‘‘No. Nothing from him or Clymene Prime in the apartment,’’ said Jin.
Diane started to comment when the phone rang. She picked it up.
‘‘Fallon.’’
‘‘Dr. Fallon, this is Alex Kade.’’ He had a slow drawl and a gravely voice. ‘‘How are you doing today?’’ he said.
‘‘Colonel Kade. I’m fine. I hope you have some news for me,’’ she said.
‘‘I do. But please call me Alex,’’ he said. ‘‘
‘‘I will if you call me Diane,’’ she said.
‘‘Deal. I think I found your woman.’’ He paused. ‘‘You said it’s too late to save her?’’
‘‘She’s alive, but . . .’’ Diane let the answer fade away.
‘‘I don’t need to know. I’m sorry I wasn’t around to save this little girl,’’ he said.
‘‘I don’t think she was ever reported missing. We think, though this is not confirmed, but we think her father sold her,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Aw jeez. Aw jeez.’’
Diane could hear the pain in his voice.
‘‘She looks to be fifteen or sixteen. I’m sending you just her face. I don’t think you need to see the rest of the picture. I’ll send the whole pics along if you need them, but—’’
‘‘I don’t really want them in my head,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Is there any information with the pictures?’’
‘‘I do have some information. This set of pictures has been on the Internet porn sites for years. A favorite collection, it seems. It was originally posted by a man who called himself Jurgen Heinrich, but his real name was Simon Greene. He’s from the U.S. but lived all around Europe in the seventies, eighties, and early nineties. Had family money but made his real fortune selling sex slaves. He was a mean one. I’d like to have had him at the end of my fist.’’
‘‘Is he still out there selling slaves?’’ asked Diane.
She had called up the browser on her computer and found Alex Kade’s e-mail. She looked at the pictures. He had cropped out everything but the head and tops of the shoulders. Diane was glad. As she listened to Kade, she looked at the face in the images. She was so young, but it was Clymene. Clymene when she was about fifteen. In the photographs her mouth was always in some kind of seductive pout, but the eyes told the story. They were angry.
‘‘No. Greene was murdered. One of them misdemeanor homicides, if you ask me. Someone doused him with kerosene and lit a match to him. He lived for a few months before getting an infection and dying. A bad end to a totally miserable human being.’’
Clymene’s first murder, Diane was willing to bet. Kingsley had told her the first murder usually set the pattern for the rest. This Heinrich, or Greene, died violently and painfully. Clymene may have changed her method of killing to suit the situation, but the death of Archer O’Riley was painful. Her previous husband, Robert Carthwright, died a painful death too. The odds that his death was an accident were dropping by the day. She killed wealthy men in a painful way. Her twist was to marry them first to get their money.
‘‘I appreciate what you do,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I know it has to be the most repugnant and emotionally draining undertaking.’’
‘‘I have some pictures people send me of them and their kids reunited. I posted them so I can look at them while I work at the computer. That gets me through. I know a little bit about your background and former line of work. That wasn’t easy either.’’
‘‘No,’’ said Diane simply.
‘‘The hard thing is that I know even when I find them and they go back home, their life will never be the same. They’ve always got to live with what was done to them. I saw on the news the other day about a new drug. Propranolol? It’s for high blood pressure, but they’re saying it might get rid of bad memories and traumatic events. I was thinking, when these kids come home, if they could be treated with something like that they might have a better chance at life,’’ he said. ‘‘Have you heard of that? You think it’s possible?’’
‘‘I haven’t heard of propranolol, but I’m sure something like that’s possible,’’ she said.
Diane wasn’t sure she believed that, but Alex Kade was a man who desperately wanted to give back a normal life to kidnapped and abused kids and their families. That was his hope and Diane didn’t want to take that away from him with doubts about the efficacy of such a drug.
‘‘Is there any information on what happened to the girl?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘No, not a thing,’’ he said.
‘‘This helps a lot,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Thank you.’’
‘‘Glad to be of service anytime,’’ he said.
‘‘Was that the guy who looks for missing children?’’ asked Jin when Diane hung up the phone.
‘‘That’s him. He found Clymene at around the age of fifteen,’’ she said. ‘‘Kingsley and I are thinking that her father sold her to the sex trade.’’
‘‘Kind of makes you feel sorry for her,’’ said Jin. ‘‘Like all she’s doing is getting even.’’
‘‘I think on one level she is getting even. But she’s a rational adult now and she knows what she is doing is wrong. If she applied her considerable skills to doing good, like Colonel Kade, think of all she could do.’’
‘‘I guess so. Hey, you want to go eat? I’m starving,’’ he said.
