Korsak and Frost drove around for a few hours, following Belinda.
"She's running errands. Nothing exciting so far." He said when he called me after a while and I could hear that he was slurping some soda. Sophie and I had been playing with her dolls. A thing that I had never done even as a child but when I got to be the male doll I was satisfied.
When the evening came, we decided to change shifts. Frost arrived with an Uber just in time when we managed to establish another connection with the perp. Korsak as a seasoned detective was fine to stay out there alone for a while.
He informed us via text, that Belinda was at home while I stared at the screen, right into the masked face of the bad guy. We were on the balcony where I could have an eye on Sophie who was still sitting on the floor playing with her dolls. Frost was sitting on the opposite side of me with his own laptop, trying to determine where the signal was coming from this time.
The masked man greeted me in his usual taunting and cheerful way, mocking me by stating that my fame was unfounded as I hadn't been able to find Maura yet. When he brought Maura into the conversation, I demanded to see her, trying to sound calm and composed all the while.
I was surprised when the screen split, and I could see him on the left side and Maura on the right. Seeing her like that still shocked me, although i had been prepared today. I had known what to expect. The blonde hair was a mess, and she was wearing handcuffs that tied her to each corner of the small bed. The sheets were still dirty as were parts of her clothes. Traces of food were on her stomach, and I felt terribly sorry for the woman who I knew to always be dressed perfectly and in a very elegant way.
In fact, it almost caused me physical pain to see her like that. My eyes were looking for tears on her face but all I could see her angry glare as she stared to some spot on the left. I wondered if this was where the perp was sitting.
"What do you want?" I asked after clearing my throat and I heard a mischievous laughter over the speakers.
"I want you to find her." The perp simply said and shrugged.
"I want you to prove what a good detective you are. Night now, I really have my doubts about your qualifications." He sounded serious and I tried to focus on his eyes as they were visible through the mask. Something seemed to be wrong with his left eye because he kept blinking all the time with that one eye.
"I killed many people, detective. But none of your colleagues had even been able to determine that the cases have been related. S,o excuse me for not having the best opinion on the police. Besides, I watched the bunch of you at the conference and most detectives were everything but clever. I think that you would agree with that. You, detective Rizzoli, can restore my faith into the blue force again, if you find me and stop me from killing."
"I take it that the police failed you in more than one way." I stated and he chuckled.
"My father almost killed my mother when I was 7. Guess who was the one to save her? Would you think that a 7-year-old child should prevent his father from killing his mother? When the neighbors called the police as my parents were fighting, they either didn't show up or simply told my father to leave her alone and left." The voice was full of anger
"That's when I killed for the first time. It felt so good and powerful to see the light die in his eyes. My mother helped me dispose of the body, but I had to promise her to never kill again. I stuck to it for a very long time. But I missed this powerful feeling that I only got when killing and so I started again. It was a game…. A very fun game. At the same time, I helped the earth to get rid of those abusive husbands and wives."
I simply let him talk, hoping that Frost could find something based on his story. There must be reports of abusive husbands somewhere.
"But I'm tired now. I don't want to kill anymore. I've done this for long enough but I won't be able to stop until you stop me, detective. If you don't get me by tomorrow 1pm, dr. Isles will be dead, and I will give in to my faith and continue to kill. So, hurry up! It's up to you now! Goodbye detective!"
I stared at him and Maura when the screen suddenly went blank.
"How charming and selfless." Frost muttered while typing away on his keyboard. I had definitively rubbed up on him with my sarcasm. He looked up and I could see that he might have found something.
"Did you get a location?" I asked, hoping that the signal wasn't coming from the hotel or Mauras home. Frost shook his head, but he turned the laptop so that I could see the headlines of an article on the screen of his device.
Man disappears without trace after repeatedly being reported to abuse his wife and son
"They never found him or his body." Frost said and continued as if reading my doubts.
"I know that there must be a lot of such cases, but I'm sure that its him because it mentions that his mother became a firefighter to help the community."
"You mean that Belinda has a boy?" I asked and Frost nodded.
"She was 16 when she got pregnant with him. The boy was given up for adoption and lived in the foster system for a while until she tracked him down when she was 21. CPS decided to let him stay with her as she had a steady job and no alcohol or drug problem. According to witness testimonies she was a great mother.
Moreover, she had a steady 3-year relationship with a guy named Thomas Freeman, whom she eventually married and who adopted the boy – Irving – when he moved back to his mother.
Thomas Freeman seemingly dropped from the face of the earth two years later, when Irving was 8. Soon after, Belinda started her training to become a firefighter. Everybody of her community celebrated her as a hero who had overcome the abuse of her husband, was raising her boy alone and still wanted to do good for the community. There are several articles that you need to patch together to get the full picture. It's all confirmed in the database. So, yes, I'm sure this is about them."
"So, Belinda has a son, who is old enough to be an intern at Chillis events. He might have pulled the scam up, but I doubt that he did it on his own. It would make sense though that Belinda let him into Mauras home. The crime techs have not found any sign of forced entry. Maybe she had even given Maura some sedative so she wouldn't make a scene when they brought her out of the house." I thought out aloud.
"And the neighbors wouldn't get suspicious because they knew that Belinda was Mauras partner." Frost added.
"Great! But it still doesn't tell us where Maura is, nor where he hides." I stated while rubbing my tired eyes.
Frost smiled at me and clicked a few times on his mouse, opening a street map of LA. "I think that we'll find her somewhere around this quarter." He said.
"The signal came from this area, moreover Belinda used to live in one of the houses there when Irving was a kid. Kids do explore a lot, especially vacant buildings. There have been various over the years, but 3 have remained untouched since his childhood. One of them is their old home. The bank cashed it when Belinda wasn't able to pay the mortgage for almost a year. Yet, they weren't able to sell it because its old and needs some serious renovation before you can move in again. Add the fact that a chemical company bought the property next to it and people are afraid to get killed if there should ever be an accident at the factory." Frost explained with a triumphant smile.
I glanced at Sophie who was watching us intently now. As much as I wanted to check out the house, I didn't want to take the kid with me.
"I'll stay with her." Frost said, giving Sophie a cheerful wave. "I used to watch my younger cousins, so I'll be fine."
He smiled at me and decided to trust him with that. He was probably much better with the kid than I was I thought as I walked back into the room to tell Sophie that I needed to leave, but that Frost would watch her until I was back.
The kid appeared to be the least complicated person on earth as she nodded. "Are you going to bring my mummy back now?" she asked, her voice sounding hopeful, and I nodded. "That's my intention." I said and stroke over her blonde hair.
Her face lit up a bit. "And will you stay with us then and protect us?" she asked which made my heart falter. Maura had been afraid to bring me into her life because she had been worried about what was going to happen, when I left her. It had made sense to me. Now I realized that I had never thought about my pain when we didn't work out. I did not only lose one person but two. It was still difficult though. There were still thousands of miles in between us, which were too many to even give it a try.
"Don't be sad, it will be okay." Sophie said with a smile, touching my hand. "I know that you can do it." She gave me a prep talk. She was really clever for a five-year-old I thought as I stood after kissing her forehead and left with Korsak to find Maura.