The Missing (6 page)

‘This is the manufacturer’s stamp,’ Mary Beth said. ‘Some companies stamp their name and logo into the soles of their footwear. I’m pretty sure this is the company logo for Ryzer Footwear.’

I’ve never heard of them.’

‘But you have heard of Ryzer Gear.’

‘The ones that make those ridiculously expensive winter jackets?’

‘They’re the same company,’ Mary Beth said. ‘When Ryzer started out – this is going all the way back to the fifties, I think – they started out making boots for the military. Then they branched out into hiking boots. That’s all they did for a number of years. You could only buy them through their catalogue. The boots were very upscale and highly overpriced. During the eighties they were swallowed up by some global corporation, and Ryzer Footwear became Ryzer Gear. They still make hiking boots, but they also sell stuff like weatherproof coats, wallets and belts – they even came out with a kids’ line of clothing and accessories. They’re like a very upscale Timberland for the high-society set.’

‘How do you know all of this? You own stock in the company?’

‘During my teenage years, I was a big-time hiker. My parents gave me a pair of Ryzer boots one Christmas. The ones they make now are mass produced and are crap, but the originals? You take care of them, they’ll last you a lifetime. I still have mine.
They are, hands down, the most comfortable pair of boots I’ve ever owned. That’s why I recognized the logo – it’s their old logo. These boots we’re looking at, they don’t make them anymore.’

‘I’ll see what I can do to track them down. Thanks, Mary Beth.’

‘You’re wrong about Coop. He likes smart women. Like you, for example.’

‘We’re just partners.’

‘Whatever you say,’ Mary Beth said. ‘By the way, you really need to take a shower. And a couple of breath mints wouldn’t hurt, either.’

Chapter 12

The lab’s footwear database consisted of a collection of three-ring binders.

Darby spent the rest of the morning poring through lifted samples of men’s boots gathered from Boston cases. The footwear impression Mary Beth recovered didn’t match any local cases.

During her lunch hour, Darby went online and sifted through two forensic message boards devoted exclusively to footwear evidence. While hunting, she found the name of a former FBI agent whose specialty was identifying footwear impressions. He had been used as an expert in court on several high-profile criminal cases.

Head pounding from hunger – she had skipped breakfast – Darby rushed down to the cafeteria and came back with a tuna salad and Coke. She swung by Leland’s office to give him an update. He wasn’t in.

The message light on her office phone was on. It was a message from her mother. Sheila had seen the morning news and wanted to know if everything was okay.

Sturgis ‘Pappy’ Papagotis popped his head into the office. ‘Got a moment?’ he asked.

‘Come on in.’

Pappy pulled out Coop’s chair. He had the curse of being the world’s youngest-looking man. He was a breath over five feet and had the kind of boyish face that made bouncers take a serious look at his license.

‘I ran your white flecks through FTIR,’ he said. ‘Aluminum and alkyd-melamine.’

‘Automobile paint,’ Darby said. ‘What about styrene?’

‘No, this was a factory job. It wasn’t done in an auto body shop. How familiar are you with automobile paint?’

‘Melamine’s a resin added to paint to improve durability.’

‘Correct. Acrylic-melamine and polyestermelamine are the main polymers that make up paint. Alkyd-melamine is one of the super alkyds enamels they started using in the sixties. A lot of the automakers today favor using a polyurethane clear-coat system. It has higher gloss retention, for one, but the biggest reason is cost. Polyurethane is a fast air-drying top coat while melamine top coats need to be baked. The paint chip you found, it’s the original paint job.’

‘What about color?’

‘That’s where I hit a dead end,’ Pappy said. ‘I ran the chip through FTIR and it came up blank.’

‘But that doesn’t mean anything.’

‘Yes, I know what you’re going to say – Fourier Transform Infared Spectroscopy is only as good as our computer library, and my failure to identify it, all it means is that we couldn’t connect the paint chip to a local case. So I tried the Paint Query Database system run by our Canadian friends. No dice. I’ll send a sample to the feds. Their lab stores the lesser-known, harder-to-find paint samples on their National Automobile Paint File database.’

‘Have you used the feds before?’

