Free The Arx by Jay Allan Storey Page B

came and did their thing?” Frank said, scanning around the office.
    “What? The bug sweep?” She smiled. “I could have told you – we’re clean as a spring rain.”
    “Doesn’t hurt to check,” he said, pulling a small notebook from his jacket pocket. He clicked his pen open, leaned back in his chair, lifted his feet, and was about to set them on her desk. At a glare from Rebecca he flashed a smile and put them back down.
    “Let’s look at connections,” he said. “If some individual, or more likely some group, is behind all the kidnappings, there must be a common thread that joins them. We find that thread, we’ll be a lot closer to understanding what’s going on.”
    “Okay…”
    “So,” he said. “We list the things the mothers of the kidnapped children have in common.”
    “Sure.”
    Frank positioned his pen on the notebook.
    “Marital status?” Rebecca suggested.
    He waved his hand dismissively. “We already know there’s no commonality in marital status.”
    “Don’t you think we should include everything? We can eliminate things that don’t apply later – but at least we know we’ve covered everything. I’m no detective, but…”
    “Yeah, yeah, okay, you’re right.”
    “We don’t have to do it that way if you don’t want…”
    “Your way is fine. Let’s get on with it. So, marital status. What else?”
    “Race? Religion? Social position?”
    “Sure.” Frank scribbled in his notebook. “Then there’s where they live, where they work.”
    “And the husband’s employment,” put in Rebecca. “And clubs, professional organizations…”
    Frank scribbled hurriedly.
    “This whole business seems to revolve around babies,” he said, “so it might involve hospitals, doctors, gynecologists, pediatricians.”
    “I might be able to help with that,” she said.
    They continued and compiled a comprehensive list.
    “Great,” Frank said when they were finished. “Maybe you can have a look at the medically-related stuff and I’ll check on everything else…”
    “Sure,” she answered.
    Frank turned a page in his notebook. “The other thing we need to look at is motive. Why – why would somebody want to kidnap Ralphie? It usually comes down to money. Somehow somebody’s getting paid.”
    “Like you said before,” Rebecca said. “Baby smuggling.”
    “That’s the most likely motive. There’s childless couples out there that would pay a fortune for a baby, no questions asked.”
    “I hate to even suggest this,” Rebecca said, “but how about organ harvesting. Find a baby with the right genetic makeup and sell them to somebody desperate for the organs.”
    “You’ve got a sick mind,” Frank smiled. “But you’re right. Let’s start with the baby smuggling angle. It seems the most likely. If it doesn’t pan out, then…”
    “Frank,” she interrupted him.
    He glanced up from his notebook.
    “Are we sure?” she asked.
    He frowned and raised an eyebrow.
    “I mean, about all the kidnappings being connected?” she said. “If they’re not, we’re wasting time we could be spending looking for the killer…”
    “We’re sure.”
    She stared at him.
    “Okay?” he said, his thumb poised on the clicker of his pen like it was the plunger of a detonator.
    She gave a tiny shrug.
     
    Some of the tasks Frank had assigned himself proved easy. The mothers’ marital status, race, and current address were in the reports he’d copied earlier. There was no correlation among any of them.
    Employment was harder; he no longer had a cop’s ability to access police files, but he managed to fill in the blanks on all the women. It was disappointing. Other than one or two superficial similarities, none of the victimized mothers seemed to have anything in common.
    He called Rebecca and they agreed to meet and compare notes at the same cafe where they’d first gotten together.
    Frank got there early, and chose a table distant from any other patrons. He studied Rebecca’s