Free Silent Scream by Karen Rose Page B

be in the building, but this woman was working late and had fallen asleep at her desk. After that, the group
     went dormant. It was assumed they’d gone their separate ways.”
    “
That
was SPOT?” Abbott asked. “I remember that fire now.”
    “That’s a disturbing coincidence,” Jess Donahue said. “If they knew this girl was in the condo last night and set the fire
     anyway… that’s a whole different ball game.”
    “Find them first, then find out what they knew and when,” Abbott said, then turned to Barlow. “Leaderless resistance groups
     often have a symbolic leader. Did SPOT?”
    “Yeah, but I think I’m too tired to think of his name now.”
    “Preston Moss,” Micki supplied. “I pulled a few articles from Google. Moss grew up here, in the Twin Cities, but during the
     nineties was a professor in some private college in Oregon. He authored a few books on preserving forest habitats. His first
     few books were more mainstream, but he got more radical. He’s believed to have founded SPOT—with appropriate Latin grammar,
     Dr. Donahue. His followers bastardized the name as they formed their own cells across the northwest and east into Wisconsin.
     Later he came back to teach in Minnesota. The wetlands were one of his causes, and Moss was believed to have been directly
     involved in that lastfire. He dropped out of sight after the woman’s death and hasn’t been seen again.”
    Barlow smiled, but wearily. “You did your homework. Anything else I forgot?”
    “No, you covered it,” Micki said kindly. “You have a good memory.”
    “How
did
you remember this, Sergeant?” Donahue asked. “This SPOT group was active before you joined the force.”
    Olivia shot a quick look at the shrink, impressed and wary at the same time. That Donahue had known Barlow was on the case
     and had already checked his personnel file seemed to have floated over the man’s head, because he replied without a blink.
    “During one of my training classes, we had speakers from the FBI and ATF. One of the FBI guys had been chasing Preston Moss
     for years. Kind of his great white whale, if you know what I mean. Seemed a little too intense for my liking, but he may have
     more information that isn’t in the files. His name is Special Agent Angus Crawford, and then he was with the Minneapolis field
     office.”
    “I’ll give him a call,” Abbott said. “Barlow, do you have enough resources? Should we call the Feds in for support?”
    “I’m good for now. We’ve got MFD fire investigators on the scene, and I got some help from one of the firefighters.” Barlow
     slid a look at Olivia. “The one who found the girl—David Hunter. He’s got a good eye.”
    Olivia felt her cheeks heat.
David’s eyes weren’t the only things that were good
, she thought as Paige’s words came back to taunt her.
Focus
. She looked Barlow in theeye. “What did you find?” she asked, relieved her voice was professionally brisk.
    “Hunter and Zell found a backpack in the debris on the first floor, just before I left to come here,” Barlow said. “The backpack
     was mostly burned. It may have been on the fourth floor when it collapsed and fell through, landing on the first floor before
     the fire was completely out. Some of the contents had fallen out and melted.” He produced a camera, turned it on, and passed
     it to Olivia so that she could view the digital display. “Haven’t had time to print my photos. We found this a few feet away.”
    In the screen was a black case that looked like it should have held eyeglasses, but it didn’t. What it did hold, she couldn’t
     tell, as the contents were misshapen. “What is it?”
    “A hearing aid,” Barlow said. “Hunter ID’d it. That pink part is the earpiece. I’m assuming it belonged to the girl.”
    “If it does, it narrows the search for her a good bit.” Olivia put the photo of the dead girl on the table. “She had gel on
     her hands, and Hunter said hefound the ball