‘I’ve never had to go to them since PDQ generally does the job. If we strike out there, we could try that Farfegnugen-thing run by the Germans. Supposedly, they have the largest known paint sample database in the world.’

‘You have any contacts at the federal lab?’

‘I did take a paint course given by the head of the Elemental Analysis Lab, this guy named Bob Gray. I could give him a call.’

Tell him we have an abduction case and we need him to move this to the front burner.’

‘I can ask.’ Pappy was grinning.

‘I know, don’t hold my breath and wait by the phone,’ Darby said.

Leland still wasn’t in his office so Darby headed down to the first floor.

Missing Persons was tucked at the end of a long hallway. Standing behind the counter was a slim
woman in a dark gray charcoal suit. The name on her ID tag was Mabel Wantuck. Mabel wasn’t smiling in the picture, and she wasn’t smiling now.

‘Good morning,’ Darby said. ‘I was wondering if you could help me.’

The look on Mabel Wantuck’s face said,
Don’t bet on it.

‘I’ve come across some evidence which may be connected to a missing person’s case,’ Darby said.

‘You know I can’t show you –’

‘The actual case file, yes, I know, only a detective can see that. All I need to know is if the person is, in fact, missing.’

Mabel Wantuck took a seat at a paper-filled desk cluttered with several small framed pictures of two chocolate Labrador retrievers. She pulled out the keyboard.

‘What’s the name?’

‘I’m not sure of the spelling, so we may have to try a few variations. What are the search parameters?’

‘Last name first.’

‘Last name is Mastrangelo,’ Darby said. ‘Let me try and spell that for you…’

Chapter 13

Coop rolled a ball of Play-Doh between his hands while Darby explained the results of the Missing Persons search. She was bringing him up to date on the evidence when the lab secretary popped her head inside their office.

‘Leland wants to see you in his office, Darby.’

Leland was on the phone. He saw Darby standing in the doorway and pointed to the single chair set up in front of his desk.

Behind him was a wall crammed full of pictures taken at exclusive black-tie fundraisers. Here was Leland, the proud Republican, standing arm-and-arm with both George Bush junior and senior. Here was Leland, the caring Republican, standing next to the governor as they handed out Thanksgiving Day turkeys to the poor. To prove he had a sense of humor beneath all that Brooks Brothers clothing, here was a picture of Leland, the funny Republican, holding a copy of
The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker
given to him at a book party.

Darby was thinking about the pictures on Carol Cranmore’s wall when Leland hung up.

That was the commissioner calling for an update.
He was a bit surprised when I told him I didn’t have anything to tell him yet.’

‘I came by twice,’ Darby said. ‘You weren’t here.’

That’s what voice mail is for.’

‘I thought you’d want an update in person, in case you had any questions.’

You now have my full attention.’ Leland leaned back in his chair.

Darby told him about the paint chip first, then the footwear impression.

‘It’s a men’s size eleven, and the logo’s a perfect match for Ryzer footwear. The logo stamped on the sole of the footwear impression we found was their second and last logo before they were bought out in eighty-three and became Ryzer Gear. Based on my research, they only manufactured four models, which they sold through catalogues and specialty stores in the northeast. We’re talking a select group of customers. I tried our cases and struck out.’

‘So submit a copy to the feds and have them run it through their footwear database.’

‘Even if we ask them to expedite it, it will be a minimum of a month before they get around to processing it.’

‘I can’t change that.’

‘Maybe we can,’ Darby said. This afternoon I talked with a man named Larry Emmerich. He used to work for the FBI lab. He’s the go-to expert on footwear impressions. Emmerich’s retired now, hires
himself out as a consultant. Not only does he have all of Ryzer’s old catalogues, he has vendor information and contacts. Plus, he’d be willing to look at it right away. If he can narrow down the make and model, all the feds would need to do is to run the boot impression through their footwear database. Emmerich has contacts at the lab. Running it through the database to see if it’s connected to any nationwide case would take a day, tops.’

‘And his fee for this service?’

Darby told him the price.

Leland’s eyes widened.

‘What did Banville say?’

‘I haven’t talked to him yet,’ Darby said.

‘Good luck selling him on that.’

