by Robin Mahle
“Did he ever do or say anything to make you think he might—revert back to his old ways?”
“Well, that depends on what old ways you’re referring to. I think he had a few, uh, relationships in prison. He was careful not to say too much, though, ‘cause that sort of behavior don’t fly around here. But so far as I could tell, he didn’t seem rehabilitated at all. I never said nothing to nobody, though. He never did nothing to any of us here, ‘sept like Marco said, he’d get the cows riled up once in a while. Nothing worth losing his job over, I suppose.”
“Did he say anything to either of you the day before he took off?” Nick paused for a moment to recall the exact date. “That would’ve been around the week of the April 20th.”
The men exchanged glances, then Marco began, “Well, come to think of it, when I came in one morning around that time, I saw him stuffing his locker with, I guess, clothes, maybe? Like he was taking some kind of trip. I asked him what he had going on, but he never did answer and I just let it go.”
“I see.” Nick turned to Albright. “Can we have a look inside that locker?”
The agents followed the men to the changing area. Metal lockers lined the walls, stacked two high. There were a few benches in between and showers on the opposite end.
“That’s his locker over there.” Albright pointed to the locker in question.
“We’ll need to get inside there.” Nick turned to Albright. “You have a key?”
“It’s a combination lock. Only the employee has access and we just haven’t been bothered to try to get into it, I guess.”
“Well, I’ll need some bolt cutters, then.”
Albright turned to Marco and nodded, seemingly instructing him to retrieve the requested item. Moments later, he returned.
“Thank you.” Nick grabbed the tool, placed it on the five-dollar combination lock, and squeezed. The lock snapped with ease and he pulled off the remnants. The locker swung open. Nick looked inside and quickly turned to Dwight, shaking his head. “Son of a bitch.”
» » »
A text came in on Kate’s phone as she sat at her desk. A picture of a young girl, not more than ten, appeared and it came from Nick. Her phone rang immediately after.
“You get my text?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“That’s what I need you to find out. We found the picture inside Stroud’s locker at the dairy farm. I need to know who she is and if she’s been reported missing.”
“I’ll look into it right now and call you as soon as I find something.”
“Thanks.” Nick ended the call.
She pulled up the NCIC database, which housed twenty-one different files and over 13 million records. One such file was Missing Persons. Kate furthered narrowed her search by entering “EMJ,” which lists missing juveniles, in the search parameters. This was where she would start. Once inside, she could continue to whittle down the field by entering “EME.” That would classify a juvenile as endangered. Still, it would take some time to review the files, as they had no idea of where or if this girl was abducted. There were additional ways to narrow down the fields, including certain identifying markers. If she got a hit, the file would indicate the entering authority, thereby revealing where this girl was last seen. This was the most critical information.
Depending upon her findings, this case might no longer merely be a sideline, but she couldn’t look too far ahead right now. Nick was waiting on her and she had to work fast.
“Vasquez?” Kate peeked over her cubical wall. “Can you help me run a search? Scarborough’s run into something new on the Stroud investigation and I could use the help.”
“Yeah, of course. What do you have?”
Kate sent her a copy of the picture and they both went to work.
“Who’s this girl?” Vasquez asked.
“Scarborough and Jameson need to ID her fast. They think she may be a victim of the same man who took Colton Talbot, his friend’s son.”
Vasquez began typing on her computer. The short partition between their desks allowed for easy conversation. “He find anything else of use?”
“Not that I’m aware of, but he didn’t hang around on the line long enough for me to ask.” Kate kept her eyes glued to the screen as the search parameters were entered. “Damn. There’s a lot of files here.”
“Same here,” Vasquez replied. “What if we narrow it down to include the eastern region first? That’ll cut down on a lot of this. If we don’t get any hits, we can widen the search criteria.”
“Good idea.” Kate modified her search area. “How old do you think she is? Ten, eleven?”
“Probably. Let’s enter nine, to be safe, up to thirteen. She can’t be older than that.”
“Unless she’s been missing for a long time. But that would rule out Stroud, most likely.” Kate considered another option. “We know he was still going to work every day prior to the 20th of April. What if we pair the dates down to January to the beginning of May?”
“It’s hard to say,” Vasquez began. “If she’s one of his victims, she could have been taken long ago.”
Kate understood Vasquez’s point but had little time to sift through the thousands of records based on the image. She decided to use the dates and her instincts proved to be right. It took almost an hour, but the girl’s face now stared back at her on the screen. Emily Aldrich, eleven years old, missing since April 23rd from her home near the community of Stephens City, not far from Winchester. “I found her.”
Vasquez pushed her chair away from her desk and rolled over to Kate. “Who is she?”
“Emily Aldrich.” Kate pointed to the screen. “No question; that’s her.”
“Definitely. Better get on the horn to Scarborough.”
Before reaching for her cell, Kate emailed the file to him. That familiar zeal rose in her again. It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in the past few months; as though she’d been caged, her wings clipped. Exuberance at the idea that once again, she was a part of the team; that her involvement meant something and she could indeed make a contribution. Wasn’t that the reason she was here after all?
