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TWENTY-ONE
Decima
I’d triedto sit a few times while Blaze worked silently on his laptop, but the lack of movement unsettled me. If I wasn’t in motion, my mind could only dwell on the tormented childish figures that I’d seen in the photographs.
I couldn’t walk away from them, but at least staying on my feet kept the most crippling sense of horror at bay.
Blaze stirred with his usual restlessness and shot me an apologetic glance. “With kids, there are a lot fewer images available, and those photos didn’t give the clearest view of their faces. I’m doing my best to find at least partial matches.”
I nodded. “It’s okay.”
But it wasn’t, not at all. If Grandma Ruby had those photos in a safety deposit box, they must have been important, and she must have wanted them hidden. But for her to have them at all…
What if the Hunter was disgustingly right about the Malik family, beyond any crime that’d ever occurred to me?
I stalked toward the kitchen, where Talon was drinking from a bottle of kombucha while he sharpened his favorite knife, and then strode back across the living room again. My hands clenched at my sides. I really wanted to punch someone, but I didn’t have anyone to punch.
Who were the villains here? Could this have been some kind of setup? Maybe the Maliks were being framed.
Blaze let out a pleased sound, and I hurried over to join him. “You’ve got something?”
He waved at his screen. “These are partial matches, like I said, but I think I’ve identified a couple of the kids. A boy, aged five, and a girl, aged eight. Both of them had missing child reports filed with their local police departments.”
“Local departments,” I repeated. “You mean they weren’t from here in DC?”
Blaze shook his head. “The boy was from Jersey City and the girl… Detroit. Not too far away, but whatever was going on, it wasn’t restricted to this state.”
“Whatever is going on,” I corrected. “For all we know, this is still happening. When did they go missing?”
“The boy… three years ago. The girl, twelve.” He grimaced. “Whether it’s still happening or not, the murderer has been at it for a while.”
I frowned, my stomach twisting even tighter. “You said there are just the missing child reports. No documentation of a definite crime? Did no one ever find the bodies?”
“It doesn’t look like it. I haven’t turned up any articles or records of unidentified bodies discovered in that condition. Although there are always remains turning up here and there that’ve deteriorated beyond recognition and were never identified.”
“Or the killer disposed of them in a way that wasn’t discovered.” After taking those pictures as the sickest of mementoes. My fingers flexed and clenched again. “What about the other three?”
“I haven’t located them at all so far. Maybe they were from farther abroad or longer ago, and they’ll pop up eventually. Or maybe they weren’t even reported missing, at least not with a photograph to go with the report.”
A sour taste entered the back of my mouth. The kids had been so alone that nobody had even realized they were taken, tortured, and killed? How could anyone let a child remain missing without reporting them? Didn’t their schools or neighbors notice when they disappeared without a trace? More importantly, shouldn’t their parents have known?
But if they’d been that neglected, maybe that’d made them ideal targets.
I let out a frustrated sound and buried my head in my hands. “How could the Maliks have anything to do with this? It would ruin all of them—everything they’re so committed to working toward. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I agree,” Blaze said gently. “It’s a lot to swallow.”
“But the evidence is right there. Maybe I’m too biased—of course I don’t want to be related to people who’d do something that horrific.” I groaned. “How can I trust my judgment about them? The actual evidence points right to them. No one could have known I’d find that safety deposit box. What would be the point of planting evidence where it wouldn’t be used?”
Blaze got up and rubbed my shoulder. “There are so many factors we can’t account for. I don’t think we can draw any definite conclusions yet. Other than there’s at least one very sick murderer out there, and they’re connected to your family in one way or another.”
“I didn’t get more answers. I only have more questions—worse ones. Where do we go from here?”
I wasn’t aware of Talon crossing the room until he came up on my other side. He gripped my elbow firmly, grounding me with his solid presence. “We’ll keep looking and keep digging until we have the answers,” he said. “No one’s beaten us yet.”
“And you’re not being biased,” Blaze put in. “It is a bizarre idea that your family would be responsible for crimes like these. If I come across any indication that they’re being set up, I won’t be remotely surprised.”
“But you haven’t come across anything like that so far,” I said.
