Officer Park Hyde, unit 237, never contacted dispatch. He didn’t telephone, radio or inform anyone by any means we know of that he was headed to the navigation locks of the Charles River Dam where boats pass through to enter the Boston Harbor. The abandoned quarry is a foreboding isolated place under the best of conditions, and I can only imagine the reaction of the officer who discovered Hyde’s marked car concealed between mountains of sand. Unlocked. The battery dead. Hyde not inside the car. But the trunk is malfunctioning. It seems no one can open it.

“I don’t understand why she can’t get inside it,” Benton says to Marino.

“She?” I inquire.

“Officer Dern,” Marino says. “She’s on the juvenile crime squad, which is probably one of the reasons she responded. She probably figured she’d be familiar with the little assholes joyriding in the red SUV we’re still trying to locate.”

“Yes a late-model high-end red SUV which very well may be the one missing from the Gilbert house,” I reply. “The Range Rover that is supposedly registered to Chanel Gilbert,” I add. “I assume that Carrie stole her identity?”

“She would assume any identity she wants if it serves a certain purpose,” Benton says. “What’s happening at the River Basin?”

“The call where one of the subjects supposedly had a gun?” Marino says. “Well then there was another call reporting shots fired in the old gravel quarry.”

“Supposedly shots were fired,” Benton reminds us. “We can’t say for a fact who’s been making these calls to nine-one-one.”

“The officer went there and got out of her car to look for any sign that the red SUV and dirtbags had been there. She was walking around when she found Hyde’s police car. You probably can’t see it unless you’re on foot. I’m familiar with the area and you’re not going to drive close to huge mountains of sand and gravel that have been there forever. We always joke that you’ll disappear into a sinkhole. I’m pretty sure the car was deliberately dumped there by someone who didn’t want us to find it for a while. There’s no way in hell Hyde drove it there.”

“I don’t understand why Officer Dern can’t open the trunk,” Benton says. “Unless it’s been sealed shut somehow.”

“She says it’s been glued,” Marino replies and I think about the silver fish-shaped box he opened with acetone. “So maybe there’s another camera inside, right Doc?” His jaw muscles are clenching. “Or some other prize in the Cracker Jacks like a murdered cop?”

“I think we can figure out what we’re supposed to assume is inside the trunk,” Benton says as if we shouldn’t be so sure.