“Call Owen and have him do it.”
She picked up the phone and quickly told Owen what they needed.
Owen replied, “I’m on it. And Lilliana is here as well. She’ll give me a hand to see if we can track down the status of the other missing persons cases.”
Kate explained what they’d found out so far.
“You think it’s him, this asshole Henry?” Owen asked.
“No, not unless we can pin the other two on him as well,” she explained. “It makes no sense that we’d have three killers doing exactly the same thing.”
“Unless they’re doing that on purpose too.”
She thought about that long after she hung up. “You know what? There is that long shot that somehow there are three killers, three people who know each other, and they’re following the exact same MO in order to confuse the issue on these murders because, if it casts a shadow of a doubt, you know perfectly well we won’t get a conviction.”
“That’s very true.” Rodney turned another corner and pulled the vehicle up in front of an apartment building.
They got out and walked up to the front door. It was locked, but somebody was coming out, so they quickly slipped inside as the woman left.
“I always worry about that kind of security,” Kate noted. “I mean, just look how easy it was to get into this place.”
“Well, it’s not supposed to bethateasy,” Rodney argued, looking at her.
“And yet it is. I mean, just look at that. We got in without even trying.”
He nodded and didn’t say anything else. When they reached the right apartment, they knocked on the door and heard a mumble on the other side. She raised an eyebrow and knocked again.
Finally the door jerked open, and a guy roared in her face, “What the fuck do you want?”
She pulled out her shield and shoved it right in front of his eyeballs. He backed up and shook his head, like a bull seeing red. “Whoa, buddy, slow down,” Kate stated firmly.
“What the fuck do you want?” he repeated.
He’s drunk. “Well, I can see why you’re homesickfrom work. I guess that breakup with the girlfriend was hard on you,huh?”
He glared at her. “She’s a fucking bitch,” he snapped. “I don’t need any of this shit.”
“What shit is that?” she asked, with interest.
“Her parents keep calling me, asking me where she is. I don’t know where the hell she is. She took off.”
“Well, we know she took off. We also know why,” Kate stated, with a meaningful look at him.
He continued to glare at her. “You don’t know anything,” he muttered. He stumbled backward, hitting the couch at the back of his knees and falling down.
She watched him in surprise, but then he reached for a bottle and took a long sip. “Is this how you handle the trouble in your life?”
“What do you care?” he snapped.
“I don’t really care, but you know what? Just like the parents, we’re looking for your girlfriend. Well, ex-girlfriend, I assume.”
“Yeah, damn right, she’s an ex-girlfriend piece of shit.”
“Is that how you treat all your women?”
“No. If I had my druthers, I’d beat them to a pulp,” he snapped, “and make sure they weren’t around to piss me off anymore.”
“Is that what you did to this one?” Kate asked curiously. “Because, when you think about it, we’ve got a missing woman here, and you are making death threats.”