An administrative assistant to Dr. Thompson passed out stapled documents. At the same time, the first slide of a PowerPoint presentation was projected on a wall screen. “There’s been another kidnapping,” Thompson announced to the group. “It occurred Saturday night in Newport, Rhode Island. There’s been a sea change here. The victim was male. To our knowledge, he’s the first male they’ve taken.”

Dr. Thompson gave us the details, which were also projected on the wall screen. An honor student at Providence College, Benjamin Coffey, had been abducted from a bar called the Halyard in Newport. It appeared that the abductors were both males.

A team.

And they had been spotted again.

“Anyone?” asked Thompson, once he had given us the basics. “Reactions? Comments? Don’t be shy. We need input. We’re nowhere on this.”

“Pattern’s definitely different,” an analyst volunteered. “Abduction at a bar. Male taken.”

“How can we be so sure of that at this point?” Burns asked from the front of the room. “What is the pattern here?”

Burns’s questions were met with silence. Like most chief executives, he had no idea of his own power. He turned and looked around at the group. His eyes finally settled on mine. “Alex? What is the pattern?” he asked. “You have any ideas?”

The other agents were watching me. “Are we certain it was two males at the bar?” I asked. “That’s the first question I have.”

Burns nodded in agreement. “No, we are not sure, are we? One of them had on a sailor’s cap. Could have been the woman from King of Prussia. Do you agree with the opinion voiced about the disconnect between this abduction and the others? Has the pattern been broken?”

I considered the question, trying to get in touch with my gut reaction to what I’d heard so far.

“No,” I finally said. “There doesn’t even have to be a behavioral pattern. Not if the abduction team is working for money. I’m inclined to think they probably are. I don’t see these as crimes of passion. But what bothers me are the mistakes. Why are they making mistakes? That’s the key to everything.”

Chapter 35

Chapter 35

LIZZIE CONNOLLY HAD no sense of time anymore, except that it seemed to be moving very slowly, and that she was pretty sure she was going to die soon. She would never see Gwynne, Brigid, Merry, or Brendan again, and that made her incredibly sad. She was definitely going to die.