Deadly Dance (5 page)

“So have you found anything?” she asked, eyes
narrowing as she studied him. “You look like you’re holding something back.”

“I’m not. I swear,” he said, shaken by the fact that she’d nearly read his mind. “This kind of thing is tricky. I’ve tried to trace the email and all I’ve been able to do is verify that it wasn’t sent from Princeton. Avery’s got Simon tracking down the dude who supposedly sent it to your TA, but I’m pretty sure he’ll just corroborate what we already know.”

“What about authenticity? Have you been able to verify that the mpeg wasn’t just a prank?” she asked.

“I haven’t been able to prove it technically, but I sent it to a friend of mine who used to be a profiler with the FBI, and she thinks it may be real. The quality of the video, the lighting, even the staging or lack thereof—all of it suggests that whoever filmed this wasn’t worrying overmuch about presentation. It’s more like he was intent on making a record of the act.”

“Well, if it is real, and if this is our student…” Hannah trailed off, her gaze moving from the photograph to the two of them.

“Then we have a very real problem. And a ticking clock,” Avery said.

“So what do we do now? Bring in the police?” Hannah asked.

“No. They have the same forty-eight-hour rule we do. And besides, Langley doesn’t want to risk exposure by bringing in the locals. So for now we’re on our own, which considering our resources isn’t such a bad thing. And worst case, we’ll call for help from the FBI.”

“My old stomping grounds,” Harrison said, his mind still on the missing girl.

“When’s the last time anyone saw Sara?” Hannah asked with a frown.

“Last night. She was in the library studying and left sometime just after midnight. No one’s seen her since.”

“What about her roommate?” Harrison queried as he continued to type on his keyboard. “Wasn’t she concerned?”

“Haven’t been able to run her to ground either,” Avery said. “Which made it seem as if they’d possibly gone off somewhere together. Although Tony swears they weren’t really friends.”

“Tony?” Hannah asked, her attention drawn back to the screen as Harrison switched back to the video, the grainy film work just as horrifying the second time.

“Marcuso,” Avery said, his gaze also on the screen above them. “The boyfriend. Another junior. Econ major.”

“Any reason to believe he might have something to do with the disappearance?” Harrison frowned as he magnified the picture on the monitor, the enlarged scene seeming even more ominous.

“Not so far. But we need to talk to him again. And the roommate, along with your TA, Hannah.”

“Tina? She’s definitely not a part of this, if that’s what you’re thinking. I saw her reaction to the video. She was as horrified as I was. There’s no faking that kind of thing. Besides, if she were involved, she wouldn’t have brought the video to me.”

“She’s not a suspect,” Avery said. “Hell, we don’t even know that we have a crime. But someone sent the video to her for a reason. And if we can figure that out, maybe it’ll lead us to a source. Maybe there’s a connection between Tina and Sara.”

“Or the boyfriend,” Hannah agreed. “I can talk to Tina.”

“I was actually thinking you and Harrison could handle all the interviews since you’re already running point on this. And to be honest, the two of you are more likely to get them to be honest with you. Being called before the dean of students tends to be off-putting.”

“Especially when said dean is you.” Harrison laughed, and then sobered as he adjusted the settings on his computer.

“I assume you’re running some kind of diagnostics program,” Avery said. “Any way to use it to ID the girl in the footage?”

“Not definitively, no.” Harrison shook his head, entering something into the computer. “Basically the computer will use the algorithms in the program to try and fill in the details in the scene that are obliterated by the shadows, including the woman’s face. It’ll just be conjecture, of course, based on calculations the computer makes, but it might move us a step closer to figuring out if the woman in the video is in fact Sara Lauter. Sort of like an electronic sketch artist.”

“So it’s working now, right?” Hannah asked, pointing up at the screen.

“Yeah. It’s filling in details. You can already see that the perimeter of the frame is coming into clearer focus.”

