Apex Predator (6 page)

Nancy smiled and as she was walking out of the door she turned back, “That sounds great. I’ll see you later.”

Trinity flashed a smile of true delight, “See you later.”

As he closed the door, he turned back to look at the girls, much like a lion would look at the smallest and weakest gazelles left behind by the herd. He knew he would not be able to do anything, but he could watch and learn and enjoy.

Detective Mullins walked into Bob Grady’s office as he was just getting off the phone.

Grady had the pictures of all the missing girls sitting on his desk along with a stack of tips, sightings and other related materials. “Bob, we just got word of another two girls missing.”

Grady looked up immediately, “And you think they might be a part of our investigation?”

Mullins nodded, “Six and seven years old, similar M.O., there one minute, gone the next.”

Grady rubbed his eyes in frustration, “Damn, this is going to break out soon. Someone is going to leak it or some reporter is going to start putting two and two together. Shit, who knows, maybe it would be better if it did get out, might shake some useful information loose instead of the load of crap we’ve gotten so far.”

Mullins responded, “You don’t mean that. You know if this gets out the guy might go under or move on…”

Grady interrupted again in frustration, “I understand, but at least if that happens, little girls would stop disappearing.”

Mullins stood at the door and looked down at the floor. Grady settled into the chair behind his desk. “I’m sorry, it’s just that this case is really getting to me.

“We should have something, anything, by now and we don’t have dick. I just don’t know which way to go on this anymore. I’ve been on the phone with the FBI to see if we can use their profilers to develop a potential sketch of this guy, but you know how that goes.”

Mullins answered, “Yeah, hit or miss and don’t worry about it, Bob, I’m a big boy and I get it, I do. You’re not the only one with a little girl, you know. I know mine are in college now, but they’re still my little girls, always will be.”

Grady motioned to the chair in front of his desk, “Thanks, here, have a seat. Let’s go over what we have so far. I’ve been doing it over and over, but you know a fresh set of eyes can sometimes catch something that’s been missed.”

Mullins sat down, “Alright, let’s do it. I have a conversation scheduled with the detectives handling these last cases, but I think it will be more fruitful if I can share everything we have so far with them.”

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.