Chapter 64 – Mitchell
MITCHELL
Despite what I told Brayden; it took me far longer than I would have liked to find his biological father’s address thanks to spotty reception.
On all legal documentation, his address is listed as the family home he inherited from his parents when they died over twelve years ago, but that was the first place Brayden went to find his mother and brother, only for the place to be abandoned.
It took me a little longer to find the property he bought nearly fifteen years ago, because he purchased it using a pseudonym and paid using an offshore account in someone else's name.
I couldn’t find an obvious or direct connection between him and Michael. Which is probably how he avoided suspicion or even being on the police’s radar during their investigation once Michael’s crimes came to light. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
While they attended the same university when they were studying their undergrad degrees, Michael was already three years ahead of him when Johnathan started. They studied two different degrees in two very different fields, and neither lived on campus.
Their connection could be anything, as small as sitting next to one another studying in the library for all I know.
Finding Brayden on the couch asleep, I pick him up and carry him to one of the empty bedrooms, setting him down on the bed and closing the door.
By the time we arrived here, he could barely keep his eyes open, so I’m not surprised he crashed pretty quickly. At least now I can head out and do a little recon.
“You’re gonna go check out the house before my dads arrive, aren’t you?” Charlie asks as I stand in the doorway of the room he’s chosen.
I don’t answer him straight away, my eyes roaming over the room. It’s hard not to see the bruised and battered girl I carried into this very room six and a half years ago. Of the four bedrooms in this apartment, he unknowingly chose the one Rissa claimed for herself.
“Yeah,” I finally answer, pulling myself back to the present. “I’m gonna head out now. Brayden’s asleep, you gonna be alright?”
“Yeah. Go, I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Switching the ignition off, I look out at the house in front of me before grabbing the laptop out of the footwell and waking it up.
Before we left Brayden’s, I was able to find a cached version of the sale listing online. So we know the house has three levels, four bedrooms upstairs and a basement below, providing plenty of space for him to keep someone against their will depending on the renovations he may have made inside.
Charlie’s laptop pings and a pop-up window requesting a password appears in the bottom corner. My eyes flash up to the house before dropping back down to the screen, a smile forming as the laptop attempts to connect to his wi-fi.
Opening the glove box, I dig around until I find my type-C phone cord and quickly connect my phone so I can use it to decrypt the password.
Once I’m in, I’m able to see all the devices currently connected to his network; three phones, two tablets, a smart tv and…a camera system.
His set up is shit. You’d think with his income, he’d opt for a better-quality system rather than cheap shitty cameras he got, but it's better than nothing.
A cursory glance tells me there are six cameras in total, one in the upstairs hallway, two on the main floor, and one in the basement. Then a camera covering the exterior of the front and back doors.
Starting upstairs, I see five doors: three on the left and one on the right. According to Brayden, the middle left is a bathroom and the last door on the left is Sammy’s. That leaves three more bedrooms and the other two levels to explore.
I’m just about to exit out of that camera and move on when a man exits the bathroom, buckling his belt. Pulling up the screenshots we took of each of the men who were involved in Marissa and Jace’s kidnapping, I compare them to the guy on the screen.
The image is grainy, but it could easily be the guy who attacked Jace in the driver’s seat, then dragged him to their car.
He’s got a similar build, a little bulky but not overly so and they’re similar heights.
Neither picture is enough to identify the man but that isn’t exactly a high priority right now.
He disappears into the first bedroom on the left and I switch over to the camera in the loungeroom downstairs, finding who I’m guessing is the other masked assailant, reclining on the couch watching tv.
Moving onto the kitchen, I can see he’s renovated it, all the cabinets, appliances and counters are new, but otherwise it’s the same layout in the old listing which is helpful.
The listing had the basement set up as a sort of media room with wine racks bolted into the concrete wall from ceiling to floor.
But when I open the camera for the basement, all I can see is a blank wall. It's strangely not aimed at anything.
The only thing in the basement I can see is…
a large hook hanging from the ceiling. A chill runs down my spine at the implication, and I run a hand down my face.
That hook is more than capable of holding a person’s body weight, and the fact that the camera is angled so that you could watch someone hanging from it doesn't bode well.
In my peripheral vision, I see the main floor lights turn out and I quickly switch the camera over, following as the second guy enters the upstairs camera’s view and heads into the first bedroom.
A few minutes later, the last light in the house turns off and I wait, watching all of the cameras to be sure they’ve turned in for the night before I get out of the car.