Hide & Seek - Nicole Edwards Page 0,82
up the crimes of the other identity. I’ve heard that’s often the case. The other identities are brought out because of some sort of dramatic incident. Since we don’t know what happened when he was a kid…”
Even as he said it, Reese realized it sounded like a far-fetched idea. Something right out of a movie. But it explained so much. How Collins knew about the victims, didn’t need to meet with the families because he was the one who took them. Or his other identity did, anyway. Maybe that was something the two identities shared so it could be covered up. Did that make the detective a bad guy? Or a good guy?
“What about the timeline?” Brantley asked, pulling to a stop in the McDonald’s drive-thru. “What prompts him to take his victims on those four days of a month?”
“I think you nailed it when you said a ritual. He follows a pattern based on the first women he killed. Those days signify something for him. Baz said those are the days the first four women were born. Perhaps there’s some OCD tied in there and this is the pattern he’s formed.”
“Fucking shit.” Brantley pulled up to the ordering screen, rattled off their order.
“Don’t forget the coffee,” Reese said quickly.
“Can we get two large coffees, also?”
The woman read the order back, gave them the total, and Brantley pulled forward.
“You think we need to bring the FBI up to speed?” Reese asked and watched as Brantley considered that.
“If you’re right, this guy has been two people all along. We tip off the FBI, they might take him into custody. Where does that leave the four missin’ women?”
He had a good point. “So we find the women then clue them in?”
“It’s our only choice. We’ve got three and a half days left. There’s no time to play games with anyone else. We’ve gotta win this game of hide-and-seek before anyone else can join the party.”
Reese nodded, exhaled.
And prayed like hell he was right. Otherwise, they were about to spin their wheels in an entirely different direction while the clock was ticking down.
Chapter Nineteen
Once they were back in the hotel room, Brantley found it impossible to sit still.
After they’d scarfed down sausage biscuits and knocked back lukewarm coffee, Brantley showered, dressed, then headed out to the parking lot while Reese finished up in the room.
His brain was going ninety miles a second, trying to process what Reese had theorized. And it made sense. So damn much sense. John Collins was in fact the brother he claimed to have. One person, two separate identities. Which meant—
He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, dialed JJ’s number. She answered on the first ring.
“Police reports,” he blurted. “Did these women file police reports?”
He remembered RT mentioning it, thinking it was worth following up on, but he hadn’t heard back from JJ on it.
“I told you to look at your email,” she blurted.
“JJ, did you find somethin’ or not?”
“Yes. God.” She huffed and he heard typing in the background. “Hold on.”
The call changed to speaker, the clacking of the keyboard getting louder.
“Here it is. And the answer is…”
He could hear her breathing, so he refrained from barking orders at her. He didn’t have time for the dramatics, but he reminded himself that wasn’t JJ’s fault.
“All four reported the same thing, and all out of the same precinct.”
“For?”
“Indecent exposure.”
“What?”
“Yep. How no one ever found this guy, I don’t know. There were numerous reports filed through the months. Not only by these women. Lots of others. Jody Henderson was the last one to file a report.”
“When was this?”
“October twentieth,” she said. “Exactly one month before she disappeared. She went into the station to do it. Said she saw a man during her morning run. He was … well, you can probably figure out what it was he was doing with his thingy hangin’ out.”
Thingy? Brantley shook his head, remained focused. “That’s the same thing Debbie Struthers reported.” He remembered seeing the police report Reese had taken a picture of.
“Correct.”
“And the others filed the same report?”
“They did,” she confirmed. “And get this, the complaints were filed exactly one month to the day before each of them went missing. November seventeenth of last year, then February eighteenth, June nineteenth, and October twentieth. Like I said, there were other reports filed, but not on those same days of the month. We’re thinkin’ he was waiting for reports filed on those days.”
“Well, we now know how they crossed paths with him.” That was