Break Her Silence by Kate Tristan

Author:Kate Tristan [Tristan, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lisbon Press
Published: 2024-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

MONDAY, APRIL 1ST

Merit sat at the head of the crowded conference room, her laptop open in front of her as she took notes. Sean had called the task force together, getting everyone into the room first thing in the morning. There were representatives from all the different jurisdictions involved, as well as the entire violent crimes unit. There were pastries and fresh fruit in the center of the table that no one had touched, and several carafes of coffee at the back of the room that were drained in the first ten minutes.

Sean checked his watch. "It's time to call the BSU."

He'd arranged for a couple of profilers from the Behavioral Science Unit down in Quantico to review the case files over the weekend and join the meeting via Zoom. He used a computer hooked up to the projector at the front of the room, and a couple minutes later, two video feeds popped up.

Sean introduced himself as the case agent, and the profilers did the same.

"Fatima Grayson," the woman on the right side of the screen said. She looked to be in her forties, with long, curly hair and impeccable makeup. Merit tried not to be resentful about that last bit – she was still trying to find the balance between her sleep deficit and her skincare routine. This woman had given up her weekend for this case and still managed to look like a model. Grayson said, "I've been with the BSU for ten years and I was an agent in Baltimore before that."

"And I'm Isaac Margolis," the other profiler said. He was olive-complected, with a thick but close-trimmed beard. "Two years as a profiler, fifteen in NYC."

"SSA Gabriel Alvarez," their boss introduced himself, sitting across the table from Merit. "Have you had time to review our case?"

"We have," Fatima said. "Would you like to begin with the profile for the victims or the perpetrator?"

"Let's start with what we can learn from the victims," Alvarez said.

Merit poised her fingers over her keyboard.

"There are seven known victims, as well as Justine Hoover, whose abduction we believe to be related," Fatima said. "Of those, we know the identity of three. Justine, plus Jessica Williams and Virginia Lewis. Justine is thirty-two, Jessica was twenty-six, and Virginia was forty-five. This is a somewhat wide range of ages, although we can infer from that, plus the skeletal remains of the other victims, that our perpetrator prefers adult women – above puberty and prior to old age. We can assume that his hunting ground extends across Ohio, but we haven't found any evidence to suggest he's crossed state lines."

She switched from her webcam to a screenshare, and the faces of Justine, Jessica and Virginia appeared on the projector. Fatima continued to speak.

"All three of our identified victims are caucasian, slim build, short to average stature," she said. "We can either draw the conclusion that this is the type of woman he's attracted to, or that he goes after smaller women because he's not confident in his ability to overpower a larger victim.

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