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“That we know of. There could be more,” Kellan said.
Shit. She felt like she was going to be ill. Why hadn’t she reported him? If she had, she might have been able to stop this. To prevent him from doing this to any more women.
“We didn’t catch on to him until about victim number six. We’ve been trying to track him ever since. He’s good at hiding himself online, though. In the beginning, he used normal online dating services. Then, at around victim number five, he changed to using sites that focus on BDSM relationships.”
“Why?” Raid asked.
“Unknown so far,” Eli said grimly. “We actually know really little about this guy. Because none of his victims are able or willing to talk.”
What?
“Did he threaten them as well?” Raid asked.
Both of Duncan’s brothers stiffened. Then Kellan turned to her. “He threatened you?”
“I . . . yes.” She glanced at Jake.
Jake shook his head. “When I saw these guys were heading the investigation, I contacted them to tell them that one of my people might have been a victim. I haven’t told them much else. Michael has dark hair and is clean -haven. But that is easily changed. His approximate height and weight are the same, as well as his eye color. Same MO. In Alabama, he met his victim using an online dating service for those involved in the lifestyle.”
“My fault,” she whispered.
“It’s not,” Raid told her firmly. “This is all on him.”
“But if I’d reported him, it could have stopped him from doing this to someone else.”
“Listen to me.” Kellan leaned forward. “Yes, you should have reported him. That would have made our job easier.”
She sucked in a breath, trying to fight back tears.
Raid jumped to his feet. “What the actual fuck?”
“Kellan, for fuck’s sake. There’s a time to be blunt and a time to go easy,” Eli said.
“You didn’t let me finish,” Kellan said. “That would have been better. But that doesn’t make any of this your fault. This is all on that bastard, Atwater, or whatever the fuck his name is.”
“You don’t even know who he really is?” Raid asked. “Don’t you have him in custody?”
The two of them shared a look.
Oh no, she didn’t like that look.
“We do . . . but there’s a problem,” Kellan said. “Maybe you could tell us everything that happened, don’t leave anything out. Then we’ll tell you what is happening with our con man.”
She sucked in a breath, squeezing Raid’s hand. Suddenly, she realized she was probably holding on too tight and tried to release his hand.
But he just held on.
This had been hard enough to tell to Raid and Jake . . . but these two were strangers. And she wasn’t even sure she liked them. Eli seemed nice. But Kellan was kind of blunt.
“You’re safe with us, Hannah,” Kellan said. “I know that I come across as an asshole, but our job is to protect you. All we want are the facts so we can get this guy. Can you tell us that?”
Hannah nodded. She would try. She started with meeting Steven, then went through everything that happened with the money, and how he’d disappeared. But she left out the part about him attacking her.
“This sounds pretty similar to our latest victim,” Eli said. “She sold her house to give him the money. But she called the real estate agent about something before she sent through the money and the real estate agent told her that she had no clue what she was talking about.”
“And that’s how you caught him,” she said.
“She told a friend what was going on, and her friend convinced her to go to the police. We were called in and we got her to call him and delay by telling him she was having trouble getting the money transferred. We looked into the bank account he’d given her, and then we set up a meeting between them so we could grab him.”
“That’s good,” she said. “So now he’s under arrest.”
They stared at each other again. “He’s been denied bail based on the fact that he’s a flight risk. But the fact is that our case relied heavily on the witness. His victim,” Kellan told her.
“Right,” Hannah drawled. “What are you saying?”
“Two days ago, our witness recanted her statement,” Eli told her. “She said that she made it all up.”
“Why . . . why would she do that?” she asked.
“Was she threatened?” Raid asked.
“That’s what we think,” Eli said. “We’re trying to get her to tell us, but she’s not speaking. His lawyer is demanding his release. The thing is . . . this guy is a ghost. There’s no history for Michael Atwater. And we’ve run the name you gave us, but there’s nothing there either. The bank account he gave our witness was a dead end. Another fake identity. We don’t have the money. We have no witnesses. Without that . . .”
