“And you’re confident this second girl, Dorian Gregg, not only didn’t have a part in killing Mina Cabot but got out with her?”
“It’s unlikely she’d have the strength to drive the weapon clean through the victim, and she sure as hell wouldn’t have been able to move the body to the dump site alone.”
Once again, Eve studied that young, angry face. Shook her head. “Add her blood was planted. No reason for that but to throw suspicion on her. No reason to throw suspicion on her unless she got out.”
“I’m trying to think of an argument to that, but really can’t.” Nadine set the now empty mug aside. “If you’re right about the setup, you’re right on the rest.”
Like Eve, Nadine studied the face on the board, the pretty girl with the angry eyes. “You want me to get her name and face out there.”
“I want you to do that, and do whatever you can to have her name and face out in as many media markets as possible. How long she’s been missing, all of her data, and as a material witness to the murder of Mina Cabot.”
“You want to implicate her?”
Eve angled her head. “Is that what it sounds like?”
“It will to some. They wanted to throw suspicion on her, you said. Won’t calling her a material witness solidify that?”
“Be nice if it works that way. And I’ve already gone there,” Eve said before Nadine commented. “They’ll look for her, too. They already are. If they have any contacts in the NYPSD, the local government, the media—and they likely have some whether the some know it or not—they’ll try to push to see what we have.”
“But they won’t get anything unless you want them to,” Nadine concluded. “You run a tight ship.” With a nod, Nadine looked back at Eve. “How much of this can I air?”
Eve crossed to the AutoChef to get more coffee for herself.
“Other than the data on Gregg, I’ll give you a one-on-one on Cabot, as much as I can, and that’s going to include the angle that she and Gregg met up, hooked up, ran into each other on the street so we believe Gregg may have witnessed the murder, or have some salient information on it.”
“Whoever killed her will think you’re hedging, but you’re hedging about finding Gregg’s blood, about her being your prime suspect.”
“Again, it’d be nice. Either way, we get Gregg’s face out there, and that could be how we find her. I’ll give you a tip line for viewers to contact. We’ll get a lot of bullshit, a lot of cranks, but it only takes one genuine sighting to give us an opening.”
“You think she’s still here, in New York.”
Now Eve turned to the board again. I know you, she thought as she studied Dorian. I know you.
“Where’s she going to go? How’s she going to get there? She’s got no one, and most likely nothing but the clothes on her back. She might be hurt. She’s thirteen, and if she isn’t scared, she’s not as smart as I think she is.”
“All right.” Pushing away from the table, Nadine rose. “We’ll get this started.”
“One more thing. You maybe want to take a look at Pru Truman, CPS, Freehold.”
“And why would I want to look at her?”
“Dorian’s caseworker, or shitbag excuse for her caseworker. Could be a big, juicy story on neglect, abuse, and how some—even one—inside the system designed to protect can corrupt that system and lead to the exploitation of those they’ve sworn to protect.”
Nadine’s eyebrows winged up. “You’ve given this some thought.”
“Yeah, I have.”
“All right. I’ll take a look.”
“Good.” Eve shut off the board. “You can bring your camera in.”
It took longer than she’d wanted—Nadine was thorough—but if it paid off, well worth the time.
When she walked back into the bullpen, Peabody hailed her.
“I’ve already got nine—using your filters. I pulled in Officer Jonas, and she’s running west of the Mississippi, while I’m doing east.”
“Nine—I figured more.”
“That’s nine on my area, and with the filters—so far. But I wondered about the runaway filter. We would’ve figured Gregg for a runaway, so maybe—”
“Good thought,” Eve said before Peabody finished. “Add them in, then we’ll work through them. Some, maybe even most, probably took off on their own. But so did Gregg.”