Derek
After I left Greene's office, I drove around a bit trying to clear my head. Allan was right, if I wanted to find Layna I had to stay level headed and not make assumptions based on my gut feeling. Just because I felt like something was off with Brian, didn't mean that he was guilty of kidnapping.
It took me about thirty minutes to calm myself down, and that's when I made my way back to the station.
When I walked into Greene's office that he had passed out, face first on his desk. I felt bad for the guy; as hard as I was working to try and help Layna, he was probably working harder. At least I had gotten some sleep last night, I was pretty sure he had spent the night in is office going through leads.
He jumped up when the door closed, clearing his throat. He rubbed his eyes as I took a seat in front of his desk. When he saw that it was me, he leaned back on his chair, rubbing his face as he let out a deep breath.
"I need more coffee," he said as a way of greeting.
"The coffee here is shit, and you know it. Why don't we go grab some from the café down the block; at least then you can get out of the office and clear your head a bit. I think its something we both need at this moment to be honest."
"Yeah, yeah that sounds good," he stood up from his desk, grabbing his badge and wallet from the drawer beside him. I followed his lead and we left his office.
"Detective Green!" a voice called out, and we both turned to look at the young officer that was running towards us. He looked fluster, his face bright red. "We have a situation."
Green just raised and eyebrow at him, and he continued, "There's some people in the conference room saying you called them; from the FBI or something. They just started setting up and I told them to stop that they had to talk to you but they didn't listen."
"You know them?" Detective Green looked at me questioningly. I shrugged my shoulders unsure of who exactly they were.
I followed Detective Greene out of his office, and into the conference room.
"Derek man, what's up?" Humphrey said, waving from where he was sitting at one of the tables. He had his typical set-up of three laptops around him, and he was typing furiously at one. "Do you think I could get the Wi-Fi password?"
I knew that if he wanted to, he could just hack into their internet and go from there, but usually while on a case he liked to be polite and ask first.
Justin was sitting beside Humphrey, a whole bunch of papers in front of him, as he made notes in the files. Amelia was in a corner talking on her phone, but she waved at me when she saw that I had walked in.
Humphrey came around the table, clasping my shoulders. He was the oldest one of us, having worked with the FBI the longest, and in his fifties. It still surprised me how good he was with computers at his age, and it was something we often joked about with him.
"I've heard that you might need our help?" He said kindly, a fatherly warmth in his eyes.
"Would someone like to tell me what the hell is going on?" Greene said calmly from where he was watching the scene unfold in front of him from the doorway.
"Are you the detective in charge of the Layna Keston case?" Humphrey said, standing up and going over to meet Alan by the doorway. "My name is Mervyn Humphrey, I'm the head of this team here. That's Justin Baddox and Amelia Arnocetti. We're with a special unit in the FBI, along with Derek here, that specialize in serial crimes."
"Yes, I know who you guys are; I'm the one that called you guys. I don't understand what you're doing here as I never got a call back."
"There were some... extenuating circumstances, but we are here now, and ready to help."
I slumped down on one of the chairs, "That fantastic because we need all the help we can get. We're stuck." I proceeded to tell them about my theory about Brian, and any else we knew about the case so far.
"It's just a theory," Greene clarified. "As much as I would love to arrest him and get Layna, there has been no other indication that Brian was the one who did this, other then what Derek is telling me. There's no evidence, and therefore nothing I can do."
"If I've learned anything about working with Derek, its that his gut feelings are always right," Justin said. "If there is something off about this guy we will find it."
Humphrey had already started to type on his computer, his hands flying against the keys. "I'll see if I can uncover anything about him online, I'll just need a little bit of time."
"In the meantime," Amelia said, "has anybody visited the previous victim's families?"
"I personally spoke with some of the families when this first started, but they weren't very helpful, and didn't want to talk about it. I would have visited them, but most of them have left the area."
"Mia Tahir's mother still lives in Mississauga; its about a thirty-minute trip." I replied. "We can go and visit them if you think it could help."
"We might as well, we have to wait a little for Humphrey to do his magic anyways."
***
Amelia followed me to my rental car, but stopped me before I could get in. "Do you want to tell me what's going on with you? Why you just up and left, and didn't let anyone know where you were going?"
"I know her, Layna I mean. We grew up together."
"You still could have told me at least. I know we haven't been dating for that long, but I'm still your girlfriend."
"I'm sorry," I said, and it felt like I was apologizing for more then what we had been talking about.
She looked at me for a moment, then nodded her head. "Lets get going, shall we? Don't want to waste anymore time."
We got into the car, and started the drive to the Tahir house. On the way there I filled her in on the what had happened the last couple of days with Layna's case. The time passed quickly, and before I knew it we were pulling up to the small bungalow where Mrs. Tahir lived.
