The Reckoning - BLACKBIRD book 3

10. not again

**picture: Lebannon Road, North Berwick, ME

"So?"

Fred's lips pursed at Gillian's question over the phone.

Aldana shook her head. "We're just driving around, Reg, taking a look at the area," she replied. "There are small clusters of houses here and there, scattered along the roads. But we can't ask questions we don't have. We have no idea who we're looking for."

At the motel, Gillian swallowed a snort, avoiding eye contact with Hank. If she even glanced at his told-ya face, she would have to make him pick his teeth up from the carpet.

"C'mon, lads! White male in his mid-thirties. Been living in the area for years, if not all his life. He lives alone and has a part-time job or works from home. Do I need to tell you that?"

Ron leaned forward from the backseat to reply. He paused, huffed and said, "Listen, Reg, if you want us to start asking around, that's what we'll do. Not like we have anything better to do, either. But I don't think that's gonna take us anywhere."

They heard Gillian's frustrated sigh. "I know, lads, I know. But we're at a dead end, and this son of a bitch is stalking a boy as we speak, picking his next victim."

"Okay, we'll keep you up," said Aldana.

Ron handed them a satellite map of the area. "Here, Lebanon Road and Governor Goldwin," he said, pointing at a crossroads. "There's at least a dozen houses."

Gillian disconnected with another sigh. The situation was really upsetting her. She hated feeling so lost about a case. Especially with children at stake.

"I need some air," muttered Hank, standing up. "Anything from the store?"

"Cyanide," grunted Gillian.

"That'll do."

She heard him walk out, her eyes still fixed on the timeline and the pictures of the boys. Four to nine months between one abduction and the next. Why did the periods vary? She checked the dates again, but there was nothing new about them that could offer any kind of clue as to why the subject kept one boy longer than the other.

Maybe one didn't please him, or was harder to subdue. Yet, according to the information they'd gathered about them, that didn't play a part. Harry, the soccer player, seemed to be the most energetic and rebellious, and the subject hadn't sought the next boy, Lou, until six months later. A piano player couldn't be that hard to deal with, but the subject had abducted Bobby only four months later.

She started to flick through the files on each boy, letting her mind go for a stroll, to see if it came back with some new idea. Then something caught her attention. Harry, the soccer player, had been kidnapped only ten days after Mark's—the first victim—birthday.

Gillian rushed to fetch the pages with basic information from each folder and compared the birth dates with the abduction dates.

"Oh, shit!" she snarled. "You sick son of a bitch!"

She was about to call Aldana when she got Tanya's call. The girl spoke even quicker than usual. "Reg! There's an Amber Alert in Somersworth, fifteen minutes away from Rochester! And the missing boy fits the type!"

Gillian's eyes jumped to Bobby's birthday: it'd been ten days ago. She opened the picture Tanya had just sent her and a chill ran down her spine. "It's him! We're taking the Alert!"

Cooper's voice took her aback. "No, you're not, Gillian. A CARD team and a profiler are already on site. Stay in Rochester and work your case."

"But it's the same case, Agent Cooper! The pedophile who abducted and killed Bobby Lee is the same who took this boy! Fits the pattern!"

"Send me a full report and I'll make sure the CARD team gets it."

Gillian needed to count to ten-hundred in only two seconds, and felt her muscles tightening with the effort to keep a grip on herself.

"Yes, ma'am," she grunted.

"I'll let them know you're in the area. They'll contact you if they need any kind of assistance from your team."

She understood Cooper just tried to play by the book, to keep from messing with the CARD team in such a sensitive situation. Anyway, she needed to breathe deep, not to sound too harsh.

"Yes, ma'am."

She disconnected, fetched the folders and the SUV keys, and stormed out of the room to almost stumble onto Hank, on his way back.

"He just took another kid! C'mon, hurry up!"

"What? Where are we going?"

"To Somersworth!"

Hank paused to sigh, and then he had to run to get into the SUV before Gillian stepped on the gas, skidding out of the motel parking lot.

"Find me the address of Somersworth Police Station and load it to the GPS," she said, scowling ahead as she dialed. It took her less than a minute to fill the others in and disconnect. "This time he triggered an Amber Alert," she said, anticipating Hank's questions. "A Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team is already here, with a profiler. They need to see what we got. The profiler will know how to use it. Here, take my phone and check Tanya's last email. That's the missing boy. Look at him and tell me it's not our sicko."

"Shit," grunted Hank after seeing the picture. "He does stick to his type."

"Call Kurt. Make sure he doesn't put you on speaker and Cooper's not around. Tell him to send us all they can find on the Alert."

"What's with Cooper?"

"She doesn't want us on the Amber Alert."

"What? We're already on the case!"

"I don't know. Maybe she doesn't wanna have any trouble with the CARD team. She told me to send a report, so she can fast-forward it to them."

"When we're against the clock to find that kid? That doesn't make any sense!"

"That's why I think she's only trying to save some face."

"But we're going to meet them anyway."

"Last time I checked, my name was still Gillian, not Cooper."

Hank let out a bitter scoff and called Kurt.