Matt stared at the photo of his father, stomach acid crawling up his throat at the thought of their last words:
“It would be great if you could appear with us on the show.”
“I’m not going on the Today show, Dad.”
“The lawyers say public attention on the case could make a difference at the Supreme Court. The justices don’t accept many cases, so anything we can do to—”
“What part of no don’t you get?”
“You’re being selfish.”
“Oh, that’s just rich, coming from you.”
“What’s that supposed to— Never mind. Fine. Do nothing, go back to school, and enjoy your carefree college life while your brother sits in a filthy prison cell.”
Matt stomped to the front door, grabbed his coat, yanked it on. “I will. You know why, Dad?” Matt paused a beat. “Because that’s where Danny fucking belongs.”
He had charged outside into the cold night, snowflakes floating peacefully in the sky, the strange quiet of a recent snow. He recalled how alone he’d felt that night. How alone he’d felt carrying around the truth about his brother, watching his father and sister spin their wheels trying to prove Danny’s innocence. But it was nothing compared to what he was feeling right now.
The shuttle finally jerked to a stop in front of a blocky cement building. No one would know it was a police station save for the black-and-white Dodge Charger fitted with sirens parked out front. The van’s back door swung open and Matt pulled himself out, tipped the driver, and raised a hand to the kids waving at him until the van disappeared down the road. He took a deep breath. It was time to claim the remains of his family.
One bite at a time, Matty. One bite at a time.
CHAPTER 16
SARAH KELLER
After her trip to the airport, Keller sat in her small windowless office in the FBI’s New York field office, poring over a report. It was the initial data set analyzing the Pine family’s digital footprint. Without their laptop computers or smartphones, the report was lighter than usual—limited to internet searches, social media posts, GPS locations—but the file was still three inches thick. There was no known crime, the word so far was freak accident, but something was gnawing at her.
Many agents scoffed at the notion of cop intuition, arguing that it was the kind of magical thinking that led to tunnel vision and convicting innocents. But Keller always followed her gut. And here it told her two words: foul play. So under the pretext of her money-laundering investigation of Marconi LLP, she’d had the IT nerds work their relationships with the internet companies and get the data. Once Mexico delivered the phones and laptops, she’d have a more complete picture.
Keller flipped through the stack, brushing through the pages and pages of unintelligible code until she found the search engine report. It contained every search made through the family’s internet service in the past three months. Searches about takeout food （“menu for Thai Garden”）， the weather （“is it going to rain today”）， education （“best MIT dorms”）， leisure （“what’s on TV tonight”）， health （“why can’t I sleep”）， arts and crafts （“how to make slime”）， and the other infinite queries of an ordinary American family.
In the Financial Crimes Section, where agents had to analyze mountains of data, she’d learned to separate the wheat from the chaff. For search engine reports, Keller’s go-to trick was to jump to what users had purposefully deleted from their search history. Typically, it was what you’d expect: lots and lots of pornography.
But the Pine deleted searches included no porn-related inquiries. Someone, however, had erased some troubling searches from the history:
Does life insurance pay if you kill yourself
How to make sure insurance pays if suicide
How many Zoloft needed to overdose
Effects of parent suicide on kids
The sound of Keller’s office phone interrupted her. She plucked the receiver from its cradle. “Keller,” she said, in her official voice.
“Judy and Ira Adler are here to see you,” the receptionist said.
“Who?” Keller clicked on her calendar to see if she’d forgotten an appointment. “I don’t see anyone on my schedule.”
“They say they’re here about the Pine investigation.”
Keller thought about this. Officially, there was no investigation. And certainly not one anyone would associate with Keller. She was effectively a babysitter, assigned because of Bureau politics and the strained connection to the Marconi case. While the receptionist waited with an annoyed breath through the receiver, Keller tapped “Judy Adler” into her computer’s search engine. A Wikipedia page appeared: “Judy Adler is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and producer. She rose to prominence with her documentary series ‘A Violent Nature,’ which she codirected with her husband, Ira.”