Chief Watkins moved to her left and grabbed the black dry erase marker from the gutter popping the cap. “Two-thirds of my officers and detectives will be evenly divided into thirds on the task force. Overlapping ten-hour shifts.” She wrote down the figures before shifting her focus towards Agent Dane. “CBI, I understand they will be sending an additional ten agents to join us later today.” Agent Dane nodded as she added the numbers to the board. “Larimer Sheriffs?” She looked at a deputy with stripes on his sleeve. He shifted his head to the side. “Patrol and investigations will be sending as many people as we can spare. We should have a solid count for you before ten hundred. Our assumption was patrol for backfill and investigations to join the task force.” Watkins nodded, “Sounds good. In addition, our neighboring jurisdictions will be offering up as many as they can spare. State Patrol,” she continued, shifting her focus until it locked on the local trooper who bowed his head slightly, acknowledging her gaze.
“We will be sending around thirty troopers over the next two days to both augment and provide search support. Also we will be pre-positioning our air assets.” She shifted back to the board. “Word is the National Guard will also be providing helicopters from Buckley to assist.” She added more numbers to the count. “How about our Federal partners?” “For this morning it is Agent Jackson, our tech, and myself.” Kinley motioned towards the board. “I will be chatting with the SAC in the Denver Field Office this morning. They will be coordinating the federal response. If you have a wish list, I will be happy to pass it along.” “We can discuss after,” Watkins said, drawing a big question mark next to the word ‘Fed’ on the board before turning back to face the assembly. “Assistant Chief Watts for Criminal Investigations will be coordinating the actual investigation. Assistant Chief Howard for Patrol will be coordinating the backfill efforts and providing the bodies for any search or surge efforts. Assistant Chief Spenser with Special Operations will lead any search or rescue efforts. Questions on these areas can be directed to them. Media inquiries come to my office. I already saw three trucks out there setting up. Watch phrase is— we can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.” She looked around the room at the nodding heads. “I would like to plan on meeting at least twice a day with the local reps for the various agencies, departments, and the assistant chiefs,” she finished filling in the organizational chart she had started earlier in the meeting. “Six and eighteen hundred sounds good to me.” Heads nodded in agreement. “It’s going to be a long couple of days folks. Unless there are any questions?” A sea of heads swayed back and forth. “OK. Let’s get to work.” As she replaced the marker cap a cacophony of noise erupted in the room. Individuals began breaking off into smaller groups based on their expected roles. Agents Kinley and Dane watched as Assistant Chief Watts appeared to be engulfed by the throng of people wanting to talk to him. “Are you going to jump in?” Kinley asked, nodding at the scrum.
“Nah.” Agent Dane replied, moving slowly in the direction of the door. “At this point, he doesn’t have any additional information for me and I don’t have anything for him. I’ll wait until later when the bones are picked clean.” “Good plan.” “How about you?” Agent Dane asked. “I think I’m about to be called to the principal’s office.” “Huh?” Agent Dane looked at him quizzically. “Excuse me, Agent Kinley?” One of Chief Watkins’ assistants to interrupted their conversation. “Is that a question?” Kinley shot back. “What? Oh, sorry. Chief Watkins would like to meet with you in her office as soon as possible.” Kinley looked back at Agent Dane and nodded, “told you.” Agent Dane smiled as Kinley walked away. “Sir? If we may,” the assistant motioned towards the door at the back of the briefing area. It was through here that Watkins had pulled a Houdini level escape at the end of the meeting. “Sure. Lead on.” Agent Kinley motioned in the same direction. As they entered the hallway, the space became indistinguishable from any other government building. Between the cheap linoleum floor, easy-to-clean tile walls, water-stained drop ceiling, and mix of fluorescent and newer LED lights made it feel like they were walking through a school or asylum as much as a police station. However, as they approached the Chief’s office, a semblance of style emerged. The room had dark blue carpet, maple wood paneling, and a variety of built-in bookshelves framing a rather old-looking dark solid wood desk. Its surface showed scars under layers of finish. Spread across it was a variety of knick-knacks, family photos, and a laptop. “Chief Watkins,” Kinley took the lead as he extended his hand. “I’m happy to chat about what we can wrangle up for you.” She turned and with a nod dismissed the assistant. As the solid hardwood door closed, her attention shifted to her guest. “Your hotshot forensic expert forgot to actually do any forensics!”
