Free The Chessman by Jeffrey B. Burton Page A

three-strand marine rope.”
    “It’s a giant bay, Agent Cady,” the AD said. “Will we be able to find the remains of the five missing females?”
    “Let me bring you up to date on that, sir. Their boat had one of those depth finders, the kind fishermen use.” Cady looked again at his notes. “A Humminbird Matrix 97 Combo, a high-end jobbie that has the capability of hitting depths of several hundred feet. However, I don’t suspect they used the unit for fishing. The Zalentines had no fishing gear, poles or tackle, stored onboard or at their condominiums. Neither Zalentine twin has ever purchased a fishing license in their lives, and, after a painfully awkward call with Vance Zalentine, I learned they never went fishing as children.”
    “The Humminbird had a dual purpose. They were fishing all right, but for the perfect watery grave.”
    “Exactly, sir,” Cady responded. “And here’s where we got lucky. The Nav station onboard
The She-Killer
held a wireless Bluetooth GPS for electronic charting—fishermen can set coordinates so they can return to a successful spot at a later date. We believe the Zalentine twins used it to get a navigation fix, a waypoint if you will, on a couple of desired
deep
spots in Chesapeake Bay.”
    “What’s being done with the GPS coordinates?”
    “Bear in mind the Chesapeake averages about twenty-one feet of depth. That’s just the average, there are much deeper spots. The Zalentines had two waypoints programmed into their Bluetooth. Unfortunately, one of the waypoints is in the deepest part of the bay, off Bloody Point near Annapolis. It’s called The Hole and it’s 174 feet below sea level. Searching The Hole will be a bit more problematic, more time-consuming. However, the other waypoint is about sixty feet down. The Coast Guard currently has divers sifting that area.” Cady turned to Detective Sears. “Allan and I received a call from the officer in charge of the dive right before this meeting.”
    Sears cleared his throat. “Coast Guard divers just discovered two female bodies at this GPS setting. The preliminaries indicate that both are without clothes and are wrapped in some kind of camping tarp, wrapped tightly with the exact same brand of three-strand rope found onboard the Zalentine boat. The rope was threaded through 160 pounds of barbell weights; again, the exact same type of barbell weights found in a compartment onboard
The She-Killer
. The Guard is expanding the perimeter of their search at this dive site, but I suspect the other three victims are in or near the other set of GPS coordinates—The Hole.”
    “What about all of these other women the Zalentines took sailing on their
death boat
,” Agent Preston asked. “Why were they permitted to live?”
    “My thought,” Detective Sears addressed the FBI agent’s question, “is that these were for appearances. Diversionary dates paraded across that marina so nothing would stand out in any of the other boaters’ minds. The brothers likely got their rocks off drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers with these
for appearance
dates, knowing full well what they’d been doing aboard
The She-Killer
.”
    “Plus,” Cady added, “these
for appearance
dates were linked to the brothers and would be easy trace-backs if one disappeared. Of the five missing females with their purses in the Zalentines’ souvenir chest, Claire Townley and Jenny Granger were teenage hitchhikers, Meagan Wright was picked up in a crowded nightclub in Virginia Beach, and Dayna St. Claire was a prostitute who worked out of Richmond, Virginia.”
    “Based on the mileage put on the twins’ sports cars,” Sears said, “I suspect Alain and Adrien spent time cruising the interstate, looking for lone female hitchhikers, young women they could charm into a meal and some drinks, perhaps a place to stay for a night or two, and then possibly, if they’d like, a pleasant night ride on their sailboat. A-1 in your packet lists the names,