Chasing Ghosts Read Online Free PDF Page B

straight. Dagger, you weren’t
home when this man showed up at the gate. Sara, you thought he
looked like me.” He sank onto the chair behind his desk and slowly
rocked for a full minute while studying them. Finally, he leaned
forward and clasped his hands on the desk. “Let me tell you what I
think happened. This guy kills Connors, maybe for the use of his
room. Robbery wasn’t a motive because Connors had his wallet on
him. So maybe he needed a place to hide out, use the hotel phone.
Although missy here says he had a cell phone and was going to call
his own cab.”
    “ Did you trace the cell calls from
that…?”
    Padre glared at Dagger. “Did I ask you to
speak?” He waited through several seconds of silence. “I think my
only link to Connors’ killer is through you.” He looked directly at
Dagger. “Now, I can understand you fudging the truth a little,
Dagger. But I would have never believed that you would manipulate
this sweet, innocent woman to lie for you. That is
unconscionable.”
    “ I didn’t lie, Padre.” Sara’s voice
didn’t display hurt as much as anger. Instinctively her right hand
found its way to her mouth and she started chewing on a knuckle, a
nervous habit she had acquired since dipping her toes outside of
the reservation land. “He did look a little like you in the few
seconds I had to look at him. He wasn’t much taller than the
monitor so he didn’t have to bend down to speak into it. That would
make him around your height, maybe a couple inches shorter. I
didn’t see any gray hair but the receding hairline is deceiving. He
could be coloring his hair but his face wasn’t that lined, not
like…”
    Padre’s raised eyebrows dared her to comment
on his age.
    Dagger held up a finger. “Can I talk
now?”
    Padre dragged his eyes from Sara to
Dagger.
    “ What about the cameras at the hotel
and the airport parking garage? Besides, the cab company could have
lied. Your man could have driven Connors’ car with the body in the
trunk over to my place, then driven to the airport to dump the
car.”
    Padre punched the intercom on the phone. “I
already have a call in for those tapes.” When the intercom was
answered, Padre told Jimmy, “You can print out a copy of that
sketch now.” He punched the intercom off just as the phone rang.
Picking up the receiver, he barked out, “Martinez…yeah, Chief.”
Padre leaned back in his chair, the receiver pressed to his ear.
His eyes studied the ceiling as he listened. “We told the
cardinal’s people we’d give him a police escort from the airport to
the hotel. They are hiring their own bodyguards for the
event…yeah…who’s going to bother a cardinal? It’s not like the Pope
is visiting…yeah… okay…I’m on it.” Padre hung up with a shake of
his head. “Chief is expecting demonstrators against pedophile
priests. Guess some people don’t feel the church is doing enough.”
Padre saw Jimmy through the glass partition and waved him in.
    “ I made two copies.” Jimmy placed the
computer sketch on the desk. “I added sunglasses.”
    Sara leaned over for a closer look. “Yes,
that looks just like him.”
    Padre studied the image for a few seconds,
pressed his lips in disgust, then pulled out an identical pair of
sunglasses from his pocket. “Gee, they look just like mine.” He
glared at his visitors. “Now get out of here. All of you.”

    Dagger gunned the Lincoln Navigator from the
parking lot. He punched the hands-free phone and listened to the
phone ring three times, five times, seven times. “Come on,
Skizzy.”
    “ Hey, I’m busy here.” Skizzy’s voice
blared from the speaker.
    “ Just tell me you decrypted the guy’s
Emails.” On their way to the police station, Dagger had dropped off
Demko’s computer at Skizzy’s shop.
    “ Sure, and I built a high-rise in my
spare time. This one ain’t so easy. I may have to hack into one of
the anagrams to get some assistance.”
    “ FBI, CIA, NSA, I don’t care