Apex Predator

by J. A. Faura

  Grady turned the pictures so Mullins could see them and put the stack of materials in front of him. “There’s nothing really new. All seven girls were between five and six, all taken in public without a single witness.

  “There’s no obvious connection or anything in common between the victims other than their age and their gender. They have been taken from different areas of the city, so it’s not like this guy has a marked territory.

  “I don’t know what else there is, Mark, but give it a once-over and tell me what you think.”

  Mullins looked at the pictures of the girls and sifted through the materials in front of him. He had also looked at the materials a number of times, but Grady was right, sometimes stepping away from the case and coming back to look at it with fresh eyes could be useful.

  Grady was the lead investigator and was waist deep in all information related to the case every day, whereas Mullins had an opportunity to handle other matters and to step away from it, even if it was just for a day.

  As he was looking through the last pages of materials and up at the map of New York on the wall with seven tacks to mark each of the locations where a little girl disappeared, something hit him square on.

  He put the papers down on the desk and leaned back in the chair with his mouth open, and a slight smile starting to appear on his face.

  Grady noticed it and leaned forward, “What, did you find something? Is it on the map?”

  Mullins, now smiling and shaking his head, responded, “Shit, I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about it and that I didn’t tell you.”

  Grady was now coming around the desk to look at the materials that he thought Mullins had found something in. A smile was beginning to form on his face as well, “What is it? Goddamnit, give, you greedy bastard!”

  Mullins stood up and told Grady, “It’s nothing in any of this stuff. It’s about these last two missing girls. I hadn’t put it together or thought about it until just now.

  “These last two little girls knew each other. The two families have known each other for a while because they go to school together and are friends outside of school.”

  Grady grabbed him by the shoulders and also smiled, “Shit, are you kidding me? This is our first big break, now we have some parameters to narrow who we’re after. Were they taken together or at different times?”

  Mullins answered, looking at the map marked with the tacks, “No, they were taken from different places at different times, but within a day of each other.”

  Grady let go of Mullins and walked back behind his desk and sat down, “Alright, now let’s just take it nice and slow. Whoever it is has to somehow be related to the two girls. There’s no way it’s just coincidence that these girls happened to know each other and were taken separately.

  “I don’t know the odds of that, but I can tell you here and now this motherfucker knew or saw both of them together before he took them. Maybe the ones before were a hunt and taking advantage of an opportunity, but he saw these two before in the same place at some point.

  “Go to your meeting and see what else you can find out. Get schools, ballet classes, piano lessons, anything that connects the two girls. I’ll see if I can light a fire under the FBI’s ass to get that profile. Now it could really help us narrow down our possible suspects. Let’s cast a wide net around everywhere these girls were together and then start squeezing.”

  Mullins left and Grady got on the phone immediately. This type of opportunity could break a case wide open, but it could also go away in a heartbeat. All it would take would be for two other girls, completely unrelated to these two, to go missing and they’d be back at square one.

  The key was going to be how fast they could develop a list of possible suspects and weed out the ones that are obviously not involved.

  If this guy got wind they had something like this, he could easily cover his tracks or throw them off in some other way. Whatever kind of monster this guy was, he certainly wasn’t stupid. The fact, that he had taken the girls he had without leaving a trace of evidence proved it.

  Like all criminals, Grady thought, greed or delusion or impatience had led this guy to make a mistake, one that had really renewed Grady’s conviction that they would catch this son of a bitch.

  As much as he wanted to stay with his wife, Steven knew he had to go to the office. He had a number of pending operations that unfortunately could not be delegated, and truth be told, he had to step out of his father and husband role and into the role of intelligence and tactical operative.

  He had already made up his mind to utilize every resource he had to learn more about what was going on with his daughter’s and the other girls’ disappearance.

  His employer, Globalview Intelligence Consultants, or GIC, had already let him know that they would understand if he needed to work from home or take time off.

  He, like every other senior executive, reported directly to the CEO, Art Goodman. General Art Goodman retired from the Marine Corps and founded GIC over 30 years before.

  He was a savvy businessman and had developed into a strong corporate force in their industry, but above all he was a Marine and valued and respected every one of his employees, especially the ones that had served. He didn’t care about the rank or the job they had performed, to him the fact that they had served was all he needed to know.

  GIC’s nonmilitary personnel knew him to be a strict and serious boss, but always a fair one.

  Loomis knew that the General, as he was known in the industry, had a special place in his heart for him. It had been the old man himself who had spotted Steven at one of the fundraising events he had organized to help veterans.

  He had mentored him personally when Loomis came into the company and had remained interested in how he developed within the company.

  It was Goodman who told Loomis to take as much time as he needed. Steven knew he meant it, too, but he had to get active and keep the wheels turning. Marybeth’s parents were in town and looking after her, and as much as he wanted to be there for his wife, he knew he himself had limits, and he wanted to avoid becoming another reason for his family to worry.

