Chapter 33
Griz stared at the wall that held a lot of the information about the first two missing women. The women were pretty, young, and they seemed like they had great lives. Just like Elowen, they did stuff alone.
The first woman, Gracie, went jogging alone.
The second woman, Christy, lived alone. Why couldn’t women just be alone and not get harassed?
He knew why, but he hated the reasons. He’d met plenty of guys in the military who acted like assholes when they saw a woman.
He tried not to be an idiot, but he knew when he was younger he wasn’t a great guy all the time.
But being an idiot when you were twenty and out at a club was much different from murdering women. And he had no doubt both Gracie and Christy were gone. Maybe that was why the asshole had taken Elowen.
“You okay?” Thario asked as he stepped into the room.
“Fuck no. I mean, I’m good for what it is, but no, I’m not okay. I don’t think I’ll be okay until after Elowen is in my arms.”
Thario patted him on the back. “We’ll find her. I don’t know how, but we will.”
He closed his eyes, wishing he had the same faith Thario had. The door opened, and the detective stepped in.
“Okay, don’t get your hopes up, but we received a call from a woman who said her son was acting weird.”
Thario moved to the table and opened his laptop. “What’s his name?”
“Jenkins Drummond.”
Griz watched as Thario opened browser windows and started typing furiously. Thario paused and shook his head.
“The guy was arrested fifteen years ago, but the charges were dropped. He forced a teenager to go home with him. She got free, but it could have been much worse.”
Detective Baum moved to stand next to Thario and leaned in to read the screen. “How do you have access to this?”
Thario looked over his shoulder. “I’m special, I guess. I know it’s sensitive information, but sometimes people need to have information that isn’t available to the public at large.”
Baum shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
“I’ve found some social media posts about him. Of course, it could be exaggerated, but people from his high school didn’t like him. Said he was creepy and not just his looks. He put a camera in the girls’ locker room and was expelled, no charges were filed.”
“Shit. I hate it when schools try to take care of problems on their own. Then we get perverts like this guy who are never caught.”
“When are you going to this guy’s house?” Griz asked.
“Soon. We have the SWAT team gathering. Officers are headed that way to watch the area.”
Griz nodded as he thought about what the SWAT team would be doing, how they would be preparing. Having a potential hostage would be tricky. The guy could kill Elowen before police could get to her. Stray bullets could take out hostage and perpetrator alike. He hated the odds.
“What are you thinking?” Thario asked.
“That having the SWAT team going in with guns blazing would be dangerous.”
Detective Baum ran a hand through his hair and nodded. “We’ve done things like had flowers delivered, pizza, and some other stuff. Maybe we could do that.”
“Send me in. I’ll deliver a pizza.”
“Hold on a minute, big guy. No one is going to believe you’re the pizza delivery guy.”
Griz shrugged. “They might. Pizza guys come in all shapes and sizes.”
“Few of them look like you, though. This kid has a young woman held at his house and we don’t think this is the first one.
You show up with your big muscles and intense face, and he’s going to get spooked.
We have some young guys on the force who look like they are eighteen and idiots.
They can fool the guy into thinking they are lost. He can get a look into the house and no one will think he’s a plant. ”
Griz blew out a breath. Maybe before he joined the SEAL team and gained weight, he could have played the part. But now, he was too old to play the part of lost pizza delivery guy.
“I’ll talk to the SWAT team leader. We’ll get some rookie in there to play the part.”
Griz had to be satisfied with the detective’s answer. It was the only way to get Elowen free, if that was where she was. If not, then they might never find her.