Have you ever seen the Rain? (FBI Series Book 2)

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Billie hadn’t left on her own. The rental car, all of them were accounted for, she had been soundly asleep minutes before Sasha left and Billie would’ve never knocked out Justin. There wasn’t another reason for her to go off alone; Dillon had said when he arrived at the hotel. Everyone was gathered in the parking lot racking their brains and ready to pull out their hair.

Justin hadn’t seen a thing; he had been sitting at the table flipping through a magazine and caught a shadow just before he was hit. The killer was good and that made him even more dangerous.

“Why would he come after her here taking such a big risk? Before last night he was taking his time torturing the Savich family.” Pete voiced his thoughts as well as the obvious question.

“He knew she took something from the apartment.” Nicholas said. “He must’ve known somehow Joey was on to him. On those discs were profiles on the murder victims and what they all had in common, even Joey before he caught on his new best friend was a killer. Justin got there before he could find out if Billie got anything, he’s assuming the worst that his time is up.” it burned Nick to have his friend in such direct danger, he hugged Sasha close.

Pete said. “Let’s gather in your hotel room and you can show us everything we have.”

The reporter’s name was Kent Kendall; he got close to all the victims and their causes, spent weeks with them to gather all the facts for his article. At the same time he grew to know the men personally, became friends, and learned more than just about their work. “Something he learns decides if they’ll be his next target or not.” Nicholas explained. “Kent wrote about many other men and women and they’re alive. He feels he’s freeing them from an unhappy life and for a man like Kent anything could seem unhappy to him.”

Sasha took over. “We dug around into the man himself. Kent Kendall is in his late thirties and from what his boss says he’s been alone for all those years. No one particularly likes him at the office but the Editor knows a good writer when he sees one and keeps him on board.” She took a deep breath and continued. “Kent has a record for sexual abuse, one case where a woman named Belinda Bardwell filed charges against him while they were in college. The case was dropped because lack of evidence and testimony Belinda was a wild girl in those days.”

“Let’s get out and dig into Kent’s life.” Pete assigned his team different areas to tackle. “Gage, I want you to check around his home and talk with the neighbors after you look into the security tapes here, maybe Kent left us a smiling picture. Sasha, you tackle the paper and get as much as you can from the Editor. Noah, I want you to go speak to Belinda Bardwell and get her full story on our killer. Justin, you’re going to stay right here with me and Nicholas. Nick, keep searching with that computer of yours. Dillon what are you thinking?”

Dillon sat with his hands tightly folded over his lap, seated in one of the many chairs in the room. “I need to find her.”

“And we will by finding out who Kent is and where he could have taken her. There is also a chance he might try to contact us and work out a deal when he finds out Billie has handed over the evidence. Kent has been killing for years and managed to kidnap an FBI agent. He isn’t stupid, he’d try every angle to save his butt and Billie is his only hope.” Pete kept his cool the best when tensions rose high and hope was hard to grasp upon. He made it all sound as if it’d be that easy. He wanted the son of a bitch caught as much as the next person.

Dillon wanted to strangle someone. The Feds had every aspect covered, he had nothing to do but wait to find a clue or wait for the call Billie was dead. He had waited six years for her to walk back into his life, he was tried of waiting and he’d be damned if he lost her now.

The room began to clear out as everyone rushed against time of life and death. Dillon watched everyone jump at the chance to do whatever they had to not because it was their job because it was Billie on the line. He began to see what she meant when she said they were a family.

Sasha was ready to kill as she left the hotel room, a look across her face daring anyone to say the wrong thing.

Nicholas typed away at his laptop running multiple searches on Kent Kendall looking for that one thing that could make the world of difference.

Justin blamed himself, she had been his responsibility and now she was gone. Dillon found he blamed the other man too, regretting the fact he left to work believing she’d be safe with Justin. The killer wouldn’t have been able to knock them both out.

Nicholas spoke. “After Kent’s criminal trouble with Belinda he’s been a model citizen ever since. His parents died when he was just barely a teenager in a car crash. He stayed in the system until the age of eighteen and focused on school and journalism most of his life. There’s endless facts on the guy’s public life what he wants us to see but nothing about Kent the killer.”

“Besides the apartment are there any properties under his name?” Dillon asked.

“One. His parents left the house and everything else they had to their only child.”

Sasha had never been a fan of flashing her badge and using the ‘do you know who I am?’ card to get what she wanted but that afternoon was different on every level. She didn’t care if the Editor, Malcolm Johnson, had an important meeting to finish up. She was a federal agent and did in fact threaten to haul him off to jail if he didn’t start answering some questions. 

“Agent Madden is it? You have a lot of guts barging in here.” Malcolm’s face was red mostly with embarrassment as his staff was whispering outside the office about how some girl just handed him his balls.

“A woman may be dead, several men already are and you want to stall because what? Some meeting that in the long run you won’t even remember? A man named Kent Kendall works for you, correct?” Sasha asked tightly. Her green eyes suddenly very dark as she stared at the man.

Malcolm all but huffed and stomped his feet. “Yes.”

“The charges were eventually dropped but a sexual assault charge is on his record, what do you know about it?”

“Kent explained it was a misunderstanding and with the charges dropped I didn’t see it relevant and looked at the boy for the job he could do and he does it well. What is all this about Agent?”

“Have you realized that seven men have died and Kent wrote about each man not long before they were killed?” Sasha saw by his look of shock him, and probably everyone else hadn’t made the link until it stared them in the face. Until Joey picked up something was wrong with Kent. “Tell me about Kent, how is he around the office and with others?”

Malcolm shrugged. “He’s a guy focused on the job, very passionate about his articles no matter how minimal the piece. He’s a bit of a loner but I know he and Shelia were seen talking, he liked her.”

Sasha knew there was nothing helpful Malcolm could tell her that they already didn’t know. “I’d like to talk to Shelia and anyone else Kent worked with.”