“Not much, but it’s a start,” said Tanner. “Teller Wayne is a professor of nursing but he’s moved universities six times in the last ten years. When we looked into crimes, murders, kidnappings around those universities, there is a dark pattern.
“Students in the nursing program, not always in his class but in the program, have disappeared at alarming rates. All of these universities report at least three, up to five missing students.”
“And they didn’t investigate this?” asked Gator.
“They investigated locally and found nothing. These were young women who were good students, made good grades, and all of them, up until Nicole, were single. Although the good professor was questioned, he was never officially named as a suspect but left the universities shortly after the incidents.”
“And not one fucking person found that suspicious?” growled Rush.
“Apparently not,” said AJ. “It took us some time but Teller is not his real name. His birth name is Tyler Moses. The name was changed about eleven years ago. He grew up on a large compound in Iowa.”
“Compound?” frowned Ham.
“It’s a farm but several families live there. They are reclusive, live sustainably, catching their own meat and fish, growing their own produce, milking their own cows.”
“Are they Amish or Quaker?” asked Gator.
“No,” said AJ. “They fall under a belief rarely seen any longer. It’s a shoot-off of a number of religions but their main belief is that the man controls everything and the woman does all the work, or at least all the work he directs her to do. She cooks, cleans, does the laundry, takes care of the animals, the farm, all of it. From what I can see, the man does nothing except attempt to reproduce.
“The interesting thing is that it’s not like a cult where they want fifty or sixty children. They limit the number of children for one father to five. Five and only five. Teller, or Tyler, is one of three. His biological father died several years ago but ‘assigned’ another man to take control of his wife.
“The children do attend a local school but it’s very, very strict. They cannot participate in outside activities and teachers have said that the children are almost robotic in class. They’ve expressed concerns to local authorities but since the children don’t appear to be physically abused, there’s not much they can do.”
“Wait a minute. You said the father is dead and his mother had a chance to run?” asked Rush.
“Rush, these women are probably so programmed, so beaten into submission, the idea of running no longer occurs to them,” said Shep. “The mind games that these men, and sometimes women, play are beyond cruel. It can take years to get a woman back into life as we know it.”
“Jesus, this is fucked up,” said Ham shaking his head. “Didn’t Ivan and Hunter run into this, or something similar when they found Sophia?”
“Hunter was undercover. Ivan found Sophia, or she found him, but she was part of an incestuous cult. It’s amazing she’s the woman she is now after all that,” said Gator.
“This man believes that his ideals, his ways are normal and that anyone else’s ways are not. He thinks his way is the right way and your way is the wrong way. Unfortunately, he also has the delusional belief that he has the right to whatever woman he selects and she should totally, and gratefully, submit to him.
“That not only makes him dangerous but determined. If Nicole doesn’t submit to his demands, there’s no telling what he’ll do to her,” said Shep.
“Shit!” muttered the room together.
“How is Samantha?” asked Gator.
“She’s grieving, as she should. She can’t help but blame herself for not going with her sister but we’re working through that. Once she passes her boards, I think we’re going to hire her here at the clinic. I could use a good psychiatric nurse.”
“I think that’s great,” nodded Ham. “We’d welcome her.”
“I’ll let you know if anything else comes to light,” he said nodding as he left.
“Finn?” Willa’s head popped around the corner of the room and he smiled at her.
“Hi, babe. Everything okay?” he asked.
“I don’t think so. I haven’t been checking my school e-mail because exams were done and there was, well, all this going on. I checked it this morning and there were three messages from my professor telling me that if I didn’t meet with him, he would adjust my grade to failing. I swear I didn’t see them come through!” she said.
“That’s my fault,” said AJ. “Once we knew there were issues, I was filtering your mail to come to me. I’m sorry, Willa. I didn’t want you to see those.”
“I understand, AJ, but it’s my email. I should at least be able to read them and report them to you. It’s not like I would ignore them. I would send them directly to all of you.”
“Honey, we know that,” said Gator, “but remember that it’s our responsibility to make sure that every communication that comes through to your e-mails or phones is filtered to ensure no viruses, bugs, threats, all the nasty stuff.”
“Gator, I’m well aware of why we do it and that we need to report suspicious communication to you. But what if that were real? About my grades?”
