“Want to bet?” Justin asked, grinning wickedly.
She went to say something and Tori covered her mouth. “Don’t do it. If he’s willing to make a gamble, they know something that we don’t. This smells like a Littlemoon set up.”
“Just do it,” Justin stated.
Tori glanced over at her husband, and he wordlessly nodded. “Okay, give it a shot, Vivian.”
When the woman dialed, Vivian still expected the man to give her a hard time. When her partner answered the call and was pleasant, she was shocked.
“Tom, I need the name of the newest victim. The Littlemoons are still working on this for the police.”
“Okay, I’ll email it to you,” he replied, easily.
Vivian was confused as hell. “Can you copy me on all the files you have too?”
“Yes. Do you need anything else, Vivian?”
She was now pretty sure that she was actually still asleep and this was a dream.
It had to be.
Right?
“No, I think that covers it. Thank you, Tom.” When she hung up the phone, Vivian stared at both men. “What did you do to him last night?”
“Well, we set it up so he can’t be a pain in our asses anymore,” stated Julian.
Tori crossed her arms across her chest. She stared at her husband and didn't even have to say a single word to him. He already knew she wasn’t asking again.
“Blackmail,” Julian answered. “He’s scared shitless. Our new BFF Tom won’t stand in our way.”
As if on cue, Vivian’s phone beeped. “Hell, you weren’t kidding were you?”
Justin kissed her on the cheek. “No one jacks with my wife and walks away unscathed.”
Then, Julian added, “No one messes with my blood. That’s the unspoken law of our people.”
Tori grinned. This scheme definitely had Julian’s fingerprints all over it. In fact, it had traces of the FBI all over it too.
“Really, what did you say to him?”
The men shook their heads and refused to share it. In this case, it was safer if the women had no clue. When blackmailing a cop, keeping the wives safe was a priority.
“Okay, let’s get to work,” Tori said, as she received the forwarded file from Vivian. She sent it to the printer in the office and could hear it start up.
“Good idea,” stated Julian, as he followed his wife into their work area. “Where’s Kane and Christina?” he asked.
Justin immediately sent a text to confirm their location. When he received a reply, he relayed it. “They’re one block away.”
“Good.”
They all took their seats as the printer continued to make copies for the team. Tori collected them and passed them out. When she heard the bell to the front door, she glanced up. “Great timing,” she said, as they strolled into the office.
Christina sat beside Kane and vibrated with energy.
“I’m going to guess by the ‘Cheshire Cat’ grin, that you had a good time,” Julian stated.
Kane answered, “Chrissy worked it perfectly. You should have seen her in action. It was amazing.”
She patted his cheek. “Thank you.”
“Well, let’s have it,” Julian stated.
Christina began, “We asked the receptionist to identify the three pictures. She couldn’t do it. Then, she offered to pull up their names in the computer, and they weren’t patients there.”
“Shit,” muttered Justin. “So, basically we have nothing to tie them to the third victim?”
She shook her head. “I was given the first names of two other paramedics that they had at their office, Clark and Terry.”
“We had another victim taken last night,” Tori stated. She handed Christina and Kane their copies of the files that they had just received.
It took a few minutes for everyone to read them and get on the same page.
“So we have a Stephanie Hiller, age thirty as the newest abductee,” Tori began. “She’s the married mother of a three month old, so as you can imagine, we need to work hard on this and get her back to her baby. No child should grow up without a mother.”
Didn't she know that for a fact?
Under the table, Julian took her hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly. He understood how powerful that one statement was for his wife. She’d been abandoned as a small child, thanks to a very selfish woman.
“As you can see from the report, she was home alone with her baby. When the husband returned, he found the car there, the front door open, and his wife was gone. He stated to the police that Stephanie wouldn’t ever leave her son. So, he believes she was taken.”
Christina began asking questions, “Did Vivian have another dream?”
She nodded and told them all about it. When she was done, there was silence at the table. “I didn't have a second one, so we’re on our own.”
“Is the husband a paramedic?” Justin asked.
“No, he’s a plumber,” Vivian clarified, as she found the information on the paper.
Tori added, “The wife is a home health aide.”
It fit the parameters of the other abductions.
“Once again, he’s taking someone in the medical field,” Vivian stated.
“What we need to do is find out how she’s connected to the rest of this,” Julian stated, glancing over at his wife. This was more her area.
Vivian thought about it. “Well, if Stephanie Hiller was a home health aide, she might have had contact with a paramedic through one of her assignments. They often deal with hospice and homebound patients.”
“We need to get all her cases for at least the last two years,” Tori stated. “How are you on lying?” she asked Vivian.
“If it means saving those women, I’ll do just about anything at this point,” she replied.
