Organized Crime: Unorganized

Chapter 71

7 Months after Grace left
"Diane is missing" Marco announced as he entered the conference room.
"Wait. What do you mean she's missing?" James asked.
"She was supposed to come over last night and when she didn't I thought she fell asleep, except she didn't answer her phone this morning. Her apartment has been ransacked" Marco told them.
"Why would anyone take her?" Lorenzo asked.
"She's worked our high profile cases, she's overseen the autopsies of probably thousands of people" James reminded him.
"Meaning that anyone could have kidnapped her" Lorenzo sighed deeply.
"Lorenzo and Aneesa, go check out her apartment. Sadie, see what you can find online" James ordered "We'll find her Marco, we won't stop until we do" James assured him.
"I wish I could believe you but, right now I'm scared we won't get her back" he admitted as the team shared sad and worried looks between them.

Lorenzo, Aneesa, Marco and James stood in Diane's apartment going room by room to look over everything that they could or what they thought would help them to find her.
"What was the last thing she said to you?" James asked him.
"We were joking about her dating life and I told her to come over and that I would open an expensive bottle of wine for us to drown our sorrows in. She said that she was going to take a shower and scrub away the smell of disinfectant before she came over. I waited 2 hours and when she didn't come I went to bed, assuming she just fell asleep" Marco told him.
"Was she going on dates with different men?"
"Yeah, all of them were widows who were still hung up on their dead wives to move on. Sadie ran background checks on all of her dates because Diane was nervous and wanted to make sure that they were normal guys" he explained.
"I'll call Sadie and tell her to run a more extensive background check" James told him.
"I haven't found anything that could tell us who took her or where they were going" Lorenzo told them.
"I might have found something" Aneesa appeared with a case file in her hands.
"What case is that?" Marco asked.
"A series of prostitutes were found murdered, they each had deep cuts across their abdomens and they were beaten to a pulp" Aneesa explained, showing them one of the victims.
"So, why would she keep this particular file at home?" Lorenzo asked.
"That's the thing, all of these murders were in different states, going back at least 20 years. What if Diane was able to find a connection between these victims that no one else noticed?" She suggested.
"You think that she stumbled upon a serial killer and that he's taken her?" Marco asked.
"I'd bet $20 that if we look more closely at the victims them we'll find the killer and Diane along with him" Aneesa told them.
"Did you get all that Sadie?" James asked.
"Loud and clear. I'll check the victims next but first, the last place that Diane's phone pinged was inside her apartment and the cameras on her block are out, so unless you know what car this guy was driving I can't help you there" she told them.
"Lilly, go down to the morgue and look through her notes, we'll meet you there" James ordered.
"Anything specific you want to look for in the victims?" Sadie asked.
"Just find anything that can help us" he ordered before he hung up the phone.

"Did you find anything?" James asked Lilly as he entered the conference room, the rest of the team behind him.
"They were all prostitutes, aged 30-40, all died due to severe blood loss and blunt force trauma. Other than that I couldn't find anything" she told him.
"Where's Sadie?" Marco asked just as she entered the room with her computer in her hands.
"The victims were all found in alleys which wouldn't be strange to find a prostitute alive or dead but, all the streets had numbers in them so I wrote them all down in order" She explained before she moved to the whiteboard "12/04/1984, 06/20/1989, 07/12/1992, 05/07/1994, 07/02/1996, 02/19/2002" She read out as she wrote it down.
"If these killings started 20 years ago then the first date could be his date of birth" Lilly suggested.
"What are the other dates then? Why kill someone on those specific dates?" Lorenzo asked.
"Significant dates within his life" Marco suggested.
"Sadie start-"
"There are a few hundred people born on that day 20 years ago, just men is still too many to look through" she told him with a smile.
"We're going to need help" James sighed deeply before he took out his phone and dialed the familiar number.
"Who are you calling?" Lorenzo asked.
"Reinforcements" James told him as brought the phone up to his ear.

"James" Grace answered the phone in shock before realization hit her "What happened?"
"It's Diane. She got kidnapped and we can't find her"
"I'm on my way. We can debrief on the plane" she told him before she hung up the phone.

"I agree with what you've found so far. But these dates keep playing on me" Grace told them.
"Significant dates from his life would make the most sense" Marco told her.
"But 5, 8, 10, 12, and 18 are very specific, especially when all the victims are women" Grace suggested.
"What are you suggesting?" Lorenzo asked.
"That if I were to kill someone doing it on the dates that I was raped or forced to do something would make the most sense" she told them.
"You think he was abused by his mother?" James asked.
"Most likely and she was probably a sex worker" she suggested.
"He's taking his anger out on women that reminded him of his mother" Lilly added.
"So what did his mother do to him to make him want to kill her?" Sadie thought out loud.
"We'll have to figure that out. I'll see you all soon" Grace smiled before she ended the video call. The room fell into silence as Sadie's eyes darted around the room.
"So..." she began "Were working with Grace again"
"Yes we are" James nodded.
"Does this mean that she's back for good?" Lilly asked.
"I don't know, It's down to her. I only called her because she can probably get the information that we can't" he told them.
"But you still love her?" Aneesa asked.
"Yes, I do"
"So, are you just going to let her walk away when this is over?" Lorenzo asked, earning a deep sigh back.
"I don't want her to leave again, but if it's what she needs then I'll have to let her go, without argument" he told them all before he headed out of the room.