A few readers have expressed concern over an HEA for Stephanie Plum. If you have read my books then you will know where she usually ends up but you're going to have to be patient, very patient to understand the moves taking place in the background that she knows nothing about! Cryptic or what!

Chapter 2

At 8.30 I was sat in front of the desk watching Mr Penderton. The files with my notes were tight against my chest as I waited. He was making me nervous. What the hell was he doing that was so interesting on his computer? I refrained from fidgeting, even though I knew it might ease my nerves. I hadn't felt like this since I'd been in high school awaiting the results of tests that we'd done. If he didn't like my work then he just needed to tell me, get it over with.

"I'm impressed, Annie. You ran with the information that you had and used some very creative methods to get the answers that we needed"

I was watching Mr Penderton as he spoke, totally surprised with what he'd said. Was it a good thing, how I'd resolved those cases or was he saying that he didn't like my methods? I was unable to get a read on him because he was still looking at his damn computer. All that I could see of him was his shiny bald head and the top of his glasses. As he looked up at me, I quickly looked down to the folders in my hand. I didn't want him to think that I was staring at him.

"Four closed cases in four weeks"

I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or if he had expected me to have done more. To be honest I had worked hard. I'd used the information that he'd given to me and added my own research before heading onto the streets.

"I think that it's time for you to move on now, but first you need to understand some of the issues surrounding most of our cases. These, well they were cases that a colleague had struggled with. He was happy for someone else to take a fresh look and it allowed me to assess your skills"

Was I hearing right? Was he telling me that the past four weeks had all been a test? I mean I knew that it was important to do my best and that the outcome might affect whether I continued to be employed, but how was the work that he took on any different? Those four cases had been what I'd expected. Find a teenage girl who had run away. Determine who had stolen a priceless painting from a boutique art shop. Who had vandalized a yacht in the marina and then the last one, but definitely the worst one, was figuring out who was stalking a young woman. I suppose that one was the worst for me to do because it brought home to me all of the times that someone had done that to me. Not that I'd been stalked but that I had been so naive in stopping it. I'd allowed Ranger and Joe to do that for me.

I was all ears now as I focused on Mr Penderton. His glasses were perched on the end of his nose as he looked from the computer then over the top of them to me. The man was imposing even if he was in his sixties making me wonder what he had been in his younger days. There had been absolutely nothing to find about him and believe me I'd tried.

"I want you working with two other people on a case. It's not without risk but it seems that the police and FBI have decided to close the case which my client isn't at all pleased about"

Of course my curiosity was piqued. I'd already worked out from the work that I'd done that the police were lapse around here. They didn't look for that girl because she'd run away before and weren't interested in knowing why. Had they asked some of her friends why the girl was so unhappy then maybe an abusive uncle would have come to light. As for the art work, the owner had been charged before for trying to sell a fake painting, so they just assumed that he was trying to do an insurance scam.

As for the yacht the police put it down to kids who were probably drunk, not the action of a man who was pissed off because the owner refused to let him date his daughter. Yeah, I knew from what Joe had told me that the police were overloaded with work with few resources, so cases like that got pushed to the side. Then there was the stalker. Need I say more? Unless a woman was seriously hurt, then those were never followed up on.

That the FBI had closed the case intrigued me. I'd never had anything to do with the FBI. Well shoot, yes, I did. What the hell was the man called? Bunchy? Close enough. It was after Hawaii and somehow, I'd picked up that damn photo. Okay, so maybe the FBI were just as bad as the police.

"Take today off. Get some rest and relax. You'll need to meet your work partners tomorrow in the office above the gun range"

That Mr Penderton went back to looking at his computer had me assuming that our meeting was over. That I was effectively being dismissed. Rest and relax. Okay, I was up for that. Leaving the house, I was debating where I could go. Braintree wasn't that far from Boston, but I'd avoided going into the city. I knew that Rangeman had an office there but a part of me was worried at being seen by any Rangemen. I knew that I was probably being stupid about that because I doubted that any of them would know who I was or even recognize me. The niggle at the back of my mind was whether or not one of the men that I knew well might be there. It wasn't unusual for Les, Bobby or even Ranger to visit the office. If Ranger wasn't back in Trenton, he could very well be at one of the other offices and he was someone that I really didn't want to bump into. What if he had a woman here, one he called Babe? No, that would be devastating. It was better not to know that.

Back at my apartment I changed into a strappy top and long shorts. The weather was looking as though today would be a good time to visit the beach, something that I'd wanted to do but hadn't had the time for. I checked through my bag before heading for the door. Sunglasses, check. Money, check. Phone and book, check. All set for a relaxing stroll.

