidnapper came after her, she pitched the phone away.”

“Why?” Wiley’s eyes strayed to a file folder. He extracted a mechanical pencil and made a note.

“Hoping that when a friend or her father called, somebody’d find it and they could piece together that she’d been kidnapped.” He continued: “I marked where I found it. I can help your crime scene team. Do you know San Miguel Park? The Tamyen Road side?”

“I do not.”

“It’s near the Bay. There aren’t a lot of places a witness might’ve been but I spotted some businesses on the way to the park. Maybe one of them has a CCTV. And there’s a half dozen traffic cams on the route from the Quick Byte to San Miguel. You might be able to piece together a tag number.”

Wiley jotted another note. The case or a grocery list?

The detective asked, “When do you collect your money?”

Shaw rose and picked up the phone and the bit of plastic, put them back in his bag. Wiley’s face flashed with astonishment. “Hey there—”

Shaw said evenly, “Kidnapping’s a federal offense too. The FBI has a field office here, in Palo Alto. I’ll take it up with them.” He started for the door.

“Hold on, hold on, Chief. Take it easy. You gotta understand. You push the kidnap button, a lot of shit happens. From brass down to the swamp of the press. Take a bench there.”

Shaw paused, then turned and sat down. He opened his computer bag and extracted the copy of the notes he’d jotted while waiting for Wiley. He handed the sheets to the detective.

“The initials FM is Frank Mulliner. SM is Sophie. And the CS is me.”

Obvious, but in Wiley’s case Shaw wasn’t taking any chances.

Missing individual: Sophie Mulliner, 19

Site of kidnapping: San Miguel Park, Mountain View, shoulder of Tamyen Road

Possible scenarios:

• Runaway: 3% (unlikely because of her phone, the reflector chip and evidence of struggle; none of her close friends—8 interviewed by FM—give any indication she’s done this).

• Hit-and-run: 5% (driver probably would not have taken her body with him).

• Suicide: 1% (no history of mental issues, no previous attempts, no suicidal communication, doesn’t fit with scene in San Miguel Park).

• Kidnapping/murder: 80%.

• Kidnapped by former boyfriend Kyle Butler: 10% (somewhat unstable, possibly abusive, drug history, didn’t take breakup well; hasn’t returned calls of CS).

• Killed in gang initiation: 5% (MT-44 and several Latino gangs active in area, but crews generally leave corpses in public as proof of kill).

• Kidnapped by FM’s former wife, Sophie’s mother: <1% (Sophie is no longer a minor, the divorce happened seven years ago, criminal records and other background check of mother make this unlikely).

• For-profit kidnapping: 10% (no ransom demand, they usually occur within 24 hours of abduction; father isn’t wealthy).

• Kidnapped to force FM to divulge sensitive information from one of his two jobs: 5% (one, middle management in automotive parts sales; the other, warehouse manager with no access to sensitive or valuable information or products). Would expect contact by now.

• Kidnapped to force Sophie to divulge information about her part-time job as coder at software development company, GenSys: 5% (does work not involving classified information or trade secrets).

• Killed because she witnessed a drug sale between boyfriend, Kyle Butler, and dealer who didn’t want identity known: 20% (NOTE: Butler is missing too; related victim?).

• Kidnapped/killed by antisocial perpetrator, serial kidnapper or killer; SM raped and murdered or kept for torture and sex, eventual murder: 60%–70%.

• Unknown motive: 7%.

Relevant details:

• SM’s credit cards have not been used in two days; FM is on cards and has access.

• Quick Byte Café has video of possible suspect following her. Manager has preserved original and uploaded to cloud. Tiffany Monroe. CS has copy.

• Under expectation-of-privacy laws, FM cannot access her phone log.

• Perpetrator possibly put tracking device on bike to follow her.

• Mulliner’s house just on market, no prospective buyers yet to case the location for kidnapping potential.

The detective’s carefully shaved face wore a frown. “The hell all this come from, Chief?”

The nickname rankled but Shaw ignored it; he was making headway. “The information?” He shrugged. “Facts from her father, some legwork of mine.”

Wiley muttered, “What’s with the percentages?”

“I rank things in priority. Tells me where to start. I look at the most likely first. That doesn’t pan out, I move to the next.”

He read it again.

“They don’t add up to a hundred.”

“There’s always the unknown factor—that something I haven’t thought of’s the answer. Will you send a team to the park, Detective?”

“Alrightyroo. We’ll look into it, Chief.” He smoothed the copy of Shaw’s analysis and shook his head, amused. “I can keep this?”

“It’s yours.”

Shaw set the cell phone and the chip of reflector in front of Wiley.

His own phone was humming with a text. He glanced at the screen, noted the word Important! Slipped the mobile away. “You’ll keep me posted, Detective?”