“No,” Wilde said.
“No?”
“I tried to reach out to him when I saw the match, but my message bounced back.”
Kissell leaned back and crossed his arms. “Any idea why?”
“The message said his account had been closed.”
“I see. So you contacted him, but he clearly didn’t want to hear back from you so he closed his account.”
“My client didn’t say that,” Hester interjected. “He said the account was closed. He has no idea when or why.”
“I stand corrected,” Kissell said. “What did you do next?”
“I flew to Las Vegas.”
“So you had his address?”
“I got it, yes.”
“How?”
Hester took that one. “Not relevant.”
“It sure as shit is relevant. I know these DNA databases. They don’t give out addresses. If his account was closed down, I need to know how you located Daniel Carter.”
Hester leaned forward. “Agent Kissell, do you have any idea how the internet works?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” she said, “there are no secrets on the web. We delude ourselves if we think anything we do is anonymous. There are always ways if you’re resourceful. I, Agent Kissell, am resourceful.”
“You found the address, Ms. Crimstein?”
Hester just spread her hands.
“How?”
“Do I look tech savvy to you? Theoretically, let’s say I have people. Theoretically, let’s say the DNA database has people. At the end of the day, all of these websites are run by people. People are motivated by self-interest.”
“In short, you bribed someone.”
“In short, if you’re na?ve enough to think it’s hard to get information like that,” Hester countered, “you shouldn’t be an FBI agent.”
Kissell thought about that for a moment. “Okay, so you fly to Las Vegas?”
“Yes.”
“You meet with your biological father?”
“Not right away. I waited a few days.”
“Why?”
“It was opening a big door I had kept closed my entire life,” Wilde said, surprised at how unguarded he sounded. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what was behind it.”
“And what was behind it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I assume at some point you introduced yourself to Daniel Carter?”
“Yes.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That he didn’t know of my existence. He said that he spent a summer in Europe while serving in the air force. He theorized that he got a girl pregnant during a one-night stand.”
“Did he tell you who the girl might have been?”
“He said he slept with eight girls from a variety of countries. He only knew first names.”
“I see. So no hint about your mother?”
“No.”
“Which is why you then answered Peter Bennett’s message.”
“Yes.”
Kissell rested his hands on his paunch. “How did Daniel Carter react to the news of having a son?”
“It seemed to throw him off-balance.”
“Did he seem happy about it?”
Hester turned to watch Wilde’s face.
“No. He said that that summer was the only time he cheated on Sofia and that they now had three daughters. He worried my appearance would drop a grenade on their lives.”
“I guess I can understand that,” Kissell said with a nod. “What happened next?”
“He said he wanted a day to think about it. He suggested that we meet the next morning for breakfast and discuss it further.”
“And how did that breakfast go?”
“I never showed. I flew home.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want to be a grenade.”
“Admirable,” Kissell said. He glanced at Betz and asked, “Have you and the Carter family had any contact since?”
“No.”
“None whatsoever?”
“Asked and answered,” Hester said. Then: “So what does all this have to do with the current murders?”
Kissell smiled and rose. Betz did the same.
“Thanks for your cooperation. We will be in touch.”
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Katherine Frole.
When Chris Taylor Googled the name, the information that came up was worse than he imagined.
First off, Katherine Frole—Panther—was with the FBI. Chris Taylor wasn’t sure what to make of that. He had always worried that law enforcement might try to infiltrate his group, but at the same time, Chris had suspected that at least one member of the Boomerang menagerie would be in law enforcement, someone who saw the limitations in the traditional criminal justice system and realized that the law had not yet caught up with these aggressors. You didn’t have to be a vigilante to see the holes in the system and want to correct them. Plus, from what he could see, Katherine Frole did not work out in the field, meaning she probably had a job that required tech know-how. That was, Chris figured, something the entire group shared. You didn’t join Boomerang without being able to understand and navigate the blackest corners of the dark web.