I spent the morning at Wessagusset Beach and then at George Lane Beach. Definitely no resemblance to what I was used to at Point Pleasant. Being on the river there were no waves to soothe me, and the sand was rocky in places. As the day warmed up, I realized that there were no shops or cafes close by to buy a drink. No, the atmosphere here was different. More a place where locals went with their children for a couple of hours. I'd need to explore further to find the beach that truly eased my soul. By mid afternoon I was hot, thirsty and hungry so returned to my car to drive around for somewhere to eat. It was a beautiful area and the houses built along the coast road were truly amazing, sat on the edge of the river with a view to die for. Following the road, I headed east to where I imagined the sea would be. Nantasket Beach was where I ended up. It went on for miles with sand, waves and a lot of people making the most of the summer day. Despairing that yet again there still weren't any cafes I turned in land slightly and found a delightful place to grab some food. The To Dine For café had a Mediterranean menu so with my Chicken Kabob with Greek Salad Roll-Up and a drink I headed back toward the beach and to find somewhere to park.

Arriving back at the apartment I realized that I'd needed that break. I'd explored the area, found places that I'd go back to and some I probably wouldn't. The evening was balmy so after unloading the grocery supplies that I'd bought on the way back I relaxed outside on the balcony. Being warm, comfortable and relaxed it wasn't long before I was dozing. I woke with a start, unsure of what had disturbed me. It was pitch black with a few lights penetrating the branches from the big house. Other than the gentle sway of the branches it was extremely peaceful. Time to shower and go to bed.

I woke early, really early for me and try as I might, I couldn't get back to sleep. Maybe I was nervous with what the morning would bring. This was when I would be working with two other people. People that I hadn't met before. Would they accept me as a working colleague or be annoyed at a new interloper? Would this new case be totally beyond what I was capable of? Yep, I was definitely nervous. Not sure what to wear I went with black trousers and a black blouse and then pulled my unruly hair back into a ponytail. My face had caught the sun, so I forgo any makeup, opting for mascara for courage. Begrudgingly I strapped my gun into an ankle holster before going to raid the fridge.

As I ate a couple of pancakes that I'd microwaved I was wondering what to do about my gym session. Tuesday was one of the days when I went swimming. It had been one of the options which I'd hoped would be something that I was capable of doing. I could swim. Trips to Point Pleasant had ensured that I'd learnt. What had surprised me when I'd got to the gym was that there was a trainer. Man, he put me through my paces, pushed me to speed up, changed the stroke to use. Then to finish the session the trainer had insisted that I did some muscle strengthening exercises. I'd been totally exhausted and had ached all over the following day. Yet in a perverted way I'd found that I'd enjoyed the feeling of euphoria afterwards. Yeah me, enjoying exercising. Joe had laughed out loud when I'd told him about it.

When I arrived at the gun range, I was at a loss as to how to access the office upstairs. I even attempted to walk around the building looking for some stairs or even another door. In desperation I went inside the gun range, looking for some clue as to where to go.

"Annie"

I turned surprised at hearing my name to find Mr Penderton stood by an open door. I could have sworn that he had a slight grin on his face.

"Elevator. Sorry. I forgot to tell you how to get up to the office. This keypad opens the elevator doors"

I watched as he slid a panel open and punched in the code.

"19 2 14. That is your personal code. So I know who's here"

Okay, I said the numbers over and over as we ascended in the elevator and hoped that I would remember them. As I followed Mr Penderton through the doors I came to a standstill. I didn't know what I expected the place to look like, but certainly not what I was seeing. Yes, computers and screens and a large oval table in the center of the room. Screens that looked like television screens on the walls and boards that held a lot of paperwork. It was things like the lit up round table and glass screen that seemed to be held in mid air that flummoxed me. What the hell were they for and what could they do?

As I approached the round table, I was looking at a 3D image of this property. Oh. My cheeks became warm as I realized that I was probably being watched as I'd explored around the gun range.

"No, it isn't real time. It helps us to get a different perspective of an area"

I looked across the image to see a man stood there smiling at me. Now I felt stupid for not knowing what it was, but come on, even Rangeman didn't have something like this. Well as far as I knew, maybe they did but I wasn't privy to know about it.

"Annie. This is Jex. He's the brains here as far as anything electronic is concerned. Just be patient with him because he gets a little tetchy if you mess with his toys. The gentleman sat over there in the corner, that's Oscar. Ex navy seal, so his specialty are weapons and tactical operations"

My eyes immediately went to the man called Oscar. Of course they would, because Jonas had mentioned that he was ex navy. I wondered if he knew any of the guys that worked at Rangeman. That could be awkward. Then again, I was pretty sure that I'd read somewhere something about confidentiality so surely, he would never discuss this new woman that he was having to work with.

