Page 64 of Ground Truth

Gaspar shrugged and said nothing.

Flint stretched his neck and shoulders and kneaded the pain between his eyes. “Tell us about the guy you found on the facial recognition search. Is it Reed? Or not?”

“Name is Stephen Brand. He lives on a private island in the Caribbean owned by Ernst Hedinger,” Gaspar began.

Flint interjected.“Ernst Hedinger?”

“Yeah. Do you know him?”

Flint pursed his lips. “Go on.”

Gaspar continued. “Brand has been the Chief of Surgery at the Atabei Transplant Center for the past four years. The hospital specializes in organ transplants for patients with the money to buy whatever they want. Brand’s biography claims he was born in South Africa. Trained there in cardiothoracic surgery and then specialized in heart transplants.”

“South Africa? They have excellent medical training and facilities there. Why would he leave a practice like that for a small island country like Atabei?” Scarlett asked.

Drake replied, “Good question.”

“Brand lives in Atabei. He rarely leaves the island,” Gaspar continued. “In fact, I could find no evidence that he’s left Atabei at any time. Brand’s South African passport has expired. I can find no evidence that he’s acquired another passport issued by any country.”

“Since Atabei is a private island, records are limited. What can you access?” Scarlett asked.

“Almost nothing is publicly available. There are internet search results that pop up, but it’s like they’ve been created specifically for casual searchers,” Gaspar said. “No criminal records seem to exist on Atabei. There is no judicial system.”

“Brand has no criminal history in South Africa or anywhere else that you’ve located so far?” Flint asked.

“Nope.”

Flint exhaled loudly. “So we believe this guy Stephen Brand is actually Phillip Reed?”

“Ninety-five percent sure,” Gaspar said. “We need fingerprints, DNA, or a confession, or all three to be certain.”

“What about Greta?” Drake asked.

“Three possibilities.” Gaspar held up one finger at a time as he ticked off the options. “Either she died at sea, as folks were told at the time, or she didn’t. And if she didn’t, then either he killed her afterward or she’s still alive.”

Flint asked, “Has your facial recognition come up with a match for Greta?”

“No match for her so far. I did find the actual video Hanna saw of the crowd at that royal wedding. But the woman’s image is not good enough to match to Greta either,” Gaspar said. “My programs are still running. But we’ve been through most of the databases. It’s not looking likely that we’ll find a match for Greta.”

“Is there any other angle you can work?”

“I tried matching the woman’s image to Greta’s official passport photo in the US passports database. It’s close. But not close enough for a definitive match,” Gaspar said. “I also tried the man and the boy who were with her. The system is still working on those.”

“How about Brand’s sex life? Could we get lucky and find Greta has been living with him on Atabei all along? Maybe they escaped together?” Drake asked.

“Guy like that usually latches on to another woman sooner rather than later. As a man told me once, a guy doesn’t usually leave home unless he’s got somewhere to go.” Scarlett sneered. “Probably had Greta’s replacement in the wings before he killed her.”

“Agreed,” Gaspar said with a shrug. “But Brand never shows up with a woman on his arm in any of the photos I’ve been able to find. So it’s not likely but possible that Greta’s still with him, I guess.”

Flint stood to stretch and walked around the room a bit. “Which means the only way we can know for sure is to confront Brand.”

“How do you propose to do that?” Drake asked. “It’s not like we can book a flight over there.”

Gaspar said, “It’s a valid question. Atabei is about as closed to visitors as a country can get. There’s an airport, but it’s private and guarded and requires permission to land anything larger than a songbird. Same with the boat docks. No one goes in or out of there without the approval of local security. Which we’re not likely to get.”

“Never seen a security guard I couldn’t beat in a fair fight,” Drake said, opening and closing his fists as if he were itching to prove it.

“Not like that,” Flint said, shaking his head. “Hedinger uses ex-Mossad for security. Those guys would kill you before you had a chance to take them out. Hedinger’s got several mansions around the world and every one of them is a fortress. Even if we could get into Atabei, getting out will be equally difficult.”

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