Dead Hunt Part 25

Neva glanced at Diane and gave her a what's-heup-to? smile.

"We promise," said Neva.

"Jin?" said David.

"Sure," he said.

"Sure what?" said David.

"Okay," said Jin. "Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. Is that what you want to hear? You've got me curious now. You'll never get any peace from either of us unless you tell us, I swear."

"Okay. I wrote some software. It's in the bas.e.m.e.nt," said David.

"What?" said Jin. "You wrote some software-it's in the bas.e.m.e.nt? Those two sentences don't go together. What are you talking about?"

"I wrote a facial recognition program that searches the Internet for image files, picks out faces, and compares them with a target face. It's called Arachnid."

"And you kept this a secret?" said Neva. "You should sell it."

"It must only be used for good," he said. "In the wrong hands it could be evil. Besides, something like it is probably out there already in dark places, collecting pictures of all of us."

"So the red light means it found something?" said Neva.

"It found something," said David. "I told it to call my computer up here when it did. I didn't think the light would be so...so glowing."

"You put Clymene's picture in, didn't you?" said Jin. "Come on, let's go look at it."

They took the elevator down to the bas.e.m.e.nt and headed to David's s.p.a.ce.

"I thought you did photography down here," said Jin as David was unlocking the door.

"I do. I also have my laboratory," he said in mock Boris Karloff voice.

David led the way to the room where he kept Arachnid. When he opened the door the first thing they saw in the dark was a closeup photo of a spider's mouth parts on the monitor.

"Jeez, David," said Neva, "now I see why you said, 'It's in the bas.e.m.e.nt.' " Neva did a better Boris Karloff impersonation than David.

David flipped on the light and went to the printer.

"Oh, my G.o.d," he said. "Arachnid did find something."

They laughed at his surprise. He fidgeted nervously and handed the printed page to Diane.

"Isn't that her sitting at the table?" said Neva, pointing to the face of a woman seated at a banquet table with an older man who had his hand over hers. There were three other couples at the table with them.

Neva had a good eye for faces. Diane had to look closely. The woman in the photograph had short dark hair in a swept-up style, giving her quite a different look from the woman Diane had sat across from in prison. Or the woman who sat in court. But it was Clymene's face.

"Does it also collect information that goes with the photograph?" said Jin.

"Of course. It wouldn't be much use otherwise," said David.

He sat down and punched a few keys printer started printing more pages. Diane and the s.n.a.t.c.hed the pages as they came out.

"This was taken at the Commonwealth Lawyers Convention in 1997, Richmond, Virginia," said Diane.

Neva read the caption. It listed the names of the people in the photo.

"Mr. and Mrs. Grant Bacon," said Neva. "We have one of her aliases. Too bad they didn't give her first name."

"It could be one of her sisters," said Jin.

"That's true," said David, "if they are identical in features."

"Well, Clymene or her sister, you've got one of them," said Neva.

As the three of them were talking, another name caught Diane's eye.

"She did know her," said Diane.

"Who?" asked Neva.

Diane told them about the call she received the day before from the estate attorney complaining about the e-mail Diane had posted on the Listserv.

"It was this woman-Emma Lorimer," Diane said, pointing to the name in the caption. "I need to fax this to the marshals."

"They have several people to talk to now," said Jin. "That should make them happy."

"Arachnid did a great job, David," said Diane. "Things are coming together finally. With all the searches, we are bound to find out who Clymene really is."

Diane raced up to the crime lab and called Deputy Marshal Merrick.

"I got your voice mail," he said. "I'll ask the locals to have a talk with this Emma Lorimer."

"I have an alias for Clymene," Diane blurted out. "Mrs. Grant Bacon. I also have names of people she was with at a lawyers' convention in 1997-including Emma Lorimer."

"You're kidding. Do you think that's who she really was before she married Robert Carthwright?" he asked.

"I don't know. And it's possible that it is one of the identical sisters, but it's a place to look," said Diane.

"We've been coming up dry on this end," said Merrick. "Do you know if this Grant Bacon is alive or dead?"

"No, I don't know. That's the next thing I'm going to look at. Is there a place I can fax you these pages? I'll send them right away."

He gave her a number.

"Keep me informed," he said. "Let us know immediately if you find out anything else."

"I will. We have several things working here."

Diane was putting the pages in the fax machine as she spoke. While the pages were transmitting, she got on her computer and looked up Grant Bacon on the Web. Too many hits. She looked up "Grant Bacon" Virginia "Grant Bacon" Virginia and searched. That narrowed it down considerably. She started scrolling through the listings. Still too many. She put in and searched. That narrowed it down considerably. She started scrolling through the listings. Still too many. She put in "Grant Bacon" obituary "Grant Bacon" obituary and hit and hit ENTER ENTER. There was one entry. Grant Bacon, Richmond, Virginia, died in a boating accident in 1998. He was survived by his wife, Kathy Delancy Bacon, and two sons from a previous marriage. Diane printed out the obituary and faxed it to the marshals as well.