“Over there in the corner, by the bed,” Hannah said, squinting now as she studied the screen. “It looks like there’s a chair. Can you freeze it and enlarge that area?”

“Sure,” Harrison said, his gaze following hers as he moused over to the area in question, stopping the video as he enlarged the frame. “Holy shit,” he whispered, as the object on the chair became clear.

The T-shirt was torn, almost shredded, but the insignia was still clear. The orange imprint bold against the black shirt. Harrison maneuvered the computer, pulling the image into sharper focus. The words printed on the shirt jumped off the screen—“Property of Sunderland College.”

“Thanks for agreeing to see us,” Hannah said, smiling as the young man took a seat across from Harrison in the Fischer Building’s conference room. Tony Marcuso had the look of a typical college student—sweatshirt, jeans, overstuffed backpack. Although now that she thought about it, that pretty much described her most days as well.

She and Harrison had spent another hour or so going over the video, trying to find something in it that might lead to a location, or maybe an identification. Harrison’s program had made the images clearer, but even though there were certain features that Sara and the woman in the video had in common, it was far from conclusive.

“Have you found Sara?” Tony asked, his face tightening with worry.

“I’m sorry,” Harrison said, his voice kind. “We haven’t. But we do have a few more questions for you. Nine times out of ten when someone goes missing like this, there’s a reasonable explanation. Were you and Sara having any problems? An argument maybe?”

“No way,” he shook his head. “I swear. Everything was great. We haven’t really been dating that long, but our connection was pretty intense, if that makes sense. It’s just kind of like I knew she was the one. And I think she feels the same way about me.” Doubt chased across his face, competing with the worry, but Hannah had the feeling he meant everything he was saying.

“So you can’t think of any reason why she might have run off?” Hannah probed. They’d already talked with Tina, trying to make some sense of her role in all of this. But nothing had come of that conversation either. Tina didn’t even know Sara. So if there was a connection between the two women, it was clearly obscure.

“None at all,” Tony said. “She was fine at the library. She only left because she had an early class and wanted to get some sleep. We agreed to meet for breakfast and that was the last… I saw of her.” His voice cracked on the last few words, emotion clearly getting the best of him.

“What was her cellphone number?” Harrison asked, typing something into his computer. “We might be able to trace her through phone activity.”

“It’s 555-867-5209,” he said, “but it won’t do you any good. She lost it last week. She didn’t want to tell her father. So she’s been doing without. Oh, God, I need to call her parents.”

“Why don’t you let us handle that, Tony.” Hannah reached across the table to cover the boy’s hand with hers. “We need to be sure that we have all the facts before we contact them. There’s no point in scaring them needlessly.”

“But I’m telling you, Sara wouldn’t just disappear like this. She’s not like that.”

“Well, until we have evidence to the contrary,” she sucked in a breath, exchanging a glance with Harrison, “I have to assume otherwise. It’s like we said, nine times out of ten—”

“I know. I heard you the first time. But there’s no way she just ran off.”

“What about her roommate? Maybe she went somewhere with her?”

“No way, she’d never go anywhere with Stephanie.”

“Are you saying they didn’t get along?” Harrison pushed back from his computer, eyeing the boy over the top of it.

“That’d be an understatement,” he sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. “The two of them were a mismatch from the beginning. The only reason Sara was rooming with her was because she didn’t want to pay for a single.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not following,” Hannah said, looking down at the papers she had in front of her. “According to my notes, Sara requested Stephanie.”

“Yeah, but it was because Stephanie had been through a rough time. You remember the girl killed in the car wreck last year?”

“Donna something,” Hannah frowned.

“Right. Donna Mayer. Well, Stephanie was her roommate. And it was really tough on her. So Sara moved in with her for the last couple of months. She was just being nice. And then when Stephanie asked her to room with her this year, Sara couldn’t say no. But Stephanie’s not the easiest person to be around.” He shrugged, looking apologetic. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with her. Just that she and Sara aren’t a good fit. And they’re certainly not friends.”