Christina used her tablet to find the phone number for the company listed in the papers. “Here you go,” she offered, turning the tablet around.
Vivian dialed the number and waited. When the woman answered the phone, she began, “Yes, I’m hoping that you can help me,” she stated. “My name is Detective Vivian Graves, and I work for the Delta Falls police. I need all the names and caseloads for a Stephanie Hiller.”
She paused as the woman spoke.
“Yes, I need them ASAP. It’s pertinent that we get them and begin working on bringing her home.”
Again, there was another pause.
“Here’s my email, and also copy my partner.” She rattled off her email and Tom Lester’s. If he was going to play nice, she would share what they were working on too. Besides, it might save her ass if the police commissioner found out that she was using her detective shield, after she had quit her job.
“Thank you for your help. When can I expect them?” Vivian inquired.
She waited and prayed that it wasn’t going to take long. “Thank you,” she answered, when the woman gave her a definite time. “I appreciate your help and will be expecting your email within the hour.” Hanging up, she glanced around. “We need to find a correlation in all the files we have. We’re running out of time.”
“Okay, team. Let’s make this one count,” Tori said.
Chapter Twenty Nine
He toiled over his collection.
They were making too much noise, so he had to drug them. He preferred watching them as they were vibrant and bubbly, but he couldn’t risk them alerting neighbors.
Already, fear was beginning to settle in, since he was almost out of meds. Keeping them contained was going to be an issue. He never considered the noise that three women would make all together.
Damn!
He had screwed this up.
What he really needed now was to sit back and think about what he was going to do next. As of that moment, it was all over the news.
Where he hoped that the abductions would stay low key, he never expected to have the media, police, and even the private detective agency all over his back.
Now, he had to make a decis
ion. If he killed them, he could escape into the night. No one would be able to find him. It was a good thing that he was squirrelling away his mother’s social security checks every month. At least he would have cash to get away, and let’s face it, she wouldn’t need it.
Yes, he was in way over his head on this one. What he needed to do was have someone listen to his dilemma and give him a clue. There was only one person who he could go to, despite it turning his gut.
His mother.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, she loved him.
Right?
Okay, he needed a sounding board. Once she listened, he would go from there.
Then, he could make his decision.
* * *
There was no doubt that they were all working against the clock. As Stephanie Hiller’s work assignments came in, they played divide and conquer.
Where they thought there would only be a few listed, they were distraught to see that in fact the woman had been a busy bee. There were over two hundred cases and patients.
Dividing them up, each team took the printouts and began cross comparing them to every suspect or person who was touching this case.
They needed something, and fast.
Now, it was all down to good old legwork and research.
They hoped it would be enough.
Two Hours Later
Using the files and the internet, Tori flipped back and forth between them. Something in there had to eventually pop out at her. When she saw a name, it tickled the back of her brain enough that she paused.
“What?” Julian asked, noticing that her body language had subtly changed. His wife was tense.
“I think I see something,” she replied. “Christina, you said that the receptionist indicated that a Clark and Terry came to the office.”
“Yeah, they were the regular paramedics that would drop off and pick up the patients there.”
Scrolling through the paramedic social media site, she found a comprehensive listing of all the current employees.
“Honey, talk it out,” Julian stated.
“I found a name that connects the last woman to one of the other paramedics. It’s not one of our suspects.” On a piece of paper she wrote it down. “Terry Boulet was the friend that was consoling Josh Devaul at Tawny’s house.”
“Yeah, he was the one that was all gung-ho about searching for the missing woman for his friend,” Justin added.
Tori continued to tell them what she found. “His mother was in Stephanie Hiller’s care. She was her visiting aide.”
Vivian saw where she was taking it. “So, we have Terry Boulet working with the two paramedics, and having contact with the first victim at the ER.”
Tori nodded. “Yes. That connects him to everyone. I need you to call the home health service and get more information on his mother.”
Vivian hit redial as Tori began writing the questions down. She put it on speaker phone so they could all hear it.
“Hello?” came the administrator’s voice.
“Ma’am, it’s Detective Graves again. I need to ask you about a specific case that Stephanie worked.”
“Certainly! I’ll do anything to help find her. Feel free to ask away.”
She took the questions from Tori. “How long was she caring for Mrs. Boulet?”
They could hear typing. “Almost one year. She would visit three times a week. Mrs. Boulet was dying from terminal cancer. She didn't want to live in a facility.”
She went down the list. “What can you tell me about the family?”
“We only have the one son listed. His name is Terry. Oh my, he was such a sweet, doting boy. He loved his mother and lived in her home to take care of her the rest of her days. We felt that she was in good hands, since he was a paramedic. Wasn’t that handy?”
Tori rolled her eyes. Yeah, it was something all right.
