“Rylla thought he might have been involved in her sister’s disappearance.”
“Because she didn't want to accept that it was the Fairytale Killer who had kidnapped her sister,” Matthew said.
“What if she was right? What if Beau is the killer? What if he was angry that Mila was divorcing him? Rylla said they were going through a bitter custody battle. He wants to find someone who’s going to treat him the way he believes he deserves to be treated. He wants to find someone who won’t leave him. He wants to find someone more obedient that he can control and dominate,” he suggested.
“Then why take Mila?” Jonathon asked.
“Maybe he thought he could kill two birds with the one stone. He starts searching for the woman of his dreams, then he stumbles upon Mila on the website and thinks it would be a good way to get rid of her. He didn't keep her as long as the others, right?”
“Yes, but he didn't keep Georgia Lars long either,” Matthew said.
“She made him angry though, didn't she? So, killing Georgia so quickly wasn’t planned.”
“Maybe killing Mila so quickly wasn't planned either,” Allina said. “Maybe he intended to keep her but then she started talking about Rylla and she sounded more appealing.
“Maybe he intended to keep her, maybe he always intended to put her in a position where she couldn’t leave him. Maybe he tried with the other women, realized it was actually his wife that he wanted after all, so he took her, thinking if he locked her up he could force her to become what he wanted. Then she starts talking about Rylla and he thinks maybe he married the wrong sister.”
“What about the man that the Drake kids saw in their house?” Jonathon asked.
“What if that had nothing to do with this?”
“We believe the killer broke into the victims’ houses. We know Mila was on the website, we know the killer was the one who took her, what are the chance that there were two break-ins at her house so close together?” Matthew asked. “If it wasn't the killer then who was it?”
“What if it was a private investigator,” Nate proposed. “They were going through a divorce. They were fighting over their kids and property and investments. He would have wanted dirt on Mila, something he could use against her that would give him a leg up in the proceedings.”
“Had Beau hired a private investigator?” Heidi asked.
“Yes,” Sam answered, speaking for the first time. “This man.” He held out a picture of the man Beau Drake had hired to dig up dirt on his soon to be ex-wife.
“Blond hair, brown eyes, could have been the man Emmy and Mac saw,” Matthew acknowledged.
“Maybe the killer doesn’t break into their homes then,” Jonathon suggested. “Hendrick Mint admitted to breaking into Georgia and Whitney’s house because he was interested in Whitney.”
“At this point I don’t think it matters,” Allina said. “Do we really think it could be Beau Drake? He wasn't even on our radar.”
“Rylla doesn’t like him,” he said. In his mind that was reason enough to make the man a suspect, he trusted Rylla’s judgment on people.
“But she never did anything about it,” Matthew pointed out. “If she thought he was abusive or violent toward her sister, or her niece and nephew, then she would have arrested him. But Beau certainly wasn't upset about Mila’s disappearance. And he wasn't co-operative about letting us talk to the kids, or about having them help try to identify the man they saw in their house. Which I guess would make sense if it was a private investigator he had hired.”
“We know the killer used tranquilizers to knock Jeannie Jones out, and Mila is a doctor, Beau could have gotten access to the drugs through her. And he works in IT, apparently he’s very good. I don’t think he would have had any trouble making sure he covered his tracks on the website,” Sam explained.
“Did you two look into Beau?” Heidi asked.
“Yes.” He and Sam had checked the man out on the drive here from the cabin.
“Do we want to know how?” The captain eyed them shrewdly.
“No,” Sam said.
“What did you find?”
“There were some charges against him, way back when he was in his teens. For hacking, blackmail, coercion, and sexual assault. Apparently, he would hack into the computer system of his female friends and take control of their computes. He would read their emails, their web browser histories, their online chats, he would activate the cameras on the monitors and use it to watch them in their bedrooms. He then used all of that to blackmail the girls into having sex with him. If they didn't, he would share all their personal information and pictures of them half naked that he’d taken with the cameras of their computers and post them all over school and all over the internet,” he told them.
“Nothing between then and now?” Matthew asked.
“No. Non-disclosure agreements were signed between Beau and his family and the families of the three girls he targeted. We assume that the girls’ families accepted a substantial amount of money from Beau’s family in exchange for not pressing charges, and the whole thing went away. But it shows what kind of person Beau Drake is. He’s smart, he’s manipulative, and he believes that women are there for the sole purpose of catering to his every whim. That sounds exactly like the Fairytale Killer.”
And if they didn't stop him first, then Rylla was going to become his next victim.