Page 29 of All He Takes
"Hey, Nicky," Grace said. "Sorry, I'm still looking into--"
"Forget the car for now," Nicky said. "I'm sending you a photo of a man who might be living in Pine Grove under an alias. Think you can find out who he is?"
"I can run his face through the system and see if we get a match, yeah," Grace said.
"Good. Forwarding it now."
With a few clicks, Nicky saved the photo and sent it to Grace's email. She waited with bated breath for Grace to accept.
"Okay, got it," Grace said. "Running him through the system now. Let's see if we get a match..."
Moments passed. Nicky heard Grace's keyboard clacking on the other end of the line.
Then, finally, Grace said:
"I got a hit. His name is Richard Fanson. Seventy-one years old. Born in Brooklyn, New York."
Nicky's head spun. Richard Fanson from New York. That was nothing close to Charles Dumond from Pine Grove, Florida.
"Send me everything we have on him," Nicky said.
"Will do."
She hung up the phone and turned to Ken. But her heart was pounding. To think, they could have already had the killer right in their sights all along...
"We're close," she said. "I know it. I just don't know how close."
"It's hard to believe," he said. "He seemed so nice."
"I know," she said. "That's what everyone always says about serial killers."
They were quiet for a moment, reflecting on that.
"We showed him the pictures," Ken said. "He knew something was wrong. He knew what they were."
"He did," Nicky said. "On some level, he did."
Nicky's computer dinged--a message from Grace. She'd forwarded some key documents on Richard Fanson, aka, Mr. Dumond.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals his entire life. Not only that--but he had a criminal record.
Nicky paged through the documents, her stomach sinking.
The more she read, the worse it got.
A string of charges going back to when he was in his twenties: assault, robbery, a few misdemeanors. If he was the one, then that would mean the sketchy man seen with the Hana Kuma had nothing to do with this.
Nicky's heart raced. "He could be the one," she said. "He could be our guy."
"But if he's spent his life in and out of hospitals, how did he end up at an antique store?" Ken asked.
"It's hard to say," she said. "Maybe he's not as bad as he was. Maybe he hasn't committed a crime in a long time. Maybe... maybe these photos are making him act out again."
Ken looked at her. "So, what do we do?"
She drew a breath, then shut her laptop, tossed it in the back, and turned the car on. "We pay him another visit."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