“It’s me.” Her voice couldn’t conceal her feelings. “Did you get the email?”
“I got it. Great work, Kate. We’ll contact Fredrick County,” Nick replied.
“What can I do from here?”
“Sit tight. We’ll be back later and we can go over what we have. With this potential second abduction, Campbell might be more willing to put this on the front burner.”
Kate could hear Dwight in the background calling for Nick.
“I need to go. See you later.”
On the one hand, Kate was deflated not to have another piece of the puzzle to work on, but on the other, if Campbell decided to prioritize this case for BAU, then they’d want the entire team on board. And that included her.
“What’d he say?” Vasquez peered over top of the partition.
“They’re due back later. He thinks Campbell will make it a BAU priority. But there’s not much more we can do at this point. Thanks for helping me out on this.”
“Any time.”
» » »
Colton leaned toward the sliver of an opening between the wooden slats of the closet doors. He peered into the squalid hotel room. The man had bound his hands behind his back upon entering the cramped, dark closet that was filled with the acrid, ammonia-like smell of mothballs. He tried to garner the attention of the front desk attendant as they checked in, but to no avail. The attendant couldn’t have cared less about either the man, who undoubtedly appeared suspicious, or the boy wearing a hoodie and looking forlorn.
His chances of escaping were becoming fewer and farther between and Colton fought off the sense that he would not get another chance and would die; maybe inside this closet. His parents would never find him and they would never know that they were in his thoughts every second until the last.
The man—who had a name, but Colton refused to think it, let
alone speak it—sat on the edge of the bed. The old television, the likes Colton had never seen before, showed fuzzy images of a news broadcast. Maybe his picture would appear. He didn’t know where or even when he was; only that days had passed. The man bore a resemblance to someone Colton had seen on television once, long ago. Although the actor was older than his abductor, he recalled the show because his parents watched it and he noticed it in passing because he wasn’t allowed to watch it. The Sopranos. That’s right. He remembered it now. This man looked like a younger, shorter version of the actor from the Sopranos, but hefty and slightly balding just the same. An old school mobster, Colton thought.
He had a very good memory; eidetic, some people called it. His parents said it was because of his Autism, although Colton didn’t understand what that meant exactly. He did well in school and had friends. He didn’t feel any different from other kids. But his parents said he was on the spectrum, whatever that meant.
Colton shifted his weight and his shoe caught on the tracks of the closet door. The man must’ve heard him because he whipped his head sideways to look in his direction. Colton gasped and stepped back, stumbling on his own feet and falling against the back wall, but he managed to steady himself. He remained still, waiting for the man to open the door and grab him.
After a few moments, Colton realized he wasn’t coming and exhaled. He tried hard not to upset the man. Though he hadn’t struck him in the face, he had put bruises on his arms from squeezing them. There were many reasons Colton didn’t want to face his wrath, and frankly, the bruises on his arm were nothing compared the rest of it.
FIVE
The street was clearing and Nick glanced both ways before walking toward the driver’s side of his SUV. “I know this is tough to hear, but I wanted it to come from me.” Nick pressed the keyless entry; the lights flashed and the horn beeped. He stepped inside.
Dwight entered the passenger side and studied Nick while he spoke to Jake Talbot about this latest news.
“We just met with Fredrick County. They confirmed the girl’s ID and are handling her family.” He paused a moment and started the engine. “This puts us closer, Jake. We know where he’s been and it won’t be long before we find out where he’s at or where he’s going. What about Detective Mason? Anything from her? I haven’t reached out to her yet with this.”
Nick caught Dwight shaking his head out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over to see the troubled expression on his partner’s face. That was pretty much how he felt right about now. Another kidnapping. He could only pray they would find both of those kids alive, even if the odds were stacked against them. “Good. Good. Let’s keep them going on that front. I’ll facilitate the coordination between the two districts. There’ll be some overlap for sure. Listen, buddy, I got to go. We’re on our way back to the shop. I’ll stop by later tonight to check in on you two. Take care, man. Bye.”
“This thing is starting to turn into a real shit-storm,” Dwight began. “We know who we’re after, but no one’s found him; we’ve got two missing kids and God only knows if there’re any more.”
Nick blew through a yellow light, in a hurry to get back. “According to Jake, Detective Mason has received tips from people who say they’ve seen Stroud with a kid, but none have panned out yet. She’s still in the middle of it, though.”
“Someone has to have seen that son of a bitch,” Dwight added. “What’s our next move here?”
“We’ve got almost the entire Commonwealth of Virginia on the lookout for Stroud. It can’t be long before he’s found. But, as far as we’re concerned, I’d like to work with Mason. She’s established a timeline, has a location. I know she’s already checked CCTV cameras in the area, but none of them captured Colton. He had to have been walking along neighborhood streets.” Nick appeared frustrated. “I told Jake I’d stop by tonight. I think I just might head into Springfield to see Mason afterwards. I’d like to find out who they’ve already talked to and get her thoughts on where she thinks Stroud’s going to go. We’re beyond forty-eight hours now. We need something.”