She then called Ross Kingsley.

"I have a name for you," she said when he answered.

"For Clymene?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I knew you could do it. Tell me," he said.

The excitement in his voice was electric. Diane was surprised her ears didn't crackle.

"It's probably one of her aliases," said Diane. "It could be one of the sisters. The name is Kathy Delancy Bacon. She was married to a Grant Bacon. I have a picture of the two of them at a banquet for lawyers. Give me your fax number and I'll send you what we've found."

He gave her a number. "Did you look up the husband?" he asked, more soberly.

"I'm sending you his obituary also," said Diane.

Kingsley sighed. "How did he die?"

"Boating accident. There are no details," she said.

"I can look them up. Diane, this is great. I am amazed," he said.

"Frankly, so am I. The marshals are checking it out. There are other people in the picture too." She told him about Emma Lorimer.

"Now, that's interesting. She denied knowing her, yet she actually called to defend her. I think I need to speak with this woman myself. I'm really interested in the way Clymene gets under people's skin. When was this?"

"The picture is from 1997. He died in 1998," she said. Diane entered Kingsley's number in the fax machine and sent the pages through again.

"The woman is still loyal after ten years. Where is this?" he asked.

"Richmond, Virginia," she said.

"Richmond. If Clymene's from that region, perhaps she has some lingering accent. The prison didn't have a tape of her voice; we're still looking. I have a linguist named Marley working on her journal entries. Maybe he will be able to find something in her writing. Of course, you're moving so fast it may turn out there is no need for the linguist. How did you find this information?" he asked.

Diane had been dreading that question. "Just Internet searches," she said.

"This is a good lead. It's a good thing Lorimer called. It was an excellent idea to send out those pictures and e-mails to the lawyer lists. I'd be willing to bet you'll get some more hits before the day is through."

He a.s.sumed that she had looked up Emma Lorimer on the Web and happily found Clymene, thought Diane. Good. She didn't like keeping the truth to herself, but David would absolutely freak out if she told the FBI about Arachnid.

Diane looked at her watch. She was hungry but it wasn't even close to lunchtime; then she realized she hadn't eaten breakfast. She was about to get up and go to the staff lounge for a snack when Jin knocked on her door and peeked in.

Chapter 41.

"Jin," said Diane. "More news?"

They had so many feelers out now that information should begin flowing in. It was the first time she had actually felt optimistic about finding Clymene. It was true what she had said to Jin earlier; Clymene didn't have a chance. Diane waved a hand to the chair in front of her desk. Jin bopped into her office and threw himself into the stuffed chair.

"You know, Boss, that spider program of David's is something. Why is he keeping it hidden? I mean, besides the fact that he probably thinks the men in black will come get him."

"I think it offends his root sensibilities. He believes the Internet should respect people's privacy. When users post photographs it's for people to look at and not to exploit in any way."

"We didn't exploit; we just looked for Clymene. It would have been the same if we did it manually. It would just take years. David's funny sometimes, have you ever noticed that?"

"Occasionally," said Diane, smiling. "Did you come in for a reason or are you just wandering around the building?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. This is good. We're finding so much good stuff, looking for Clymene's starting to get fun. The blood on the bedframe in apartment 1-D in your former apartment house belongs to Clymene Red," he said.

"Clymene Red?"

"Yeah, remember the Christmas trees? There's Clymene Prime-she's the murderer. And there's Clymene Red and Clymene Blue, the two sisters I named after the colors of the ornaments."

Diane nodded. "Okay. So the blood on the bed is one of the sisters," said Diane.

"Yes," said Jin. "But the epithelials in the IV needle we found belong to Clymene Blue, the other sister."

It gave Diane a chill to think they were living just a floor below her all that time and she didn't know it. She wondered how long Clymene had been planning her escape.

"Good work," she said. "Did you find anything else in the apartment?"

"No, and David vacuumed the place good. You know how he is. The three Clymenes washed that place down with bleach before they left. They missed the blood on the bed, and we almost did too. It had dripped and run under the frame. The needle was caught in the corner between the floorboards. Lucky for us, they just didn't see it. Clymene and company are not perfect," said Jin.

"Any sign of the young male who was with them?" asked Diane.

"No. Nothing from him or Clymene Prime in the apartment," said Jin.

Diane started to comment when the phone rang. She picked it up.

"Fallon."

"Dr. Fallon, this is Alex Kade." He had a slow drawl and a gravely voice. "How are you doing today?" he said.

"Colonel Kade. I'm fine. I hope you have some news for me," she said.

"I do. But please call me Alex," he said. "Colonel was a lifetime ago." was a lifetime ago."

"I will if you call me Diane," she said.

"Deal. I think I found your woman." He paused. "You said it's too late to save her?"