"Shall we get started"

Jonas caught my attention as he said that and walked over to the large oval table. There were four thick folders with a laptop set out, so I made my over to the seat the furthest away. I refrained from opening the folder, watching as the other two men moved to take their seats. Jex had short black hair cut neatly with a slightly darker skin tone than me. His eyes were a dark brown behind the glasses that he wore but with the high cheek bones and angular jaw he looked pretty serious. Oscar, well he was the opposite. Definitely Merry Man material with a broad chest and muscular arms. His hair was long and a dirty blonde color that fell over a good looking face. Grey eyes with small lines that denoted that he either smiled or grimaced a lot. My attention went back to Mr Penderton as he started to talk.

"The client is a prominent business man in Boston, extremely wealthy. His daughter, Lisa, disappeared four months ago but there was never a demand for any ransom. Two months ago, a man called Elija Banning was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of several young women. A serial killer whose crimes had gone unnoticed until then. Banning was charged and found guilty on the evidence that was found at the homestead where he lived. Included in those charges was the murder of Lisa. The problem that the FBI had was that whilst articles of clothing and DNA belonging to women were found at the homestead few bodies were recovered. Banning was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID) so was of no use in giving any ideas to the locations of the woman"

"You used the term was, Jonas"

Everyone looked at Oscar as he interrupted Mr Penderton with what might have been a valid question.

"Yes. He was incarcerated in a secure facility but unfortunately somehow, he became involved in a skirmish and was fatally wounded. There will be no leads coming from him. Our client wants us to find Lisa, or at least her body, so that he has some closure over what happened to her"

Sheesh. I was still trying to get my head around what Mr Penderton had told us. I'd never had any involvement with a serial killer, thankfully. Okay I'd met my fair share of mad men, Abruzzi coming to mind and probably Scrogg would fit into that description, but this was different. Or was it?

"Everything that the FBI released to our client is in those files and on the laptop. I haven't uploaded it onto the main frame because I hope to be meeting with you regularly for any new developments. I appreciate that each of you has a different method of disseminating information. What we'll do first is to field questions that immediately come to you. Annie"

I opened my mouth to say something but there were so many questions whizzing around in my head that I had no idea where to start. The beginning, I thought.

"When does the FBI think that the first woman went missing?"

Wanting to know when Banning had started to abduct and murder women.

"Seven years ago. Three bodies were discovered buried in the woods surrounding the homestead. Women who hadn't been reported as missing. The FBI are still trying to identify them. It's thought that those were his first victims"

Seven years and no one knew. Possibly women living on the street or as I thought about it women who lived off the street, like Lula had done when I'd first met her. There were a lot of young women, some girls, who were lost from the system. Runaways or those turning to prostitution.

"How many?"

I almost cringed when Jex asked that. How could it be that no one suspected anything?

"Three bodies buried in the woods which the FBI have determined happened over a three year period but the FBI discovered clothes that they believe belonged to seven individuals"

One a year. That man must have been positively insane to have done that.

"How had the women died?"

I wasn't sure I wanted to know that, but I acknowledged that what Jex had asked might be important.

"Difficult to say what the actual cause of death was. According to the autopsy, and bear in mind, the bodies had decomposed, and animals had got to them. It's thought that they suffered from broken bones that had had time to heal. Malnutrition from the tests carried out on the bones, but a break to their hyoid suggested strangulation"

In other words they were held captive, beaten and probably raped before Banning had strangled them to death. Shit, they must have been scared to death if they were held for a long time and on little food.

"Accomplices?"

Came from Jex. A valid question if this man had managed to capture these women. That wouldn't have been easy unless he had help, or unless he knew them. I suppose facts like that would have been looked at by the FBI.

"Not as far as the FBI knew. Banning was a drop out from school. He'd lived with his mother at that homestead, but no one seems to know what happened to her. As an adult he kept to himself, bought groceries from a local store, gas for his pickup, but no one ever saw him with anyone else. He earned a pittance by collecting plastic and glass bottles, cans that he took in to a redemption center. They knew him, but paid little attention to him. Few residents made any complaints about him, so it was difficult to know how far he travelled"

I waited to see if any other questions were forthcoming. I suppose like me we needed to read the reports in the file. Not exactly something that I was looking forward to.

"Okay, I'll leave you to it. We'll meet each morning to discuss any findings or questions though I'm sure that this will take several days for you to become familiar with everything that we have"

As the men began to move, collecting their folder and laptop there was one thing that interested me.

"Mr Penderton?"

"Jonah. You're part of the team now"

I nodded at hearing that, pleased that things were going to be less formal.

"Would it be possible to visit Banning's homestead?"

All eyes were suddenly on me making me feel embarrassed at having asked that. For me, seeing where this had all happened would help me to get a feel for who the man Banning had been. If we were to ever find where Lisa was then knowing Banning was important.

"I'm sure that I can arrange that"

I nodded before sitting back down. The table was an ideal space for me to work from. I pushed the laptop to one side and pulled the folder in front of me wanting to know what reports we had. I needed a pad, pen and highlighters if I was going to do this.

