Mindhunters 4 - Deadly Intent Read Online Free PDF Page A

some sort of surveillance monitoring the girl while he’d kept her captive. He’d continued to work and socialize, to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, and to serve as a lector in his church. Although she didn’t know all the details of that case, she imagined he’d kept the child locked up. Maybe used a computer and webcam to keep track of her throughout the day.
    It was understandable that her father wouldn’t have wanted any reminders of that surveillance for his daughter when she was returned home.
    “What else?”
    Cramer lifted a shoulder. “Isn’t it enough? I pointed out that if we allowed people access—repairmen, caterers—maybe one stays behind. Hides in the house. Place is big as a fortress. He bides his time, maybe fills his pockets. Maybe plans an assault. So Mr. Mulder took other precautions. They never entertain here, always in their penthouse in the city without the kid around. And anyone let in from the outside like that, a couple of my men are allowed to accompany them inside. Stay with them the entire time and then escort them back out to their vehicle again.”
    “The log doesn’t show any outside access for the last nine weeks,” Agent Travis pointed out.
    Cramer shrugged again. With his yard-wide shoulders, he could have doubled as a linebacker. “There isn’t much traffic through here. Mr. Mulder, he’s careful about bringing anyone new on the property. Takes months just to get security clearance on new employees.”
    Prisons could have different walls. It occurred to Macy that Ellie Mulder had been just as much a captive here as she’d been with Cooper. Raiker had mentioned a teacher living on the premises. Apparently the child wasn’t even allowed to attend school, for fear of risking her safety.
    “Anything like that, the exterior cameras still would have picked up the guy exiting the house,” the agent put in.
    “It’s my job to point out weaknesses to the boss.” Cramer shrugged. “I was satisfied with the alternate precautions we put in place. But you asked about flaws. That’s the only one I came across when we went over the specs before putting the system in place.”
    “Who has access to the security cameras and codes?”
    “My men work the front gate or monitor the cameras. I’m the only one on the team with the override code.” He immediately corrected himself. “At least the first half of the set. Two code strings are necessary to override the cameras or turn them off. And I wasn’t on the property at all yesterday.”
    “Who has both sets of codes?”
    “Mulder. And the company that designed the system.”
    Travis gave a humorless smile. “Smart guy like you, you could probably figure out a way around that second set of codes and circumvent the system at a time of your choosing.”
    The two men exchanged hard stares. “You need to talk to the security company,” Cramer snapped. “It can’t be done. That’s why it’s cutting-edge. That’s why it cost nearly a half a million bucks.”
    “You realize you’ve just indicated Stephen Mulder is the only person who could have gotten his daughter off this estate without any video recording of it.”
    “The hell I did.” Macy thought for a moment the security chief was going to come across the table at the agent’s suggestion. “That was your scenario, remember? There’s no way in hell Mulder arranged to have his own daughter snatched. You see the lengths the man went to in order to protect her?”
    “Yeah, everything’s impossible, according to you.” Temper was leaking through Travis’s formally professional tone. “Except the girl’s gone . And you’re sitting here trying to convince us it couldn’t happen. Not with you at the security helm. Well, if that’s true, how the hell did she get off the property?”
    “Maybe she didn’t.”
    Macy’s gaze flew up, distracted momentarily from the notes she was scribbling about the interview. “What do you mean?”
    Cramer jerked his head toward