She closed the door and, hearing Stu’s car pull into the driveway, forgot all about the noise. Edie Dance walked to the refrigerator to find a snack for the children.

The interview with the Sleeping Doll had come to an intriguing conclusion.

Back in her office, Dance called and checked up on the girl and her aunt, both safely ensconced in the motel and protected by a 250-pound monolith of a CBI agent who carried two large weapons. They were fine, Albert Stemple reported, then added, “The girl’s nice. I like her. The aunt you can keep.”

Dance read over the notes she’d taken in the interview. Then read them again. Finally she called TJ.

“Your genie awaits, boss.”

“Bring me what we’ve got so far on Pell.”

“The whole ball of wax? Whatever that means.”

“All the wax.”

Dance was reviewing James Reynolds’s notes from the Croyton murder case when TJ arrived—only three or four minutes later, breathless. Maybe her voice had sounded more urgent than she’d realized.

She took the files he carted and spread them out until they covered her desk an inch thick. In a short time they’d accumulated an astonishing amount of material. She began riffling through the pages.

“The girl, was she helpful?”

“Yep,” the agent replied absently, staring at a particular sheet of paper.

TJ made another comment but she wasn’t paying any attention. Flipping through more reports, more pages of handwritten notes, and looking over Reynolds’s time line and his other transcriptions. Then returning to the piece of paper she held.

Finally she said, “I’ve got a computer question. You know a lot about them. Go check this out.” She circled some words on the sheet.

He glanced down. “What about it?”

“It’s fishy.”

“Not a computer term I’m familiar with. But I’m on the case, boss. We never sleep.”

“We’ve got a situation.”

Dance was addressing Charles Overby, Winston Kellogg and TJ. They were in Overby’s office and he was playing with a bronze golf ball mounted on a wooden stand, like a gearshift in a sports car. She wished Michael O’Neil were here.

Dance then dropped the bomb. “Rebecca Sheffield’s working with Pell.”

“What?” Overby blurted.

“It gets better. I think she was behind the whole escape.”

Her boss shook his head, the theory troubling him. He was undoubtedly wondering if he’d authorized something he shouldn’t have.

But Winston Kellogg encouraged her. “Interesting. Go on.”

“Theresa Croyton told me a few things that made me suspicious. So I went back and looked over the evidence so far. Remember that email we found in the Sea View? Supposedly Pell sent it to Jennie from prison. But look.” She showed the printout. “The email address says Capitola Correctional. But it has a ‘dot com’ extension. If it was really a Department of Corrections address it would’ve had ‘dot ca dot gov.’”

Kellogg grimaced. “Hell, yes. Missed that completely.”

“I just had TJ check out the address.”