Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Redemption for Avery (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Ryker Townsend FBI Profiler Book 2) Read Online Free
found her body after she’d been missing three weeks.”
I read the details of her abduction and scrolled through the crime scene photos where the Sheriff’s office recovered her body. It broke my heart to see what had happened to Avery.
“Any arrests?” Lucinda asked.
I furrowed my brow as I read an update to the girl’s case record.
“Nineteen years after they discovered her remains, authorities found the body of the alleged perpetrator, dead. A Navy SEAL team killed him, a guy by the name of Ben Hurst. The girl’s brother, Sam Reed, had been part of that SEAL team.”
Reed had only been fifteen at the time his sister went missing. I couldn’t imagine the kind of obsession it took to hunt his sister’s killer all those years. If Reed were still alive, I wanted to meet him and I hoped Sinead could find him.
After I read more of Avery’s case file, I shook my head. “This can’t be right. It doesn’t add up.”
“What isn’t right?”
“If Hurst took the girl and killed her, how is it that years later, he abducted someone much older? Predators into preteen girls, they aren’t going to switch hit and hunt women in their thirties. That goes against type.”
“Then there’s Lily,” Lucinda said. “She’s seventeen, somewhere between in age, and she’s out in the open and displayed. You’re right. The MO isn’t consistent. The profile would be all over the board.”
“We could have more than one serial offender. This case just got complicated,” I said. “Good work, Royce. I have enough to call Reynolds and ask for more resources. When I get the green light, I’ll be in touch to arrange for cadaver dogs, ground penetrating radar, whatever it takes to search the marshlands where we found the body of Lily Rae Hubbard. We could have more than one killer using that site as a dumping ground.”
“With all the remote areas in the San Bernardino National Forest, how is it even possible that more than one UNSUB is using the same location to dump the bodies and not know about any others?” Cam asked. “The odds must be astronomical.”
“If we have more than one UNSUB using the same real estate, it implies a certain level of cooperation between them,” I said. “They might know each other, but I don’t want to speculate, until we have evidence.”
Cam had been right. If there were more than one UNSUB, the idea of a greater conspiracy had my mind reeling. Serial killers rarely worked together, although there were notable exceptions. Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono became known as the Hillside Strangler when it was believed there’d been only one rapist serial killer. At his trial, Bianchi went for the insanity plea, claiming multiple personalities were using his body to kill.
“I’ll need you to go through these files with me,” I said to Lucinda. “After we eat, we’ll work on the profile at the motel.”
“Or profiles, plural.”
I nodded in agreement.
Sinead had given me plenty of ammunition to justify the search for more bodies. But as I stared down at the faces in the case files, I committed each one to memory. I wanted to know them—whether they came to me in my sleep or had the courage to face me tonight—and share what happened to them.
Earlier I’d asked Lucinda for a favor, something she’d be uniquely qualified for. She knew about my gift and because she had FBI credentials, she could back me up. I didn’t want to chance that the souls I’d seen in the pines would remain silent in death. They were my best shot at stopping the UNSUB. Perhaps the brave child, earthbound because of love, would show them the way to me.
After the witching hour of midnight, I would return to the spot where Lily’s body had been found and search for the haunted souls of the other ones—and Lucinda would come with me.
***
San Bernardino National Forest
After midnight
Ryker Townsend
“I don’t know how you talked me into this.” Lucinda groused as she walked
I read the details of her abduction and scrolled through the crime scene photos where the Sheriff’s office recovered her body. It broke my heart to see what had happened to Avery.
“Any arrests?” Lucinda asked.
I furrowed my brow as I read an update to the girl’s case record.
“Nineteen years after they discovered her remains, authorities found the body of the alleged perpetrator, dead. A Navy SEAL team killed him, a guy by the name of Ben Hurst. The girl’s brother, Sam Reed, had been part of that SEAL team.”
Reed had only been fifteen at the time his sister went missing. I couldn’t imagine the kind of obsession it took to hunt his sister’s killer all those years. If Reed were still alive, I wanted to meet him and I hoped Sinead could find him.
After I read more of Avery’s case file, I shook my head. “This can’t be right. It doesn’t add up.”
“What isn’t right?”
“If Hurst took the girl and killed her, how is it that years later, he abducted someone much older? Predators into preteen girls, they aren’t going to switch hit and hunt women in their thirties. That goes against type.”
“Then there’s Lily,” Lucinda said. “She’s seventeen, somewhere between in age, and she’s out in the open and displayed. You’re right. The MO isn’t consistent. The profile would be all over the board.”
“We could have more than one serial offender. This case just got complicated,” I said. “Good work, Royce. I have enough to call Reynolds and ask for more resources. When I get the green light, I’ll be in touch to arrange for cadaver dogs, ground penetrating radar, whatever it takes to search the marshlands where we found the body of Lily Rae Hubbard. We could have more than one killer using that site as a dumping ground.”
“With all the remote areas in the San Bernardino National Forest, how is it even possible that more than one UNSUB is using the same location to dump the bodies and not know about any others?” Cam asked. “The odds must be astronomical.”
“If we have more than one UNSUB using the same real estate, it implies a certain level of cooperation between them,” I said. “They might know each other, but I don’t want to speculate, until we have evidence.”
Cam had been right. If there were more than one UNSUB, the idea of a greater conspiracy had my mind reeling. Serial killers rarely worked together, although there were notable exceptions. Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono became known as the Hillside Strangler when it was believed there’d been only one rapist serial killer. At his trial, Bianchi went for the insanity plea, claiming multiple personalities were using his body to kill.
“I’ll need you to go through these files with me,” I said to Lucinda. “After we eat, we’ll work on the profile at the motel.”
“Or profiles, plural.”
I nodded in agreement.
Sinead had given me plenty of ammunition to justify the search for more bodies. But as I stared down at the faces in the case files, I committed each one to memory. I wanted to know them—whether they came to me in my sleep or had the courage to face me tonight—and share what happened to them.
Earlier I’d asked Lucinda for a favor, something she’d be uniquely qualified for. She knew about my gift and because she had FBI credentials, she could back me up. I didn’t want to chance that the souls I’d seen in the pines would remain silent in death. They were my best shot at stopping the UNSUB. Perhaps the brave child, earthbound because of love, would show them the way to me.
After the witching hour of midnight, I would return to the spot where Lily’s body had been found and search for the haunted souls of the other ones—and Lucinda would come with me.
***
San Bernardino National Forest
After midnight
Ryker Townsend
“I don’t know how you talked me into this.” Lucinda groused as she walked