She knew asking him who 'they' were would get her nowhere. He wouldn't even give his name. He told her exactly where he wanted them to meet. She had no problems with the locale or his laundry list of instructions, though she wasn't sure how she would pull it off. Definitely not with A.D. Kunze's help. But by the time the man had hung up Maggie realized she knew the one person who could make this happen. She started searching for the governor's right-hand man.
She found David Ceimo in the restaurant's kitchen, his cell phone pressed so hard against his face there was a red indentation on his cheek.
'I want to know where they got this information. Anonymous doesn't cut it,' he yelled over the clanging of pots and pans. 'I don't care. Find out.'
Ceimo shrugged and attempted a smile when he saw her. She leaned against a steel rack to let the chef squeeze between them.
'Any luck?'
'The photos were e-mailed anonymously to someone at the TV station.' He raked a flap of his thick brown hair off his forehead only to have it fall back. His fingers made a second unsuccessful swipe. 'They claim two sources confirmed.'
'Sources close to the investigation?'
'Not from what I'm hearing. Just 'two independent sources.'' And he air-marked the quotes. 'How did we get to this place where our news media only sensationalizes the news instead of reports it?'
They had to move out of the way again while a waiter tried to remove a tray from the refrigerator. The kitchen, though spotless, had little room for any extra personnel. Maggie moved to the other side of a narrow, long table, what looked like the kitchen's more extensive version of that evening's dessert tray.
'I just received an interesting phone call,' she told him, glancing down at the tiramisu and cheesecake that came between them. 'With an interesting request.'
Ceimo's eyes narrowed on her. He was better at blocking out the kitchen activity. Maggie's training kept her eyes darting around, looking for anything and trying to catch everything. Her stomach, however, kept reminding her that they hadn't had a chance to eat, drawing her eyes down to the desserts.
'And this request?' Ceimo was impatient.
'The caller claims he has information.'
'What kind of information?'
'He'll only share it in person. And only with me.'
'He saw you on TV,' Ceimo said, surprising her. There was more to the governor's aide than she expected. Nick Morrelli had introduced David Ceimo as an old football rival. His good looks and charm?not unlike Nick's?had made her misjudge his intellect, just as she caught herself doing with Nick.
'What if he's just some wacko?'
'Wackos are my specialty,' she said and started giving him the details.
CHAPTER 49
Nick wished he could find an excuse to stay in Ceimo's SUV and tag along with him and Maggie. The two were obviously on some secret mission. He found himself a little jealous. That was ridiculous. Of course, he knew it was. Maggie asked Ceimo only because of his connections. Nick wondered if it had something to do with her stepbrother. He wanted to ask. Would have asked, but once again, he ended up in the wrong place, sandwiched between Yarden and Jamie in the back of the SUV.
'Let me know if there's anything I can do,' he managed to say just as Ceimo dumped them out in front of the hotel.
Nick followed Yarden and Jamie down a hallway back to the command center. It hadn't been that long ago that they had left. Charlie Wurth was still here and Kunze had returned.
Nick poured himself a cup of coffee and was dumping cream into it when Kunze said to him, 'Wurth said O'Dell was with you.'
'She was.'
Kunze glanced at the door again.
'She went somewhere with Mr. Ceimo,' Yarden offered.
'Where exactly did they go?'
'They didn't say.' Nick shrugged, sipped his coffee.
Kunze grumbled under his breath, digging his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. He stomped across the room, punching in numbers just as Deputy Director Charlie Wurth asked everyone to take a seat.
Wurth started writing on a huge white dry-erase board at the front of the room.
'Here's what we know so far about these guys. We haven't had much time to dig. Everything's still coming in. Feel free to chime in if you've got questions or information to add. No need for formalities.'
On the dry-erase board under POI (persons of interest) he listed the names of the three young men the news media had released:
CHAD HENDRICKS, age 19, St. Paul, Minnesota
TYLER BENNETT, age 19, St. Paul, Minnesota
PATRICK MURPHY, age 23, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
He drew a bracket that connected Chad and Tyler, then jotted, 'roommates at UnivM.'
'We have two agents with a search warrant on their way to the dorm room these two men shared on campus. It looks like they also went to the same elementary school and high school.'
A.D. Kunze passed out copies with all three of the young men's photos. He stopped at Nick and Yarden's table.
'Can the surveillance video verify these three were the ones with the red backpacks?'
Both Nick and Yarden took a closer look. Nick didn't like being put on the spot. Neither did Yarden.
'You saw the quality of the shots we had. It's tough to tell,' Nick said. 'Hendricks for sure.' He pointed at Chad's photo. It was a head shot. Probably from a sports roster. He was definitely the kid in the Golden Gopher ball cap. They had looked at that video enough times to safely identify him. Yarden was doing his bobble-headed nod.
'This one could be Bennett.' He tapped Tyler's photo. 'But Patrick Murphy?I don't think we have good enough video to identify him.' He wanted to get back to the surveillance room, back to the video. If he looked a bit harder he wondered if he would recognize the man Maggie said was her stepbrother.
'Definitely Hendricks and Bennett,' Yarden said, sounding confident. He wasn't just backing Nick up. Yarden may be timid but he was good at his job. 'We couldn't get a good look at the third bomber or the two people he had with him. They all disappeared into the food court.'
'What do you mean disappeared?' A.D. Kunze asked.
'The food court doesn't have any cameras.'
'None?'
'No, sir.'
Nick stopped himself from defending the antiquated security system that originally had been designed to track shoplifters, not terrorists.
'Mall security doesn't extend to that area,' Yarden started to explain but Charlie Wurth stopped him.
'We never expected our shopping centers to be targets for terrorist attacks,' Wurth said. 'Same reason mall security officers are not armed. There are changes that are long overdue.'
'Interesting that the TV station didn't have the girl's photo,' Nick said.
He had everyone's attention now. Even A.D. Kunze stood quietly.
'So what does that mean?' Charlie Wurth asked.
'Could mean that whoever leaked those photos to the media didn't know the girl ended up with one of the bombs.' A.D. Kunze crossed his arms over his chest. 'At least it wasn't anyone from our group. Let's make sure it stays that way.'
'Is there any evidence that the bombers died with the backpacks?' Wurth asked Jamie.
