“I’ll look into it,” Paul nodded and sat forward.The three of them remained silent until Warren looked at Petra.
“I have a question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“How high is your clearance?”
“Pretty high, why?What did you have in mind?”She looked at him with a grin.“It’s probably higher than yours.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, that’s why I’m asking you this.”
“What, Warren, what are you asking?”
“How well can you manipulate a website?”He shook his head and held up his hand to stop any questions.“That’s not the word I want to use.”
“What do you want me to do, and to what website?”
“That National Missing Person’s website.Is there anyway you can flag only the state of Iowa?Then once you get those cases, can you flag any that have Fred Dawson as the person taking the report?I know if there is any suspected kidnapping cases the FBI has to be called in, but what if they aren’t really missing and have been abducted, taken across state lines, and sold?”He saw understanding dawn on the two federal agents faces and nodded.
“Again, in theory you might have to contact the FBI, but if Nancy Carter has been missing for two years, with no sign of her in all that time, and if your theory of what those letters and numbers mean are true,” he said with a shrug, leaving the sentence hanging.
“Do you know what you’re implying here, Warren?”Petra asked in shock after several moments of silence.
Warren shrugged, his expression showed he knew what he was asking, and knew it had to be looked into in order to clear not only his mind, but for the sake of the case.“It was only a thought.”
“But a great one, I can narrow it down to only Iowa, then narrow it down further to any reports with Fred’s name on them.Anyone else you suspect?”
“Not at this time, but I reserved the right to contact you later if I think of anything.”
“I agree,” Petra said, and hopped off the desk.“I’m not going to take the notebook, but I’m going to take pictures on my phone of those codes.I can use that as a cross reference.”They helped her, and when she left, Paul studied his friend.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, this is a lot of shit to take in.I don’t envy you your job one bit.I’ll get back to you on the bar.”
“Okay, and I’ll reach out to you if I receive any security packages from DC.”
“Good.”Warren held out his hand and they shook.Paul walked him all the way out to his truck.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Go home, get the bike out, and go for a ride.I need to clear the white noise so I can concentrate.”
Paul nodded, totally understanding what Warren was going to do, because he himself had done it several times since his research into Eddie’s case had started.He stood there and watched his friend leave.He hoped he hadn’t broken the only man he considered a friend.
