“The rape crisis line is still dragging their heels getting us a list of names,” Elijah announced, frustration heavy in his tone.
“Did you tell them one of their counsellors has been using the crisis line to hunt victims and abduct and murder them?” he growled. What were they thinking? It was one thing to say they wouldn’t hand out a list of names without a court order because they didn't want to breach the volunteers’ confidentiality, but one of those men was a killer. There was zero doubt about that. If Emmanuel was the man who had raped Grace or one of the men who held her down that night, she would have said that. The only other person besides himself who knew was the counsellor she’d spoken to.
“They said there’s no proof,” Elijah said.
He slammed his fist into the desk. “No proof? Grace only told two people that she’d been raped, me and the counselor at the crisis line. The man who shot Barbara Lack and took Grace knew that she’d been raped. And we know that at least half a dozen of the other victims had been sexually assaulted, meaning it’s a good chance they also called the crisis line. What more proof do they need?” After he’d shared what he remembered, they’d started contacting families to see if this was indeed the link, and while they still had several more to check with, of the ten families they’d asked, six of them had confirmed that prior to going missing their daughters, wives, and sisters had been victims of rape.
“Forensics, I guess,” Elijah said, wearily rubbing at the back of his neck.
“Well, we’d have forensics if they’d give us a list of names.” He huffed. CSU tech Kane Curtis had an abundance of fingerprints and DNA evidence, he just had nothing to compare them to. Which if they could get a list of all past and present counselors, they’d be able to ask for samples. Most people would be happy to volunteer their prints and DNA to clear themselves and help a dangerous man get locked away. Those that didn't even if they couldn’t compel a judge to force them to provide samples, they’d at least have a small list of suspects to work through.
“We’ll have to focus on what we do have,” Rylla said.
Matthew looked at his partner with what he knew was close to hopelessness. Everyone had gathered at the station when they learned Grace had been taken again. He appreciated everyone’s support, appreciated that they were all rallying around him and the Bennett family, but what good was it if they couldn’t find her?
“You figured that this guy might have building experience given the things he built in the basement of Mable White’s house,” Jonathon said.
“And that he already knew Natalie Potter before he killed her,” Nickolas Sleigh, a fellow detective who was married to Jonathon’s wife’s sister Agape, said thoughtfully.
“We went through her neighbors and none of them were builders or worked in the industry,” Rylla told them.
“Did you talk to all the neighbors or just look at who owned the houses?” Rylla’s husband Nate asked.
“We were able to speak to a few of the neighbors in person, but the rest we cross referenced who owned the houses with a list of builders,” Rylla replied. “Of course, it’s not a comprehensive list and we know that Emmanuel might be living in someone else’s house, but so far, all the owners of the houses have been accounted for. There’s a chance that while he might have known Natalie, or at least seen her around before, that he’s not a neighbor. Or we could be completely wrong about the whole thing and he did just randomly cross paths with her that day.”
“I don’t think so,” Matthew said slowly, picking up the list of Natalie’s neighbors.
“What are you thinking?” Naomi Zeeke asked. She and her husband Sam were Jonathon’s in-laws. She was also Rylla’s best friend, and she and her husband, while not cops, were experienced and had volunteered to help however they could.
“That maybe we found Emmanuel’s real home,” he said. There was one name on the list that kept standing out to him. “The house directly across the street from Natalie’s is owned by an older woman, she and her family have lived in the house for the last four decades, she has a son who’s in his early thirties.”
“You think the son could be Emmanuel?” Sam Zeeke asked.
“I think it’s a possibility. We need to find out everything we can about that family.” There was something in his gut that said they needed to look into this man. Jason Yamagada. An innocuous looking man who could fit the sketch Grace had given of the man who had tormented her.
“Jason Yamagada owns a business flipping houses,” Allina said, reading off her laptop. “From what I can find he had a sister, Isabel who committed suicide when she was fifteen, Jason was nine at the time. After that, the father became depressed, his business almost went bankrupt, looks like they almost lost the house but managed to hold onto it. Mrs. Yamagada has a whole bunch of DUIs.”
“She turned to alcohol, her husband turned to anti-depressants, what happened to poor little Jason?” Allayna asked.
“That.” Matthew pointed to the whiteboard at the end of the room where pictures of all of Emmanuel’s victims, along with Grace, were pinned. “That’s what happened to him. Why did the sister commit suicide?”
Ali tapped away at her computer, her eyes widening as she looked back at them all. “Isabel was raped.”
“That’s the link,” he said, a rush of adrenalin masking the stubborn pain in his side. While he was lucky the bullet hadn't done more damage, he had lost a lot of blood, and he was still a little woozy, but nothing was keeping him in a hospital bed while Grace was out there waiting for him to find her. “Jason volunteered at the rape crisis line because of what happened to his sister. Because his sister committed suicide and his family fell apart, he decided he was going to play God and try to make other rape victims strong. His version of strong anyway. That has to be why he had that obsession with the fable games. His way of trying to make them strong so they wouldn’t end their lives.”
“He did it for them,” Jeremiah added bitterly. Matthew knew the fact that Grace had reached out to him after her assault to tell him about it and he hadn't replied because he’d been busy on a case was eating at the older man. But there was no way that Jeremiah could have known what Grace wanted to talk about, and she’d given him no reason to believe it was urgent.
None of that mattered right now though.
All that mattered was getting Grace back alive.
“Call the crisis line back, tell them we have a name and all we need is confirmation that he works there,” he told Elijah.
While the other man picked the phone back up, and the others began to talk quietly amongst themselves, Matthew’s mind wandered to Grace.
Where was she right now?
Was she hurt?