  He walked into his office and found a new and unmarked manila folder with documents in it. The rest of his projects were neatly organized in order of priority.

  Stephanie Dillon, his administrative assistant for the past seven years, had made sure things were handled until he got back. She greeted him as he walked into his office and around his desk, and although she tried to put on a brave face for him, he could tell she was worried sick.

  Still she remained her cool and organized self, “Hey there. Are you okay?”

  Steven answered with as much of a smile as he could muster, “I’m okay, I guess. I think you know me well enough by now.”

  She smiled back, “Yeah, I do. That’s why I’m asking the question and not running up to give you a great big hug and to tell you ‘There, there, it will all be fine.’”

  This time he did smile as he finished walking into his office, “See, I told you that you knew me.”

  Once the awkward moment passed, Stephanie got right down to business, “The information you asked Carl to track down for you is sitting on your desk. The Kenya deal is temporarily on hold, the General knows and he’s fine with it. He thinks they’ve been dragging their ass on purpose. Joseph Stillman is going to Rome to finish that deal…”

  Steven winced at that piece of news, but Stephanie was one step ahead, “I know what you’re going to say, but he offered and I think it’s time he started getting his feet wet. The kid’s done well and he was right next to you all the way through, so stop with the faces.”

  Steven put down his briefcase, sat down and turned his computer on. Stephanie kept going without pause, “The Intertel deal is still on track, there’s a conference call at noon today, but they’re not expecting you to dial in.”

  Steven looked up at her, shaking his head, “I know what you’re trying
to do, Steph, and really, it’s not necessary. I came back to the office to clear my head a little and to get a fresh perspective on things and I’m not going to be able to do that if you and the General don’t let me get back into the flow.”

  Stephanie was having none of it, “Listen, Steven, you’ve been out of the office for a week now and you’ve had more than enough to think about, so we’ve done what we would have done if you had broken your back and been out for a week.

  “You’ll get back into the swing of things in no time, but just let it go, don’t push it. Why don’t you start off by going through the stuff on your desk. I’ll go get you a cup of good, strong coffee, just the way you like it, and then you can start going through the files.”

  He had to admit she really did have his number. He picked up the manila envelope, “Alright, fair enough. Let me take a look at this. But I will dial into the call today and I will just go over the Kenya deal. I agree they are dragging their feet on purpose, but it doesn’t mean we can’t still close it within the next two weeks.

  “And you’re right, Joe has done well and he should be getting his feet wet, but I just want to give it the once-over. Call me a worrier if you want, but you know these things can go south in a heartbeat.”

  Stephanie paused for a beat and then responded, “Okay, fair enough, but don’t step in if you don’t need to. Joe has earned it and you know it will help his career. As far as the other stuff, I know you’re going to do what you’re going to do no matter what I say, but I just wanted you to know that there are capable people here and we all have your back.”

  He looked up and locked eyes with her, “I know, Steph, I really do. Thank you. Now where’s that cup of coffee I was promised.”

  She smiled, “Now that’s more like it. Three sugars, right?”

  “Do you really have to ask?”

  She turned and walked out of the office, “Nope.”

  Steven opened the manila envelope and found 16 pages of information.

  Carl Gilliam was the company’s most senior and talented computer and digital intelligence executive. Steven had called him the previous week and asked that he scour the digital world for any information about all of the girls that had gone missing in New York, New Jersey or surrounding areas. He knew there would be a lot of information, but he had Carl narrow it down to girls that had gone missing within the last four weeks, were between five and eight years old, had gone missing or were taken in broad daylight, and were not within a custody dispute.

  Steven read the first page. It was a note from Carl and it startled him. ‘Steven, here’s everything I could get without looking at some serious prison time and a hell of a fine for GIC. Two girls went missing late last week. Both in the age range, both taken in broad daylight and both taken in Manhattan. The difference with the last two is that they knew each other. You’ll find some emails between the two moms about sleepovers, recitals, etc.

  ‘I’m just a computer nerd and not a field guy, so I’ll leave it up to you to sift through this and paint the picture, but something tells me this guy just made his first mistake and it’s one that could really bring him down.’

  Steven looked up from the pages in his hands. Two more girls, two more families that would never see their little girls again. Whoever was doing this was hunting them like prey. He knew what he was looking for and was going about it methodically. No ransom demands, no calls to the families or to police to take credit for the crimes. This guy was doing this for his own personal reasons, for his satisfaction and nothing else.

  He went through the information carefully. Before the two girls that knew each other, there had been no common thread to link any of the families or any of the girls.

  Carl was right, this was a mistake; the guy had made a mistake. He was sure the police were going to cast a net around both families and they were going to tighten it until they had a short list.

  Now that they had gotten the profile back from the FBI, they would use it to make the list even shorter.