‘If he won’t pay for it, I say we pick up the tab. The person who abducted Carol Cranmore has done this sort of thing before – at least twice.’

Leland was already shaking his head. ‘There’s no way I’ll be able to get a purchase authorization –’

‘Let me explain. The woman under the porch, Jane Doe, she thought I was this woman named Terry Mastrangelo. I had Missing Persons run the name through their computer. Terry Mastrangelo is twenty-two, lived in New Brunswick, Connecticut. Her roommate said Terry went out for ice cream. She didn’t take her car, she walked. She never made it home.’

‘How long has she been missing?’

‘Over two years.’

Leland sat up in his chair.

‘Terry Mastrangelo also has a son named Jimmy,’ Darby said. ‘He’s eight now, lives with his grandmother. That’s all I know. I don’t have access to the actual case file, so Banville will have to request it.’

‘It wouldn’t hurt him to take a look at VICAP, see if there’s anything mentioned in there, like your footwear impression.’

Darby was sure Banville had already consulted the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. ‘Here’s a copy of Terry Mastrangelo’s picture.’

Leland studied the piece of paper.

‘You definitely share a similar look,’ he said. ‘You both have fair skin and auburn hair.’ He placed the paper on his desk blotter. The woman you found underneath the porch, do we have any news on her condition?’

‘Not yet,’ Darby said. ‘As for her prints, they’re still running through AFIS.’

‘So the person who abducted Carol Cranmore is most likely keeping her somewhere – probably the same place where Terry Mastrangelo and the porch woman were kept.’

‘Now you know why I’m in such a rush to identify the footwear impression we found.’

‘I talked with Erin,’ Leland said. The blood you found on the wall is AB negative. Carol’s blood is O positive. Erin also found dried blood on the tan fiber
and several spots on the T-shirt. The blood on the fiber matches the blood on the wall.’

Darby wasn’t holding out hope for a match on CODIS. The Combined DNA Identification System, while state-of-the-art, was relatively new; only the most recent cases were stored in there. Because of a lack of funding – each DNA extraction test cost hundreds of dollars – the majority of rape kits and DNA evidence sat in evidence rooms across the country.

‘Trace said the tan fiber is used in commercial rugs. That’s all I have.’ Darby stood.

‘Hold on, I want to talk to you about something.’

Darby had an idea what was coming.

‘Abduction cases are pressure cookers. Once the media finds the link between Carol Cranmore and Jane Doe – and you and I both know they will – they’ll be camped out here, and we’ll have people like Nancy Grace doing a countdown every night on TV until Carol Cranmore’s body is found.

‘I know you’re living with your mother at the moment to help ease her through her… situation,’ Leland said. ‘A case like this is very demanding on someone’s time. You may not be able to spend that much time with her. You have plenty of vacation time – and there’s family leave.’

‘Do you have a problem with my job performance?’

‘No.’

‘Then I guess you’re having reservations because my former partner was convicted of planting evidence on the Nelson rape case.’

Leland clasped his hands behind his head.

‘Not only did I tell you – repeatedly – that I was innocent, the grand jury cleared me,’ Darby said. ‘I wasn’t responsible for Steve Nelson being let go and raping another woman. And I wasn’t responsible for the media coverage either.’

‘I’m aware of that.’

‘So why are we having this conversation again?’

‘Because putting you on this case could bring us more media attention. You’re already on TV. I’m worried that the media is going to resurrect the Nelson case and drag it back into the spotlight.’

This case is going to have media attention whether I’m on it or not.’

Leland didn’t say anything, leaving Darby with the sense – and not for the first time – that he had privately come to some sort of conclusion about her. Leland Pratt was the kind of man who preferred observing people when they weren’t paying attention, recording their words and gestures and cataloguing them in that locked-up place where he held his true judgments of people. Darby, for better or for worse, often caught herself working twice as hard to impress him. She hoped she could impress him now.

‘I can run this thing, Leland. But if you still have
some lingering doubts, if you don’t trust me, then put it on the table and talk about it. Stop denying me access to cases because you’re afraid I’m going to embarrass the lab. It’s not fair.’

Leland stared at the framed certificates and diplomas hanging on the wall behind her. Finally, after a long moment, he turned his attention back to her.