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Karen had checked out of the ER and was home for the first time in three days. She and Jeff bought a pizza, and she reunited with her kids, who had been looked after by Jeff’s mother throughout the ordeal. Lots of hugs, lots of tears. A police officer was guarding their house.
Karen already felt much better in the morning and, despite her husband’s protests, went right back to work. She met with Chief Reyes, Sergeant Phillips, Lili D’Amico, and Gil Novak to provide a debrief. “I don’t think Mark Breen is much of a danger to anyone, but we definitely need to bring him in.”
“I want to bring him in before I let Kenny Tran print the kidnapping story,” said Reyes. “That said, he’s already figured out a lot. Thoughts on where to look for Breen? We searched his apartment, found his van, and disabled the truck he drives for work.”
Gil said, “So far, he’s stuck to places he’s familiar with, and I think the number of places like that is limited. We should look at those places again and find out if he’s lived or worked anywhere else.”
“Besides that,” said Reyes, “we still don’t know what happened to Remi Foy or how Mark’s brother died. Remi’s name and his alias don’t get hits in any online searches or public databases.”
“What’s happening with Susan Rasmussen and Pam Leone?” asked Karen.
“ADA Chen says that they aren’t going to charge them with identity theft since they were minors at the time. The Federal District Court will decide what happens with their identities. We still need to arrange for Susan and Pamela to meet their mother. I’d like to have Mark Breen in custody before that happens.”
“I got the impression that Helene was disgusted by the existence of her grandchildren,” said Gil. “We need to be careful there.”
“I’m not sure Crime Scene will be of much help,” said Lili. “We’re almost done processing the warehouse, but I don’t think we’ll find anything that will help us find Mark Breen.”
Reyes nodded. “Okay, I’ll talk to Kenny Tran to see if we can put out Mark’s picture and arrange for Helene Faucher to reunite with her daughters. Karen, you and Gil go talk to the commune people and see if we can find out what happened to Remi Foy. Phillips, you find Mark Breen.”
Karen said, “Since Mark’s main concern is protecting his mother, I think he’ll keep an eye on her. We should watch her home and business.”
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When Karen walked with Gil back to her desk, she found a picture stuck to her shelf that read, “Welcome Back Princess!” In the picture, she wore a pink dress and holster, but someone had edited in a tiara and a magic wand. Gil chuckled. Karen rolled her eyes as snickers circulated around the office.
While Karen talked to Sergeant Phillips about staking out Susan Rasmussen, Gil called Terry Billings and got contact information for a few more folks from the commune. Karen said to Gil, “We need to go talk to them in person. If they were involved, they’ll probably lie to us, so we need to look them in the eye.”
Two of the contacts were in the area, and although both of them said they’d heard about the incident, neither had witnessed it or knew who Remi was. They provided a few more names, but everyone had the same answer.
At the station, Karen asked, “Did anybody seem like they were lying?”
“Not that I could tell, but that’s not my area of expertise,” said Gil.
“I think they were telling the truth. I guess we’ll just have to find more commune members and interview them.”
“We have some more names,” Gil said, “but they aren’t in the area.”
Lili rushed over to Karen’s desk. “You are not going to believe this. Susan Rasmussen and Pamela Leone have a half brother in Maine!”
Karen gasped. “What?”
“My forensic genealogist found a match on one of the commercial DNA search databases. It’s a son of Remi Foy.”
“Oh my God!” said Karen. “He wasn’t killed at the commune.”
“Here’s his phone and address. His name is Aaron Foy. He doesn’t have a record. I couldn’t find any contact info for Remi Foy.”
“Cornish, Maine?” Karen googled it and parsed the results. “It’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s a three-and-a-half-hour drive. I can’t go right now.”
“I’ll go,” said Gil.
“No way,” said Karen. “You almost got killed last time.”
Lili smiled. “I can go with him. I’ll coordinate with the Maine staties.” Karen gave Lili the hairy eyeball.