A Face to Die For (Forensic Instincts 6)

“You never do. That doesn’t stop me from being smart.”

“Or humble.”

A corner of Hutch’s mouth lifted. “Yeah, or humble.” He rose and went to Casey, threading his fingers through her hair. “Let me know if you need me,” he said quietly. “I love you. And I worry.”

“Right back at you, SSA Hutchinson,” Casey murmured. “And you know I’ll come to you if I need to. I’ve certainly done so in the past. I don’t see that changing.”

“Good.” Hutch drew back, tipped up her chin, and gave her a lingering kiss. “Now go catch the bad guys.”

“Oh, I intend to.”

* * *

Downstairs in the conference room, the FI team started gathering, ready to hop into the van for the drive to Todt Hill.

“I must say that we all clean up nice,” Emma said, twirling around to show off her turquoise and purple swing skirt.

“Agreed.” Marc was wearing a deep navy suit with a blue silk tie. “Although Claire has been downstairs for fifteen minutes trying to get Ryan to sit still long enough for her to tie his tie. Evidently, he’s come up with some crucial piece of data that he wants to share with us before we leave.”

“That sounds important,” Casey responded as she entered the room, a shiny, just-brushed Hero at her heels.

Patrick, in a herringbone suit, smiled. “You look lovely, Casey.”

“Thanks. So do all of you.” She turned to Marc, brows drawn in question. “Any idea what Ryan’s come up with?”

“We’re about to find out,” Claire replied, walking in wearing a pale blue silk pantsuit and an exasperated expression. “The man is impossible. It took me four tries to properly knot that damn tie.”

“Sorry, Claire-voyant.” Ryan strode into the room, stretching his neck to accustom it to the foreign object around it. “I didn’t mean to make your life difficult. But this find is big.” He held up a page that contained what looked to be a printout of a tiny article from an old newspaper.

“What is it?” Casey demanded.

“My genius, and a huge find,” Ryan replied. “We were getting nowhere with the birth certificates. Whoever falsified them did a good enough job so the real ones were obviously destroyed and gone. Dead end for us. So I’ve been simultaneously working on another angle. I’ve been researching every regional archived newspaper I could find, looking for missing triplets. Unfortunately, most of the old NYC papers are long gone, and some weren’t even being published in 1990. They were even more historic—like the Brooklyn Eagle, which was gone in the 1950s and is now up and running online just like the current newspapers are.”

“Ryan, get to the point,” Marc said.

“Okay, okay.” Ryan rustled the page. “I finally found this tiny clipping in an out-of-print local Bay Ridge paper. The issue was published in March 1990.” He paused, then read aloud, “Anthony and Carla Ponti were found shot to death in their Bay Ridge home last night. The killer is still unknown and at large.” He looked up, his eyes bright with discovery. “The couple’s infant triplets are officially missing and assumed to have been abducted by the killer.”

Casey reached over and plucked the page from Ryan’s hand. Skimming the short paragraph, she said, “Based on the timing and the circumstances, Anthony and Carla Ponti have to be Lina’s, Gia’s, and Dani’s biological parents. There’s no chance of a coincidence here. Did you find anything else?”

“Yeah. That there is absolutely no record of Ponti triplets in the Department of Health database. Their births have literally been erased—which is why I couldn’t find anything. Whoever masterminded this did one hell of a job of covering all the bases.”

“What about the parents?”

“Carla was a stay-at-home mom. Anthony was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It looks like he had ties to Angelo Colone.”

“What kind of ties?” Casey wasn’t letting this go.

Neither was Ryan.

“From what I can piece together, he worked for him. He did collections for Colone’s construction business. That’s about all I could find. Not exactly a prominent figure.”

“He could have been skimming,” Patrick said. “It would certainly explain what got him killed. But even if it was a mob hit, why take the babies? Why not just leave them there?”

“Maybe because things went wrong,” Claire answered softly. “Maybe the murder didn’t turn out to be just a simple hit. Maybe it became more complicated than that. And maybe Colone capitalized on it by setting in motion a plan that served his needs.”

“Is that a supposition or a sensory intuition?” Casey asked.

“More of the latter.” Claire frowned. “Colone definitely factored into Lina’s life. She’s named after him.” An intent pause. “She’s his goddaughter. As for Gia and Dani…” Claire gave a frustrated shake of her head. “There’s too much stimuli pounding at my brain. Now that we’re getting closer to the truth, the three girls’ energies keep converging in my head. I’m having trouble separating the threads.”