Grady’s photographer had emailed him the pictures he’d taken at the bus station. Thanks to high-speed access, they’d downloaded fast, but the process of studying the pictures and comparing them to the two pictures he had of Prudence Knight took more time. Some of the pictures had to be cleared up before he could even begin to compare them. As picture after picture was examined and rejected, he began to wonder if they were chasing a phantom. Larry’s premise that Prudence Knight was with Luke Kirby was based on a bloody tee shirt and a lot of hope. Maybe too much hope?
Grady had rallied his private army to track the pair and turned up nothing to indicate that Prudence Knight hadn’t died from her fall from the chopper and been buried under some snow drift on the mountainside.
To further trouble him, Leslie hadn’t phoned in. It wasn’t like him. Had he somehow picked up on Grady's plan to shaft him and started a counterplay? Leslie prided himself on his chess playing and Grady had let him hold onto that pride, though he could have kicked his butt a million times over in every game they’d played over the years. Ego stroking was hard work, a work he’d grown weary of.
Only three pictures left. Three little files on which his hope was pinned. If they’d lost the trail, he had no clue how to find it again. The first was clearly not her. But he frowned at the second one. It didn’t look at all like her, except for something in the jaw? A feeling in his gut? Wishful thinking? He pulled up the picture he’d scanned and put them side by side. In the shot from the bus, the woman was wearing a hat that hid her hair. Larry had said the woman with Kirby had short blonde hair and was too much of a looker to be Knight.
He took the picture of Prudence Knight and removed the heavy dark glasses. Almost immediately the severity of her looks softened. Okay, let’s pretend she cut her hair. He took off the severely pulled-back hair and replaced it with short and blonde.
“Much better. Moving into the babe zone.” But how had she hidden the scratches and bruises she had to have acquired during the dive from the chopper? “Maybe the same place she got the hair cut?” He’d seen stuff on TV infomercials that was used to cover up massive disfigurement. Why not a few scratches?
He took the altered Prudence and put her next to the woman from the bus.
“Gotcha.”