“So there’s no chance she’d have gone off with her on some kind of road trip,” Harrison concluded.

“None at all.”

“So is there any chance Stephanie could have done something to Sara?” Harrison asked. “Were their problems big enough to have caused that kind of over-reaction?”

“No,” Tony shook his head. “Stephanie’s a little weird,
but she’s nothing like that. I mean, the worst thing she’s ever done is unplug the clock so that the alarm doesn’t go off. She’s not a morning person, and Sara is.” Despite the seriousness of the situation, he smiled. “Sara’s one of those people who wakes up happy. Stephanie can’t even function without a couple cups of coffee. So like I said, they just don’t mesh. But Sara manages. Mainly by spending most of her time away from the room. With me. Or in the library. It’s just easier that way.”

“Okay, so how about we look at this from another angle,” Hannah said. “Has Sara said or done anything to make you think she was unhappy? Or maybe had a problem with someone else. Someone you haven’t mentioned.”

He paused for a minute, clearly considering the question. Harrison was back to typing.

“I can’t think of anyone. I wish I could. I just know something’s really wrong, or I’d have heard from her. Phone or no phone. She’s not thoughtless like that. That’s why I love her.” His eyes widened with the declaration. “Wow. I can’t believe I said it out loud. But I do love her, you know? And I need for you to believe that she wouldn’t just disappear like this. Something’s really wrong. I know it.”

Harrison paused for a moment, then clearly making a decision, turned his computer around. “Does anything about this place look familiar?” The still was from the video, but there was no sign of the girl on the bed or her tormentor.

Tony leaned forward, squinting as he studied the picture. “I don’t think so. Should it be?”

“No.” Harrison shook his head. “I was just hoping maybe it had some significance.”

“You think Sara’s there?” He nodded toward the screen. “Why would you think that?”

Harrison turned to Hannah, and she nodded. There was a risk in showing him, but everything in her gut told her that whatever the hell was going on, Tony wasn’t involved in Sara’s disappearance. Harrison hit a key and the picture dissolved into another. This time featuring the woman on the bed.

“Oh, my God,” Tony gasped, pain lacing through his voice, “is that Sara?”

“You tell me,” Harrison said.

Hannah reached out to squeeze the boy’s shoulder, offering what comfort she could. “I know this is hard, but you know her better than anyone.”

Tony studied the still for another minute or so and then shook his head. “I don’t know. I can’t tell. It’s too grainy. The hair is right. And maybe the height. But I honestly can’t say for sure.” He clenched a fist, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “What the hell is this? Where did it come from?”

“It’s a video that we found on the web,” Harrison said, improvising a little bit. “We’re not even sure it’s depicting something real. But in light of Sara’s disappearance, we have to consider the option that this could be her.”

“Can you tell me what she was wearing the night she disappeared?” Hannah asked gently as Harrison turned the computer back around.

Tony was still staring at the back of the computer, the image clearly burned into his brain. For a moment, she thought he hadn’t heard her, then he turned, his shoulders straightening as he pulled it together. “She was wearing jeans. The kind that come already torn. She
thought they were really cool. And a jacket. You know, like photo-journalists wear.”

“A flak jacket?” Hannah prompted.

“No, more like the kind with lots of pockets. Like in Africa.”

“A safari jacket,” Hannah nodded as Harrison typed. “What color?”

“Greenish. Um… khaki, I guess.”

“And underneath the jacket?”

He shook his head, rubbing his forehead. “Gosh, I feel like such a jerk, but I can’t remember. I should know what she was wearing.”

“Just take a deep breath and think. You’re dealing with a lot right now.” Hannah shot a glance at Harrison, who was watching Tony, his eyes full of sympathy.

Tony nodded and closed his eyes, his forehead wrinkling as he concentrated. “No. I’m sorry. I just don’t remember. Just the jacket.” Tony’s face turned ashen. “Oh, my God. The woman you showed me—was she wearing a jacket like Sara’s?”