LIA HEARD ABOUT the hair sample from Mandarin at roughly the same time Jackson did. She was packing in her hotel room, getting ready to go back to Crypto City. Now that the Vietnam connection appeared to be a bust, Rubens had ordered her home.
“So Amanda Rauci was with Forester when he killed himself?” Lia asked Mandarin when he told her about the hair.
“Whoa, hold on,” said Mandarin. “A strand or two of hair could easily have been on his clothes without her being there. They were having an affair, remember?”
“I remember.”
“No way she killed him. No way.”
Lia thought of Amanda Rauci the day she and Jackson had spoken to her. Could she have killed her lover?
No.
What if he’d told her he was going back to his wife?
Lia didn’t think so even then.
“I was hoping you might do me a favor,” said Mandarin.
“What’s that?”
“She used her credit card at an animal hospital and veterinary clinic a few miles from Danbury on the New York and Connecticut border the other day. We want to check it out in person, but most of my people have already left with McSweeney. The soonest I can get someone up there will be late tomorrow afternoon.”
“Animal hospital? Did she have a pet?”
“No idea. We’re wondering why she’s up here in the first place. It may be a glitch—possibly she made the charge when she was here with Forester and they only put it through now. But I’d like to check it sooner rather than later.”
“Sure, I’ll do it,” said Lia.
“Good. I’ll fax you a copy of the transaction.”
IT WAS GOING on six o’clock when Lia finally got to the animal hospital. The only one left in the office was a pimple-faced geek who started breathing hard as soon as she walked in the door.
Which really annoyed her, though she tried to ignore it.
“I’m looking for a woman named Amanda Rauci, who may have been in here yesterday,” Lia told him after she flashed her federal marshal credentials. “She hasn’t been seen since then. She’s a Secret Service agent, and we’re worried about her.”
“Secret Service?”
“That’s right.”
“She was a Secret Service agent. Wow. Wow.”
“Let’s make sure we have the right person,” said Lia, taking out her PDA. She tapped on a program and brought up a photo of Amanda Rauci. “Is this her?”
The young man reached for the handheld computer.
“We look with our eyes,” Lia told him. “Only I touch my computer.”
“Oh yeah, that’s Ms. Rauci. She came in right about now. I was just about to close. Rauci is her divorced name, though. She has another name.”
“What was it?”
“Hold on; let me think. It would be on the chart. That oughta be in the replace pile.” The kid went over to a large wire basket and began sorting through the files.
“What sort of pet did she have?” Lia asked.
“Dog. She needed something because she was going on a trip and it barfed in the car.”
“Lovely,” said Lia.
THE NAME AMANDA had given the vet’s assistant was Stevens, but the woman at the house had never heard of her. A check by the Desk Three people found no link, either.
“Probably she was driving north and her dog started giving her trouble,” suggested Rockman. “She stopped off and got something for him at a place she’d seen when she was there with Forester.”
“Why is that the only transaction she’s had in the past week?” Lia asked.
It had started to rain lightly. She flipped her windshield wipers on and pulled out of the driveway, starting back in the direction of Danbury.
“Maybe she doesn’t use the card that much because she prefers cash,” said Rockman.
“Or maybe she’s out of cash,” said Lia, answering her own question. “And this was important enough to risk using the card for.”
“You’re assuming she’s running away,” said Telach.
“Or doesn’t want to be found,” said Lia.
“My dog was the same way,” said Rockman. “Carsick.”
“You have a dog?”
“Had to give him away because of work. I’m not home much. Not fair to the dog.”
Good point, thought Lia. She didn’t remember Rauci having a dog.
Did Forester have a dog? Lia couldn’t remember seeing one at his ex-wife’s house.
“Rockman, see if you can find out if Forester had a dog. Maybe he had a house or something up here and she’s feeding it,” said Lia. “I’m going to get something to eat.”
Lia spotted a restaurant on the other side of the road, but it was too late to stop. She pulled off the side of the road into a short dirt driveway. As she started to back up to turn around, she realized she was at the entrance to a junkyard. There were wrecked cars nearby, and a chain-link fence. A black Doberman pinscher bared its teeth as she began her three-point turn.
“Oh!” she said out loud, realizing why Amanda had bought the dog medicine.