Page 106 of Ground Truth

“Yes,” Gaspar said. The next image added a woman to the pair in the garden, followed by another video.

“Hello, Greta Campbell,” Flint said quietly.

“She doesn’t look much like Hanna, does she?” Scarlett asked.

Gaspar played two more videos of the young family coming and going from the farmhouse. In one of the videos, they walked into a village pub.

“How certain are you that this woman is Greta Campbell?” Flint asked.

Gaspar shrugged. “As certain as I can be without DNA or a confession. Not quite as high a confidence score as the facial recognition match for Phillip Reed and Stephen Brand.”

“Walk me through it.” Scarlett settled into one of the client chairs. She folded her hands together and waited.

“According to a chat I had with one of the local bartenders, between four and five years ago, Avery Tumbler returned from his vacation in Mexico with a new girlfriend. Claimed he’d met her there and fell in love. Not long after they met, she turned up pregnant,” Gaspar explained.

“So the timing fits,” Flint said. “Was Tumbler actually in Mexico?”

“According to his passport, he was. Cancun, specifically. On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Where the currents tend to push debris of all sorts onto the beaches,” Gaspar replied. “Sometimes boats with undocumented passengers, too.”

“How about Tumbler’s girlfriend? What’s her passport say?” Scarlett wanted to know.

“She doesn’t seem to have a UK passport. Nor does she have a Mexican passport,” Gaspar said. “Her name is Gretchen Tumbler now. And I couldn’t find a passport to match her in that name anywhere.”

“Is the name uncommon?”

“Extinct, actually, according to my research of ancestry records,” Gaspar replied. “The last name, anyway. There aren’t that many Tumblers out there in the world.”

“I suppose it’s not all that difficult to enter the UK illegally, either,” Scarlett said.

“Slightly more difficult than entering the US, since she couldn’t just walk in from an adjoining country,” Flint said. “But there are ways to make it happen. With the right resources. And Tumbler seems like a guy who could have those resources.”

“So to recap,” Scarlett said, “we think Greta came ashore in Mexico. Either washed up on her own or more likely picked up out of the Gulf by some motorist or boat of illegals or something. She was dropped off in Mexico, where she met Tumbler. She traveled with him to Scotland, where they’ve lived quietly for the past four years. That about it?”

Scarlett paused to lock gazes with each of them in turn.

“Sounds unlikely, doesn’t it?” Drake replied wearily.

Flint shrugged. “Stranger things have happened.”

Scarlett mused, “Wouldn’t someone have noticed that she was in the country illegally after all this time?”

Flint shook his head and smiled. “How often do you ask your neighbors to prove they’re living in Houston legally? It’s not what people do, is it?”

“Although we might be more inclined to ask here in Texas than they do in the north of Scotland,” Scarlett replied. “But doesn’t she work? Have a bank account? A driver’s license? Need health care? Send her kid to school? She’d need government-issued identification for any of that.”

“All good questions. For which we have no answers. Guess I’m making a trip to Portmahomack,” Flint said with a sigh. “Question is, should I take Hanna with me?”

“That’s her call, isn’t it?” Scarlett said. “She’ll want to go. And she’s better off going with you than traveling alone. Which she’ll do if you don’t take her. When are you leaving?”

“No time like the present. I’ve got a few things to do first. After that, I guess we’ll go as soon as Hanna can pack a bag,” Flint replied. “We’ll fly commercial. It’s faster.”

Gaspar cocked his head. “And you have passports.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning you can use standard international transportation and any halfway decent hacker paying attention will know about it,” Gaspar replied.

“If we’re lucky,” Flint replied. Gaspar frowned and Flint shrugged him off. “I prefer to choose my battles.”

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