Page 48 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions

Mal

As much asI hated the reality of it, Mira got her wish. I was leading the Atelihai Killer Task Force—because that was the most generic name I could come up with—and Mira was named my second in command. Carr made it very clear that we needed to make progress before the Behavioral Analysis Unit sent their man across the country. AfterCriminal Mindshad aired, it was thought that the BAU traveled in packs and had a massive support team. In reality, they sent one agent to assist the local agents and didn’t take command like they did on the tv series.

I was still in charge.

And I was fucking exhausted.

I hadn’t seen my little owl in two days and I was fairly certain I hadn’t slept since the night before the DB in the dog park was discovered. Since then, two more bodies had dropped. Dr. Robinson had them in his lab and our forensics teams were doing the best they could to get the information we needed quickly.

We were up to five bodies, but more were reported missing.

I had taken over the Beta Conference Room on the floor above my office. It had the most windows and the largestwhiteboard. I was a visual guy and needed to see the connections in front of me, not just in my head.

I had the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Atelihai Valley High School yearbooks open on a table before my whiteboard. On the left was my victims’ column. I had the headshots of the five who had been found: Christopher Evan Harrow, Amber Renee Jamison, John Michael Wise, and the two newest, Wyatt Daniel Butler and Andrew “Andy” Frank Martell.

Butler had been discovered glued into a gorilla suit and staged in an Atelihai Valley grocery store. He’d been found sitting in a produce bin filled with bananas. Martell was an entirely different story. He wasn’t ‘staged’ because there wasn’t much left to him. He was completely bloated and nearly unrecognizable but for a tattoo on his shoulder. His body had been found in an Atelihai Valley bakery in their display case.

The middle of my board was my assumed victims’ column of those who had been reported missing by family members with a connection to Atelihai Valley High: Samuel “Sam” Justice Keene, Alicia Mary Cohen, Jesse Dean Ritter-Hogan, Hannah Darling Terwilliger, Roman Paul Fitzwilliam, and Jerald Lincoln Kelly.

On the right, I had a column for my suspects, but it was currently empty.

“Here’s what I’ve been able to piece together so far,” I told Carr. My boss was currently leaning his ass up against the long conference table where my laptop, phone, water, and uneaten lunch sat. He at least looked presentable and like he’d gotten some fucking sleep. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d paused just to take a piss.

“Everyone, from the victims to the missing, are from Atelihai Valley. They graduated from the high school between 2011 and 2013.Butall the men were on the hockey team that won the 2010 State Championship. You haven’t been to this high school,boss. It’s like they’re living in the past, still riding the high of a championship from fifteen years ago. The second Mira and I stepped inside that school, it was all Principal Hagley talked about.”

“What about the two women?”

“Both were cheerleaders back in high school. Based on the yearbooks and what the techs found online, they were definitely the clichéd ‘in crowd’. However,” I tapped the woman’s photo on my board, “according to Facebook, Hannah Terwilliger was also dating one of the hockey players in 2010.”

“Which one?”

“John Wise.” I pointed to him. “We discovered his body in the dog park.”

Carr’s eyebrows went up. “That’s an interesting connection. Have you been able to speak with the former sheriff?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. He’s in a hospice facility. Mira and I are going to see him this afternoon. I wanted another crack at Hagley before I went to see the sheriff.”

“What about the current sheriff?”

“Transplant from the lower forty-eight. He wasn’t around fifteen years ago, but he gave us all of his files prior to us knowing this was a serial case. Mira and I spent yesterday with a team of interns going through them.”

“There are more teens in this picture than on your board,” Carr pointed out, gesturing to the photo in his hand.

“We’re contacting who we can. Two are dead. I mean, dead before now,” I clarified. “They were in a drunk driving accident during college. The rest will be coming in over the next week or so. We’re also contacting their local LEOs to let them know that they may be targets. Until we have more substantial proof, though, no judge will sign off on a protection order.”

Carr stood up, walking closer to my board. “What the hell is going on in Atelihai Valley? What does a hockey tournament from fifteen years ago have to do with today?”

“I watched the recording of the game. There’s a possibility that it’s retribution for the loss, but it doesn’t quite fit.” I reached towards the picture he had in his hand to point to a redhead. “Jerome Roberts was a defender. He had a scuffle after the game with two of the opposing team members. It was caught on camera, but I cannot logically connect that to now. Who would possibly hold a grudge that long and why? There’s more going on than just a hockey championship.”

“Agreed. Still, did you identify the two Roberts had the scuffle with?”

“I did. They both work on Wall Street now and have million dollar apartments in Manhattan. I can’t see them traveling up here to commit all these murders over a fifteen-year-old fight.”

“While I agree with you, I want their alibis,” Carr said sternly.

“Already have the NYC field office on it. I’ll have the reports by the end of the day.”

Carr nodded once. “Good.” He turned towards the window. “Now, who are these people?”

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