snatch-and-grab kidnapvan used by the kidnapmaniacs, except they had plates and the camera angle wasn’t sufficient to determine if any vehicles had a dent to match the kidnapvan.”
Kidnapmaniacs. I had the feeling that Tandy was using the jargon to help me relax. The terminology sounded like made-up words or street slang, not cop lingo, unlike RVAC, which sounded all law enforcement with the initials instead of words. “RVAC. Is that like a drone?” I asked.
Rick lifted his hand and dropped it fast, hesitating, as if he wished those words hadn’t been spoken. Almost unwillingly, he said, “RVACS are remote-viewing aircraft. Smaller, quieter, easier to control than a drone.”
I let a tiny smile soften my face at the hesitant and complicated body language in the small room. Rick was against letting me know things about their practices and technology, but Tandy’s complacent expression said that it was too late now, and had been done deliberately.
Tandy placed photos on the tabletop, saying, “Each one shows the cult compound from different vantage points. Note the vans parked here”—he pointed with his strangely marked hand, one finger tapping pictures that had been printed out on plain paper—“and here, all pale-colored, gray, blue, or white.”
I said, “If I remember, that’s where the church’s passenger vans have always been kept. God’s Cloud buys old vans and paints them white.”
Rick raised his eyebrows at me. “And you didn’t think to tell us that until now?”
I realized that with the church and the kidnapmaniacs using white panel vans, I probably should have mentioned that. “Sorry,” I said softly. “Not used to thinking about everyone and everything being some kinda clue.”
“Where do visitors park?” Rick asked.
“Beside the chapel building,” I said, pointing.
“No vehicles there at the time this was taken,” Tandy said.
“We also have good visual intel on the building that Nell said was the old punishment house and is now the guest quarters. There is no sign of anyone using it. Our contact on the FBI will do an infrared and low-light cam flyover tonight to verify.” He tapped again. Four pictures, this time each one from a different side of the building, but all from above. RVAC height. The churchmen had been right about the government invading privacy and keeping watch. Their conspiracy theories had been confirmed.
Part of me wanted to make a scene about privacy. Another part was in fear for the missing girls and my own sisters. And yet another part was wondering why the outsiders were so important, why missing nonchurch girls were worth a hunt, but the evils taking place against children within the church had deserved a blind eye for so many decades. Social services had returned so many children after their raid that it seemed the atrocities committed by some of the churchmen had been swept under the rug and the children there again forgotten.
T. Laine took up the narrative, saying, “County and state canine units have spent the last twenty-four hours on the first two scenes, in the order the girls were taken. They got a hit on the ballet school site, though the feds can’t tell us what it means. Or won’t. What I was told was that the dogs went, and I quote, ‘Squirrelly.’” She made finger quotes in the air. “Frankly, we were there, so we might be to blame. They now want to keep the dogs separated, not mixing up dogs and scents on the nonhuman case, so we have a new team coming in from Nashville. This team has worked paranormal cases before and will be here by one p.m.”
“Specifics on the K-nines?” Rick asked.
“One tracking dog, one air dog. We haven’t had rain, so we might get a scent,” Tandy said.
I knew a lot about hunting dogs. A tracking/trailing dog followed a scent on the ground. An air-scenting dog followed it through the air. Some dogs did both tracking and air scenting. If there was little wind and no rain, air dogs with really good noses had been known to follow scents for miles. The official record was twenty-four miles to rescue a kidnapped girl. But I remembered the wind yesterday and had serious concerns about that possibility.
Rick said, “When JoJo gets here, we’ll get a quick debrief, and then I want her and you two”—he pointed to T. Laine and Tandy—“to have five hours of downtime before joining the canine unit, to keep the dogs from wigging out at our cat smell. The dogs will start at Wyatt School and move into the