Hide & Seek - Nicole Edwards Page 0,53

women. He didn’t need to look at a piece of paper to know their height, weight, or eye and hair color. More than likely, he had pored over these cases for so long, he saw them when he closed his eyes. The women he was determined to bring home to the families who missed them.

What Brantley found interesting was that he was using only their first names. Maybe he felt as though he knew them since he’d been working the cases for so long.

“Jody’s five foot eight, red hair, and green eyes,” the detective noted, a tad too casually.

Again, Baz clarified, lifting another folder. “Jody Henderson?”

So clearly Baz had noted the oddity as well.

“Maybe it’s the drastic differences he’s attracted to,” Trey noted.

Collins shrugged.

“Do you think these are crimes of opportunity?”

“Looks that way,” he answered with a heavy exhale.

“And these women…” Brantley paused until Detective Collins met his gaze. “You said their bodies haven’t turned up anywhere.”

“These particular women, that’s correct. However, my old partner thought it was a serial who snagged them. That maybe these aren’t his first victims.” The man lifted a notepad, grabbed a stack of photographs, and tossed them over.

Brantley knew what he would see when he looked at them, but he did so anyway. He took his time, memorizing the horror that this bastard had inflicted upon these women because he knew it would help him. It would be what drove him to find Jody Henderson before anyone could do the same to her.

“How long before their bodies appeared?” Baz asked, taking the pictures when Brantley passed them over.

“Those girls? Three hundred forty-seven days from the date of their disappearance.”

“That’s rather specific,” Trey noted. “Intentional, obviously.”

“Does he keep them alive during that time?” Reese asked.

“Yes. Each woman was kept alive until a few days before they were found.” His eyes darted to all the faces around him. “According to the ME, of course.”

“Any chance we can speak to your old partner?” Brantley asked, wondering if someone else might be able to shed some light on these cases.

Collins shook his head. “Up and moved to Montana. Said he was done with all this. Left no forwarding address, either.”

Interesting.

“How much time do we have?” Reese asked.

“Shelly’s been missing for three hundred and thirty-nine days.”

Shit. That meant they needed to work fast. There were four women missing, possibly taken by the same man, and if they didn’t find them soon, they would be dead.

Detective Collins met each face again. “If these are related, we don’t know why he targets them, what he does with them, or what that timeline signifies, which is why my boss insisted we bring someone in to help. The FBI’s been actively workin’ the case, determined it’s a serial killer, but he said the more eyes, the better.”

Brantley understood the urgency but he wasn’t so sure Detective Collins did. The man seemed a tad aloof for something that required immediate attention. After all, if this asshole stuck to his usual pattern, they only had a few days to find these women.

***

“Where to first?” Trey asked as the four of them walked out of the Northeast Dallas police station.

“The lake,” Brantley and Baz said at the same time.

Reese agreed. They needed to see it firsthand, look for any clues that might help them to locate this woman. If they were lucky, some of the crime scene techs would still be there, possibly able to give them something to go on.

“Why isn’t Collins at the scene? Or talkin’ with the family?” Reese wondered aloud.

“Technically not a crime scene,” Brantley noted. “As for the family … he’s probably already covered it. It did take us some time to get here.”

Yeah, maybe. But why didn’t the detective mention it?

“You think they’re right?” Trey asked. “These are related?”

“Not enough to tell right now,” Baz said. “But the plan is to figure it out, right, boss?”

Brantley stopped, turned to Reese. “What do you think?”

He figured the man had heard the wheels turning in his head. “I get that we’ve got four missing women—at least that we know about right now—but I can’t help but think we need to focus our efforts on Jody Henderson. She’s only been missin’ a few hours and hers is the warmest case we’ve got.”

Brantley nodded. “Your theory bein’ that, if we find her, we’ll find the others?”

He met Brantley’s gaze, held it. “Yeah.”

“Good plan. Let’s see if we can find ourselves a crime scene.”

“We’ll follow you,” Trey said, splitting off toward their SUV with Baz