“Yes,” he nodded. “One for each of them.”
They were setting up decoy profiles on the Happily Ever After Club dating website in the hopes of luring the killer. They had to assume that until they found him, he was going to keep getting disappointed with the women he abducted and need to keep looking for more. Although he almost certainly already had a number of women lined up who he had been grooming and communicating with, he was likely to be killing them quicker than he could build relationships.
So, they would help him a little.
If they could just hook him, then they could reel him in as quickly as possible and get him off the streets before anyone else was killed. Jonathon wanted to believe they could find the killer before Rylla’s sister wound up dead. He’d known Rylla for several years, since they worked out of the same precinct, and gotten to know her even better since he’d married her best friend’s sister. His wife Clara was close with her sisters, so he spent a lot of time with both Aggie and Naomi. And since Naomi was close with Rylla, he spent a lot of time with her too. He considered her a part of his extended family and he didn't want her to have to go through losing her sister in such a horrible manner on top of the other losses she had suffered.
“We’re assuming that Jaden Kite’s ideal woman is as similar to his wife as he can find. So, we’ve named the profile aimed at him Elle. She’s thirty-five, we’ve made her a widow with no children. She has a degree in graphic design and plays several musical instruments. We’ve made her quiet, not a lot of friends, preferring quiet evenings at home than going out to parties and events. Hopefully the quieter side to her will appeal to his controlling nature and he’ll pick her out as someone who would be easy to isolate and dominate,” Allina said.
“Since Hendrick Mint appears to have an obsession with Whitney Leroy, we’ve modeled the profile aimed at him on her. We’ve named her Wendy, she’s had a husband cheat on her and she’s divorced. She doesn’t work, she wants kids—that seemed important to him since he hit on a lot of mothers at the school—and she loves long walks in the park,” he added.
“We’ve also listed all the same interests and hobbies as the victims had listed on their profiles,” Allina added.
“Who are we using for the pictures?” Matthew asked.
Jonathon didn't like this part. It was inevitable that they had to put a face to the profiles. And it was also inevitable that it was going to wind up being a cop because assuming they could get the Fairytale Killer to develop an interest in either or both of the profiles, they needed someone who could do the meet when they set it up. But that didn't mean he liked the idea of his partner playing bait.
“Me,” Allina answered. “Keeping the curls for one and straightening my hair for the other. It should make me look different enough in the photos that if the killer likes both profiles then he won’t realize I'm the same person. It makes sense for me to do it because I’m already working the case, so it means we don’t have to bring someone else in and brief them.”
Matthew didn't seem to like the idea of Allina making herself bait either. No doubt it had something to do with Allina’s sister-in-law being abducted six and a half years ago. He wasn’t sure the Bennett family could take another hit it anything should happen to Allina.
“You sure you want to do this?” Matthew asked.
“This is my job, and none of us can deny that it makes sense to use me. Besides, when we do attract his attention and we set up a date it’s not like I'm going to go alone, I’ll have backup.”
“I guess,” Matthew said slowly. “I don’t like it, but you're right, it does make sense to use you.”
Sometimes making sense sucked. “We should make sure we keep an eye on both Whitney and Joynelle,” Jonathon said. “Either of them could be the killer’s end game. These other women could be substitutes for the woman he really wants. He’s trying to find a better more perfect version of the woman he already loves. When he realizes that he can't, he could come for one of them and decided he’ll have better luck taking them and making them what he wants.”
“We have regular patrols on their streets. We’ve told them to not go anywhere alone, and to call if they notice anything at all suspicious. We’ve done the best we can right now to keep them safe, if we can figure out which one of the men is the Fairytale Killer then we can look at bringing that woman in and putting her in a safehouse or something,” Allina said.
“Or using her as bait,” he said slowly. It would be risky, but it could work if they could set it up in a public place where the killer didn’t know they were there watching him, ready to arrest him as soon as he arrived.
“Only if they agreed,” Matthew said. “And hopefully it won't come to that. Hopefully he’s attracted to one of the fake profiles we set up. Once we get him talking a little bit, we can suggest a meet in person. He should go for it because he’s desperate. Then we just wait for him to turn up in the limousine for the date and arrest him. Easy and quick, and no one gets hurt.”
“The kids couldn’t come to an agreement of who they thought the man they’d seen in their house was?” he asked.
“No, they were both only reasonably sure that the man they had picked was the man they’d seen. But were both sure that the man the other had picked wasn’t him,” Matthew replied. “So, it’s either get him with the fake profiles, or find some forensics that tells us who he is. Both Jaden and Hendrick are out on bail, which means they’re still a threat, to all the women on that website, Joynelle and Whitney, and Mila Drake.”
* * * * *
5:55 P.M.
He watched her on the monitor as he made dinner.
Mila sat in the chair, right where he’d left her after he’d bathed her. That was almost twenty-four hours ago. He was trying to keep his distance from her, for a number of reasons. One of them being that the more she was alone the more he believed she would learn. And she was certainly learning to become more obedient. Her punishment seemed to have done the trick and after standing in the corner for several hours she had not returned to her ridiculous task of trying to unscrew the door with her bare hands.
He should be pleased with her progress, with her obedience, with her new willingness to follow the rules. He should be but he wasn't.
He wasn't altogether sure why that was. He wanted an obedient woman. One who knew her place and accepted it with grace and elegance. He wanted a woman who wanted to be with him, who wanted him, who woke up each morning feeling complete because she was by his side.
But he needed more.
There had been something missing in all the other women.
Strength.
Not bull-headed strength like Georgia who had tried to attack him and escape, and not stupid strength like Mila who thought she could brute force her way out of this room, but the kind of strength that would make the woman a true mate. The kind of partner who was always there beside you, who lifted you up, who made you better than you would be on your own.