“Okay. Please share.”

Nina pulled out the phone lists and slid them across the desk towards Sarah Banks. She picked them up, glanced at them and then up at Nina.

“What are these?”

“Those are the phone lists for this summer’s ten year class reunion of McCollum High. All three of our victims show up on them.”

The lieutenant looked at them with a disbelieving stare.

“You’re suggesting someone is stalking, then taking their classmates before the ten year reunion. You’re kidding me, right? It sounds like a slasher film.”

Jason shrugged his shoulders.

“I know it’s thin, but right now it’s the only link we’ve found.”

“Okay. Thin is one word for it. What’s next?”

“We run a record search on everyone listed.”

“So, you’re thinking that the person or persons taking these people, or at very least possibly his next victim, is on these lists.”

Jason nodded. The lieutenant stared at the sheets for a minute.

“When’s the reunion?”

“The fifth of next month.”

“Okay. I’m going to have a press briefing on this at three this afternoon. We’ll see if the public can help us. Somebody must’ve seen something. I want you two present. In the meantime, that’s a lot of names, so you better get started.”

Jason and Nina gathered their files and left the office. Nina gave Jason a grin.

“Press briefing with Banks. Boy that sounds like fun!”

Jason just laughed and rolled his eyes.

****

Chelsea was cold. The basement was damp and the blanket didn’t give much protection. In addition, the chain was rubbing her ankle raw. She had spent the last several hours trying to figure out who their captor was.

“Suzanne?”

“Yeah.”

“I figure the guy doing this has to be family of Billy.”

“Why?”

“Well, it doesn’t make sense for someone to go to all this trouble without a personal connection.”

Ed agreed.

“I’ve been thinking the same thing. Billy was my best friend and I don’t remember much family. His dad was dead by the time Billy killed himself and he had only his mom and brother.”

Suzanne’s memories were the same.

“The whole time I knew Billy, I only heard him talk about two people. His brother and his mom. I think the brother’s name was Ronnie…Lonnie. Something like that.”

Ed remembered.

“Donnie. His brother’s name was Donnie.”

Chelsea pulled her blanket tighter around her. She wasn’t feeling well. She had vomited once and it had just added to the stench now surrounding them.

“That has to be it. It must be the brother. How old was he when Billy died?”

She could hear Ed rolling over, his chain scraping the floor.

“Eleven or twelve, I guess. I’m not sure. I don’t even see how knowing who he is helps us, in fact, it may make it worse.”

The room went quiet again. Knowing who their captor was should have helped but it didn’t. In fact, it made him all the more dangerous if he found out they knew.

Chelsea could now guess at what Donnie had in mind and she didn’t like it.

 

Chapter  14

 

Jason looked at his watch. Four hours of pouring over the files of the three missing persons and still no hint at who might be taking them. Nina was equally engrossed in the phone records and when she looked up at him, her red eyes told the story. They needed a break.

“Two hours to press conference, want to get something to eat?”

Nina stretched out and groaned.

“Definitely.”

“Want to bring the phone records?”

“Definitely not!”

****

They got back with twenty minutes to spare. Lieutenant Banks was waiting for them.

“Let’s go, you two.”

The three of them rode down to the first floor together. When they came out of the elevator, a small group of reporters was waiting for them in the briefing room. In its early days, the room had been the patrol briefing room, but that was done elsewhere now. The department hadn’t spent any money to make the press corps comfortable. It was still desks and white concrete walls.

Devin James gave a nod to Jason, followed by a big smile for Nina. When Sarah Banks came into the room behind them, Jason saw the reporter’s face go immediately blank. Jason smiled to himself.

Is everybody afraid of this woman?

Jason and Nina stood at the back of the small stage, the only thing that had been added to the room, as the lieutenant walked to the podium.

“Thank you for coming. We are investigating the disappearance of three people in the San Antonio area. The cases appear to be connected and we’re seeking the public’s help.”

On a screen behind the lieutenant, three photographs were put up.

“The first is Ed Garland, 28. The second is Chelsea Burt-Morris, age 28. Last night, a third person went missing. Her name is Suzanne Cooper, age 29.”

Devin James stood up.

“What’s the connection between them?”

Lieutenant Sarah Banks did something Jason had never seen done before. She ignored the senior reporter from the San Antonio News. But what really surprised Jason was that James sat down without a fuss. Lieutenant Banks carried on where she left off.

“All three have gone missing in the last six days. We are asking the public to let us know if they have seen any of these people. We have set up an 800 number for people to call if they have any information on the whereabouts of these individuals.”

She paused and Jason expected James to try his question again but he stayed seated.

“The lead investigators on this case are Detective Strong and Detective Jefferson. I will let them answer any questions you might have.”

With that, the lieutenant stepped back and motioned for Jason and Nina to step up. Jason looked out over the group.

“Questions?”

Devin James stood again and asked the same question.

“How are the three connected?”

“First of all, at all three sights, we’ve found fingerprints from the same individual. We do not have an ID on this person yet but we believe the prints belong to the individual who is responsible. Also, we have phone records from all three of the missing person’s and there is a number that connects them.”

A different hand went up.

“What’s the number?”

“I’m sorry but I can’t reveal that.”

James was still standing.

“Do the three know each other?”

“We don’t know. It’s possible but we’re unable to say for sure.”

Nina stepped forward.

“I have a hand out with the full description of each person and the location they were taken from. It will be on the table by the door.”

Lieutenant Banks, moving so swiftly that she caught Jason by surprise, leaned in to the microphone.

“That’ll be all. Thank you for coming.”

And the briefing was over.

Jason didn’t like these things and treated them as a necessary evil. Always glad when they were done, he couldn’t help but be impressed with the way Sarah Banks handled it. In the elevator, he said so.

“Short and sweet, my kind of press briefing.”

Lieutenant Banks gave him a half smile.

“Give ‘em what you need them to have and then go back to work.”

Jason thought it might be the best philosophy for dealing with the press he had ever heard.

****

As the senior writer at the San Antonio News, Devin James could have a glass paned office, pictures on the wall and a walnut topped desk but he had turned it down every time it was offered. He had kept the same heavy school teacher-looking desk he got when he moved to crime duty more than twenty-five years ago.