Apprehended (Amber Alert Series Book 3) Read online

  "Wow," was all I could say as I listened to what they had figured out just from the behavioral analysis. "That was impressive. You know all that from little behavior ticks?"

  "I can tell you a little bit about yourself too, Jessi. You play with your necklace absentmindedly, that means that someone gave it to you and you're thinking about them. If I had to guess it's more of a charm that means something to the person you are thinking about. A reminder of what you went through together and how it changed you. You also are held up because you can't connect to people emotionally due to the tragedy of your experience. That's why you fight, that's why you prove yourself, because you don't want everyone to see the girl that was kidnapped, but the girl you grew up to be. How was that?"

  "That was impressive to say the least."

  "I can also see that you are open-minded to change," he said with a smile as he gave a sideways glance to Callum who was flipping through the files as if to find something they had missed before.

  I glared at him, hoping to shut him up, but all he did was laugh. I didn't find his joke funny, and it should remain a joke. Callum just liked to poke my buttons, force me to prove myself, and I wasn't going to get left behind just because I wasn't a part of their team. This is why I joined the FBI; I wanted to keep these guys off the streets, and to prevent more girls from being trapped like I had been.

  "I can't tell whether or not it's a good thing no bodies have been found yet," Darrell mused out loud to break my train of thought.

  "Maybe it means he's keeping them for something," Jason offered just as an officer burst through the door. His breath was heavy as if he had run a marathon and he hunched over slightly in order to catch his breath.

  "Girl thirteen has just been taken, and you'll never guess what her name is." The officer huffed with a sullen face before he turned and shut the door behind him.

  Chapter 3

  "Who has eyes and ears on Audrey Thomas?" Callum yelled as we ran through the cubicle offices to get to the person that was supposed to be watching her. Ever since they discovered that this person was following Steve Bennett's profile they put surveillance on Anna, Garrett, Audrey, Damien and even my father to protect them. The whole building seemed to be focused on this case, and I couldn't blame them. The last thing this nation needed was another Steve Bennett.

  "I did, but the visual cut off ten minutes before the call came in," the officer at the desk said as he tried to regain whatever visual he'd had at one point.

  I instinctively reached for my phone and dialed Audrey's number. It rang repeatedly, dragging on the uncertainty, the fear, and driving my mind to the worst case scenario. If this man was like Steve Bennett he could already have her, and the things he was capable of were endless if Steve Bennett was his template. I was about to give up hope of her answering when I heard a familiar male voice.

  "Hello?" Damien’s voice asked over speaker phone.

  "Damien!" I cried out causing everyone to look at me from the abrupt outburst. "Damien, have you seen Audrey lately?"

  "Yeah, she went to the bathroom a few minutes ago with one of her friends," he said with a laugh. He didn't understand why girls had to go to the bathroom in pairs and would bring it up every time someone asked, but I didn't have time to hear his speech on how strange it was.

  "Damien, I need to talk to her right now," I emphasized to let him know that I wasn't in the mood for his games. "It's urgent."

  "What do you want me to do Jessi?" he asked curiously. "Walk into the girls bathroom and hand her the phone?" he suggested after a few moments when I didn't answer right away.

  "Yes, if that's what you have to do! I have to know that she's okay." As soon as the words left my mouth I felt my eyes widen, and I slapped my hand over my mouth in shock, I can’t believe I said that.

  "Why wouldn't she be okay, Jessi?"

  "Damien, just check on her and then I will tell you. It's urgent if that helps, just go find her!" I ordered as I heard him drop the phone into his pocket and start running. I glanced around at all the eyes on me. Some were nervously waiting to see if Audrey was okay, some were curious if the copycat had taken her, while Callum just looked furious. I'll hear about this later, I thought as I heard girls screaming on the other side of the line. "Damien?"

  There was no answer.

  "Damien, did you find her?" I asked as I heard him start to rustle for the phone in his pocket.

  "I found her, she's fine. Her friends aren't too happy that I barreled in, but she's safe. Now do you care to tell me why I just broke into the girl's bathroom?"

  I glanced at everyone, unsure of what to say. I caught Callum's glare as he shook his head no, but my boss gave me the okay from behind Callum's shoulder.

  "There's a copycat for Steve Bennett, girl number thirteen was just taken and it was reported that her name was Audrey Thomas from Colorado University. There wasn't much of a description other than light hair, about five foot four, and that she was seen being taken from campus." I let a moment pass for them to digest the information until I continued. "I know Audrey moved there for school under the radar, but I'm worried that somehow he found her and tried to take her, now some other girl is gone."

  "What do we do, Jessi? We only have a few weeks of classes left, and I can't be with her the whole time," Damien stated as Audrey started insisting she didn't need protecting, her voice slightly distant as she wasn't as close to the phone. I could imagine Damien's smirk as he tried not to laugh and hugged her tightly so she wouldn't see. To him, she would always need protecting especially after he successfully kidnapped her after she spouted that anyone who was kidnapped was dumb. He never let her forget it either. He'd done it to find out where his sister was buried—she was one of the victims never recovered after Bennett was arrested—and he wanted answers. With Anna's help, the search for other bodies went on and they discovered more girls then they'd thought, even the original girl, Steve's wife, Kelly. Damien had watched out for Audrey then, even saved her from Steve in the end, and he would have to do it again.

