Page 86 of See How They Hide

Matt had created a workroom in his hotel suite. He wished Ryder were here to set everything up—the analyst seemed to pull computers, printers, and cables out of thin air.

Michael came in. “The hospital downloaded everything we need to a USB because it was too large to email.” He dropped it on the desk. “The delivery guy was bribed. A woman came to him with a sob story along with twenty dollars for his ‘kindness.’ I went at him pretty hard, and I don’t think he’s involved. He’s working with the sheriff’s sketch artist because he had a good memory of the woman. But you need to see the video.” He looked around. “Do we have a port to read this?”

“Shit,” Matt muttered and looked at both computers that Ryder had the hotel send up for their use. “Oh—here.” A small port on the side took the USB. Matt had grown technologically lazy because Ryder always handled computer work.

Michael took over the mouse and scrolled through a collection of MOV files until he found the one he wanted. “Hospital rooms don’t generally have cameras in the room, but because Gardner was on suicide watch, we have one.”

Michael pressed Play and spoke as Matt watched Andrew Gardner lie in bed on one side of the screen, and the nurses’ station on the left. “Last night, the delivery driver brought the flowers to the main nurses’ station, checked in, then delivered to the individual departments. You can see...here,” Michael said as a young man in a uniform with a flower on the logo walked into view. He put the flowers down and chatted with the nurse for a few seconds, then he left. Michael fast-forwarded about five minutes, then stopped when the nurse rose and brought the flowers into Gardner’s room. She put them on his side table. He was sleeping. She checked his vitals, made a note on his sheet, and left.

Matt asked, “Did the nurse get sick?”

“No,” Michael said. He stopped the replay, went through the directory, and picked out another recording. “Gardner woke briefly at midnight and didn’t seem to notice the flowers. The nurse checked him every two hours, and I confirmed that he was never alone in this wing. Here.” He slowed down the video. “At three in the morning he is awake and asks for water and help getting up to use the bathroom. We don’t see inside the bathroom, but the nurse waits outside the door and helps him back into bed. That’s when he sees the flowers.”

The nurse said something to Andrew and he nodded. She motioned to the card, and he shook his head.

“I asked the nurse about the exchange,” Michael said. “She offered to read the card, and he said he would do it later, claimed he was tired. But he didn’t sleep. A few minutes later, he sat up and the nurse came in. She told me he said he wanted to sit up for a few minutes. She kept an eye on him. As you can see, he stared at the flowers for a long time—twelve minutes.” Michael fast-forwarded through that segment. “Then, he picks up the card, opens it. Sits there again for several minutes. And...there, you see he puts the card to his face and breathes deeply. Then he leans over, puts his face in the flowers, and breathes deeply again.”

“Where are the card and the flowers?”

“Jim has them at the county crime lab, but it’s a bare-bones operation. He’s working on it and talking to the doctors in Colorado Springs where Gardner is now on life support.”

“Poison?” Matt asked.

“Likely. Jim has some ideas based on the time frame. Gardner was nauseated for about three hours after he breathed in the flowers. He had breakfast, didn’t eat much, was given more anti-nausea medication. He then went to sleep and it was about thirty minutes later that the monitors registered an irregular heartbeat and low blood pressure. Jim is factoring in a three-to four-hour window for the poison to exhibit symptoms.”

“This video suggests he knew the flowers were poisoned and he willingly breathed in the substance.”

Michael nodded. “That’s my take. And the note—telling him to breathe. I think he knew exactly what he was doing and what would happen.”

“He could have gotten help. He could have called us.”

“He lived in a cult, Matt. They’re often brainwashed. Even though he left, it’s hard to overcome the training. He lost his partner, was already suicidal.”

“They knew,” Matt said. “They knew he tried to kill himself and they gave him the weapon to go through with it.”

“Kara has developed a bond with Riley Pierce, but we need to be careful with her, too. Her mother is the leader. She’s been out of it for over three years, but she’s not really... I don’t know how to say it. Her mannerisms, the way she talks, how she talks around things. We need to watch her and be prepared for anything.”

Matt agreed with Michael’s assessment. “Kara is aware that Riley may be deceptive.” He gestured to the drawing Riley had done of Kara. “The girl drew that in less than twenty minutes.” Matt loved it. She had captured more than Kara’s physical appearance. The way she’d shaded her eyes, you could see intelligence and compassion as well as her inner strength that Matt didn’t think most artists would be able to re-create. It wasn’t perfect—Kara’s mouth was a bit larger than in the drawing, her hair was generally messier, the proportions of her forehead seemed off. But for a twenty-minute sketch, it was stunning.

“She’s talented,” Michael agreed.

“Dean thinks she can draw us a map of Havenwood. I’m skeptical. They’re giving her a break. When the delivery driver is done with the sketch artist, I want Riley to look at it. I think the best chance of us finding these people is through the property and tax records, but that takes time. We also know the property is remote, but there is an unpaved road leading to the valley. The property could be surrounded by government land. The Rocky Mountains is full of plots of private property grandfathered in when the government created different national forests. Ryder is looking into it, but again, it’s labor intensive and the records are not all in one database.”

“They have resources,” Michael said. “They traveled cross-country so must have identification to fly. I suppose they could have driven to Virginia and Oregon, but that doesn’t seem realistic.”

“Which means they’re not as isolated or remote as Riley thinks—or told us.” Matt walked over to the minibar and made himself another single-cup coffee. If Ryder were here, there’d be a pot of strong coffee and snacks—both healthy and junk food. Matt should have had him fly out with Dean Montero. He felt like he was missing his right hand.

“The craft fairs probably required a business license or ID,” Michael said. “Someone—several someones—are in the system. We’ll find them.”

“In time to save the others?” Matt wondered out loud.

With the assistance of Cybercrimes, Ryder and Zack were going over all files related to Jesse Morrison. Their IT people didn’t think they would be able to salvage the computer, but now that they’d determined that all the false birth certificates had been “issued” from the same hospital in Denver, they were backtracking to find other potential false identities. It was a laborious process that required the time and assistance of the hospital. Ryder was also working with the Social Security Administration because all the false numbers were granted from the same office. Again, it was time-consuming and they wouldn’t have the information for days, if not weeks.

Matt tried not to be frustrated. Complex cases like this were filled with days of action, then days where the investigation appeared to stop. What they needed took time to mine. But it wasn’t Matt’s job, and that made him antsy. If he tried to get in the middle of it, he’d slow everyone down. They were stuck in the tiny town of South Fork investigating Jesse Morrison’s murder and the poisoning of Andrew Gardner until Matt decided there was nothing more they could do here.

Not for the first time, he thought,What do we do with Riley Pierce?

He could arrest her for the crimes they had on her, including two fake IDs, false passport, and social security number. She would be granted a lawyer, but he might counsel her not to speak to them, or delay further interviews. Right now she seemed to be forthcoming. So he didn’t want to pull that card, and Dean Montero had agreed. He hoped not to find out what happened if they disagreed on something, because Montero technically outranked him.

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