Stolen Daughters (Detective Amanda Steele)

“Tell him that you’re my partner. He’ll approve it right away.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to call Malone, let him know there’s been another sighting of our suspect here, and have him get officers out to similar motels in the area. My bet is if our killer had his latest victims delivered to this place, he probably had Ashley Lynch dropped off somewhere similar and pulled the same stunt. Oh. They’ll need to get a photo array done first. Then the officers can show it as they do their rounds.”

Trent put his phone to his ear and stepped away to make his call, while she made hers.

Malone answered on the second ring, and she rushed ahead. “Pretty sure we’re getting close to this guy, boss, but there’s a few more t’s to cross. That’s where I need your help.”

“Already have been helpin’.” His tone was still cool, but not arctic like it had been recently. He went on. “By the way, I was about to call you. Officers visited the Pansy Shoppe, inquired about the white GMC Savana. They have one delivery van, but it’s a Ford.”

Not surprising, but it still left the reason for the use of the decal unresolved. “Did they ask about any deliveries in the area of the second fire?”

“Yes. And there were none.”

“Just confirms it. This guy is our prime suspect.”

“This guy?”

“The mystery man from the crowd photos,” she reminded him. She had filled him in already about the face without a name. Though it had been in the wee hours of Sunday morning before taking Crystal Foster home to Washington.

“Right.”

“Well, he was at all three crime scenes, and we just spoke to the clerk at the Sunny Motel. The man rented adjoining rooms and had two young girls delivered to one of them. Blond, young like Ashley Lynch, and fitting the descriptions given to us by our two eyewitnesses—Mills and Cooper.”

“Let me guess, no ID collected by the motel?”

“Nope. Paid cash too. Now, the girls were dropped off by a man the clerk said had black eyes. Crystal Foster told us a man who looked like that had grabbed Ashley Lynch by the arm in a vintage clothing store.”

“I remember you telling me about that. So this guy must be a handler.”

“I’d say so. We believe our killer drugged the girls, then gave the handler the slip and took the girls out the back door of the neighboring room, where he proceeded to walk with them to his van. He’d parked it across from Janet Mills’s house, which was a few blocks away. That’s where she saw the man with the girls. Good news is the motel has working security cameras. I’ve got Trent on a warrant for the footage. And, apparently, the clerk here at Sunny’s has the handler’s plate number.”

“Good breaks.”

“It’s a start.” She’d reserve her optimism for a little longer. “Sarge, we need to consider that our suspect ran with the same MO on the first vic. He probably had her dropped off at a motel and snuck off with her. We need to have officers show Ashley Lynch’s photo to every dump like the Sunny Motel in Prince William County to see if anyone saw her. We also need to get a photo array made up that includes our suspect and have the officers show that around. I’ll fire his picture over to you.”

“Sure, but hold up. There has to be a lot of motels that fit that description.”

“I don’t see what else we can do at this point.”

There was more silence on Malone’s end.

“Is there something I should know about?” She just got this tingling sensation. “Is the LT on your back about all this?”

Malone sighed heavily. “She’s not letting up. When I went to her about the tip line, well, she wasn’t too happy to hear there were two more victims.”

“Let me guess—and I’m to blame.”

“You and I know you’re not.”

“Huh, but she thinks I am. We’ll see what she has to say when I find this bastard and bring him in.”

“Keep positive like that. It works.”

For the trace of a moment, she felt whatever had been bothering Malone was gone, like he was on her side again. “Thanks.”

“Keep me posted.”