Vanished (ONC 2023)

Chapter 7 - Connection

I didn't think the first online dating profile I set up would feature me posing as a murder victim's look-a-like.

When I created the account, I kept it simple as a 26-year-old male who worked in city planning. I had short blond hair, dimples, fair skin, and a wild guess of a height of 5'10" since I'd never seen Dustin stand, but his legs seemed long-ish. I had to take a few liberties such as 'I' enjoyed outdoor activities like cross-country skiing and ice fishing as I could field a question or two should I have to catfish someone for information, although I hoped it didn't come to that.

Once the account went live, I searched for people named Alexia Moore within 50 kilometres of me. Several accounts showed the women were online or recently active. I took screenshots of each profile, feeling stalkeresque, but if one was a murderer, this would benefit us all, especially since the killer targeted women too. Only one profile, the socialite's, matched the results I'd found earlier online. The probability of a person broadcasting her true identity across multiple platforms and being a sneaky murderer who kept contacting Dustin's family after his death was pretty low.

On Saturday, I browsed more, looking for Alexias or Alexia Ms in case she'd shortened it, or she had only shared her full name with Dustin later. Curiously, since last night, one Alexia Moore profile had vanished. I kicked myself for not getting a shot of the entire description, just the photo and a few details about her job, florist, age, 24, and part of her blurb about her favourite place for a date, the tropical gardens. That wasn't anywhere near the area of the river where he died. Had Dustin gone out with her more than once? That question had to wait until Monday.

A big hurdle to solving this crime was the limited time Dustin and I spent together. To solve that, I found the start of the line and would ride the bus from there. Since the bus had undergone maintenance last week, it should run its normal route.

Monday morning, I travelled on another bus as far south as my regular route reached. It would have been a lot easier had Dustin's bus not been an express one-way bus I could board southbound, but that wasn't the case, so my first ride was sadly Dustin-free. Today's temperature was more seasonal at a balmy -8 Celsius with minimal wind as I waited for Dustin's bus.

When the 595 bus pulled up way out in the suburbs, a grin tugged at my cheek muscles. I cheerily greeted the bus driver, scanned in for the second time, popped in my earbuds, and sat beside the only other passenger.

"Good morning," Dustin said with a wide smile. "Did you visit someone out here?"

"I did some investigating this weekend, and I figured I'd need more time to pick your brain for enough information to catch this killer."

"Thank you, my little Sherlock Holmes." As he beamed at me, my cheeks warmed.

I scrolled through my photos to show him each Alexia I'd found, but he didn't recognize anyone, not even the florist whose account had disappeared on Saturday. She must have just given up or met someone.

I opened up a notes document on my phone. "What do you remember about her?"

"We connected over our love of the band, Glass Lung, and saw them on our first date. Small venue, super crowded." He shuddered like the memory bothered him.

"What about her? What did she look like?"

Dustin looked at me as he spoke. "She's pretty, wore thick dark-framed glasses, and her hazel eyes cut right through me. She also had medium-length red hair and freckles."

Her hair colour would narrow down the suspect list. My fingers struggled to keep up with his words. Once they had, I asked, "Any birthmarks, tattoos, defining features, very tall or short?"