  "You watch each other's backs, call Anna and Garrett to warn them, and I will call my dad. Maybe bring him down here so that he's closer to me instead of in Wilmington."

  "Just leave him with Anna and Garrett, Jessi. They can handle themselves, and something tells me that if he went after Audrey instead of Anna that they may be fine down there. Steve would have gone after Anna. We all know that. He would do anything to get her back, but he's dead and gone. This person's new, just try to remember that. He isn't Steve; he's someone different, even if he does know about the Steve Bennett kidnappings. We will watch each other's backs, call us if there's anything we need to know."

  "I will, please let Anna and Garrett know right away, just in case," I said as I felt tears prickle in my eyes. It felt like I was saying goodbye forever. I was basically letting them loose into the world, and praying that this man didn't find them and take them or worse.

  "I will. Keep yourself safe, Jessi," he said as the phone clicked off to signal he had ended the call.

  I quickly blinked away my tears as I turned back around to face the crowd. They were looking at me as if expecting an order, but I didn't know what to do.

  "Why did you do that?" Callum asked as he pushed out of the throng of people that had collected around me.

  "I had to know she was safe."

  "You just put her in more danger!"

  "You don't know who you're dealing with," I cried out suddenly. I was taken aback by my anger as I stepped away from Callum and tried to take a moment, but Callum didn't care.

  "It's you that doesn't know who you're dealing with, Ms. Sparks," he growled as he took a few steps toward me to tower of me as if I would quake in fear like a little girl.

  "Were you in Steve Bennett's house? Were you a six year old, forced to be a part of a scene that he created? Did you almost get your friends killed due to childish arrogance? Do you even know what it was like in that house?" I asked rhetorically as his face became r
igid. "You don't know anything about who you're up against. You couldn't catch him the first time with Anna, you caught the wrong man with Audrey, and now you're up against a new person. You don't know anything, and that's why you called me in. I just saved their lives, because now that they know this man can find them they will expect him and they will put up one hell of a fight. Can you say that for anyone else?"

  "I can, and I can say that you just gave him another reason to fight. He's going to realize that he has the wrong girl if he wanted Audrey Thomas. Now he has to plan even harder to have her and for all you know it could just mean that the other girl gets killed," he spat as he turned around and walked back to his office. The crowd immediately parted and let him through before all returning to their offices.

  I watched silently, unsure what to do. There was nowhere for me to really go here except back downstairs to my office and work on the files. It was clear, thanks to Callum, that I wasn't really welcome here—even though he invited me in—I thought sourly as I walk through the cubicle offices.

  I had hoped somehow the kidnappings were random, but now there was no denying the connection, and I had to make sure that it didn't get worse. There were thirteen girls now, so if he was playing the role of Steve Bennett we would soon find out what he was up to. If his idol was what he wanted to be like that would be the worst was going to be coming our way, but I couldn't help but wonder why he was doing this. What did he get out of it? What was the reason? I'm not sure I want to know, but I need to in order to solve this case.

  My phone vibrated violently in my hand as I started to walk toward to the boardroom, "Hello?" I asked.

  "Jessi, are you okay? Anna just told me what happened," my father was frantic as he probably started to pace around the room.

  "I'm fine, Dad, I promise. Just be safe and I will be too," I said knowing exactly what he wanted to hear, and what would make him feel better.

  "Thank you, Jessi. Please though, be safe. I know this is your job but you know what a man like this is capable of. Please, Jessi," he pleaded.

  "I will, I promise. I will call you later," I said with a smile as I clicked off the phone.

  With a huff I walked into the boardroom, ignoring Callum sitting at the table looking over the files of the missing girls. He was raking his fingers through his brown hair, frustrated the answer wasn’t jumping out to him. I took the files he wasn't reading and stacked them into a pile before walking off with them toward the elevator. He didn't move, flinch, or even twitch. My movement and presence completely unfazed him as he looked over the file from the latest missing girl.

  As I walked out of the room I heard him speak, "Those files stay here Jessi. You are now a part of this team, and no matter how hard I come down on you, you work with me now. Please sit and let’s see if we can find another connection between these girls, and hopefully predict where he will strike next or where he is.

  I only nodded my head before sitting across from him at the table. I could only hope that we would find the link soon—we needed a lead before the bodies started to pile up wither with him taking more girls, or him starting to eliminate them.

  Chapter 4

  "I don't understand why he chose these girls. They have nothing in common, and there are no similarities between them besides their looks," I stated as I slid another file off the pile and into my hands.

  "Well it could be just as simple as their looks," Callum suggested. He lifted his head momentarily to look at me before he put his cheek back to his fist.

  "A broad range of people fit this description, it could be anyone that's taken next," I said as I flipped open to the picture of Tegan. She had short blonde hair with blue eyes, and when compared to the other girls it was obvious that there wasn't a strict image of the type he wanted, but only a basic description.

