When he got back to the station Bell ran the plate number and found out it didn’t exist. He would have been surprised to discover otherwise. The camera-shy woman with no name who paid in cash and might have been from New Jersey or New York was not about to write down her actual plate number. Even with that, though, there was nothing to suggest that she had anything to do with Vanessa Jackson’s abduction. All Bell knew at this point was that she was hiding from something, or somebody. There were thousands of people in the country doing the same thing every day. People running from debt, from abusive relationships, from the past. Bell had no evidence that this woman had been anywhere even close to the three towns where the phone calls had originated. There was such a thing as coincidence in the world. It was a tricky proposition, trying to see clues where none existed, the equivalent of pounding square pegs into round holes.
He sat slumped at his desk, looking at the results of the license plate check on his computer screen. He knew what he had to do next. He had to drive to the farmers markets in Greenfield and Elmira and Hershey, to ask if anybody had seen a woman Bell couldn’t even describe.
While he was sitting there the captain walked in and headed for him.
“You working on Vanessa Jackson?”
“Yeah.”
“You can stop,” Gardner said.
Bell sat up. “They found her?”
“Hell, no,” Gardner said. “Sam Jackson wants you off the case. And the FBI’s backing him up.”
“Why?”
“The FBI says you’re a distraction,” Gardner said. “They claim the kidnappers don’t know who they’re dealing with or who they should contact. You’re muddying the water. Their words, not mine.”
“The FBI hasn’t found the water yet.”
Gardner hesitated. “There’s also been a suggestion that you’re too close to the wife. And that you’re a glory hound.”
“That it? Nobody’s saying I grabbed the kid myself?”
“Not to me, they’re not,” Gardner said. “But you’re out. It’s theirs now.”
Bell indicated the screen with the bogus plate number. “I might be onto to something here.”
“Give it to the feds,” Gardner said.
He walked into his office. A couple of minutes later, Bell followed him.
“I’m taking a week’s holidays.”
Gardner looked up. “Starting when?”
“Now.”