“She’s right, you know,” Xander said. “Are you going to tell us what’s really going on, or let us keep operating in the dark?”
Baldwin swallowed and set his chopsticks across the top of his white cardboard carton. “You always were too insightful for your own good, Sam. What we haven’t shared with the media, or anyone else, for that matter, was the content of the note found at Rachel Stevens’s house. This is why we’re going full bore on this case.”
Sam stopped eating, as well. “The note was found at her house? I thought it was found at the scene.”
“No, that was a purposeful mislead. We’re holding back the real details. It was actually tacked to her bedroom door. It read, and I quote, You lose one, you replace one.”
“Jesus,” Xander said.
Baldwin tapped the file folder, then took a deep breath. “What I’m about to tell you can’t leave this room. It gets worse.” He opened the manila folder and laid five clear evidence bags on the table. “We have five notes just like it.”
Sam was dumbstruck. “Five more? Five more girls are missing?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“When? Where? And why haven’t we heard anything about them, about their cases?” And then it hit her. The secrecy. The nondisclosure agreement. The stricken faces of Baldwin and Thurber. Her blood pressure spiked.
“Have you been covering this up because you think Doug Matcliff, a former FBI agent, is behind the kidnappings? Because you thought he was your suspect all along? And he’s had Kaylie Rousch captive all these years?”
Baldwin put his hands up in defense. “We didn’t know where he was, if he was even alive. We weren’t covering anything up.”
“So why haven’t you been shouting this from the rooftops? And why wouldn’t Thurber and Blake tell us there are more girls missing? This is rather important, don’t you think?”
He didn’t answer right away, and she figured she’d hit it right on the nose. They weren’t going to admit it, but that’s why they were keeping things so quiet. The FBI actually thought the suspect was one of their own.
“They were under my instruction not to share this part of the story,” Baldwin said.
“Why?”
“The truth is, Sam, this is all you need to know, and I wasn’t sure you wanted to stay involved. Technically, you can walk away right now. You’ve fulfilled your end of the deal with Matcliff. You did his autopsy, found the only remaining copy of his will. Even saved Ellie Scarron’s life. You told me you didn’t want to work with me, with the FBI. I respect that. You can go home. We’ll put someone on the house to keep you safe until the acute part of the case is through, but...” He trailed off and shrugged.
Jesus. He was right. All her claims, all her posturing that she didn’t want to be a part of law enforcement anymore, didn’t want to be working on homicides, had gone right out the window the minute she was presented with a juicy case to sink her teeth into.
She should get up and leave. Go home with Xander, go back to her new, quiet, safe life.
She sensed Xander watching her, snuck a look at him from under her lashes. He had a crooked half smile on his face, slightly wistful, as if he knew the decision she was about to make.
Baldwin was sitting silently, his hands folded on top of the file, watching her.
Both of them waiting for her to make a choice.
She took a quick breath in through her nose. “We’re staying. And hiding this information from us was ridiculous. I need to know everything if you expect me to help.”
Baldwin didn’t miss a beat, but his smile was blinding. “Good. I’m glad to have you.”
“Just this case, Baldwin. After this, I go back to being a boring old college professor.”
He nodded, and the look on his face told her he didn’t believe her for a second.
She ignored that. “Let’s get back to it, then. Tell me about the missing girls.”
“All right. The pattern is very specific. The victimologies are incredibly similar, the handwriting on the notes left at the scenes match, so there’s little doubt the same person is behind all the kidnappings. It’s been going on since 1998. I think Kaylie Rousch was the first. All six girls—seven now, if we include Rachel—had similar physical characteristics. Strawberry blond hair, light eyes. All were taken when they were between six and ten years old, so we’re dealing with a pedophilic mind-set. If you think about the way they were, for lack of a better term, replaced every few years or so, that tells us the ages of six to twelve are the specific ideation for this suspect.”