The Reckoning - BLACKBIRD book 3

1. logs

"And I listen for the whisper
Of your sweet insanity
While I formulate denials
Of your affect on me."
Maynard J. Keenan, A Stranger

The early call from the local agency was the best way for Gillian and Brock to start off their morning: apart. Brock and Russell went together to the agency, while Gillian and the team headed to the police station. She couldn't help noticing they were all more relaxed when they walked into the conference room. It was like any other morning back home.

Fred went straight to the coffee machine and Aldana opened her computer on the table. Soon they were all sitting around, tasting their morning coffee as they called Tanya over Skype.

"Hey, lads. What d'you have for us?" asked Gillian.

The girl smiled as Kurt showed up by her side, both of them with steamy mugs in hand as well. "Good morning, everybody."

Gillian smirked at her cautious greeting. "It's just us, T," she said.

"Fed-free environment," Ron said.

"Well, save us," said Hank.

"Proper Fed-free environment," corrected Ron.

"So, anything?" asked Gillian.

Now Tanya's answer matched their relaxed mood. "Hours and hours of silly chat, that's what I've got. I swear I'm dying a virgin before signing up to one of these sites."

"Hey, you only need a word, you know" Fred said, concerned.

"Thanks, but the word is no-thanks."

"The last dates the victims concerted online were about a month ago," said Kurt. "So I think we can leave those guys off the hook, at least for now."

Hank scoffed. "Oh, now you're all a detective."

Kurt rolled his eyes and Tanya went on. "Anyway, we did find what you wanted, guys. There are two different users, one at each dating site, that ceased all activity after Christie Reynolds went missing. Different IP, like we expected."

"Were you guys able to track those IP?" asked Aldana.

Kurt shook his head. "Not quite yet, but at least we know they're both from Portland. We're trying to narrow it down as we speak."

"Anything else on them? Guess there must be more than a couple of guys from here around on these sites."

Tanya sent them two files. Aldana opened them and they saw two pictures of different young blond men. Gillian raised her eyebrows—so what.

"Those are the profile pictures of the users that closed their accounts when Christie went missing. Turns out Christie gave her phone number to one of them."

"Okay, go on."

"Two new users from the Portland area opened accounts right after Christie's death. Again, one at each dating site, masked IP. Take a look at their profile pictures. Rose gave her number to one of them."

She sent them the files. The new pair of pictures were also young blond men. Looking at the four together, they noticed the men looked all very alike.

"Why do I get the feeling that we're looking for a blond guy?" muttered Fred.

Tanya flashed a pleased smile. "I'm sending you all the logs we got from these four users, with the victims and with other women."

"T, you're the best."

Kurt leaned to the screen with an offended frown. "It was team work, you know."

"Okay, okay, you two are the best. Now try to track those IP or find us anything that can help us identify the subject."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You're so not the best, Kurt. Not in a million years."

They disconnected, chuckling, and opened the logs file.

"Okay, that's a lot to read," said Ron. "And what are we supposed to look for here?"

"Creepy weirdos inviting Penny to cemeteries," teased Fred.

Aldana winked at him. "Online predators are my treat. I'll find any tiny clue he may have slipped about his true identity."

There was a knock on the door and Wilson came in. He nodded hi at them and turned to Gillian. "Good news, bad news. We've found Reynolds' car. And we may have another missing woman."

"The missing woman fits the subject's type?" asked Ron.

"Yeah. Brunette, late twenties, living alone. She didn't show up at work today, she's not home and her phone is off. I just sent a cruiser to her house." He hesitated, then added, "I'm going to check the car, if anybody needs the ride..."

All of them—Gillian included—swallowed a smirk. Then she said, "Fred, Ron, go to her house. Hank, go to her job and see what her colleagues can tell you. Al, you stay here and work on the logs, and call T to start working on this missing woman. I'm going with Detective Wilson."

"Text me the address so I can send it to Russ," said Aldana.

A moment later she was alone in the conference room.