Eighty miles north, in the Western District Headquarters of the Connecticut State Police, Lieutenant Floyd Anthony watched the rain pour outside his office window. When he first started on the job, his training sergeant told him rain and snow might be bad news for sun lovers, but great news for law enforcement. He swore that inclement weather kept criminals indoors, which meant less work at the station house.
Twenty-two years in, Floyd wasn’t ready to bet the farm on conventional wisdom. High winds and broken branches could set off home security systems, creating callouts on the job. He’d caught a guy once who used the false alarms as a cover to commit real burglaries. And people rushing from their cars through the rain could be lazy about locking up, leading to overnight car prowls. So to Floyd, rain was simply… rain.
He heard the rap of knuckles against his open office door and swiveled his chair to see Officer Janelle Jackson. She was an Army veteran, two years on the force now. He was pretty sure she’d end up chief of police someday, whether here or somewhere else.
“Lieu, my understanding is all search warrant requests go through you?”
“As a final stop here before we call a judge. But warrants usually come to me from the detectives, Officer Jackson, not a swing-shift patrol officer.”
“Yes, sir, but time is of the essence on this one. There’s a three-year-old girl missing from Long Island, New York. Riley Miller.” He had seen a BOLO alert at the start of his shift. “Dispatch got a call from an anonymous tipster that traced back to a pay phone in West Cornwall. The woman said she saw the news about the missing child and connected it to one of her neighbors. The man’s name is Jayden Kennedy. Single male, thirty-one years old, resides alone. But she said she saw evidence that there’s a child currently present at the house, and a show called Peppa Pig was playing on the television. And reportedly that’s something the missing girl loves.”
“That’s a stretch, Jackson. Bachelors who live alone have friends with children. Neighbors. Nieces. Cousins. What have you.”
She nodded. “I’m aware, sir. I thought about driving by to check out the situation, but in the unlikely event a child is being held against her will, I did not want to set off a dangerous situation. What I did instead was call this Jayden Kennedy, the homeowner. I told him that we had received noise complaints about a party, but with the acreage out there, the precise location was unknown. I said a neighbor provided his name and number, and we were checking to see if he had heard anything.”
He was right about her. She had good instincts. He nodded his approval.
“It turns out that Jayden Kennedy has a renter in his house right now. It’s through a new app that promises complete anonymity. He has no idea who the person is, and people pay extra in digital currency to be untraceable.”
Anthony sighed loudly and shook his head. “These tech people get rich making our jobs even harder.”
“Kennedy told me he had texted the renter earlier to say he needed to check the house for a possible leak with this weather, and the person got irate and told him not to come over under any circumstances. He said he found the response peculiar and was wondering what the renter might be up to. And that’s why I’m here.”
Floyd knew that Judge Chandler was on duty tonight. She’d never sign a warrant based only on what they currently knew, and he didn’t want to waste precious time on a futile request. “There’s something called a public welfare check. I’ll go with you. And we’ll bring backup.”
“One more thing.” She held up a gleaming key with a brass finish. “The homeowner dropped this off in case we need it.”