Agent Kinley wasn’t sure whether this was a question, statement, or accusation. He decided his best option was to feign ignorance. “I’m sorry— what?” “Apparently, as she was leaving the university, she just dropped her homework on one of my officers. Luckily, he brought it back here. When we realized nothing had been done, I was able to call in two of my techs to go over the copies. Based on how you sold her to me I’m rather shocked.” “I’m sorry for the confusion. I’m sure it was just because of the late hour.” Kinley shifted his face from apologetic to curious. “Did they find anything?” “Nothing of value, from what I was told.” She moved to take her seat as she motioned for him to one opposite her. “I’m sure I could get you a copy of the report as soon as it’s available.” “Sounds like we’re no worse off. I assure you, she is one of the most skilled professionals in this field.” She waved her hand as if to dismiss the issue entirely. He shrugged as he moved to take a seat and rolled out his ‘I am from the government and here to help’ smile. “So what can the Bureau do for you?”
* * *
An echo of a fist hitting the door reverberated across the room, startling Lauren awake. She jerked forward, dropping the hood over the left half of her face. Realizing she had been sleeping in a tilted office chair, she steadied herself before falling over. Standing up she tried stretching her arms and back, hoping to to undo the damage caused by the chair. She shouted, “Just a sec.” Her voice sounded gravelly, and her mouth and throat felt as if they had been used as a bird’s nest. Sauntering over to the door in the darkened room, she kicked the bag she had placed along the threshold out of the way, opened the latch, and growled, “What!?”
Tony’s eyes widened when he saw her appearance. His planned, and rather pedestrian, greeting was overwhelmed by one simple question. “Why are you dressed like a Disney princess?” Lauren scanned her full-body pajamas before looking back at Tony. “It’s Zelda. You philistine!” She slapped the light switch next to the door. “OK, that doesn’t answer the underlying question as to why you are in a costume?” “It’s not a costume. It’s my PJs. They happen to be both the warmest and softest things I own.” “Roger that.” “Besides, have you ever used one of your fancy alternate light sources in a hotel room?” His brow furrowed a little. “Why would I ever check my room with an ALS?” “If you had,” she smirked at him, “you might not question my choice in sleepwear.” “Great— another item to add to my list of things I wish I never knew.” “What time is it?” She started to retreat into the room. Tony locked his feet at the threshold and raised his voice slightly. “It’s about eight-fifteen.” “Let me guess, we’re supposed to be there at eight-thirty?” She was unplugging a small tablet from one of her laptops. “Technically before nine. I figured you would want to grab something to eat before we headed out?” She tossed one of the wrappers on the table into the garbage. “I gorged on the minibar courtesy of your partner. I think I could go for some—” “Hot chocolate?” He raised an insulated to-go cup. She smiled and started to walk over towards him with the tablet. “You guys follow Kinley’s directions pretty well. Here, I’ll trade.” “What’s this?” He grabbed awkwardly at the device with his left hand.
“A tablet.” In addition to the snark in her voice was the disappointed look of a teacher on her face. “Thanks. I gathered that much.” “It’s everything I’ve put together on our kidnap victim. At least so far.” “Wh wha what?” Tony fixated on the device. “You ID’d her?” “Figured I should do something useful to earn my minibar privileges,” she said, tossing the hood back on her PJs and smiling. “I suppose I should get dressed. By now, the local techs have exhausted their own skills on those useless hard drives. I’m sure all those important people with guns would like to have something to do with their time.” She took a deep draft from the hot chocolate. Tony finally looked up, “you found out who our victim is?” Lauren crinkled her nose a bit. “Didn’t I already say that?” She smirked. “Now away with you.” She moved her hand in a shooing motion. “I will meet you down in the lobby.” “Lobby?” Tony asked. “Yeah. I kind of need to get dressed. Apparently, I must look professional or something. I can’t exactly rock up with what I am currently wearing.” “Of course.” He said shaking his head as he turned to move from the doorway. “Just take a look at what I found. We can chat about it on the ride over. Oh, and thanks for the hot chocolate,” she said before taking another swig.
