Thanks for the reviews! I'll try to update more often!
When Stacie and Chloe arrived at the house, they saw a big wooden fence and 'keep out' signs. They opened the small chain there was, with no locks, and got inside. There was nothing beyond dirt and some burn wood.
"Look for any sign of digging." Stacie said and Chloe nodded and they went on separate directions.
"Here!" Chloe said, kneeling down. She started digging with her own hands and soon Stacie helped her. They found a black plastic bag and took it out, but found it weird that it didn't weight a thing.
The two ripped the bag, but only found clothes, shoes and even an empty bottle with that looked like a note inside.
"There's a piece of paper in here!" Chloe said, opening the bottle.
She unwrapped the note and Stacie moved behind her to read.
Sorry to inform you detectives that my girl Jane is not there. She's still very much alive and still with me. But if you found this note it means you're following my clues very well, I'm impressed. Jane's parents will soon receive a phone call from her.
Keep following my clues, maybe you'll find the girls alive.
PS: enclosed, you may find some pictures of Jane.
Chloe and Stacie sighed.
"We still need to get the CSI to go through these clothes and see if they can tell us anything." Stacie said.
"And through this letter. He said there are pictures, but I don't see any." Chloe said.
"They must be with the clothes. Come on, let's get going." Stacie said.
oO0Oo
"The only thing on the clothes is dust. And a lot of it, this person hasn't cleaned the house in a long time." Dr. Turk, the medical examiner, said. "I did find a blood stain in one of the jackets, though."
"Whose blood is it?" Chloe asked.
"Jane's. But it's nothing to worry about, she had a nose bleed." Dr. Turk said.
"That's good news, right?" Stacie asked.
"Yes. The blood stain isn't big enough, maybe a small vain opened." Dr. Turk said and shrugged her shoulders.
"Could it be a result of an injury? Like, a punch maybe?" Stacie asked. "We don't know what this man is doing to them."
"I can't tell you that much with only a small blood sample, but that's possible." Dr. Turk said and crossed her arms.
"Thanks." Chloe said and she and Stacie left.
They returned to the station feeling rather agitated and found Jack talking to Dr. Helsen, the criminal profiler who was from the FBI.
"Hey, any news?" Stacie asked.
"We found the pictures. No prints, this guy's a pro." Jack said.
"What did these pictures show?" Stacie asked.
Jack grabbed five pictures and handed them to Chloe and Stacie. One of them showed Jane all tied up, blindfolded and gagged, lying on the ground. The others showed her face, crying or her from far away, hiding her face.
"Hey, look at this one." Stacie said.
"Jane's nose is bloody." Chloe said.
Jane was sitting on the ground, hugging her legs and her nose had dried blood on it, but it was red, it looked like she had been slapped or punched.
"Looks like he hit her." Stacie said.
"He wants us to know he has them and establish his control ver the situation." Dr. Helsen said. "This time, he's focusing on Jane, he's gonna do it with every victim."
"But Rebeca's his last victim, after her, what's gonna happen?" Jack asked.
"Maybe he'll let them go." Dr. Helsen shrugged. "Only he knows."
oO0Oo
Chloe hadn't been sleeping well since she knew Beca had been abducted as well, but counseling with Dr. Helsen had been helping her a lot. Her emotions were in check and she didn't have any psychotic break or something like that and she was grateful for it.
Stacie was going through the letter one more time, trying to see if there was any detail she'd missed, any clue on where the possible letter could be.
"We tracked down the twins." Cynthia Rose said as she and Jack came back in the station.
"Where are they now?" Chloe asked as she stood up.
"They're not named Abigail and Axel anymore, their names are Abby and Arthur." Jack said. "Their aunt, Helen, kidnapped them when they were two months old, two weeks before the fire. The police took two years to find out two kids were missing, but Helen was never charged with any crime."
"Could Arthur be the author of those crimes?" Chloe asked.
"No. He was killed when he was fourteen." Cynthia Rose said.
"Does Abby know anything?" Stacie asked.
"She says she never wants to hear about her parents again." Cynthia Rose said.
"We talked to the aunt, she said AA Associates never had T-shirts." Jack said.
"Then where did he get one?" Stacie frowned.
"He could've made one. He made sure only the last victim noticed the T-shirt so we'd investigate and find the note." Jack shrugged.
Cynthia Rose's phone rang and she stepped back to answer it.
"There is one thing, though. Jane Wilmor is an attorney who worked on custody cases between divorced gay couples." Stacie said.
"The second victim, Kate Tillop, is a party planner." Chloe said. "She plans mostly kids' parties."
"Maybe the next note is on some abandoned building used for kids parties." Jack said.
"CSI got something on the note." Cynthia Rose.
oO0Oo
"I didn't find prints, but check this out." Thomas Mayder, the SCI technician, said as he turned off the lights and turned on some black lights, which showed some spots on the white piece of paper.
"What's that?" Chloe asked.
"They have this on every copying machine and printers all over the country. It gives the serial number and the date of the impression or copy." Thomas said and went to the computer. "I have some good news and bad news."
"What are they?" Stacie asked.
"The good news is, I found the printer and it's in a shop downtown." Thomas said.
"And the bad news?" Stacie was almost afraid to ask.
"The date is from three years ago." Thomas said.
oO0Oo
"Jane was his first victim, he kidnapped her ten months ago, but he printed that note three years ago." Jack said. "If he knew who his victims were, why didn't he kidnap Jane back then?"
"Maybe he needed time to figure out about the next victims." Cynthia Rose said with a shrug and crossed her arms.
