"You want to go up to the room or talk down here?"

He moved toward the elevator saying, "Your room."

We didn't speak in the elevator of anything of consequence. I looked at his clothes again and said, "You've already been home."

"I live off Connecticut on the other side of the beltway.

Maryland. Wasn't that far."

I knew that was a toll call and that was why he hadn't called first. I also figured that the hotel was on the way from his house to the foundation. I was beginning to feel the small tick of excitement in my chest. Warren was going to turn.

There was a damp smell in the hallway that seemed to be the same in every hotel I had ever been in. I got out my card key and let him into my room. My computer was still open on the little desk and my long coat and the one tie I had brought with me were thrown across the bed. Otherwise, the room was neat. He threw his coat on the bed and we took the only chairs in the room.

"So what's going on?" I asked.

"I did a search."

He started to take a folded paper out of his back pocket. "I have access to main computer files," he said. "Before I left for the day, I went in and searched the field reports for victims who were homicide detectives. There were only thirteen. I have

"names, departments and dates of death here on a printout."

He offered me the unfolded page and I took it from him as gently as if it were a sheet of gold.

"Thank you," I said. "Will there be a record of your search?"

"I don't really know. But I don't think so. It's a pretty wide-open system. I don't know if there's a security trace option or not."

"Thank you," I said again. I didn't know what else to say.

"Anyway, that was the easy part," he said. "Going through the protocols in file storage, that's going to take some time ... I wanted to know if you'd want to helpYou'd probably know better than me which ones were important."

"Then?"

"Tonight. It's the only time. The place will be closed up but I have a key to Me storage because sometimes I have to dig out old things for media requests. If we don't do it tonight the hard-wpy files may be gone tomorrow. I have a feeling the FBI isn't going to like them sitting up here, especially knowing you asked for them. They'll come and grab them flat thing tomorrow."

"Is that what Ford said?"

"Not exactly. I heard it through Oline. He talked to Rachel Wg, not Backus. He said she'"

"Wait a minute. Rachel Waffing?"

I knew the name. I took a moment but then I remembered she was the profiler who had signed the VICAP survey Sean had submitted on Theresa Lofton.

"Yes, Rachel Walling. She's a profiler down there.