Chapter 28
28
ALEC
M y pacing steps left a coating of water and grime along the tile. One side of the bullpen to the other, my pointed attention never leaving the man hunched over his computer, furiously typing. Every rational part of my brain knew Charlie worked as fast as he could to locate where Stark held Rae, yet still the urge to roar in his face for him to hurry the fuck up persisted.
My boots’ rubber soles squeaked as I made another tight turn.
“It would help if you offered additional details to add to the search parameters,” Charlie grumbled to his screen. His normally bright eyes were bloodshot, face pale from exhaustion.
“I heard you the first ten times,” I snapped, pausing my steps. I scrubbed a hand over my face, the clammy palm scraping along rough scruff. “And same response as before. I’m thinking.”
Only half the SWAT team stayed with me, the other half out hitting the streets, talking to the dealers on Charlie’s list, hoping one knew where Stark liked to hide out. Some slept along the wall; others played on their phones as we all waited.
Four hours and nothing new.
Each glance at that damn ticking clock made my heart squeeze as thoughts of Rae scared or hurt with each wasted minute flickered through. Every time I attempted to focus on the search and determining additional parameters, Rae’s face flashed in my mind, stealing my focus all over again.
“Stop thinking about her,” Charlie said so quietly, I almost didn’t hear him. “Don’t you think I’m worried too? My thoughts keep getting darker every hour I can’t find helpful information. Don’t think about what she’s going through, or how this guy has her. Just think about him. Get into Stark’s head.”
His words struck home. “How?”
“Think like him. You’re fresh out of prison, but you don’t go back to the place you used to deal knowing they would find you there. So where do you go?”
I rubbed at my jaw. “Someone like him would want isolated, safe, familiar. After being locked up with a cellmate for ten years, he would want space, but close to find Rae and pick up where he left off with his stalking routine.” Interlacing my fingers behind my head, I blew out a breath. “So where would he have that? A place he knew no one could find or had found before. What about family?”
The keys clicked and clacked under his flying fingers. “His only family listed died when he was—” Charlie read down the screen. “—thirteen. Looks like her last known address….” He slumped back in the chair. “Demolished for a new upscale housing development six years ago. He can’t be there.”
“Fuck,” I roared, smacking my hands against my thighs. “What are we missing?” The word clanged in my head. “Missing. Didn’t you say Stark went missing from the children’s home and was never located?” Charlie nodded, his full attention on me. “What if wherever they held him, hidden away, that’s where he’s keeping Rae? He knows the police didn’t know the location then and assumes we don’t know. It would be the perfect place to take someone you don’t want found.”
“Probable, but that doesn’t offer any details to put into the search. I remember the file. There were no leads in his disappearance for me to go off.”
Hands wrapped around the edge of the desk, I closed my eyes. “Let’s assume the mother wasn’t the one abusing him. Who would that leave?”
“She wasn’t married, so no husband. A boyfriend maybe.” His chair creaked as he pitched forward, banging his fingertips along the keyboard once again. “I’ll pull up her bills, see if he helped pay for any with a credit card or was listed on a bill…. Got him.” Charlie stood so fast the chair rolled back a foot. “The boyfriend put the cable bill in his name.” Bent at the waist, he squinted at the screen. His eyes widened and then snapped to me. “Holy fuck. I thought I recognized that name.”
“What? Who?” I said, shaking his shoulder. “Where the fuck is he?”
“Dead. His mother’s boyfriend, mostly likely Stark’s main abuser, was murdered. And based on the timing and autopsy findings I pulled from the cold case files yesterday, I’d say he was Stark’s first victim.”
My hand slid from his shoulder, my entire body going slack. Grabbing the back of the chair, I wheeled it over and sank onto the foam seat. “Now what?”
“Now,” Charlie said through clenched teeth, “I do what I’m good at. They might not have found Stark when he was a kid, but that was then, and you have me. We have a name, and now I do some digging.”
I nodded, my knees bouncing with every pop of my feet against the floor. Around us, SWAT members waited, ready to leap into action the moment we found an address.
In the far corner, a hateful glare drew my wandering gaze. The detective who harassed Rae, the one I had removed from the case and requested Internal Affairs to investigate, looked as if he wanted to launch across the room and take a swing.
Leaning forward, I arched a challenging brow.
Bring it, fucker. I could use the stress release.
His face flushed red, but he didn’t move from his spot in the corner. Much to my disappointment. I needed the fight to punch away this fear and anger festering inside me. I hated this, feeling fucking useless and out of control.
Charlie’s grumbles snapped my gaze back to him and his bank of computers. Lines of code zipped across the monitors in the same quick rhythm as his fingers.
Gratitude washed over me as I watched him work.
“I’ll tell them everything you did on this case,” I muttered for only him to hear. “Everything you did in past cases too. You’d be an asset to the BSU team, and I’ll make sure they know that.”
His fingers paused for half a second, hovering over the black keys before starting back up again.
“Did you know my mother was murdered?”
Too exhausted to cover my shock, I sucked in a tight breath. “No I didn’t. What happened?”
He continued working, not missing a beat, but the narrowing of his eyes said part of his mind wandered into memories.
“She was the first victim of many before they caught the guy responsible. Twenty victims before the cops pieced together the evidence and arrested the bastard. They created the BSU to help local officers stop killers before the death count rose to unsettling numbers, to help see the entire picture even with pieces missing. That’s why I want to join. I want to stop other serial killers before they affect families, take more lives.”
I nodded. What could I say to that?
“Ah, there you are, you sneaky little fucker,” he whispered to the computer with a devilish grin.
The chair rolled backward, slamming into the far wall when I leapt to stand. The noise snapped everyone’s attention our way. A dozen sets of eyes zeroed in on Charlie.
“The boyfriend was part owner in an unsuccessful junkyard. Everything was in some other fucker’s name.” That sinister smile grew. “But they can’t hide from me. It’s closed now, but the lot is still there.”
“Address.” The command was more of a grunt than a word.
With a few hard taps, Charlie stood to full height and turned. “On your phone. Let’s go.” I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t give me that look. I’m coming with you. You’re not the only one who wants her safe and this guy dead or behind bars. Plus,” he said while pulling on a jacket with the letters FBI printed in bright yellow on the back, “I have a theory. A basic profile and plan in case he’s there with Rae. It’ll help you get her out of there alive.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” I smacked him on the back and turned toward the SWAT team. “Load up.”