Page 161 of Secrets Hidden In The Glass
Nate winced. “Sorry about that.”
“It happens. So how goes things on Chaos Island?”
Nate scratched at his head in a restless movement. “Don’t even ask.”
“I should let you know the tip line’s been lighting up since the press conference.”
“That’s good news. Hopefully we’ll get something real we can use. The phone’s been ringing off the hook around here—been afraid Kay’s gonna quit on me.”
Sanchez let loose a humorless laugh. “You’ve definitely got your hands full. Better you than me, though. I don’t have the patience for that shit.”
Nate rubbed at his jaw. “Mine’s running thin.”
“I can imagine. So, what’s up?”
“Two things: I heard back from Charlotte over at Carter Island Air.”
“And?”
“Buzz Deacon wasn’t doing any flying on the third or fourth that year—engine trouble.”
“That’s a start.”
He nodded. “It is. Charlotte also reminded me that the airport shuts down on the Fourth—right around twelve thirty or one o’clock. No inbound or outbound flights for the rest of the day.”
“Why’s that?”
“They shoot off the fireworks from the landing strip. Carter Island puts on quite a show. You can see them from the beaches—basically anywhere downtown—great vantage point.”
“So, mother and daughter hopped the ferry.”
“Looks like it.” He glanced down at the picture of Callie and her mother. “Listen, I was taking a look at the disc you sent over. I caught something I didn’t notice in the original video. Biological mother’s wearing a necklace with some sort of pendant or charm on it. You can see it when she leans down to pick up Callie by the ice cream stand. Can your IT guys enhance the image—give me a better look?”
“I can make the call—see what they can do.”
“If they can get it to me today—email me—that would be great.” And that’s all he planned to say until he was certain he was heading down the right path.
“I’ll let them know after we hang up.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Sounds like we need to start narrowing down the ferry times—see if we can get something solid there. That’ll go a long way to moving this forward.”
“I’m still trying to figure out how we’re going to make that happen.” But he wasn’t entirely certain they needed to.
“We’ll think on it.”
“Sounds good.”
“I’ll get IT on the image.”
“Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.”
“All right.”
Nate hung up as he stared at two, six, and ten thirtyp.m. written in his notes, then picked up a pen and added Carter Island to the top of the list. Twenty minutes ago, he’d been worrying that he and Sanchez would never be able to figure out the window of time when Callie and her mother had boarded the boat. Now he was half-sick, wondering if Callie’s biological mother made it off the island at all.
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