Page 36 of Nick
“You’re sure it’s Cassandra? Not Alexandra?”
The look Destiny shot his way had him raise his hands in defeat. Yeah, she wouldn’t make a mistake about her precious facial recognition program. If it said it was Cassandra, then it was her. Which begged the question, why did both Cassandra and Jesse fly into DFW together? It might have been an innocent trip, except that Jesse used a fake ID, which raised all kinds of questions.
“Any evidence Alexandra might have come in before or after them?”
“Program’s still running. If she did, it’ll be under another name, because Alexandra Bishop doesn’t pop in any database as leaving Australia.”
“Does it show them going back to Australia after they flew into DFW eight weeks ago?”
“No. I’ve checked manifests, passports, and security footage. Unless they managed to have plastic surgery and change their bone structure, we should have picked them up. So I’m pretty confident in saying they are still in the States. Can’t say specifically where they are, but that’s what I’ve been able to find. Want me to keep digging?”
“Is there any way to see if they’ve been in Shiloh Springs? Or maybe any of the surrounding towns? Austin might be a good starting place.”
“I’ll see what I can do, but it’ll take a while. Going through closed circuit cameras is a whole lot different than scanning airport security footage. I’ll let you know the minute I find anything, okay?”
“Thank you. This information has helped a lot. I need to talk to my boss, update him on what you’ve found. Thanks again.”
Nick headed back toward the Big House. He needed to talk to Calvin, let him know what Destiny uncovered. Try to make some sense of the whole convoluted mess the three cousins had created.
Reaching the front porch, he sat on the porch swing and pulled out his cell phone, dialing his boss.
“Nick, I was just going to call you.” Calvin’s harried tone instantly alerted Nick there was a problem.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s Norville. He’s gone.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Gone? What doyou mean he’s gone?”
“His bed in the hospital is empty. The guard at the door was unconscious and stuffed in the bathroom. Nobody knows how his monitors got unhooked or unplugged or whatever they did, but he’s gone. I’m checking the hospital security footage right now, to figure out how a man who’s paralyzed managed to up and vanish from an ICU bed.”
Nick’s head dropped forward and he stared at the porch. Could his day get any worse?
“I’ve got some news too. Looks like the nieces and nephews have been playing games.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cassandra and Alexandra have been switching identities. Alexandra’s been traveling under Cassandra’s passport. Half the time, you thought it was Cassandra visiting all those cities, it was her twin.”
Cursing erupted over the line, and Nick sat quietly, letting Calvin vent. He was all too familiar with the man’s temper, which flashed hot and fierce, and just as fast was over and done.
“How do you know this? I’ve had my best man digging into them.”
“Confidentially, I know somebody here in the States who’s a wizard of a computer tech. She’s got a facial recognition program that’s better than anything you’ve seen. Took her about five minutes to figure out the twins were playing the old switcheroo with the passports.”
“Who is the woman? If this software’s as good as you say, we need to get our hands on it now.”
“You and everybody else, boss. They aren’t selling it, so don’t waste your time. Alexandra was in Athens when the records show it was Cassandra. She was also in Hong Kong. Cassandra was the one who was in Iceland and South Africa. But, here’s something very interesting that your guys didn’t catch. Cassandra flew nonstop into DFW airport eight weeks ago under a different passport. We caught her on airport surveillance. Here’s the kicker though. Jesse Norville also flew into DFW on the same flight under an alias, Joseph Simons.”
Another burst of cursing had Nick moving the phone away from his ear. He knew Calvin wasn’t angry at him. This was frustration, pure and simple. He totally got it, because he’d been feeling the same emotion for weeks now. It wasn’t getting any easier, even with this new information.
“Eight weeks ago? What about Alexandra? Don’t tell me she flew into the States too.”
“We’re still checking on her. Also, there’s no record in any database of Cassandra Bishop or Jesse Norville leaving the States, at least by air. I have Des—my friend—checking to see if they came to Austin or one of the cities close to Shiloh Springs. But it seems like too big a coincidence that both of the cousins showed up right around the time an assassin’s bullet hit Antonio by mistake.”
“Gimme a minute.” Nick heard frantic typing, knew Calvin was probably shooting an e-mail to his tech guru to start digging into this new information.
