She glared for another few beats before her expression softened.
“Okay. What can we do to help?”
“I want to find out about your great-Aunt. What little I know is from what Loretta told Kara.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure I have much more to tell you. One thing is, she isn’t really our great-aunt. I’ve never been clear on the whole naming of degrees of relationships, but we’re something like second cousins once removed, or something like that. From what Loretta told me, this woman’s grandmother was the sister of our great-grandmother. I actually didn’t even know she existed until the woman called Loretta and offered to fly her to Germany. I know our great-grandfather emigrated from Germany, but no one ever talked about that, and it seems so disconnected I never gave it much thought.”
“Did Loretta know about them?”
“No. When she called me, she was just as confused. She’d never heard of this woman before, and half thought it was some kind of scam, except she looked into it and was able to confirm we are even related.”
“Do you know what she needed Loretta to do?”
“Not really, and I don’t think Loretta knew either. She wanted someone ‘outside the family,’ is how she put it, to look into... something. That part was kind of fuzzy for me. Loretta didn’t even really want to go, but I told her it would be a free trip to Europe and a way to get away from... you know. God, I feel so bad. I talked her into going.”
“We both know that if Loretta really didn’t want to go, she wouldn’t. Your sister’s a lot of things, but weak-willed isn’t one of them.”
“You’re going to find her and help her, right?”
“Yes. I know she’s still pissed at me, but that doesn’t matter. I promise I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise.”
“Well, I have a flight. Do you have Kara’s number at her new apartment?”
“Yes. She called us when she found out she was moving and gave it to us.”
“Her roommates’ mother will be looking in on them, but I told her to call you if she ran into any problems while I’m gone.”
“We’ll take care of her. Just bring back my sister.”
“I will.”
Alexandria, Virginia
It took Taylor longer to get back to his apartment than he had planned, leaving him running late to meet Graf at the airport. He had just enough time to pack a bag with enough clothes to last a few weeks since he did not know how long this would take. Traveling overseas required more than just grabbing his go bag and stepping out the door.
Thinking of his go bag, he pulled the extra magazines he had stored in it along with several other items he would not be able to take through customs. He put them all in the small gun safe along with his sidearm since he would not be allowed to carry a weapon while in Germany. He did keep his FBI badge. While it would not actually do anything for him, he could imagine some situations where getting professional courtesy from other countries' law enforcement might be useful.
Taylor took a cab to the airport, both because he was running late and because he did not particularly want to deal with parking. He found Graf outside of security waiting for him.
As Taylor feared, their tickets were for coach. Worse, he was in a middle seat, with Graf taking the isle. He was feeling somewhat homicidal by the end of the ten-hour flight, squished between the German officer and a fairly large man in a rumpled suit.
Taylor spent most of the flight looking over the files Graf had brought with him on the case. Everything was laid out, as Graf had said in Solomon’s office, although they did provide some additional information that might end up being useful.
Frieda Wissler, Whitaker’s relative, had been found deceased two days ago in her home by her doorman, who was letting in a regularly scheduled delivery person to drop off groceries and supplies for her. She was still in full rigor when the first patrolman arrived. Once the coroner put the time of death at the previous evening, they had pulled the security cameras from the building. They only had them at the entrance to the building, but that was enough to witness Whitaker's arrival and departure, right in the time of death window, just as Graf had said.
Wissler had been stabbed once, right in the heart. The medical examiner notes said the knife had not hit any bone, sliding straight between the ribs at an angle in a single thrust. There had been no sign of hesitation in the stabbing. His conclusion found that the assault had most likely been carried out by someone with either extensive training or experience.
Graf’s notes indicated that, while the apartment had been ransacked, nothing appeared to have been taken, although it went on to say that it was hard to be sure, given the condition Wissler lived in. Taylor asked him about that, but Graf said he would have to see it for himself. The file also indicated that the doorman found the door locked and intact when he had arrived, meaning no one had kicked it in, and whoever had killed her had locked it behind them when they left.
The rest of the file detailed their efforts to find Whitaker. They had been fairly thorough, checking her hotel room, which was still reserved for another week. They had tracked all of her phone calls since she had flown into the country and put together a timeline of the