It took me three hours to arrange the contents into a logical semblance. Well logical to me. I had the information on each of the woman who had gone missing sat in a sequential row to my right, with the reports on the bodies that were found. To my left were the reports that had been compiled by FBI agents on the discoveries at the homestead, and in front of me was anything to do with Banning. Again, these were arranged in a timeline and included official reports from his assessments at the facility. Toward the middle of the table were copies of interviews from residents, both local to the homestead and ones taken close to where Lisa had gone missing. To me there was one vital piece of information missing and that was on his parents.

"Okay Annie?"

I jumped slightly at someone being so close behind me and turned to see Oscar stood to my side. Shit, I almost expected him to tell me that I should be more aware of my surroundings.

"Thought you'd probably need this"

I smiled as he placed a tall glass of orange juice and a sandwich next to me. I'd become so involved in sorting through the paperwork that I'd lost track of time.

"Thank you"

I watched as he looked around at how I'd managed to scatter papers all over the table.

"It is arranged logically, honestly. I'm a visual person. I need to see what's there and then I can work out what's missing"

All that I got was a raised eyebrow before he turned and walked away. How was it that it only seemed to be me who couldn't do that? My interruption did have me looking around the room, seeing what the other two were up to. Jex was using his 3D image creator to produce the inside of the homestead while Oscar was moving pictures onto and off the glass screen. It made me feel like a neanderthal. Here I was with paper, pens and highlighters while they were utilizing such advanced technology.

After a five minute break to rest my eyes and think through where to go next I pulled forward the information on Banning's early life. According to the records his was a home birth with a midwife in attendance. It had been a very difficult birth, something about the baby being face presented, which after making use of the internet on the laptop I discovered meant that the baby was facing up rather than down. Interestingly the percentage of women that this happened with increased with black women or with a women that had given birth to more than one offspring at one time, or had more than one pregnancy at different times. I stored that information away unsure if it was relevant or not. It certainly wouldn't help to locate Banning's mother.

Reading on, Banning had attended elementary school in Holliston regularly until he was eight years old. That seemed an odd age to stop, too young to have moved up to junior high or middle schools. As a consequence, there was nothing after that. No illnesses or hospital appointments. The legal guardian was cited as a Mrs. Banning with only an address. I couldn't believe that an eight year old would have survived on his own, so he must have still been living with his mother then. So why had she stopped sending him to school? Had she moved to another state? A quick search on Banning's mental health issues told me that symptoms of DID often showed up in childhood, between the ages of 5 and 10. But that parents, teachers or healthcare providers often missed the signs. DID might be confused with other behavioral or learning problems common in children, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). I wondered if Banning's behavior was the reason that he'd no longer attended school. Nah, surely someone at the school would have offered some support and help.

A copy of his birth certificate was just as vague, with no name for the father. I could understand why the FBI hadn't pursued anything on the mother. I didn't know why but that was something that I felt was important. All that I had to do was to figure out how.

A noise from behind me had me turning to see that Jex had closed down his laptop and the 3D image had gone. It was probably time to call it quits for the day, but I wanted to leave my papers as they were on the table. A look to the far side of the room showed that Jonas had come in. He was talking on his phone quietly so maybe nothing to do with this job.

"Folks, the FBI have given us permission to visit the Homestead tomorrow morning. An Agent Calvert will meet us there. We'll meet outside of my house at 8 in the morning. Dress appropriately, the place and surrounding area are a mess"

I assumed that meant that we had finished for the day and tomorrow would be like a field trip. Yeah some field trip. A visit to the site where a serial killer had raped and tortured his victims. Wahoo. Was all that I could think of as I went down in the elevator and out into the gun range. That gave me an idea on how I could blast the thoughts of the trip out of my mind. I'd stuck with the agreement of practicing my shooting once a week but to be honest I still hated my gun. I figured that if it was a question of shooting someone or being killed then I could at least hit the target. What injury I would cause was probably debatable. An hour later I decided that I'd had it with shooting targets so returned to my apartment.

I ate, then showered before putting on some joggers and a T-shirt, then went in search of clothes for our field trip. Fortunately, I'd brought some black cargos with me and my good old boots courtesy of my bounty hunting days. At least the cargos didn't have Rangeman embroidered on them. I sighed as the thought of Ranger and Rangeman went through my head. I wondered if Ranger had returned home from his mission and if he was unharmed. I knew that one of my biggest fears had been that he wouldn't get out alive. Maybe that was one of the reasons that he didn't do relationships, the fear of injury or not coming back.

There was no point in thinking of what may or may not have happened. Ranger had made it perfectly clear to me that he didn't want to see me. I was here now, involved in resolving a mystery. At that thought I actually felt excited about what we were doing. Banning was dead now so no more women would be in danger. So why was my mind racing at a 100 miles an hour.