Fractured

'That's why the sentence construction's so simple. There aren't any contractions.'

Will looked at the computer screen as he repeated them back from memory. 'I have your daughter. I want one million dollars. I will call you this time tomorrow with details.'

He picked up the phone and called Hamish Patel, who was driving the tape up to the University of Georgia in Athens.

Hamish sounded as excited as Will felt. He told Will, 'If you manage to keep your job, you might actually break this case.'

Will made excuses. He didn't want to think about what Amanda had in store for him tomorrow morning, but he imagined she was concocting a special kind of hell for the agent who had gotten into a fight with the father of a kidnapping victim. The GBI was planning another sex sting at the Atlanta airport. Will might be stuck in a bathroom stall on the B Concourse, waiting for a married father of three to tap his foot and ask for a blow job.

He rang off with Hamish and told Faith, 'They're going to check into it. These guys deal with computers and audio enhancement all of the time. I'm sure they would've figured it out in ten seconds.'

'Saves them ten seconds then,' she pointed out. 'I can't help but think where we'd be if I'd been able to get Gabe to talk yesterday.'

'He wasn't ready,' Will told her, though there was no way of knowing whether or not that was true. 'Maybe if you'd pushed him yesterday, he would have gone over the edge without telling us anything.'

'What do you think about the notes?'

'Someone-probably the kidnapper-was trying to warn or threaten Adam.'

' ‘She belongs to me,' ' Faith quoted. 'That's a pretty definitive statement.'

'It supports the kidnapper knowing Emma, at least.'

'What about the way they were written?'

Will nodded, as if he knew what she was talking about. 'That's a good point. What do you think about it?'

She tapped her finger to her mouth as she considered it. 'Either the person who wrote them is dyslexic or they're trying to make it seem like they are.'

Will felt the glimmer of pride from a few moments ago disappear like a flash of lightning. The notes were misspelled. He had missed an important clue because of his own stupidity. What else had he missed? What other evidence had gone by the wayside because Will couldn't wrap his head around them?

Faith asked, 'Will?'

He shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. He would have to call Amanda, tell her what he had missed. She had a way of finding out these things on her own. He didn't know how to handle it other than to confess and wait for the ax to fall.

'Go ahead and say it,' Faith told him. 'It's not like I haven't been wondering.'

He clasped his hands under the desk. 'Wondering what?'

'Whether or not Emma's involved in this.'

Will looked down at his hands. He had to swallow past the lump in his throat. 'It's possible,' he admitted. He tried to refocus his attention, using a roundabout question to find out how Faith had arrived at Emma Campano being involved. 'Kayla certainly knew how to inspire hate in people, but it's a huge leap, don't you think?'

'Kayla was such an awful person, and from the sound of it, Emma was one step up from her lapdog. She might have snapped.'

'You think a seventeen-year-old girl is capable of doing all this-killing people, staging her own kidnapping?'

'That's the question, isn't it?' Faith leaned her elbows on his desk. 'I hate to say this, but considering what Mary Clark said about her, if Emma was dead and Kayla was missing, I would have no problem believing Kayla was in on it.'

'Did Clark's alibi for yesterday check out?'

'She was in class all day.' Faith continued, 'Ruth Donner, the girl who was archenemies with Kayla last year, was out of the state. There aren't any other girls in particular at the school who were Kayla's sworn enemies. I mean, not any one who stands out from the crowd.'

'What about Gabe Cohen?'

She pressed her lips together, not answering for a moment. 'There's no evidence that links him to either of the girls.' She added, 'I think he's told us everything he knows.'

'What about the gun?'

'He mentioned it for a reason, but I checked his book bag and his dorm top to bottom. If Adam bought a gun, he didn't give it to Gabe. Maybe he kept it in his car.'

'Which means our abductor probably has it,' Will pointed out. 'Where was Gabe yesterday when this was all going down?'

'In a class, but it was in one of those huge lecture halls. He didn't have to sign in, the teacher doesn't take attendance. It's a shaky alibi.' She paused. 'Listen, if you think I made a bad call, we can go pick him up right now. Maybe sitting in a jail cell will jog his memory.'

Will did not relish the prospect of sweating an eighteen-year-old kid based on a hunch, especially considering Gabe Cohen's suicidal ideation. He listed the points in Gabe's favor. 'He doesn't have a car on campus. He doesn't have a place to hide Emma. We have no connection between him and either girl. No motive, no opportunity, no means.'

'I think he's troubled,' she said. 'But I don't think he's capable of this sort of thing.' Faith laughed. 'Of course, if I was good at spotting the ones who had murder in their hearts, I'd be running the world.'

It was a sentiment Will had often thought himself. 'What's the school doing with him?'

'Victor says it's a delicate situation,' she said. 'They're really caught in the middle.'

'How so?'

'Do you remember the dozen or so suicides at MIT back in the nineties?'

Will nodded. The stories of parents suing the university had made national news.

'The schools have a legal obligation-in loco parentis,' she cited, the phrase that basically said the school acted as parents to the students while they were enrolled. 'Victor's going to recommend to the father that Gabe be committed for psychiatric evaluation.'

Will couldn't help but notice that she kept using the dean's name. 'Have him committed?' he asked. 'That seems kind of drastic.'

'They have to be careful. Even if Gabe's just blowing smoke, they have to take him seriously. I doubt Tech will allow him back in without a doctor's assurance that he's okay.' She shrugged. 'Even then, they'll probably make him check in with counselors every day.'

Will liked the idea of Gabe Cohen being on psychiatric lock-down instead of left out in the world to his own devices. At least this way, he knew how to get his hands on the kid if he wanted to.

He said, 'Let's go back to the murders.'

'All right.'

'Kayla was killed by someone who hated her. I can't believe the killer would take that much time with her otherwise. All those stab wounds, pulling down the underwear, pushing up the shirt. Classic debasement and overkill. You don't punch somebody's face off unless you know who they are and despise them for it.' He suggested, 'Maybe you're right. Maybe Emma snapped.'

'She would have to kill her best friend-beat her, stab her, possibly rape her with something that, according to Pete, had a condom on it-then hit Adam over the head and stab him, then create this hoax for her parents to fall for.' She added, 'And that still doesn't explain the sperm found in Kayla Alexander's vagina.'

'Or maybe Emma just stood by while it was all happening.' He reminded her, 'Charlie says there were four people in that house.'

'True,' Faith conceded. 'But I have to put this in there somewhere: for a girl like Emma Campano, living where she lives, having the father and grandfather that she has, a million dollars isn't a lot of money.'

Will hadn't considered that, but she was right. Ten million would be more on par with Paul's lifestyle. Then again, one million would be a lot easier to hide.

He said, 'Bernard, Emma's teacher, said that she was highly organized. This took a lot of planning.'

Faith shook her head. 'I don't understand kids anymore. I really don't.' She stared out the window at the