  How the hell did Carl get this stuff? Steven had always wondered, but the truth was he didn’t really want to know.

  The profile Steven had in his hands right now wasn’t too different from the one he had already come up with on his own. Single, white male, between his late 20s and early 40s, very unassuming, very unremarkable in his physical appearance, he had to blend in to be able to take them in broad daylight.

  The FBI profilers had also come up with a couple of things he hadn’t thought about, but which made perfect sense. He was most likely very meticulous in whatever his job was. He probably worked a white-collar job. These weren’t crimes of opportunity, he knew what he wanted and he went out to hunt for them. They’d also come up with a theory that he was probably taking them somewhere other than the place where he lived.

  According to their file, this was probably ritualistic in nature for him and his home wasn’t the place for it. Steven wasn’t sure about these last couple of theories, but they did make sense, as much as anything like this could make sense.

  The last paragraph was hard for him to read, even though he had already come to the same conclusion. It was likely that if the girls weren’t found within 24 hours of being taken, they would most likely not be found alive. The father side of him was going through the emotions of the situation again. He wiped his eyes with one hand and exhaled. Focus, he had to focus now.

  The first thing he had to do was to go through all his projects, even if they were in check he needed to clear his head and bring a fresh perspective to the situation.

  As much as he wanted to keep himself under control, he had to admit that he was torn. All the training in the world and all the black operations he might have been a part of could not erase the memory of his little girl’s smile.

  He turned his chair to his side table where there was a picture of his beautiful daughters, his wife and his baby boy. He picked it up and stared at it, and as he was looking at the picture he felt something shift within him. It was a feeling that was barely recognizable, but still familiar to him.

  It was a coldness, an element of detachment from the huge grief that was welling up within him. It was something that he had learned after losing many friends on many fields over many years. You had to develop that element of detachment if you were going to move on and execute the next mission. The difference was that this wasn’t an operation and it wasn’t a friend or one of his men, it was his little girl, and the conflict he felt, the rage that was broiling just under the surface, was definitely something new.

  Whatever level of detachment he would apply to this situation, Steven Loomis knew this was intensely personal and that was something new too.

  He knew he would be able to see this from a more detached place than anyone else in his family, but now he also knew the grief and pain would be there forever. And he was beginning to realize that to do whatever he ended up doing, he was going to have to find a place for this anger the way he had found a place for his anger before.

  He set the picture down, turned back around and went through the file again, this time formulating a plan for what he would do next.

  Like the police, he knew that after these two last girls went missing someone was going to leak it to the press or some reporter that had already been putting things together would finally put it down on paper or on the Internet.

  Once the story got out, trying to catch this guy was going to get much harder. He would cover his tracks and just move to new hunting grounds. They would catch him eventually because he would make another mistake, but it would be a while.

  Steven decided he would go see Detective Grady to see where they were on this. If he had read the man correctly, it would not surprise him to see Steven showing up to ask questions about the case.

  Detective Grady was in the process of building a list of people he needed to talk to about the last two girls that had gone missing.

  The story would pop any day now and
he had to get through the best prospects before the rest of New York started speculating on what had happened to the nine little girls, and little girls like his own daughter started seeing the boogeyman under the bed every night.

  He had pulled everyone in his own precinct – beat cops to senior detectives – from the other missing girl cases in their jurisdiction and had asked for help from other precincts where girls had gone missing.

  Everyone now agreed that the cases were related. All the other theories about every one of the other girls had been explored, but as all the law enforcement agencies involved looked at each of the cases, a very distinct pattern began to emerge. It was the last three cases that had really sealed the deal for everyone.

  As much as everyone dreaded to admit it, they had a serial kidnapper/killer loose in New York and he was targeting little girls. It just couldn’t get any more nightmarish.

  They also agreed that these last two gave them the best opportunity to catch this guy, so everyone agreed to help. They would keep their own investigations alive running in parallel with that of the last two girls, but they all agreed to provide resources to help with the interviewing of everyone related to their disappearance.

  He also had the profile developed by the FBI to help narrow down the list. The profile was relatively helpful in that it helped to eliminate some possibilities that were almost certainly not the type, but the profile also described roughly a third of all males in New York. They would have to be careful to not rely on too many generalities and to focus in on some of the things that their own profile had in common with the FBI’s.

  There were three principal groups that had to be interviewed, the families of both girls, their school teachers and all other school personnel, and anyone who could be identified as having been with or somewhere near the two girls outside of school hours and away from home.

  Grady had decided to take Mia Reynolds’ family including all extended family on both sides that knew or had met Emily Wu, and he had asked Mark Mullins to take Emily Wu’s family and extended family on both sides who knew or had met Mia Reynolds. The same scenario was being repeated with their schoolteachers, ballet or piano instructors, anything the two girls had in common, any time they spent together was being meticulously scoured for information.