The Reckoning - BLACKBIRD book 3

6. room invasion

Hank dropped himself onto the bed and turned on the TV in his motel room in Rochester, ready to order takeout and watch some sports before going to sleep. Then he heard the voices coming closer.

"Shit," he grunted, and stood up with a heartfelt sigh.

He opened the door before the knock and watched the team parade into his room with their takeout, a couple of computers and even a small printer.

Gillian gifted him with a smile. "Hey, Hank, since you wouldn't join us for dinner, we thought we should join you."

The biochemist snorted, rolling his eyes while the others spread all over the room. Ron took one of the two seats at the table, leaving his paper bag and a six-pack. Fred placed two pizza boxes and another six-pack by the paper bag, while Gillian and Aldana took the printer to the drawer chest and plugged it to one of their computers.

"Pepperoni," Fred told Hank, pointing at the pizza box. "That's your favorite, right?"

"I hate pepperoni," Hank snarled.

"Oh. Well, you can remove them."

"Ron! You're not eating that ten-story burger!" said Aldana, spotting the huge sandwich Ron took from the bag.

"Watch me."

"Bet Laura and your rehab trainer wouldn't approve," added Gillian.

"Good thing they ain't around, huh?"

"May I ask why are you guys here?"

"Pizza or Chinese, Reg?"

"Chinese."

"T, you there?" asked Aldana.

"Why here?" insisted Hank, now turning to Fred.

"We were afraid you'd feel lonely in a single room," replied Ron, because Fred was already sinking his teeth in his pizza.

"Go figure."

"T? You hear me?"

"Stop yelling, Al, I'm not deaf!" complained Tanya through the speaker.

Hank sighed again and snatched the pizza slice from Fred's hand.

"Kurt there with you?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You're fired. My Chinese?"

Fred handed Gillian a box with a pair of sticks taped to it. She took it and stretched out her other hand, for Ron to put a beer in it.

"Okay, guys, let's see how much nothing we have," she said.

Tanya started, over Skype. "Both guys Brockner pointed came out clean. No records, no weird associates or activities, nothing."

"Stewart is married with three children, and he works two jobs to provide for his family and pay his mortgage," said Ron. "He needs to be a wizard to keep the boy at a secondary location for so long and be able to visit even once every couple of months. Bobby would've showed traces of poor nutrition, at least."

"Maybe he kept him under someone else's care." Gillian frowned at their skeptic faces. "What? Sexual sadists do find partners to help them, remember the Bailey brothers?"

"But we're talking a child here, Reg," replied Hank. "And a pedophile, not a sadist. Who would help a pedophile to keep his victims?"

"Maybe another pedophile?" said Aldana.

Gillian glared at her. "Don't even say it. Okay, moving on, what about Uncle Bob?"

"He lives with his mother and changes shifts at work every two weeks," said Fred. "I talked to his boss: employees get their new shifts only two days in advance. Robert Lee never calls in sick and he's never late to work. He mentioned Lee's mother has some kind of condition and he spends most of his salary on her health."

"It doesn't mean he couldn't have Bobby hidden somewhere else."

Ron looked up at Gillian, grimacing. "Look, Reg, I know you may hate to admit it, but maybe Brockner was wrong about them, you know?"

The others narrowed their eyes, expecting Gillian's reaction.

To everybody's surprise, she just sighed. "Yeah, I know, but it was all we had to work on." She turned to the computer. "Okay, T, you're up. Run a new search for missing children. Make it twenty miles around South Berwick, and go three years back."

"Got it."

"So you still think it's not his first time," said Fred.

Gillian sighed again, sitting at the edge of the bed to eat. "If Bobby was his first, all we can do is sit and wait for him to abduct another child, and then beg Cooper on our knees to be assigned to the case."

"And pray to find him before he kills the new boy too," grunted Hank.

Gillian shrugged and they all focused on their meals in silence. The printer started working and all of them turned to it.

"Guys...," called Kurt from the computer.

"What d'you have?" asked Gillian, standing up while Aldana hurried to the printer.

"Look at these three boys," said Kurt.

Aldana handed her one of the prints, the picture of a cute boy grinning to the camera. Gillian scowled at it.

Hank was already by her side and scowled too. "Oh, shit," he muttered. Gillian allowed him to take the picture when Aldana gave her another. Hank showed it to Fred and Ron, so they could join the spreading scowl.

"He could very well be Bobby's brother," said Fred.

"And here you have the cousin," growled Gillian, giving them the second picture.

"And the cousin's brother," grunted Aldana, showing her the third and last picture.

All three boys were blue-eyed brunettes, their ages eight to ten, just like Bobby Lee had been.

"What's this, lads?" asked Gillian.

"What you asked, Reg," replied Kurt. "Missing boys over the last three years in a twenty-miles ratio around South Berwick. There are a few others, but these three caught our attention."

"Don't say," grunted Ron.

"They were all nine when they disappeared, and they're all still missing," said Tanya.

Fred raised his eyebrows. "Bobby would still be missing too, hadn't the weight's rope loosened."

"Exactly," agreed Kurt.

"Okay, find the original case files and send them over," said Gillian. Aldana turned to her, pointing at her watch. Gillian rolled her eyes. "First thing tomorrow. No need to pull an all-nighter, lads. We won't be working on it tonight."

Kurt's grin filled the screen. "I love you, Reg."

"Shut up," she grunted, forcing a dull scoff from the others.

"You'll have them in your email first thing tomorrow," Tanya said, and ended the call.

Aldana collected the three pictures and took them to the mirror, sliding their edges under the mirror frame to keep them in place. The team looked at them, any trace of a smile erased from their faces.