Profile of Evil (31 page)

Dog crate? Carly was sickened. The killer kept the young girls in dog crates. "Woman? So there are two of them? A man and a woman?" Carly wondered. When Alison nodded her head in the affirmative, she asked, "What do they look like?"

Alison looked sadly at her mother, then looked back at Carly. "I don't know. They always wore ski masks."

"So you never saw either of them without the masks?"

"Wait a minute. I did see the woman's face when she picked me up at the bus station. She wasn't wearing any makeup and I remember thinking that a little mascara on her eyelashes and lip gloss on her mouth would make her look better. Her eyes were brown and so was her hair. I don't know how old she was, maybe in her twenties."

"Okay, that's good. If I brought in a sketch artist, do you think you could help him or her draw the woman's picture?"

"I could try."

"Alison, a farmer found you and called nine-one-one."

"There was a dog. Where is the dog?" Alison wanted to know.

"The dog's name is Lucky, and he belongs to the farmer," Carly said. "Do you remember how you got to the farmer's house?"

"Yes, I remember. When the woman realized Jasmine was dead, she ran upstairs. She didn't know she'd dropped the keys to the padlocks near our cages. I was able to get the keys and opened the padlock to my crate. I found some of the woman's sweats, put them on, and then punched out the glass of the bathroom window. I crawled out, ran into the woods, and realized some time later that I had cut myself and was bleeding. But I kept going. I was afraid to stop. The dog found me, and I followed the dog to the farm. I don't remember anything after that."

"You're doing really well, Alison. Just a few more questions. Tell me about the man's house. It sounds like you entered the woods directly from his yard. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Tell me what you saw in his yard before you went into the woods."

Alison paused, as if visualizing, and then said, "To my right was a driveway leading to a small garage. From the garage, the drive went to a red barn with a flat field next to it and in front. I remember thinking there were too many chances to see me if I went that way. So I ran for the woods."

Suddenly Usher's "O.M.G." pierced the quiet room as Gabe's cell phone sounded. Alison appeared to notice the man at the back of the room for the first time. Gabe fished his cell out of his pocket, apologized for the disruption and headed toward the door to answer his call.

"Anthony!" Alison screamed.

Confused, Gabe stopped and looked at the young girl who was now sobbing hysterically.

"I'm so sorry about the phone," he began, but Alison interrupted.

"You're Anthony!" she repeated accusingly, as she pointed at him.

Edging closer to the bed, Gabe said, "No, my name is Gabe Chase."

Wiping her eyes, Alison demanded, "Come closer so I can see you better." Once he moved nearer, she added, "You look just like Anthony, except you're older."

"Who is Anthony?" Gabe and Carly asked simultaneously.

"Anthony said he was in love with me. He's the reason I came to Morel."

<><><>

Chapter Twelve

With her heart in her throat, Carly asked, "Did you communicate with Anthony online, Alison?"

"Yes, we met on Teen Chat, but once we'd gotten close, he asked that we use instant messaging."

"So Gabe here looks a lot like Anthony?"

"They could be twins except Gabe is older. Anthony is sixteen. I wish I had my iPhone, I'd show you his photo."

"Carly, I need to get to my laptop back at the sheriff's office," Gabe interrupted, urgency written all over his face.

"Alison, please get some rest. We'll be back. What you've told us is very important. Thank you." She gave Alison a hug, and raced out of the room with Gabe.

Once they were seated in his car, Carly asked, "What are you thinking?"

"I need to go through every profile with the call name Anthony attached to it in Teen Chat with a profile photo that looks like me. Then we'll be that much closer to our killer."

<><><>

Cameron sat in Brody's office detailing the meeting he'd just had with Deputy Ryder.

"I just terminated Jim Ryder. I explained to him how his poor performance at the meth bust put lives at risk, and he blew up. He said neither of us would know good performance if it hit us in our faces. I have never seen anyone so angry. He turned in his service gun, his badge, and the keys to his patrol car. He insisted his performance was not bad and that we're making a big mistake that we'd live to regret."

"Not bad? If he had fired his gun, when I specifically gave orders not to shoot inside that house, he could have killed us all," Brody insisted. "And I haven't forgotten that he was the one who cleared the room the meth head was hiding in. Ryder could have shot me or that tank of anhydrous ammonia and blown us all sky high."

Carly appeared at his office doorway and Brody waved her in.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Alison's awake. I just talked with her at the hospital, and have some important new information."

"Come in and sit down. What did you find out?"

Sitting down in the chair next to Cameron, Carly said, "The killer's house is located next to the wooded area Alison used to get to the farmer's house. Facing the front of the house, the thicket of trees is on the left side of the property. In addition, there is a garage and red barn. A field lies before and next to the barn."

"I can print a map once I get into the online property map and records site," said Cameron.

"There's more," Carly interrupted. "Alison said she'd fallen in love with someone online named Anthony, and he was the reason she took the bus to Morel. When she saw Gabe in the room, she nearly had a heart attack."

"Why?" Brody asked, obviously confused.

"Alison said that Anthony could be Gabe's twin, except Gabe is older. Anthony is supposedly sixteen."

"Where is Gabe?" Brody wanted to know.

"When we got back here, he picked up his laptop and went to his office. He said he needed to be near all of his equipment as he searches for Anthony's specific call name and real identity."

"If anyone can find his identity, it's Gabe," said Cameron.

"What time are we interviewing Ron Tyler today?" asked Brody, changing the subject as he pulled up his Outlook calendar on his computer.

"About Ron Tyler," Carly began. "Gabe found communications between Ron and the underage girl in Bloomington, and yes, Ron planned to hook up with her in Morel. But other than that, his emails were to and from family members and friends."

