He called up a series of high school reunion sites, found one that offered yearbook photos for a fee, zeroed in on Seattle. Plugging in kathy vanderveldt struck gold at Center High. After confirming that Dwayne Parris had been a member of the same class, he used his own credit card to pay for the shots and printed.

Black-and-white shots, but clear enough.

Younger versions of the two faces we’d just seen carrying groceries.

Kathy Lara Vanderveldt had smiled warmly for the camera. Member of the science club, the nature club, Future Physicians of America.

Dwayne Charles Parris had maintained a narrow-mouthed stoicism. An average-looking kid, in every way, with bushy dark hair worn low over his forehead. Varsity hockey, Model U.N., accounting club.

I said, “She’s using her middle name as her first, he’s Carlo as in Italian for Charles. Wonder where he got Scoppio.”

“Maybe it means something in Italian.”

It did.

Explosion.

Milo said, “Monte go boom.”

He kept searching, starting with kathy vanderveldt. No criminal record on file, same for Dwayne Parris, but a five-year-old account of the Vanderveldt-Rieffen family reunion was featured in The Seattle Times. Serious human interest, because a hundred fifty-three people had participated. Page-wide group photo, Kathy nowhere to be seen but a small child with the same name sat in the front row, beaming.

Milo said, “Little cousin makes it to the party but Big Kathy doesn’t, because she’s using an aka. She’s running from something bad, but no record?”

I said, “It’s possible that whatever she’s running from never made the files. As in her own lost years.”

“Another teen eco-terrorist who kept it going?”

“And whose career somehow got derailed. Doreen conned the FBI, but Lindstrom did say she’d tossed them a few bones. Minor stuff, but everything’s relative, to the Bureau minor could mean big buildings aren’t blowing up. What if Doreen’s info implicated Kathy and Dwayne seriously enough to screw up their educational goals and force them underground? Kathy and Dwayne figured out who’d betrayed them, but Doreen and Backer didn’t realize that. Years later, the four of them reconnect in L.A., agree to collaborate on a torch job. Shades of the Bellevue fire that killed Van Burghout, but now they’re getting paid serious money. Kathy and Dwayne go along with it until they figure out how to get hold of the money. After that, Backer and Doreen are history.”

“Reunion of the nature-hiking eco-pyros,” he said. “Okay, it’s time to have a go at Gayle’s ego.”

CHAPTER

39

Special Agent Gayle Lindstrom met us at a pizza joint in Westwood Village, not far from the Federal Building. College student clientele meant oceans of cheap beer on tap, not much in the way of décor.

Milo talked, Lindstrom listened, growing steadily more tense with each revelation. When he finished, she said, “Those two. Oh, crap.”