"Maybe he needed to make sure the store clerk didn't remember him." Dr. Helsen said. "Or he wanted to give time for the people to change so no one would remember him."
"I bet if we talked to someone from that store, no one would remember seeing him. Or even if we looked through the security tapes, we probably would be taking too long." Jack said.
"He probably did this with the other notes, if there are other notes." Chloe said.
"Did you guys find anything else in that yard?" Cynthia Rose asked.
"No. We could go back there and look again, see if we missed anything." Stacie suggested and the others nodded.
"Captain, do we go to the store and ask to look at the security tapes?" Chloe asked.
Captain Dunnett looked uncertain as he looked at the board.
"Yeah, it's worth a shot." Captain Dunnett said. "The rest of you go back to the burned down house and see if we missed any more clues."
oO0OO
Chloe came back in the station and went straight to her desk. She looked at the picture of the letter again and read it over and over, but she still didn't know where to look next. Stacie went to the house with Cynthia Rose to look for more clues.
"Beale, my office?" Captain Dunnett said.
Chloe sighed and stood up, following him to his office. She looked at him as he closed the door and walked behind his desk, putting his hands in his pocket.
"How's counseling going?" he asked.
"Oh, pretty good." Chloe said.
He nodded.
"And how are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm trying to keep my emotions in check, if I feel a little worse I call Helsen and talk about it." Chloe said.
"That's good. If you get too emotionally involved in this case, you know I'll have no choice but to remove you from it, don't you?" he said.
"I know, Captain." she nodded. "Posen already went through everything with me."
He nodded and was about to let her go when Cynthia Rose knocked on the door behind coming in.
"We talked to Jane's parents, they received a call from a strange number a few minutes ago." she said.
"You and Jack go to their house and interview them about the call." Captain Dunnett said, standing up.
"Okay. Oh, and Lillian and Rebeca's parents are here." Cynthia Rose said.
Chloe looked up at the mention of Beca's name.
"Beale, you and Conrad go talk to them." Captain Dunnett said and Chloe nodded before leaving after Cynthia Rose.
Stacie met Chloe halfway and the two found the two sets of parents in front of the elevator, all looking understandably miserable.
"Hello." Chloe said in her perky, optimistic voice. "What can we do for you?"
"We wanted to talk to you." Lilian's mother, the fourth victim, said.
"Okay, why don't we go to somewhere private?" Stacie said. "Beale, you talk to the Mitchells and I'll talk to the Rileys."
Chloe nodded and they went to different rooms. She was actually glad she got Beca's parents, talking to them and seeing them was like connecting with a little bit of Beca.
"Do you have any news about Beca?" Beca's mother, Suzanne, asked, her voice desperate.
"We're doing everything we can." Chloe said as she sat down in front of them.
"You have to find our daughter. Please, don't let that bastard kill her!" Suzanne begged again, her eyes filled with tears.
"We heard that he sent pictures of the first victim." Beca's father, Ethan, said. "Will he send us pictures of Beca?"
"I can't stand to think what he's doing to my baby." Suzanne said, her tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Yes, he sent pictures to Jane Wilmor's parents and Dr. Helsen believes he is going to send pictures to all the victim's parents." Chloe explained. "But we advise you not to look at them, that can make you even more anxious and that's just what the perp wants."
"Will he call us?" Suzanne asked.
"We don't know yet." Chloe said. "Now, when was the last time each of you spoke to Be- I mean, Rebeca, again?"
Dr. Helsen, Aubrey and Captain Dunnett all told the detectives to say the victim's first names, no nicknames, especially with Beca, since that was a still very vulnerable side of Chloe.
"About three days before she was kidnapped." Suzanne said. "She called me to say she was doing okay and we even talked about the girls who had been kidnapped and how awful that was!"
"Did she mention something about a guy following her or bothering her?" Chloe asked.
"Just Jesse, but he's harmless, he's just, her words, 'a huge goof'." Suzanne said.
Chloe nodded.
"I should talk to Hanna." she said.
"Please, you have to find her. Don't let him kill her." Suzanne said again.
"Suzanne, calm down." Ethan said. "We know you're doing the best you can, but call us as soon as you have news about Beca."
"Yes, we will, sir." Chloe said. "You'll be the firsts to hear."
Ethan nodded.
"I can barely eat or sleep knowing my daughter is in the hands of a pervert, who's probably torturing her or even killing her." Suzanne said and started crying a little harder.
"Or even raping her." Ethan said and balled his his fists.
"Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, you can't allow those images in your head." Chloe said.
"It's hard not to, though." Ethan said. "That's probably what he's doing to her, isn't it? Why else would he keep her until now? Or any of the other girls?"
"Ethan!" Suzanne said.
"Mr. Mitchell, don't think about that." Chloe said.
Ethan took a deep breath and shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but Suzanne's right, I can barely live my life knowing my daughter, my little girl is in the hands of… this bastard and God knows how long he's gonna keep her." Ethan said.
"We'll do what we can to make this a short time." Chloe said.
"Do you think maybe he left the country?" Suzanne asked.
"It's not probable, your daughter is a well-known DJ, she'd be recognized if she was seen in an airport or bus station." Chloe said. "Besides, he's got ten girls and we believe he's working alone, so we don't think he could've left the country with all those girls."
Suzanne nodded.
"But I promise you, Mrs. Mitchell," Chloe said, putting her hand on top of Suzanne's, making her look into her eyes. "I'll do anything in my willpower to find Rebeca and bring her back."
Suzanne slowly nodded, seeing the seriousness in Chloe's tone and eyes.
Coming up... it's picture time for Beca!