Lonesome Lawmen

Seven-3

It was easy, but it was consuming, for Hayes to cross-reference Dani Gwynne’s online posts with the people she chatted with, then sort them by locality. The program had run most of the night while he tried, and failed, to sleep. Now the printer spit out a series of lists comprised of the people she’d chatted directly with, then cross-referenced by the different places she visited regularly. Contact wasn’t always public. “Going private,” taking a discussion to the privacy of email, was a common practice throughout the Internet. He and Willow had gone private soon after meeting, though she’d continued to politely but firmly resist the meeting Hayes was determined to have with her.

The printer finished its work and Hayes gathered up the sheets, shuffling through them for anything that might stand out. Much of what he did was through a finely honed intuition. This kind of research wasn’t part of his normal procedure. When he got a hit, the research had been done by Bates people. All that was left for him was the kill. This time he was willing to make some effort, as long as it was the right kind of effort. The kind that lead him to Dani Gwynne.

Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt. Hayes recalled the phrase culled from the “quote wars.” His head was hurting, so he must be close. He pulled up the lists, removed the first five names from one, then faxed the rest to Bates with instructions at the top to have some of his people check them for signs of Gwynne. Wouldn’t hurt Bates to exert himself or his people.

His short list consisted of four women and one male. The women were romance writers with a high probability of contact. The male was a biker, fairly low probability, name of Meathook. Hayes knew him online, he and Willow chatted with him. There were no outward signs Gwynne had talked to Meathook, a remote chance she’d seek him out. Hayes almost crossed him off the list, then stopped. It wasn’t likely, but he couldn’t afford to pass up even remote chances with just five days left until the trial. Bates was getting restive. Only his very real fear of Hayes kept him in check. If he thought Hayes could fail, that fear would fade. He didn’t need Bates complicating things right now.

Hayes looked at his watch. He should be able to hit all five names before lunch, sooner than that if he was lucky.

He felt lucky.