Staying alive had to be her number one priority. The police would find her. Rylla would do whatever it took to get her home. She had to believe that. No matter how repulsive the idea of submitting to this masked man was, if it was the only thing that guaranteed she remained alive then she might have to do it.
* * * * *
3:34 P.M.
“Did we get the interview?” Matthew asked Jonathon and Allina. Now that Rylla had become personally involved in the case their boss was taking her off it, Jonathon and Allina were going to be replacing her.
“Yes, we did,” Jonathon replied. “First thing tomorrow we’re meeting with Joynelle and Jaden Kite.”
The Kites were the owners of the Happily Ever After Club. So far, they had refused to speak with them, saying that there was no proof that they had done anything wrong or that the murders were related to their business. One case and that might be true, back then they had been looking at someone with a personal grudge against Jeannie Jones. Two cases and they had started looking for connections between Jeannie and Tillie Schueman, the only one they had been able to find was the internet dating company. Three cases and it was no longer just a coincidence that the victims had all gone missing from dates with someone they met on the website.
And now there were four cases.
There was no doubt that the link was the Happily Ever After Club. Whether that meant it was a user or one of the owners was still up for debate.
Jaden Kite was thirty-seven, he and his wife had recently filed for divorce, he had a history of drinking and becoming violent, and he matched the description the Drake kids had given them. At the moment he was their prime suspect, hopefully when they interviewed him, they would be able to figure out if there was more than circumstantial evidence that pointed to him.
“We also have another avenue,” Jonathon pulled out a photo. “This is Hendrick Mint.”
Matthew took the photo, an angry, brown-eyed man with shortly cropped blonde hair and a scowl stared back at him. “Who is he?”
“He’s Georgia Lars gardener,” Allina replied.
“Why is he a suspect?”
“He used to work at the same school where Jeannie worked,” Allina answered.
“Why didn't we know about him earlier?”
“His name just came up. We’re still going through backgrounds of all the women looking for connections. Apparently, Hendrick was fired from the school after several complaints about him,” Jonathon said.
“What kind of complains?”
“He was a little too interested in some of the moms,” Allina told him. “There were at least four women who claimed he would come up to them and try to strike up a conversation. He would pepper them with questions about themselves, and then get angry when his interest wasn't reciprocated. He would then harass the women every morning when they dropped their kids off at school. When the women reported him to the principal, he was given a talk and told not to speak with the parents. He didn't listen. In the end the school fired him, and he went to work for a company that does residential garden work, mowing lawns, trimming trees, mulching flower or vegetable garden beds, that kind of thing.”
“Did he ever interact with either Jeannie or Georgia?”
“Teachers at the school said they never saw Jeannie talk to him, but he was often seen watching the female teachers. Georgia’s roommate said no, Hendrick was just the contractor the company sent out,” Matthew replied.
“They remembered him though?”
“He was good-looking, but he couldn’t seem to interact well with people,” Allina said. “If he’s our guy it could be why he moved to internet dating, easier to make a good first impression.”
“Any connections yet to Tillie and Mila?”
“Nothing yet but we’ll keep looking,” Jonathon said.
“We need to try and set up an interview.”
“We’re still trying to track him down. He lost his apartment when he lost his job at the school, he’s been staying with friends but moving around a bit,” Allina told him.
Matthew was about to say they should call family and friends of Tillie Schueman and Mila Drake and see if anyone recognized the gardener when he spotted Rylla enter the room. Jonathon and Allina saw her too.
“She shouldn’t be here,” Allina said quietly.
“No, she shouldn’t.” He stood and went to his partner, stopping her before she could see the sketch her niece and nephew had given them, and the picture of their potential suspects. “Go home, Ry.”
“I don’t want to go home,” she snapped. “I need to work.”