#youlikeit - BLACKBIRD book 1

6. back to work

Gillian went to the coffee machine to refill her mug and turned to the team. "Okay, lads, I'm all ears. Tanya?"

The girl answered with her eyes on her screen. "I've searched statewide for missing girls in their mid-twenties over the last six months and found twenty-nine, not including our three locals and the Springfield girl, so they add up to thirty-three."

"All of them still missing?" asked Russell.

"Yep, but I didn't have time to look for overlaps with dead Jane Does for the same period."

Brock folded his arms, resting against the wall by the door, noticing that without any sign or transition, all of them had dropped their picnic spirit and seemed ready to work. He also noticed that Russell didn't only fit in like another merry punk, but he naturally held almost Gillian's leader status among them.

"Did you get the dates they went missing and where?" asked Gillian.

Aldana pointed at a pile of pictures. "We've just requested that the different counties send us the files by email, not paper, to speed it up, but they're gonna take a few hours anyway."

"We have enough for a timeline, though" said Hank. "And you're gonna love it."

"All of them missing during working hours on working days," said Gillian.

Russell and Brock didn't hide their surprise. Ron and Hank smiled.

"And not only that: we've found a pattern of days and towns," said Fred.

"You gotta be kidding."

Kurt turned on a plasma, placed in precarious balance on a pile of boxes, and showed them a map of the state.

"I was about to do this when you came back, so bear with me," he said. "On Mondays, girls get abducted from the Framingham area. Tuesdays from Springfield." As he spoke, he highlighted the areas with different colors. "Wednesdays for the Webster area. We know Thursdays is Boston, and Fridays is— let me see..."

"The Northampton area," completed Tanya.

"That."

Gillian, Russell and Brock frowned, studying the map.

"He's a traveller with a fixed schedule," said Russell.

"And he works along The Pike," said Gillian, agreeing. "He goes to work and then abducts a girl to take home with him."

"Yeah, but where," grunted Hank.

"Somewhere halfway between the furthest points in his hunting area," said Brock.

All of them looked at him and back at the map.

Kurt zoomed in. "And there you have Worcester."

"And Auburn." Russell grimaced. "Where the body was found this morning."

Brock shook his head.

Gillian anticipated him. "He's too organized to dump a body where he lives. The fact that he left her in Auburn proves that he doesn't live there."

"Today's Wednesday, it's Webster's day," said Ron. "Auburn is where you leave the Pike to take the 395 to Webster."

All of them leaned in to take a better look at the map and saw Ron was right about the roads' intersection.

"Okay, what else do we have?" asked Gillian. "Al, were you able to talk to the Springfield girl?"

"No, they keep her sedated. But she did mumble a few words when she heard we were cops. She said others. And something like underwood."

"Underwood, like in Frank Underwood? A last name?" repeated Russell. "Couldn't it be in the woods?"

"Yep, could be. Or underground."

"Her clothes and tests from the hospital?"

"The Lab promised me results early in the afternoon," replied Hank.

"What about the interviews?" asked Gillian. "My own outcome is that Mary Jean, the first of our three locals to go missing, is a social, straightforward girl, who wouldn't have any problem talking to a stranger."

"Yeah. Jennifer, the girl Russ found dead, was pretty much the same," said Ron.

"Same here with Sarah, our second local," said Hank.

"What about the places where he abducts them? Do we have anything on that?"

"Nada." Aldana grimaced, checking some papers on the desk. "Jennifer went out for her lunch break alone and never came back. Sarah and Mary Jean never made it home from work."

Gillian nodded. "And we gotta wait for the others."

"Now you, Reg genius, how does he pick them?" asked Ron, frustrated.

"Let me see the pictures of all the girls," said Russell.

Fred handed him a bunch of photographs and he approached the closest desk to start spreading them over it. Brock and Gillian came closer to take a look too.

"They're all different, there's no specific type here," she grunted.

Brock looked up at Tanya and hesitated; he didn't want them to think he was stepping on Gillian's toes. Russell shot a questioning look at him.

"Can we group them by dates?" he asked.

Russell turned to Tanya. "Can we, T?"

"Group them by dates?" the girl repeated, turning to her computer. "Kurt, free the plasma."

"Yes, hun."

"By dates like what, Agent Brockner?" she asked, starting to type.

"Let's start by month," he said, turning to the screen.

Tanya needed only a moment to show them what he'd asked.

"It's a collection," he said, positive.

"A what?" Hank and Fred asked.

"Of course!" said Gillian. "Look, lads, there's no repetition of types within the different months!"

"He picks a brunette, a blonde, a ginger and a black girl per month," explained Russell.

"He keeps them for a few weeks, then discards them and replaces them," completed Brock. "It's a sexual sadist acting out a collector's fantasy." He turned to Aldana. "What the victim told you, others, she meant there were other captives where she was being held."

All of them gaped at him. And for some weird reason, Gillian enjoyed to see understanding replace surprise on their faces. Like it'd happened to her so many times, using his manuals as a guide, or three months earlier for the BEB case. Damned man, he was a frigging genius. Why couldn't he be at least a little civil, too?