him everything, then asked why Zara didn't call him. Rhaven said she was just about to when Kate handled it. The headlights had been enough to make the guy stop - if he'd even been about to do anything. And the whole way home, Zara promised that she'd been ready to send a panic alert, but she wasn't about to interrupt his research because she was twitchy.
Braden was just as worried, hugging Rhaven against him a little too hard. But, after making Zara promise to bother him next time - and knowing that she still wouldn't - they all called it a night. Jason felt like his head was exploding, but between Ruin, Bradley's interviews, the devs tracking the social media of all the known assailants, and Psyc combing through KoG's history, he was slowly but surely making progress.
On Wednesday, Psyc texted to tell Jason to get on TeamSpeak. When he did, he got a history of how KoG operated. Clearly, putting him in charge of this project had been a very good idea. Psyc had not only gone back to the first posts in each category, but he'd tracked the names, the join dates, and the people who'd fallen off the forums. Two, he was positive, were no longer in agreement with KoG, and he was pretty sure he had enough for Jason to find their real names.
They were nothing special, but the men were both early members who'd been just a bit closer to Soul Reaper than most were now. Jason sent that information to Bradley, and asked if he could have someone interview them. The best part was that Jason didn't even need a story to cover it up. The login information the FBI had would've been able to access it.
Then, on Wednesday night, Knock's name lit up on Jason's phone. "Yeah," he answered.
"Cyn," Knock said. "Man, we got stuff. Are you sitting down?"
Jason leaned back in his chair. "Yep. Hit me."
"Ok, one of the guys who died in jail, Chad Garrison? He lived in Pueblo, Colorado, for eight years. High school and college, basically. During the time that Dez was missing, there was an assault on Lindsey Romero. She was caught in the parking lot outside her job at the mall - sound familiar? A man in a hoodie and Guy Fawkes mask hit her in the knee with an aluminum baseball bat, trashed the window of her car, and when she tried to crawl away, broke her nose and gave her a concussion. She passed out, was found later by someone walking past. No suspect was ever identified."
"Guy Fawkes masks are commonly associated with Anonymous," Jason pointed out.
"Yeah," Knock agreed. "So, here's the thing. Tracking Lindsey's Facebook? Zoe friended her, which was the in, so all legal, man. But back in high school, guess who ranted about some geek named Chad asking her to homecoming? Yeah. Same guy. Same girl. Cyn, it's fucking strangers on a train."
"Wait," Jason breathed. "Arturo Ganza went to Pueblo and beat Lindsey for Chad? Then why were they all there for Dez?"
"Oh, it gets better," Knock warned. "Guy number 1? I'm calling Chad three, because he's the third to die. Anyways, the first one killed had a girl in Houston who was raped that same week. Well, the second week Dez was gone. Guy 2 has an ex-fianc茅e who left him for another man. The guy had his tires slashed and his wife was drugged in their home, assaulted, and tested positive for a rape kit, even though she was unconscious. No DNA left. Police report shows that she was sodomized with a blunt object."
"Fuck," Jason breathed.
And Knock kept going, and going. Each of the cases was different, but all of them fit the pattern. While one guy was with Dez, someone else was attacking a woman he had a grudge with. Naturally, none of them had volunteered that information to the police, because they'd all been busted returning to the warehouse where Dez had been found. The scene of the crime. The whole thing was a clusterfuck of moronic criminals - for the most part. The question was why they'd all centralized on Dez.
"There's just one problem," Knock said, sounding a little worried. "It's kinda a big one, Cyn."
"What's that?"
"Arturo Ganza." Knock paused. "I've tracked where he's lived. I've tried my hardest to find any ties to him and a woman assaulted during that time. I got nothing. But - and this is a big jump, ok?"