“Nick, you know these guys got things covered. I think you showing up to see how Mason’s doing might put her off accepting any more of our help. You said yourself she’s protective of her territory. I understand your position here. Your friend’s kid has gone missing. But second-guessing the work of the local police is only going to add tension to an already tense situation.”
Nick lobbed a vexing glance toward his partner. “Well, what do you propose? That I sit here and do nothing?” His face immediately masked in regret. “I’m sorry. I hear what you’re saying, I do. But time is not on our side here and you know that. I can’t go to Jake and tell him we did everything we could, but we were too late. I can’t do that, man.”
“Time is working against us. I fully agree with you. And it makes all the more sense to approach this from an angle local law enforcement isn’t already handling.”
“I’m listening.” Nick continued through the thickening traffic. “God damn it! Why the hell is everyone going so God damn slow!” He slammed the steering wheel.
Dwight seemed to brush off Nick’s growing frustration, accepting that it had nothing to do with traffic. “I’m saying we take what those guys have and expand on it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Money, transportation, lodging. These are the three main things someone on the run is going to need. He doesn’t know we’re on to him yet. I’m sure he has no idea he left behind his DNA on that cell phone, so he’s probably in his own vehicle still, which would’ve been included in the BOLO that went out with his picture as well as Colton Talbot’s. So everyone’s looking for a man in his thirties and a preteen boy in an old Ford pickup. What if we start by checking out hotels and motels within a hundred-mile radius of where he was abducted? He didn’t go back home, so he had to go somewhere.”
“You think he’d risk being seen checking into a hotel?”
“Who’s going to give him a second glance? He would have no trouble blending. He had no friends; you said Mason had no luck with family, so where’s he going to go? It would be a reasonable assumption that he doesn’t have a great deal of money, nor would he consider staying in a city center or any highly populated area. This guy’s going to be keeping off the grid as much as possible and finding hidden little motels that are cheap and where no one is likely to question him. He’s going to stay on the move, Nick, because he has no other choice.”
Nick considered the idea. “That could work. I mean, it’s still going to be time-intense, but like you said, he’s got to be staying somewhere. He’s on the run and unless he’s saved every dime he’s made over the past year since he left prison or robbed a bank, he’s not going to be flush with a lot of cash.”
“Okay. Let’s get on that.”
“We’ll need to sit down with Campbell and get him up to speed and we can get Kate to help us out on this too. I think she’s itching to do some field work again.”
“I think it’s time you let her.” Dwight kept his eyes on the road ahead of them, purposely avoiding a rebuttal. “It knocked the wind out of you after the Durham incident. Everything you’d just gone through with Georgia and fighting like hell to keep your job. Hey, I don’t blame you.”
It seemed Dwight would get no argument from Nick on this occasion. “We’d better step it up. It’s getting late.”
» » »
Night settled over the WFO as Kate and a few other stragglers clung to what remained of the day. Kate had little reason to go home. The place would still be empty and she’d begun to appreciate the weekends when Mike would visit or vice versa. Kate had truly reestablished her life and it was so far removed from all she had known before, it seemed the Kate of years ago was a stranger to her. There were times, though, infrequent, but there nonetheless, when she would hold Mike and feel Marshall. That wound hadn’t fully healed but was much less painful and she felt less guilty of her relationship with Mike with each passin
g day. She began to feel as though her transformation had been complete. And with only months left on her probation, her full status meant she could find a permanent place to call home. Buy a house, buy a car, which she still hadn’t yet felt comfortable doing. It was all within reach now. She’d even begun to come to terms with putting to use the money Marshall had left her. She’d accepted that he wanted her to have it and appreciated his putting that kind of faith in her.
But those ideas were for another time and, right now, she needed coffee. It was eight o’clock and she’d been there since seven a.m. Her team would arrive and want to meet with Campbell. And she was not wrong on either count. Minutes later, her two partners stepped off the elevator.
Kate waited for their approach, listening to their conversation behind her. She cast a look to Vasquez, who was also still working. Agent Vasquez—Alicia, although she preferred to be called by her last name—had become the closest thing Kate had to a sister since she lost Sam. It was a space, that while would never be completely filled, was at least partially occupied by this new relationship.
“Kate?” Dwight asked as he approached. “Come on back. We’re going to meet with Campbell.” He looked to Vasquez. “You too, if you’ve got a minute.”
The two quickly parted from their seats, grabbed their laptops, and followed Dwight, who was several steps ahead. By the time they reached Campbell’s office, Nick was already seated inside.
Campbell waved them in. “Take a seat and let’s get started. It’s late and I’d like to get home sometime before midnight.” He turned to Nick. “What’ve you got for me?”
Nick retrieved the picture of the girl and tossed it on Campbell’s desk. “This is Emily Aldrich, eleven years old, missing since April 23rd from a suburb of Fredrick County, not far from where our suspect lived. We found her picture inside of Stroud’s locker at the dairy farm.”