“Why did Stephanie stop going to see Terry’s mom?” Vivian inquired, curiously.
“Oh, that was a horrible day for everyone involved. There was a terrible fight over Stephanie being in the house.”
“Did the son kick her out?” Vivian asked.
“On the contrary,” she began, “It was Mrs. Boulet that asked to have her removed. It seems that she wasn’t happy with the woman. Mrs. Boulet had the impression that Stephanie was too distracting for her boy. He was beginning to miss work and act weird.”
That had everyone’s attention.
“So you pulled her out?” Vivian asked.
Everyone began scribbling down notes.
“Yes, and Stephanie was distraught over it. She took her job very serious. It was the only time anyone had ever complained about her. We just assumed that the woman was getting cranky in her old age and illness. We actually wrote it off, that’s why I didn't think to mention it earlier.”
“So, who replaced her?”
There was more typing. “It appears that no one did. It’s noted in the system that the son called us shortly after and told us they no longer needed our help. He said that she was in a better place.”
Did that mean that she was dead or at a facility? Each one of them had the same confused look on their face.
Vivian continued, “Did you check in on her?”
There was a pause.
“No, we’re not required to do that. Terry hired us, and he terminated our services. Since the state didn't ask us to take care of her, we aren’t required to follow up.”
“Thank you for your help,” Vivian said, as she hung up the phone.
“Wow, that’s interesting.”
Tori knew they didn't have enough yet. “Babe, we need to call in that favor,” she stated.
Christina volunteered. “I’ll call Callen. He’ll hook us up with the information.”
They had no choice. “We have his address. What we need is a background check on the four women, plus Terry Boulet. We’ll cross check them to see if they connect in any other way.”
Julian leaned back in his chair. “Okay, make the call, Christina.”
She left the room to use their ace in the hole.
“Until then, we build our case. We’re going to save those women.”
* * *
He sat on the couch and tried to explain to his mother what was happening. He took her withered, bony hand in his and stared into the emptiness of her eyes.
He begged for her help and hoped that she would forgive him for screwing up once more.
Like she always said, he was a colossal failure.
A disappointment.
Nothing but a big mess.
In her eyes, he had always been a mistake and this screw up didn't help in her opinion of him, he was sure.
As he sat there and confessed his sins, he explained that he only wanted to feel love and to have something that was his. He promised that he wouldn’t ever do it again. From here on out, his collecting days were done.
If she would forgive him and tell him how to make it right, he would change his ways and never take another woman again. Anymore, he would walk the straight and narrow.
It would be hard, but he could do it.
He wiped his tears and stared into her shrunken, cold face.
There were no words of comfort for him. Deep down, he didn't know why he was surprised. The woman who gave him life was empty and dead inside.
As hope continued to die, she still remained silent, saying nothing.
He nodded in dejection as he moved away from her and the couch. The answer was obvious. He was going to have to clean up his mess and get away.
His life here was over, and it would mean a new start somewhere else.
From this day on, he was on his own, since his own mother didn't want to help him. At the basement door, he glanced back over his shoulder at the woman who still didn't move.
“I’m not a failure, mother.”
Still there was no reply.
Her coldness broke his heart, and he knew that there was only one thing left to do.
* * *
It didn't take Callen long, and as usual he came through and helped them out. The team noticed that the information came from his personal email and not the work one.
That meant that this was going to be buried once they found the women. He didn't have to ask, they just knew how important it was to protect their friends in high places.
Printing out the files, they split them up.
Tori took Terry Boulet, only because she’d been a Fed and would understand the information in the file a little better.
“What do you have?” Julian asked.
She scanned it and glanced up. “He went to Saint Mary’s University and studied nursing. It says that he didn't finish. Ultimately, his grades dropped when he stopped showing up for class, and he was forced to drop out.”
Christina had victim one, Melissa Lagerfeld. “Our first woman also went to Saint Mary’s. There’s connection number one.” She read off the years that she attended to see if Tori could make it fit with the suspect.
“They match. He was a student at the same time that Melissa was enrolled.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Julian stated. “Who’s next?”
Justin had Tawny’s file. “There’s no connection here. It has to be through her boyfriend at work. Josh and Terry seemed pretty tight. That’s all I can find in her history.”
Julian had Bridget Green’s file. “Nothing here either. I think our connection is going to have to be the paramedics that were called to the office.”
Julian wished that they had something stronger than that. Concrete evidence would be nice, if they wanted to accuse this man of something so heinous.
“I have Stephanie’s file,” Vivian stated. “Again, she had nothing in her personal life that intersected with Terry Boulet, other than his mother.”
“That’s a fairly strong connection,” Tori stated.
Julian leaned back in his chair and sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Tori asked.
Blood Red Rage (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 1) Page 42
