“Kansas? Texas?”Could be anywhere,I think.
Rizzo shakes her head. “Palmer, Georgia, near the Alabama line. Population nine hundred fifty. About a year ago, a farmer thought he heard an explosion in a sandpit. When the cops came out, they found remnants of a van. And a very big hole. There wasn’t much of an investigation, but they did the best they could.”
“What else did they find?”
“Remains of a fertilizer bomb in the wreckage of the van. And this …”
She clicks a link and a photo pops up on the screen. Spread out on a white evidence table are a bunch of charred bolts and nuts.
“Look familiar?” asks Rizzo.
“It sure does. Same kind of shrapnel we’ve seen here. Twice.”
“That’s right. Same contents. Same proportions.” Rizzo swivels her chair around to face me. “I think you know what this means for us.”
“Us? You and me?”
“Right.”
“Road trip?”
She nods. “There’s an air force transport leaving Andrews for Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Benning this afternoon. I called in a favor. We’re on it.”
CHAPTER 35
Cross
MELISSA’S FACE IS FLUSHED. Alex Cross can see how nervous she is.
Bree is staring straight at her, holding up the laptop screen. “Okay, Melissa—tell me all about breaking into Professor Lucas’s house.”
“How do you know about that?” Melissa asks, her voice shaking.
“I work for a very technologically advanced investigation firm. You’d be surprised what we can dig up. You and your friends all talked about the break-in—in encrypted emails.”
“Okay,” says Melissa. “Yes. When we couldn’t get a straight answer from the school, we went to Professor Lucas’s house and checked it out. We figured out how to hack the alarm code and we all went in together.”
“You know that’s unlawful entry, right?” asks Alex.
“That’s why we didn’t tell anybody.”
Alex scowls. “Including us.”
Melissa nods. “With you being cops.”
Alex is furious. “We’re not cops, Melissa! We’re investigators! We’re on your side!”
“So what did you find?” asks Bree.
Melissa takes a deep breath. “The place was empty. But Professor Lucas’s cat, Otis, was there, no food or water, litter box stinking. He was so excited to see us, and he’d clearly been alone for a while. Lucas talks about Otis all the time. Helovesthat cat. No way he would have just left him like that.”
“Where’s the cat now?” asks Bree.
“Otis? Nia took him. She’s taking care of him at her apartment. Wait—is that stealing?”
“Never mind that,” says Alex. “What about Amy Tyne’s place?”
“We checked there too. Her neighbor hadn’t seen her in a week.”
