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Chapter 7
Justine sat up straighter, her eyes flowing over the data on her screen. She clicked on the video conference link, waiting until Moe and Sarina joined to blink.
“We haven’t found anything else yet, Justine,” Sarina said, her tone apologetic.
“I think I have, I just need another set of eyes to make sure I’m seeing what I’m actually seeing,” she told them, sending them a link to the data map she’d constructed.
“Wait…” Moe said making her breath in deeply as he brought up an internet relay map over her info. “This is where the video chat’s signal came through. It’s as far as I could get with it because they’re using some sort of spoofer that’s mimicking IP addresses, but it isn’t hiding the relay stations that they’re coming through. All of them are right…”
“In the epicenter of where the UL-23 newest hits come from,” Justine stated, not quite believing that they’d actually tracked them. Something about it just felt off.
“What’s wrong?” Sarina asked as she continued to stare at the screen.
“It just doesn’t fit with the rest of the UL-23 pattern,” she told them. “It’s too…concentrated, specific. Everywhere else that UL-23 showed up, it was five or six hits in major cities at a time,up and down the eastern coast. This…this is showing almost twenty hits in the last two years, but it’s all centered around Harding. Reaching further and further out almost like…no,” she said as it hit her, and she pulled up the old case that’d gone cold nearly three years ago.
“Holy shit, Justine,” Moe said his eyes widening and a moment later Melissa, Luke, Brad, and Dean’s faces joined the conference.
“What on earth was your Red Level urgent, Moe?” Dean asked first.
“We’re not looking for a single perp using UL-23,” Moe said sending brows upward amongst the group.
“How do you know that?” Brad asked at the same time Melissa added, “How did you figure it out?”
“I didn’t, Justine did…” Moe said confusing them further.
“The hits of UL-23 out here started two years ago, at the same time, they were also being found on the east coast. Two completely different MO’s,” Justine said as Moe showed them the info. “The ones out east were the same random, untraceable chaos that made it impossible to get a handle on them—those are the ones that Sarina’s been tracking and compiling data on. What if we were seeing those hits because a group of perps was using the same photo amongst themselves?”
“That would fit the differing ages that received them. Similar to them sharing files like the scum they are, they could share the image to try and lure whoever they wanted, making it impossible to get a read on it because it could be a hundred different people using it at the same time,” Dean said, and she nodded. “How does that help us now to find this girl?”
“Something just wasn’t sitting right. The messages, the links between the ones out here the last two years was far too controlled to be more than one person or team. When I ranthe data map, this is what I found,” she told them, letting Moe display her initial findings.
“Which matches up with where the video call came through,” he added overlaying it.
“Okay, so we’re thinking this perp is somewhere in Harding?” Luke guessed.
“Yes, but there’s more,” Justine told them. “To end up potentially abducting twenty girls in two years and not get caught, not hit anyone’s radar? They’re experienced, which brought the messages back to mind. Something in them hit a chord from the beginning and that’s when I realized I’d seen this before, we all have,” she added as Moe hit the keyboard and displayed the casework.
“No…are you sure?” Melissa asked and she nodded.
“It’s him. I’m sure of it which means we need to move fast. If he gets wind of the FBI being anywhere near this, he will up and disappear again,” she warned. “We almost had him back in Virginia and just as we were narrowing in on him, he disappeared. All of his ruses disappeared, but it’d make sense that he knew at least one of the perps using UL-23’s photo and borrowed it knowing we wouldn’t be able to track him nearly as well using it and moved his entire operation out here.”
“Slow down, Justine,” Luke said lifting his chin her way. “You were compromised and almost killed once, what’s to say this isn’t another attempt by pulling out one of our old cases that went cold right when we were getting close?”
“By abducting the daughter of the family that mine’s feuding with after doing the same with twenty some others?” she said with a snort. “No, this guy isn’t connected to them. If he, or they although I’ve always leaned towards a single perp being behind this, had any clue I was FBI, they’d have been long gone before taking anyone else. As far as Dynamite’s group, there’s no way they know my real name. Everything I did in D.C. was under myaliases to ensure nothing came back on my family. There’s no way they know I’m from here. The whole reason I came out here was because it was the only place I was sure I’d be safe. If they learnt I didn’t die in the fire, that I’d actually slipped out the back to go under upon learning that my entire alias was compromised and not just the one I was using with Dynamite’s group, this is the one place where they wouldn’t be looking for me.”
“Okay, what’s your gut say we should do, Justine?” Melissa questioned giving Luke a look to stop when he opened his mouth once more.
“That we need to move fast and quietly. He’s not like Dynamite’s group, he’s quiet while they make as much noise as possible to get what they want. He won’t be able to resist getting something given to him on a silver platter though. Which means I need to know exactly where to go,” she added looking to Moe for help on that front. “Cross reference Harding with anyone that’s been there less than three years, or back for less than three years. Look for places that are remote. He’s not going to keep a teenage girl in the middle of town.”
“I’m going to guess we’re not looking for someone with a legit business,” Moe said mostly to himself as he typed onto the screen faster than they could read. “Definitely not going to be next to a factory with windows like that facing it…okay, this could be something. What about an old horse farm that was sold at auction, all of the horses sold off after purchase but with a surprisingly high electric bill for the second meter which only had the barn on it? Add in prior arrests for being a Peeping Tom, sexual assault, and toss in stalking of a minor…and you get one Harvey Grimes. Ohh…with a younger brother Wendell that who’s been living with him the last year and a half after getting out of jail in for a six month sentence for aggravated assault and stalking of his last girlfriend.”
“Send me the address,” Justine said, shaking her head when the others began to tell her to slow down. “If we storm the place and we’re wrong, the real perp is liable to hear and won’t take kindly to us trying to stop him. I can go and scope things out, see if I can find Isabelle, confirm we’re on the right track. If I go in and you don’t hear from me, then clearly we are.”
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Melissa asked and she drug in a deep breath as she nodded. “Justine…”
“I can’t sit back and do nothing, Melissa. I’ll be fine. I’ll have an earwig in, so you’ll be able to follow along. Right now, I need to change,” she told them, getting their assurances that they’d be right behind her before ending the call.
They’d left D.C. shortly after eight-thirty her time, and likely wouldn’t land until about two. That was still an hour and a half away. In that time, she would nearly be in Harding to check things out. Especially since the closest airport that would fit the jet was still over an hour and a half from her. If they changed to land closer to Harding, they’d likely still be at least an hour out. That was two and a half to three hours too long to wait for them. She’d have to take the agents from Seattle who’d made it down earlier and were helping to corral the Anderson family, letting her focus on tracking the perp’s online activity.
