Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
MATTHEW
“What do we know about Aiden Jones?” Jenkins booms as we all gather in the meeting room.
“Aiden Jones, twenty-six, originally from Colorado but moved to Bluebonnet Creek about four years ago. He attended a local community college where he got his nursing degree and started working in the medical center as an ER nurse. He doesn’t have any priors,” Nico rattles off as he looks at his notes.
“As far as we know, he isn’t dating, and he usually sticks to hanging out with his colleagues. ”
I press my lips together as he talks, my gaze fixed on the map spread open on the table.
Where the hell is she?
Where did he take her?
“I found something interesting,” Mary chimes from her seat. “I looked him up on social media, and while he isn’t really active now, I found old posts and photos. Back in Colorado, he used to date a girl named Terry Benson. It seems like they were high school sweethearts.”
She pulls out a piece of paper and places it on the desk for everybody to see. The black and white picture is of a younger Aiden and someone I assume is Terry, hugging with big smiles on their faces.
“Let me guess,” I rasp out, the pressure inside my chest mounting by the second. “Terry has golden hair and golden-brown eyes.”
Mary shoots me an apologetic look. “Yes.”
“Did you try contacting her?” I ask, although I’m afraid I already know the answer.
“She’s dead.”
The muscle in my jaw twitches.
Another dead girl who looks just like Jessica.
And it all links back to the man we can’t find.
The man who has her.
My fingers flex, nails digging into my palms. The need to slam my fist into something is overwhelming, but I rein it back.
“Do we know what happened?” Nico asks, dropping the picture onto the desk.
“She died nine months before Aiden moved to Bluebonnet Creek,” Mary comments. “I don’t know much else. I found only a death certificate. I requested to see the coroner’s report so we know exactly what happened to her, but that will take time.”
“We don’t have time to wait for the answers.” I slam my hands against the table, all eyes turning toward me. “The fucker has her.”
“Don’t tell us how to do our job, Williams. You should feel lucky we even let you join us considering how close you are to this one. Also, let’s not forget about your suspension,” Jenkins barks out from the other side of the table.
The tension in the room grows. Half of the officers try to pretend nothing’s going on while the other half is watching intently to see how this plays out.
I grind my teeth as I shoot him a death glare. “You want me to leave you to it? Maybe that way I can find her in time, before…”
No.
I’m not even going there.
No way. No how.
She’s okay.
She’s going to be okay.
We’ll find her.
We have to find her.
“Okay, let’s take a breather for a second,” Nico interjects, looking between the two of us. “Nobody is going anywhere on their own.” His gaze meets mine. “The sheriff is right, Matthew. We can’t find her if we don’t know where he’s keeping her or what’s going on inside his head.”
“You know what’s inside his head? He got what he wanted, and now he’ll play. He has his hands on Jessica and is doing God knows what to her while we chat here like we have all the time in the world.”
“Matthew…”
“No. Terry was the first one. It makes the most sense. They were high school sweethearts, but she died. It doesn’t even matter how or why, and now he’s hyper-fixating on other women who look like her.
Two of whom are already dead. So excuse me if I don’t want to sit here, twirling my thumbs and waiting for you to find all the details while the woman I love is somewhere out there with a fucking killer who installed himself in her life and pretended to be her friend. ”
Nico presses his lips into a tight line. “Any update from patrol?”
“We have eyes on his house and the medical center, but he hasn’t been seen at either of those,” George, one of the senior officers supplies. “As a matter of fact, his boss told us he missed his last two shifts, and when they tried to reach him, the calls went to voicemail.”
“He’s not going to go to work, not now that he has her. They’ve been gone for six hours.”
Six hours, twelve minutes, and a handful of seconds.
Not that I’ve been counting.
I run my fingers through my hair before letting my hand fall to my side. “They’re somewhere out there.”
I press my hands against the map, blinking a few times to clear my vision.
The spot where Andrea Porter’s body was found is marked with a red X. While dense trees cover most of the area, there are a few lone cabins spread through that territory as well.
“We can’t be sure. The area is just too big for us to search on foot, and spending resources on a hunch that will most likely not pan out while we could be looking…”
“He’s out there,” I repeat, glaring at Jenkins.
“It’s not a hunch; it’s a fact. Nicole Kelly was killed in a cabin in the woods and dumped within a ten-mile radius of it.
Andrea Porter’s body was also found in the woods.
That can’t be a coincidence; it’s a pattern.
Everything about her kidnapping and killing was rushed.
He didn’t plan it. There were no notes or flowers, like there had been with Nicole and Jessica.
It was an impulsive, spur-of-the-moment decision done in a fit of rage. ”
Rage that I probably caused.
“Jessica was also getting flowers and notes over the last few weeks. We thought it was from her ex-boyfriend, but considering the new information we got from Ward, we can assume the notes were from Aiden. Not just that. He broke into her home, wrecked it, and left a note on the wall, along with photos. He’s been stalking her for weeks, hell, maybe even months.
” I swallow hard. “There were also photos of us.”
“Deny it all you want, but you’re mine,” Nico murmurs, sifting through the photos of the crime scene on the table until he finds it. “The message he left on her wall.”
“She was throwing away his notes and ignoring him. We started dating, and it pissed him off.”
If I hadn’t suggested it to her…
No, he wouldn’t have stopped.
By that point, he had already become fixated on her.
He would have come for her regardless of me.
But he got to her because you were the idiot who pushed her away.
“Why now, though?” I murmur under my breath, hoping the answer will appear if I ask it out loud, but no such luck. “They’ve known each other for years. Why now?”
“You were getting closer,” Nico comments, turning my focus back to the question at hand.
“She was falling for you. That night at The Hut… He probably saw you, and that’s what triggered him.
That’s why he took Andrea Porter, who just happened to be there that night.
He knew he couldn’t get to the woman he wanted, so he took the next closest thing. ”
A chill spreads over my skin at his words.
“That’s the only thing that makes sense.
He was acting impulsively, and Andrea’s injuries confirm that.
He didn’t have time to cover his tracks properly, which makes me believe he didn’t have time to go far to begin with.
There were no tire marks where Andrea’s body was found, which means he was on foot.
” I point my finger at the map, circling the area.
“This is where we’re going to find him.”
I can feel it in my bones.
Jessica is somewhere around there.
He’s slipping.
Becoming irrational and letting his emotions guide him.
I just have to pray that we find her, and find her fast, before he can hurt her even more than he already has.
“Did you manage to find anybody who could have seen something the night Andrea was killed?” Jenkins asks Paul.
“Nobody besides the hunter who found the body,” Paul grumbles. “But he mentioned that he believes there are a few other cabins scattered around the woods that haven’t been used in a while that are probably not listed on these maps.”
“He’s right,” Jenkins replies. “These cabins were built some twenty years ago, but there are a few older ones deeper in the woods. Back in the day, a lot of kids used to sneak out there for hookups.” He rubs at his jaw, eyeing the map, before those dark eyes meet mine. “You really think they’re out there?”
“Yes.”
Jenkins looks down at the map. “It’s a big area.”
“We can call in reinforcements, spread into the groups…” Nico starts rattling off.
My pulse kicks up a notch as something occurs to me. “I’m such an idiot.” Running my hand through my hair, I pull out my phone and dial. “How did I not think of this sooner?”
“What are you doing, Rookie?”
I press my phone against my ear, already halfway out the door as I yell, “Calling my own reinforcements.”