I led the way, and Amelia followed behind me as we made our down the path to the front door. It only took a couple of seconds after I had knocked that the door was opened, and Mrs. Tahir was looking at us suspiciously form behind the door. "Look, I'm not buying what you're selling, so don't waste your time." She then proceeded to slam the door in my face.
I exchanged a glance with Amelia before knocking again. "I said I don't want any! Leave or I'm going to call the police."
"Ma'am, my name is Amelia Arnocetti and this here is Derek Jackson. We are with the FBI and we're here about your daughter."
She opened the door, and I finally got a good look at her. She must have been in her late forties, with gray streaks in her ebony hair. She was medium height, and on the plump side.
"Show me your badges then I'll let you in."
Both me and Amelia pulled out our badges and showed them to Mrs. Tahir, who had opened the door slightly and was eyeing us warily. She beckoned us inside, leading us into the living room, where we took a seat on the couch.
As I settled in, I took a good look around the room. There were pictures everywhere of the same girl, who I assumed was Mia. She had long black hair and brown eyes, and was smiling happily in all the pictures.
"Its been three years, why are you guys coming to me now?" Mrs. Tahir asked, as she took a seat across from us on the loveseat.
"We have reason to believe that the person responsible for what happened to Mia has recently kidnapped another girl. We would like to ask you some questions, if that's okay with you, about anything you might remember," Amelia said, her voice calm and controlled.
"Why are the FBI involved in this?"
"We were asked to come in and consult since we have experience with serial crimes similar to these," I replied.
"How any girls has this bastard killed since Mia?"
"We think that there are about ten girls who he had kidnapped so far."
Mrs. Tahir nodded, looking down at her hands. "You can ask me whatever you need and I'll try to help out as best as I can."
Suddenly, a little girl, no more than three, ran into the room, stopping in her tracks when she saw me. She was holding a large teddy bear that was almost as big as her.
She cocked her head to the side, and I could see that she had Sarah's eyes and hair. "Who you?" she asked.
"Jasmine, you're supposed to be taking a nap." Mrs. Tahir said.
"I don't want to nap, grammy." She said, climbing into Mrs. Tahir's lap.
"Alright, but I need you to be quiet while grandma talks to these people okay?"
"Okay. They here for mommy?" Jasmine asked, and I was surprised.
I glanced at Mrs. Tahir, and she just nodded, so I answered. "Yes, we are."
Jasmine nodded, like she expected my answer. "Mommy no here; she up in heaven, with the angels."
I got goose bumps when she said it, all nonchalant. But I guess that she was too small to fully understand what had happened to her mother.
"That's right, sweetie," Mrs. Tahir replied, "She's in a good place right?" Jasmine nodded again, and fiddled around with her teddy bear.
"Mrs. Tahir, is there anything that you can tell us about the time before Sarah was murdered?"
"I don't know what you know or read, but I'll tell you what I told the police. My daughter had been dating someone for about a year and a half. He was a nice guy, very polite and respectful. When Mia got pregnant with Jasmine he really stepped up and said he was ready to be a dad and would be there for both of them. He was over here everyday helping, and any other time he spent working to save up some money for when Jasmine arrived.
" A couple weeks before Mia was due, he disappeared. We lost all contact with him. That's when the stalking started; it happened for about a month and then one night her boyfriend called and said he wanted to meet with Mia. That was the last time I saw her alive; They found her body two weeks later abandoned in the woods."
My heart started pounding in my chest. "And you told the police about her boyfriend?"
"Of course! They didn't believe me. They said that there was no evidence pointing towards the boyfriend."
"What was his name?" Amelia asked.
"Brian Thornton."
Holy fuck. My mind started racing a mile a minute. This could not be a coincidence; it gave me some evidence to back up my claim into Brian, enough to start an actual investigation.
"I have a picture of them together, if you'd like. I kept it just in case."
"That would be very helpful Mrs. Tahir, thank you." Amelia said with a calm tone, the exact opposite to what I was feeling right now.
"It would be my pleasure to help this guy go to jail," She got up, resting a now sleeping Jasmine on the chair where she was sitting. She walked over to one of the phot albums and pulled out a picture. "They look so happy here," she whispered, before handing over the picture to Amelia.
"Find this girl before he kills her. I don't want anyone else suffering like I did, or like the other mothers did after me. This stops now."
"We will, Mrs. Tahir, I promise. Thank you for your help," I said, getting up. The adrenaline was rushing through my body and I couldn't wait to go back to the station to finish this.
When we got to the car, I took the picture from Amelia, wanting to see the proof for myself. But what I saw made my heart sink to my stomach. Because the Brian that had taken Layna, the Brian I knew, wasn't the Brian that was in this picture.
The guy in the picture was a guy I had never seen before.