Oh boy. It was all copied into the LiddyBarron file.
From the hall, sounds of feet pounding upthe stairs then two night detectives rushed in, one with blood on his shirt. Hegrimaced hi and headed upstairs, to the showers and the crib. The other gave awave, inquired about Kerri’s cat (“still climbing up your curtains?”), and startednotes at his desk.
Kerri made a fist and gnawed on her thumb alittle; went back to trying to connect things.
Alex had pinpointed where Sasha’s photo wastaken: the river off 89th or 90th Street. He’d recognizedthe Jersey side; that spot was up just a bit from the 79th StreetBoat Basin.
Where LiddyBarron with her water obsession said they docked their boat.
The police knew the Boat Basin well. Fromlate April through October it bustled with tourists taking pictures, weekendsailors crowding the docks for an afternoon sail, parties going on days andnights with the boats still moored. There had been drownings there, too, usuallyalcohol-related and accidental, but not till proven otherwise.
A very popular place.
Her headache was blasting, so Kerri lay herhead down on her desk and closed her eyes. Dammit, three hours ago herexcitement had surged for the first time in weeks. Now what? The desk top wascool, at least; really a nice place to help the head and kinda like an ice packwhen you got right down to it; just float with your eyes closed and stop tryingto think at warp speed; let the thoughts just come…
Problem…big problem: were ShadowFace in theselfie and whoever took Sasha on their boat even the same person? Whoknew? More to the point - what if they were the same person?
Circumstantial! Prove a connection to thedisappearance!
Could Sasha Perry have wandered over andflirted with some boat owner? Been invited for a sail and never come home?
Kerri groaned, louder than she’d intended. Thenight detective who’d inquired about her cat looked over. “You just blow afuse?”
She opened her eyes. “Yup.”
“You should try real sleeping once in awhile, seriously.”
“It’s overrated.”
“So why are you moaning? Go upstairs. Liedown. Leave a note for room service.”
“Ha, you’re a riot.” Kerri watched him goback to his notes, closed her eyes again.
Umm, no…Sasha didn’t seem the type to flirtwith strangers, and she’d left her apartment with just enough for an overnight- there was little missing from her room - which suggested she felt comfortableheaded to someone she knew.
Someone she knew…yes.
Kerri sat up again and went back to LiddyBarron’s file.
Her laptop keys clicked as she googled PaulBarron, neuroscience…and there he was, lots of pictures. Good-looking,dark-haired with another dark-haired guy in one picture, both of them fifteenmonths ago in black tie and tux, smiling at some big science shindig.
“…recipients of the coveted Baker-Renolfi Pharmaceuticalsgrant for advanced anesthesia research,” said the caption, naming the man nextto Barron as Carl Finn, NYU adjunct professor of human biology, M.D., PhD in neurosciencelike Paul Barron…
Kerri blinked; stared at the screen.
Both men taught where Sasha Perry had beena student. Not just the university, but in the same department.
And the other guy Carl Finn was also anM.D.?
What they’d asked Becca flashed throughKerri’s mind: “Did you know Sasha was questioned for forging a narcoticsprescription?”
Becca had known, seemed almost to feel itwas no big deal, everybody did it. Sasha had promised never again to the cops, but– forget that. Once they found how easy it was, most of them went back to needing/wantingtheir uppers and then downers to come down from the uppers - and Sasha was a studyall night kind of girl.
And only M.D.s could prescribe narcotics!Okay…legally, though people got their drugs everywhere these days, not evencounting online.
Kerri stared at the photo of the two men atthe science thing, realizing that Carl Finn looked a little like the guy in theselfie. Close but not…wait… ShadowFace last May was thinner. Carl Finn grinningin his tux was a bit heavier, fuller-faced.
But fifteen months! People lost or gainedweight all the time, and ShadowFace had his chin down – as if belatedly realizingBecca was taking her pic with Sasha and he didn’t want to be in it.
Why?
Professional as well as personal threat?Kerri again heard Becca say, “…maybe some guy with a jealous wife orgirlfriend.”
If Sasha had continued somehow getting her uppers,she might have been wary of the types who peddled narcotics even on campus;wary too of getting it online and possibly contaminated.
More likely she’d seek out another M.D.
Kerri went onto the U’s website to readmore about Carl Finn. Smart guy, he had a PhD plus an M.D. - got it from a goodmed school, then took the all-important year of residency and passed hismedical boards – without which he wouldn’t be qualified to use his medicaldegree or prescribe drugs - and then he dropped out of medicine. Switched to thepost-doc program in neuroscience.
And he was on Facebook! With friends, ohlots of friends and good times and…women. One appeared lots with his arm aroundher…a hard-looking blonde, mid thirties named – Kerri tag-searched her – TerriLynde, hotshot corporate lawyer, no doubt a really big earner. Photos adoringher stopped abruptly in May. Whatsamatter, did the hard-working,has-to-teach-too researcher lose his hold on Lady Big Bucks?
Becca’s voice again: “I started thinkingit was maybe some guy with a jealous wife or girlfriend.”
Scroll, scroll…more Carl Finn photos…thenKerri’s fingers stilled.
There he was, whooping it up with Paul Barronand some third guy in front of a docked sailboat. Could that be Barron’s boat? Therewas something familiar about the third guy, behind sunglasses with his dark hairmessed, but the headache throbbed and Kerri was seeing double and her attentionwas on Finn.
In her mind she added weight to ShadowFaceand decided yes, that could be him - which still left everything circumstantial- plus it wasn’t him it was Paul Barron who owned a boat, there was nothing inFacebook about Carl Finn owning a boat…oh dammit, dammit…
17
She couldn’t breathe. Herchest heaved and her arms flailed but no use, she was going down, seeing airbubbles escape from her nose. The blue circle of sky above was getting smaller.She saw the boat’s hull on the surface and Paul’s legs kicking away from her, swimmingback up.