  I could see why people thought it was a Steve Bennett copycat because Anna and Audrey looked similar to these girls, but then again all blondes kind of look alike if you look at enough of them. Sure the hair color could be a little different by a few shades, but they will always be about the same. Just because the girls were blonde and have similar age didn't mean anything. He could be using these girls for something other than Steve Bennett ever did.

  That was clear from the fact that no more bodies had been found yet. Steve always got rid of one girl before getting another one. This guy was collecting them, but for what I wasn't sure. I was about to ask Callum what he thought of my theory, but I glanced up to see him asleep on the table. His head had been hanging dangerously low to the table for a while now, and it looked like sleep finally took over. We had been awake for almost twenty-three hours straight trying to find a break in the case.

  Of course, we ran into more dead-ends than breakthroughs, but it was understandable. The team was sleeping in shifts so that we could have eyes going over everything we had around the clock. It wasn't hard since we didn't have a lot of information to go on. Callum had pulled reports of the girls that the copycat had killed when the team last called in for help. A chill raced up my spine at the thought.

  What had made him suddenly kill all those girls? There were ten found in quick succession, all kidnapped prior, some for years, but now it made sense where they had gone. They didn't runaway or leave their families, they were taken. The answer still remained, why? Those girls he took earlier didn’t look anything like the girls he took now. Why did he take them, and what caused the change in his targets?

  It had to be something small, I decided as I tried to look over the files again. The answer is in here somewhere, I just need to see it. I wanted to find out why it was these girls so that we could prevent more being taken, but what could it be?

  I was about to ask Callum if he thought the girls that were found dead were unrelated from the Bennett kidnappings, but when I saw him with his head on the desk I decided not to. Callum and I typically got the last shift for sleep. We were awake for twenty-three hours before getting to sleep for seven. It didn't seem like a fair trade off, but we had to do something.

  Each shift meant that there were fresher eyes on the material and new ears to listen to the calls from the tip line. There was someone out there who had seen something, but didn't think it was important enough to report to us. There were known cases where a witness had cracked the case open. I recalled one from a case study from school, but before I could let the thought wander I suddenly realized how these girls were taken from all over the country, it wasn’t much, but maybe it could lead us somewhere.

  "Callum, wake up," I said as I placed a hand on his shoulder to shake him awake. He quickly jumped out of his chair and away from the touch as if he thought I was going to hurt him. We stood there for a few moments after the initial shock before he ran his fingers through his hair to smooth it out.

  "What did you find out?" he asked quickly before I could comment on his reaction to me touching him. I lifted an eyebrow curiously at him before I told him what I thought I knew.

  "I was thinking that he could be a human trafficker? They have to move quickly and efficiently so that they can take girls, and get out before they are noticed or caught. They would take girls from all over the country so that they wouldn't attract any unwanted attention, along with other girls that wouldn't be missed such as runaways or foreigners that were in the U. S for travel."

  "That's a good observation, but he wants to be noticed," Callum said, quickly sweeping my idea aside as if he had already thought of it and disregarded it. "When we called in for help he started dropping bodies. If he wanted to remain hidden then he wouldn't have killed those girls, and even if he had killed them then he would have buried them out of sight somewhere."

  "He could still be a trafficker though, maybe he just had too many girls to move at one time."

  "If he was a human trafficker he would need a wider verity of girls for the people he would deal with," Callum offered.

  "Would it be totally unlikely for a majority of guys to prefer blondes with pretty eyes, if the
y are only buying for a good time?"

  "Look, I get that you're trying Jessi, but you barely have the training for this. The team and I have already gone over a lot of your suggestions earlier in the case, and we have eliminated them. Just accept that you don't know everything from one class in Behavioral Analysis. You're here because of your expertise on kidnappings, specifically Steve Bennett's kidnappings, not because you passed an online class and watched YouTube videos on how to analyze behavior."

  "Well maybe you should have told me everything your team already went over and threw away so that I wasn't going over everything you already eliminated. If you would communicate better then I wouldn't be bothering you with information you already know is wrong. I'm just trying to help like you asked me to do!"

  "You think you're helping? You're not helping at all. If anything you've ruined the integrity of the case because you called a civilian and brought in your family and friends. You've caused more trouble in a matter of days than any other team member I've ever had. You don't know what it takes to be a part of this team; I mean you minored in Criminal Justice! I don't understand how you even got into the FBI with that and your attitude," Callum stated. "There should be no way you're even here."

  "That's ignorant of you!" I spat. "Women can be a part of the FBI, and we can do it the same as men can. I can't believe you're still having this argument. I didn't need to have law enforcement or military background to apply, I had to be able to pass their tests and that's what got me in here. There is nothing wrong with what I studied at school or my attitude. I was patient with you, even when we first met and tried to play the tough guy card. Maybe it's you that has the attitude problem as well as an issue with women in the workplace!"

  "I highly believe women can do whatever they set their mind to, but I find it hard to believe in you. You don't think of the team, you think only of yourself."