* * *
It was apparent, as they rounded the corner, that Lauren’s arrival at the station was to be met with much more interest and excitement than her previous night at the library. This was because Tony was not one to keep his mouth shut when given a juicy tip.
Though he hadn’t given away any real details in what Lauren assumed were excited calls or series of texts to Kinley, in the fog of waking up, she had forgotten to give him the password to the tablet. This meant that most of the thirty minutes it took for her to get ready, and look somewhat professional, he had to stare at a blank screen, knowing it had answers. They had even sent an officer over to retrieve the tablet from Tony, who instead gave them a lights and sirens escort to the station. “It’s not like I solved the case,” Lauren said as officers wearing a variety of uniforms lined the sidewalk into the building. “True, but you’re going to put them all to work,” Tony said as he hit the brake and popped the lock. In a flash, a hand extracted her from the truck and began motioning her towards the entrance. Just then, a chilly gust came roaring off the mountains, heading into the plains and aiding her progress. Once inside the main lobby, Kinley took over and guided her back to what she assumed would be a briefing room. Instead, she found herself rushed into the chief’s office. “Chief Watkins,” Kinley said, extending his hand to the woman sitting behind the oversized desk. “May I introduce, Ms. Lauren Oliver.” “I heard you were good?” “That’s the rumor. Of course— I started it.” Lauren smiled back at the Chief as Kinley stifled an eye roll. Watkins scanned Lauren up and down with a look on her face that could just as easily indicate she was doing linear algebra or standing alone in an empty room as assessing the young woman before her. With an almost imperceptible nod, she ended her assessment. “What do you have?” “Here,” Lauren tapped a passcode on the tablet before placing it on the desk. “Her name is Kimberly Harris.” Lauren tapped the presentation app that quickly came alive and began cycling through various screen grabs from websites. “She’s a freshman living in one of the dorms. Originally from Chicago. She wanted to get in the outdoors more. That drove her here for school.” “All you had was the video from the message. She wasn’t exactly looking her best.” Watkins looked up from the screen.
“To start with, yeah.” “I guess we have your access to that fancy FBI facial recognition tech to thank?” “I wouldn’t know.” Lauren shot back “Excuse me.” Watkins’ face filled with some confusion. “You didn’t ID her with FBI tools?” “Not exactly,” Lauren replied. “What do you mean?” the Chief asked. Lauren scanned the room for a second. “You can actually thank the hook-up app, Just Chill.” “Come again?” Watkins ignored the muffled snickers of two of the younger officers in the room. “Please explain how you did this?” “Automated facial recognition wouldn’t have likely worked.” Lauren explained as she swept through the images until she got to one from the video. “Whatever that contraption is on her face,” she pointed to the metal bars that seemed to be keeping Kimberly’s eyes open. “It distorts enough of the reference points. That would have thrown off any search. There would have been hundreds, if not thousands, of false positives depending on the pool.” “But this hook-up app can still work?” the Chief asked. “Probably not. I didn’t actually try it.” Lauren shrugged. “What exactly did you do then?” “I put in her hair and eye color and an approximate guess on her weight and height with a fifty-mile search radius. I just flipped through until I found her. Once I had a clear picture and some of the details from the app, it was just a matter of simple Google stalking.” Watkins looked back down at the images floating across the screen. “You’re telling me you got all this from a dating app and Google.” “I could’ve tried Bing, but I wasn’t that desperate,” Lauren quipped.
