Dade City, Florida Mindy Holm's hotel room more closely resembled a satellite office. Her laptop perched on the small dresser, notes were scattered across the comforter on the unused bed, and the phone was stretched across the room so that she could talk hands free. She was in constant touch with Eric, because he was in constant contact with the FBI's national wire computer. Also, he was able to fill her in on Mitch Daly's ever changing moods. The last information was crucial; she needed an extension to complete the story, and Mitch was the only one who could grant it.
Finally, she was beginning to make a little progress. She had gotten through to Neil Hammer, a Homicide Detective with the Summerville, Georgia police department. Though he admitted that the details of the double murder were sketchy, he did at least confirm the names of the victims. To Mindy, that was a major find. The small victory though, was almost hollow. The detective spoke in a slow, controlled southern drawl that almost seemed irritated and, figuring that he was not used to working with a woman on a professional level, Mindy could not resist throwing around her FBI title. The important thing though-one-quarter of Bonnie Groom's puzzle had been solved.
After talking to the detective, Mindy unplugged the phone and plugged in her computer. She accessed the Internet and began searching airport records. Every commercial airliner had a flight log-flight logs that listed every incoming passenger on any given day. Mindy narrowed her search to Oregon, and then narrowed it again to the International Airport in Portland. Not quite the computer whiz, she was starting to think that this would be a better job for Eric. He probably would not even need to use a computer; he would know exactly who to call. She had been leaning on him awful hard lately though; it was time to do something on her own.
It took nearly an hour of frustrated starts and restarts, but finally Mindy started making headway on the information superhighway. TransAir was the single major airline dedicated to the Portland airport. She searched deeper and found detailed schedules of flights for the last week. The flights were listed with points of origin and destination, but no other details were given. Nearly two-dozen connecting flights came out of Bonnie Groom's airport in Florida alone. It was nearly impossible to find a name in all the technical clutter, numbers, and ticket information. There was, she discovered, a place where one could go to find flight logs, but those sites were for family members only. The information was stored in a secure location. Unfortunately, she would have to call Eric after all.
