Grayson Todd
Fifteen months.
Fifteen months since Lara was murdered.
Fifteen months since Emma disappeared.
Fifteen fucking months.
At this point, both cases had gone as cold as all the last Ghost Killer cases. Now that they were cold, Aaron and Gray had been given plenty of other cases to occupy themselves with. And while it was easy for Aaron to move on, merely waiting for the next murder and disappearance to focus on again, Grayson wasn't so easy. He couldn't just let this go.
He'd done everything.
He'd talked to the husband, countless times, so many times Gray was sure the man was so utterly tired of seeing his face. He'd talked to Emma's coworkers, her boss, hell even some of the children, but no matter where he went there was nothing. Gray focused on Lara for a while too, talking to her family and her friends, but that woman had been missing for nine months and dead for fifteen. Anything they could've told him was either useless or forgotten ages ago.
This wouldn't be so fucking difficult if the Ghost Killer left evidence once in a fucking while. But he'd earned his name for a reason. Clean kills. Practically spotless kills. He made absolutely positive never to leave a trace, and he'd gotten good at it. If Grayson didn't know better, he would think the killer had spent time in law enforcement. He obviously knew exactly what not to leave behind, and took care to abide by that.
It was frustrating.
It didn't help that seemingly every other case the two detectives picked up weren't nearly as difficult to solve. At least, they didn't take as much time. And while Gray and Aaron were given the praise, all Gray felt was that they kept getting open-and-shuts. He would feel accomplished with his own detective work when the Ghost Killer was behind bars.
Or better yet, dead.
It had become a rarity for Grayson to go home lately, but seeing as he'd been working himself to the bone, Zach had forced both detectives to take a day off. But just because he was home today didn't mean Gray wasn't working.
It had been over a year since Emma had been taken, and that was about as long Ghost Killer victims tended to last. The longest had been a year and a half. Emma could turn up dead any day, and Gray was painfully aware of it, but he was struggling to remain optimistic. He told himself that he had another three months. Three months before Emma would most likely be killed and dumped.
But seeing as all of his leads had hit dead ends months ago, he was starting to lose hope.
It was late afternoon when his phone began to ring, and looked at it with tired eyes. Sleep had grown even harder to come by. Seeing who was calling, however, Gray furrowed his brows.
It was Lily Nickels, Emma's coworker and classroom neighbor.
Grayson wasted no time answering. "Miss Nickels."
"Detective! I think I just saw Emma!"
The man jerked in his seat on the couch, brows flying up. He shifted the phone between ear and shoulder and scrambled for his notepad. "Where?"
"Uh," the woman murmured. "The middle of Main, close by the school? In front of this Chinese place I can't read the name of. It was quick, she was in a car, but I swear it was Emma, I would know her anywhere."
"What did you see exactly, Miss Nickels?" Gray asked, already writing things down.
"Okay, um. She was in the passenger seat, and her head was down, so I didn't see much, but I caught this glimpse of her face and it had to be Emma. Except...there was a, uh, a scar? On her cheek? And her hair was short and brown like you said it would be."
Unfortunately, short brown hair wasn't exactly uncommon. And Emma didn't have a face scar. But it was entire possible she'd gotten one in the last fifteen months, and even though he was skeptical, Gray had to see if this lead anywhere. "Did you see who was driving, Miss Nickels?"
The woman paused. "No....Not really. I'm pretty sure it was a blond man, but I'm not totally positive."
"What about the license plate?"
"....Shit."
Shit indeed. Gray refrained from sighing and asked instead, "Do you know what kind of car it was?"
Gray heard the woman take a deep, shaky breath before she replied, "I....It was....It was black? I don't....I don't know cars I'm a teacher."
"Okay," Grayson replied gently, listening to her begin to sniffle. "That's alright, Miss Nickels. That's still something." It was something, technically, but there still wasn't very much Gray could do about it. There were hundreds, thousands of black cars in Los Angeles. He couldn't put out a BOLO without at least the make or model, and he couldn't do much else without the license plate number.
But he couldn't tell Lily that.
"I will...." he murmured, shifting the phone a little with a frustrated frown. "I will look into it, Miss Nickels. Alright?"
"Okay," the woman replied, taking a calming breath. "Okay."
Even though there was every chance, even a likelihood, that she'd just sent him on another wild goose chase, it was more beneficial to make her feel better than to tell her that. "You did the right thing calling me, Lily," Gray said.
"What're you going to do? Was that helpful? Can you find her?"
Getting his things together, Grayson started to head for the door. Damn his enforced day off. "I'm gonna see if I can pull anything from the traffic cameras," he replied. "I'll be sure to contact you if I find anything. Alright?"
"Okay," she agreed again.
And with that, he hung up, heading for the police department. When he got there, he received a glare from Zach as the men crossed paths, but when Gray explained himself, his superior begrudgingly agreed to leave him be. "I'll...get you the damn footage," Zach muttered, turning around and walking away.
Sitting at his desk, Grayson considered calling Aaron. Even though his partner was being forced to stay home as much as he was, Gray was pretty sure Aaron was more complacent with it than he himself was. Still, he wanted his opinion on this just the same.
It took longer than Gray had expected, but eventually Aaron graced him with his presence. Not long after, Zach returned with the camera footage. "All yours," he said with a sigh.
"Thanks Zach," Gray replied, wasting no time.
Aaron on the other hand, was looking a little skeptical. "Are you sure about this, Gray?" Seeing his partner's face, he decided to elaborate. "I just mean....This woman is distraught. Her friend's been gone for fifteen months. You know what friends of kidnapping victims do—they're willing to see the victim any and everywhere. Whether there's even a resemblance or not."
Unfortunately, he was right. Grayson himself wasn't convinced either. But he couldn't just not look into it. "I know, Aaron. But it's worth checking out. We're not proper detectives if we don't investigate every angle; no matter how sure we are that it's a dead end."
The other man sighed and sat back a little. "Alright. What're we looking for?"
"Black vehicle, driving up Main, roughly an hour ago."
Aaron was silent as he brought up the footage, a slight frown on his face. Gray knew he thought this was a waste of time, but he was nothing if not persistent. The two of them watched tensely as traffic went by, eyes peeled. It took a few minutes, but eventually Gray thought he caught something. "Wait—rewind?"
His partner did as asked.
"Okay, slow down—there." Grayson pointed at a black car in which the passengers matched Lily's description. Unfortunately, the driver was wearing both a hat and sunglasses—their facial recognition software wouldn't be able to pick him out. Hell, Gray wasn't even positive the guy was blond, but everything else was accurate to what Lily had said. The woman in the passenger seat had short brown hair, and her head was indeed down. Picking out her face would be near impossible like that too. Unless...."Play it frame by frame," Gray practically commanded, scowling at the screen.
Aaron let the video roll, one frame per second, until Gray told him to stop it. It was brief, incredibly brief, but the woman had looked up. She'd lifted her head to look at the driver, and for a singular beautiful frame her face was towards the camera.
He could've sworn he heard his partner mutter something under his breath, and if he didn't know better he'd have thought it was, "Emily." But upon prompting, Aaron corrected, "Emma. It might be Emma."
"Mm," Gray agreed, nodding. "Let's run that frame through facial rec, and put out a BOLO on the car."
After getting absolutely nothing the last fifteen months, Grayson was finally feeling a bit of hope again. He didn't let it get too high, however; this could easily still amount to nothing.