Watkins raised her left hand to her cheek slightly covering her lips and let out a heavy sigh through her nose. Pursing her lips, she looked up and over to Kinley. “I like her.” Shifting her focus to a pair of plainclothes officers in the back of the room “One of you get to the courthouse and the other one to the university. Track down a room number for this Kimberly Harris. Call it into the on-duty judge for a warrant.” “Actually,” Sam interrupted. “With it being a state school, CBI or Campus police can enter a dorm room without a warrant.” She motioned to the plainclothes detectives who stood frozen in the doorway, “Whoever is going to the university take him,” motioning towards Agent Dane. “Go with exigent circumstances but do a light touch until we can get a warrant. I don’t want anything that a defense attorney can use if this goes to trial.” She shifted her focus back to Lauren. “I’m assuming that you’re ready to brief everybody on your findings.” Lauren looked at the Chief, “Of course.” She gave Kinley a little side-eye glance. “I didn’t dress up all professional-looking for nothing.”
* * *
It took longer for the staff to prepare the presentation than for Lauren to give it. This was because the higher-ups wanted to turn her interactive presentation into three-ring binder handouts. Another person was assigned to turn it into a dry PowerPoint for her to use. In total her ten-minute presentation required over forty minutes of prep time by others. It had been well-received, and as people were leaving the room, Agent Kinley approached her with a smile. “You know what?” He gestured around the briefing room. “You’re pretty good at this.” “You have my permission to kill me if this ever becomes my job.” She glanced around the room as her voice softened slightly. “At least I might’ve actually helped.” “Helped? You do realize, you started the real investigation. Right?” “Huh?”
Agent Kinley motioned towards the back of the briefing room where the Chief’s office was located. “Their whole plan was to wander around the college campus and hope they found somebody who recognized the picture from the video.” “Serious?” She lowered her head slightly as the last of the people left the room. “Yeah. Last night their hopes were pinned on you finding something on those devices. When their techs came up dry they didn’t have any actual options.” “So, with around fifty-five hours left, they were probably going to waste most of a day wandering around asking if anyone recognized her?” Kinley nodded slightly, “It’s called canvassing. And yeah.” “What do you need from me next?” “I don’t know how fast their judges are, but I would like you over at Kimberly’s room. Just in case there are any devices or storage media to look through.” “Do you think they’ll let me play in the sandbox?” Kinley smiled. “Well, you impressed the boss this morning. Given what she thought of you at the start of the day, that’s quite an impressive feat.” As they stepped into the hallway, Lauren turned back. “Luckily most of my kit is in your truck. If you or your partner want to drive me over there.” Just then she collided with somebody walking down the hallway. “Sorry,” came a vaguely familiar voice of Brandon. Lauren recognized mostly from the podcast and interview video. “Oh, it’s you.” He smiled. “From last night.” He raised his hand with a phone in it. “I was just coming by to pick it up.” “Well, I hope you don’t mind the random calls to Ireland. I also upgraded your game selection and ringtones.” Lauren said with a deadpan voice.
“Huh,” his face transitioned from a smile to confusion with a subtle almost cocky smirk. “No problem. I just realized I didn’t catch your name last night. I’m Brandon.” He extended his free hand. “Lauren,” she shot back. “I’m sure the pleasure is all yours.” “Wow,” he raised his hands a bit. “Sorry I was just trying to be nice.” “Sorry to interrupt,” Agent Kinley stepped through the emerging tableau. “I’ll be in the car.” Turning his back to Brandon and facing Lauren, he shot her a giant grin that surely was just the beginning of the forthcoming barrage of mockery. “It’s not you,” Lauren motioned her arms around. “It’s just, we are in a time crunch.” “No, I get it. I assume you get a break for dinner?” “Huh? What?” Lauren’s brow furrowed. “Man, I kind of suck at this today.” He raised his free hand to his forehead. “I was trying to see if I could take you out to dinner. I mean assuming,” he raised the other hand holding the phone up slightly. “You didn’t find anything too disturbing.” Lauren gave him a legitimate smile. “Other than the numerous threatening references to the UN, nothing too crazy.” “Nice deep cut.” He smiled. “Tell you what. How about I give you this?” He waved the phone to unlock it before handing it to her. “You can put in a number. If it turns out to be legit maybe we can meet up for dinner tonight?” As she looked down at the phone, her face went flush. “You’ve got another message.” “What?” He looked down. “I’m sure it’s nothing.” He tapped the application and his phone filled the hallway with agonizing screams intermixed with sobbing cries.

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