She glanced around the room. She had their eyes but she could tell she was more of a curiosity to them than a respected colleague. The silence was broken by the television.

"I think Rachel is probably right," Doran said. "We have been manipulated from day one on this. Why not with the gum? It does seem like an incredible mistake for such a well-planned action."

Rachel noticed Doran wink at her.

"One piece of gum, one mistake, in eight graves?" said Gunning, one of the agents from Quantico. "I don't think that is such a long shot. We all know nobody's ever committed the perfect crime. Yes, people get away but they all make mistakes."

"Well," Alpert said, "let's wait and see what we get with this before we jump to any conclusions one way or the other. Mary, anything else?"

"Not at this time."

"Then let's go to Agent Cates to see how the locals are doing with the IDs."

Cates opened a leather-bound folder on the table in front of him. It contained a legal pad with notes on it. That he had such a nice and expensive holder for a basic legal pad told Rachel that he was very proud of his work and what he did. Either that or the person who gave him the folder had those feelings. Either way, it made Rachel like him right away. It also made her feel like she was missing something. She no longer carried that kind of pride in the bureau or what she did.

"Okay, we started sniffing around Vegas Metro on their missing persons case. We're handicapped by the need for secrecy. So we're not going in there like gang-busters. We've just made contact and said we're interested because of the state line thing-victims from multiple states and even one other country. That gives us an in but we don't want to show our hand by blasting in there. So we're supposed to have a sitdown with them later today. Once we reach the beach, so to speak, we'll start back tracing these individuals and looking for the common denominator. Keep in mind these guys have been on this for several weeks and as far as we know don't have shit."

"Agent Cates," Alpert said. "The tape."

"Oh, excuse my language there. They don't have anything is what I meant to say."

"Very good, Agent Cates. Keep me informed."

And only silence followed. Alpert continued to smile warmly at Cates until the local agent got the message.

"Oh, um, you want me to leave?"

"I want you out there working on those victims," Alpert said. "No sense wasting time in here listening to us hash things around to no end."

"Okay, then."

Cates got up. If he had been a white man the embarrassment would have been more recognizable on his face.

"Thank you, Agent Cates," Alpert said to his back as he went through the door.

Alpert then turned his attention back to the table.

"I think Mary, Greta, Harvey and Doug can all be excused as well. We need you guys back in the trenches, I'm afraid. No pun intended."

There was that administrative smile again.

"Actually," Mary Pond said, "I'd like to stay and hear what Brass has to say. It might help me in the field."

Alpert lost his smile at the challenge.

"No," he said firmly, "that won't be necessary."

An uneasy silence engulfed the room until it was finally punctuated by the sounds of the science team's chairs being pushed back from their tables. The four of them got up and left the room without speaking. It was painful for Rachel to watch. The unchecked arrogance of command staff was endemic in the bureau. It was never going to change.

"Now, where were we?" Alpert said, easily morphing past what he had just done to five good people. "Brass, your turn now. I have you down here for the boat, the tape and bags, the clothes, the GPS device, and now you have the gum, which we all know will lead nowhere, thank you very much, Agent Walling."

He said the.word agent like it was synonymous with idiot. Rachel raised her hands in surrender.

"Sorry, I didn't know half the field team is in the dark on the suspect. Funny, but when I was in Behavioral we never did it that way. We pooled information and knowledge. We didn't hide it from one another."

"You mean when you were working for the man we are looking for right now?"

"Look, Agent Alpert, if you are trying to taint me with that brush, then you-"

"This is a classified case, Agent Walling. That is all I am trying to get across to you. As I told you before, it is 'need to know.'"

"Obviously."

Alpert turned away from her as if dismissing her from memory and looked at the television screen.

"Brass, can you begin please?"

Alpert made sure he stood between Rachel and the screen, to further underline her position as outsider on the case.

"Okay," Doran said, "I have something significant and… well, strange, to begin with. I told you about the boat yesterday. The initial fingerprint analysis of manageable surfaces came back negative. It had been out there in the elements for who knows how long. So we took it another step. Agent Alpert approved disassembly of the evidence and that was done in the hangar at Nellis last night. On the boat there are grip locations-handholds for moving the boat. This at one time was a navy lifeboat, built in the late thirties and probably sold off as military surplus after World War Two."

As Doran continued Dei opened a file and pulled out a photo of the boat. She held it for Rachel to see, since Rachel had never actually seen the boat. It was already at Nellis by the time she had gotten to the excavation site. She thought it was amazing and typical that the bureau could amass so much information about a boat set adrift in the desert but so little about the crime it was attached to.

"We could not get into the interior of the grip holes with our first analysis. When we disassembled the piece we were able to get in there. This is where we got lucky because this little hollow was protected from the elements for the most part."

"And?" Alpert asked impatiently. He obviously wasn't interested in the journey. He just wanted the destination.

"And we got two prints out of the port side grip on the bow. This morning we ran them through the data banks and got a hit almost right away. This is going to sound strange but the prints came from Terry McCaleb."

"How can that be?" asked Dei.

Alpert didn't say anything. His eyes stared down at the table in front of him. Rachel sat quiet as well, her mind racing to catch up with and understand this latest piece of information. "At some point he put his hand into the grip hole on the boat, that's the only way it can be," Doran said.

"But he's dead," Alpert said.

"What?" Rachel exclaimed.

Everyone in the room turned and looked at her. Dei slowry nodded.

"He died about a month ago. Heart attack. I guess the news didn't get to South Dakota."

Doran's voice came from the speaker.

"Rachel, I am so sorry. I should have gotten word to you. But I was too upset about it and went out to California right away. I'm sorry. I should have told you."

Rachel looked down at her hands. Terry McCaleb had been her friend and colleague. He was one of the em-paths. She felt a sudden and deep sense of loss, despite the fact that she had not spoken to him in years. Their shared experiences had left them bonded for life and now that life, for him, was gone.

"Okay, people, let's take a break here," Alpert said. "Fifteen minutes and then back in here. Brass, can you callback?"

"I will. I've got more to report."

"Talk to you then."

They all filed out to get coffee or use the restrooms. To leave Rachel alone.

"Are you all right, Agent Walling?" Alpert asked.

She looked up at him. The last thing she would take would be comfort from him.

"I'm fine," she said, moving her eyes back to the blank TV screen. Rachel remained in the conference room by herself. Her initial shock gave way to a wave of guilt coming up behind her like a following sea. Terry McCaleb had attempted to contact her over the years. She had gotten the messages but had never responded. She had sent him a card and a note when he was in the hospital recovering from the transplant. That had been five or six years ago. She couldn't remember. She did remember specifically deciding not to put a personal return address on the envelope. At the time she told herself it was because she wasn't going to be stuck in Minot for very long. But she knew then as she knew now that the real reason was she didn't want the connection. She didn't want the questions about the choices she had made. She didn't want that link to the past.