Free Jayne and Steelie - 01 - Freezing by Clea Koff Page A

looked at Scott. ‘What did you get from Redding on interview?’
    â€˜She alibied him, under caution, for the time the van we’re looking for was hit on the freeway. And given how mad she is at him, I think it’s a safe bet she wouldn’t cover for him if he wasn’t actually there.’
    â€˜So we’re back to square one.’
    â€˜Not exactly.’
    Eric looked interested.
    â€˜Let’s expand your body shop theory. We started with the ones that have handled hot cars but if it’s our perp from Georgia, he doesn’t know which shop to go to out here in California, does he? He picks whatever is convenient from the freeway and figures that, with enough incentive, he can keep the shop quiet.’ Scott pulled a printout closer to him. ‘I’ve got twelve more body shops we can check in that radius you set up around the accident site. There’s hope for your gold star yet.’
    Eric had stood up to scan the list over Scott’s shoulder when someone knocked on their open door. Weiss was waiting for their attention.
    â€˜Heard you guys were in the building. Thought you should get this from Thirty-two One direct.’
    At his summons, Jayne and Steelie appeared, the latter carrying a toolbox. Eric gestured for her to take his empty chair while everyone greeted each other.
    â€˜You found something?’ Scott asked.
    Jayne announced, ‘There’s a surgical plate in one of the arms.’
    Neither agent reacted at first. Then Eric put the question. ‘What does that mean for the case? Do you know who she is?’
    Steelie smiled. ‘ We don’t know but you’re probably gonna know. Tony’s working on it now, up in your lab.’
    Jayne explained, ‘If the plate is batch-stamped or coded in any way, and you add that it’s screwed into the right humerus of a woman between the ages of twenty-five and forty, say, then you guys are about as close as you’re going to get to a shortlist of people who had this procedure done off of that batch of plates.’
    â€˜You’ll notice there are a couple of ifs in that statement, though,’ cautioned Steelie.
    â€˜And there’s another way we can search, right?’ Eric commented. ‘Using the National Crime Information Center database, we could generate a shortlist of all missing women in that age range with a plate in the right arm.’
    â€˜That, too,’ agreed Jayne.
    â€˜ If she’s been reported missing,’ countered Steelie. ‘And if the person who reported her knew about her surgery or put the cops on to the medical records, and if the records then actually got uploaded into NCIC. And we know that doesn’t always fly.’
    Scott looked thoughtful. ‘Was there a scar? Like, from when she had surgery to put the plate in?’
    Steelie smacked her forehead lightly and turned to stare at Jayne. ‘Of course! We got so carried away by the plate, we forgot about the scar. Of course there’s a scar.’
    â€˜So,’ Eric concluded. ‘We can do a simple search on “scar, upper right arm” and forget about the person who put in the misper report knowing what kind of surgery or accident led to the scar?’
    Jayne commented to Steelie, ‘And you always had a low opinion of these law enforcement types.’
    Scott rocked back in his chair and grinned at Eric before saying to Jayne, ‘He just wants the gold star I promised him.’
    She raised her eyebrows. ‘Is that what they taught you at Quantico? Carrot and stick?’
    He paused, locking eyes with her, then said, ‘Well, you’ve been there—’
    Steelie cut in. ‘No, we were only there for a week giving our two cents on NCIC Two Thousand. At the time, your main object of study appeared to be a beer bottle.’
    Scott dragged his eyes away from Jayne to respond to Steelie. ‘Then you wouldn’t know that the Bureau stalwarts who