"That sounds good. Why do you sound so hesitant?" asked Brody, his dark eyebrows raised inquiringly.

"Gabe found hundreds of kiddie porn photos on Ron's laptop."

"Hell, yes!" shouted Cameron. "We've got him. Were there photos of our victims?"

"No, Gabe didn't find any photos of our victims," Carly responded. "The thing about the pornographic photos is that they were uploaded between four-thirty and six o'clock this morning. If you recall, we were still at Ron Tyler's house at that time. Remember? We'd arrested Ron, cleared the house, and the hazmat team was ventilating it by then. Ron Tyler couldn't have uploaded the images."

"Who in the hell did?" demanded Brody.

<><><>

Arriving at the hospital, the Master smiled to himself as he slipped by the front desk, completely unnoticed as a tall hospital security guard flirted with a pretty, young receptionist. Walking past the bank of elevators, he entered the stairwell where he took the stairs at a leisurely pace. No need to hurry, no one was going to stop him. He figured since Alison Brown was in a coma, she'd undoubtedly be in the ICU on the third floor.

Slowly opening the stairwell door to three, he peered down the hall and spotted a Shawnee County deputy sitting outside a patient's room that was undoubtedly Alison's. Closing the door, he leaned against the stairwell wall as he called the nurse's station in ICU.

"Hello, this is Sheriff Chase. I need to talk to the deputy who is posted outside Alison Brown's room. I've tried his cell phone, but he's not answering and he has a family emergency. I really need to talk to him."

"I'll go get him now," offered a nurse.

He watched as the nurse got the deputy's attention. Hearing the words "family emergency", the deputy raced to the nurse's station. The Master would have to be quick, but he was sure he could make it to the girl's room without being stopped. Taking advantage of the confusion caused when the deputy found the phone line dead, he rushed down the hall to Alison's room, visualizing all the while how he'd put a pillow over her face and suffocate her.

Reaching her room, he realized she was not alone. A woman in scrubs was washing Alison's face with a wash cloth. As he reached for the gun he'd strapped to his ankle, he debated whether he had time to take them both out. Too late. He'd run out of time. The deputy was running toward him, shouting for him to freeze.

Unable to backtrack without getting captured, he hurried toward the exit sign at the stairwell at the other end of the hall. Taking the steps two at a time, he was on the second floor when he heard the stairwell door above him open. The deputy yelled, "Stop!" Doing the opposite, he raced down the stairs until he reached the first floor exit which led to the parking lot. Soon, he was in his car, speeding out of the lot.

For the first time since he'd implemented his plan, he became alarmed and anxious. Things were not going according to plan, and maybe his sister was right when she said things were unraveling.

His only option was to kill the girl. She was the only one who could lead the police to his door. Awake now, she must be talking to the police. Maybe she couldn't figure out where he lived. Otherwise, his place would have been crawling with cops by now. That must be it. He'd come back later with a silencer on his gun and shoot the deputy, then Alison, and anyone else who tried to interfere with the Master's plan.

<><><>

In his office, Gabe frantically tried to find Anthony's call name. He'd discovered twenty-one call names that included the name "Anthony" that were being used on the Teen Chat site. It was tedious work, but he had to go through each profile and photo in order to target the Anthony who was communicating with Alison Brown. He'd gone through eighteen profiles and profile photos when he came to @Anthony16. What Gabe saw on this profile made him shake his head in disbelief, and push back in his chair. He was shocked and angry. What the hell?

He copied and pasted @Anthony16's profile image into an email and then called Brody. As soon as his brother answered, in a rush of words, he said, "Brody, do you have your computer on? Go to your email. I just sent you an image."

"Now's not a good time, Gabe. I'm meeting with Carly and Cameron."

"Move your computer screen so that they can both see what I sent. Turn your phone on speaker so Carly and Cam can hear me. Open the email, Brody."

Hearing the urgency in Gabe's voice, Brody pulled up the email and opened it.

"Tell me what you see," Gabe demanded.

"What the hell is going on, Gabe? This is the picture I took of you in your football jersey when you were sixteen. Why are you sending it to me now?"

"That's the photo that Anthony is using on his Teen Chat profile. He used it when he started romancing Alison Brown online. Our killer is using
my
fucking photo, Brody!"

"Oh, my God," said Carly. "The killer knows Gabe."

Cameron remarked, "Well, if he knows Gabe, he probably knows all three of us."

"Exactly," said Carly. "Keep in mind, our killer likes to hang around cops. It is not farfetched to think he may be a law enforcement officer for Shawnee County. That would be the perfect job for him. He would know firsthand how close the police were in identifying him as the killer."

"No way," insisted Brody.

"Why would this guy use Gabe's photo? Cameron asked.

"For some reason, he dislikes Gabe. Why else would he use Gabe's photo on his fake online profile? He's thinking if law enforcement should discover his online profile, he can divert their attention to Gabe instead of himself."

"Who would have access to Gabe's photograph?"

Gabe answered, "Since my high school yearbook is online, your guess is as good as mine. But I can tell you this. I won't stop searching for this bastard's identity until I find it."

<><><>

When Cameron went to his office to look at property records, Carly said to Brody, "There were only four officers certified to go into Ron Tyler's house during the meth bust, Cameron, Blake, Deputy Ryder and you. You and Blake didn't enter the home because you were dealing with Ron Tyler, who had crashed through the back sliding glass doors, and the meth head with the gun. Cameron came out back as soon as he heard the gun go off. That leaves Deputy Ryder alone in the house for at least fifteen minutes, before the hazmat team went inside. That is more than enough time to upload those photographs onto Ron's computer."