AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At the local precinct, Fiona and Jake sat in the briefing room, laptops out. Fiona knew they needed to crack this before someone else died, or else she was sure she’d never be able to live with the guilt.
The support group seemed to be a good angle—the only problem was that in recent months, there was no paper trail showing that any of the three victims had been to something like that. Of course, if it were an anonymous, unpaid service, then tracking them in general would be very difficult.
“I’m gonna make some calls,” Jake said, standing. “Some of the victims’ friends and families might know more about this group. You keep seeing what you can dig up online.”
Fiona nodded, and Jake left the room. She found herself alone in the briefing room with only her thoughts and her laptop; she wasn’t sure how to go about finding the group, but there had to be some evidence of it online.
Rather than trying to find it in each victim’s file, she decided to go for a more general approach. She went online, her fingers flying over the keys, and looked up “anonymous phobia support groups in Portland.”
The results were surprisingly abundant, and Fiona felt a rush of excitement. She quickly bookmarked the most promising sites, eager to investigate them further. From what she could tell, there were several different groups that catered to different kinds of fears—from arachnophobia to claustrophobia and beyond.
Fiona clicked through the various websites, taking notes as she went along. Each site had its own unique set of rules, but they all seemed to share one common goal: providing a safe space for those struggling with fear-based disorders to find solace in each other’s company.
But if the support group was what had brought the three victims together, then they were likely looking for something more generalized—something that talked about all different kinds of fears.
Fiona continued her search, this time looking for groups that were not specific to any one type of fear. This too yielded a surprisingly large number of results, and Fiona quickly jotted down the addresses of the ones that looked the most promising. Maybe if they could trace any of the victims to any of these locations, they’d have their place.
Fiona also took note of the people running the sessions. Each was run by a different therapist or psychologist of some kind, and Fiona took note of their names; she could run them through the database and see if any had criminal records.
Dr. Charles McDougal.
Dr. Tamara Lynn.
Dr. Linus Henry.
Dr. Augustus Balog.
Any of them could be running the show they were looking for, but Fiona wasn’t even sure where to begin. She was about to start from the top when Jake came back into the room and rushed over to her.
“Hey, Red,” he said, “Mason’s mother said she remembered dropping him off at one of those anonymous groups two years ago.”
“Two years?” Fiona asked, perplexed. “Isn’t that too long ago?”
“We have to start somewhere.” Jake slid into the chair next to her. “She said it was located on the east side of town, right near a grocery store. It was at a therapist’s office, but she didn’t know the person’s name.”
“I have a list of potentials here,” Fiona said, her heart racing. “Let’s see if any of them are located near there.”
They looked up the addresses online and immediately got a hit. It was for Dr. Augustus Balog, who ran sessions out of an office on the east side of town, right near the grocery store that Mason’s mother had mentioned.
Fiona felt her excitement build as she clicked through the website. Dr. Balog seemed to specialize in helping people with all kinds of phobias, and it appeared he ran group sessions every other week. His photo online showed a steely-eyed man with brown hair centered in the middle of his forehead, wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.
This could be exactly who they were looking for.
Jake leaned over Fiona to grab her laptop, and her face flushed as his woodsy cologne reached her nose. She tried to stay focused as Jake went into the FBI database and pulled up Dr. Balog’s files.
“If the group was anonymous, then we can’t confirm if they were all patients of his,” Jake said. “But we can see if he has a criminal record.”
The search came back negative. Dr. Balog had no criminal record, and his background check showed that he was a highly reputable psychologist in the area. He had no complaints against him, and his reviews were all positive. In fact, it seemed almost too good to be true; the man was practically flawless.
“No criminal record,” Jake said. “Balog’s almost too clean.”
Despite being surprised by Balog’s lack of any criminal history, Fiona was still convinced that this could be their guy.They needed to link at least one other victim to him. “Can we try to find out if any of the others ever visited his office? Maybe they went for therapy sessions too.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Jake agreed. “Maybe we just didn’t look far back enough.”
Jake opened up Senator Barlow’s financial records, then adjusted the date to two years ago. He scrolled through the list, and Fiona eyed it for any sign of Dr. Balog’s name.
Then she saw it.
