What the...
“Tell me.”
“His name is Dr. Gregory Hayes.”
“Okay...” Eric’s voice trailed off. He had no idea who the guy was.
“Shit. Wait. I should probably back up.”
Eric glanced out the window above the sink and saw Riley in the exact same spot she’d been in. “Well hurry the hell up. I’m not sure how much longer she’s gonna be outside.”
Derek dove right in. “Captain Vogel sent me the security footage from Riley’s apartment complex. Apparently, their equipment wasn’t sophisticated enough to get a clear image of the parking lot.”
“Yeah, I know. Cap called last night and told me he’d sent it to you.”
“Good thing he did, too. The footage was shitty, don’t get me wrong, but I was finally able to clean it up enough to get what we needed.”
“Which was...”
“A man dressed in dark pants, a hat, and jacket is seen entering the building around the same time we arrived at the old farmhouse. He’s carrying a huge duffel bag that appears to be full.”
“Ah, hell. The dead girl?”
“Had to be. Cameras show him going straight to Riley’s apartment, using a key—not sure how the fuck he got one of those—and he goes inside. He’s not in there more than ten, fifteen minutes tops before he leaves again. This time, with an empty bag.”
Motherfucker.
“How’d you get his name?”
“I ran the plate on the car he took off in. The footage from the parking lot only shows a partial, but I picked him up on the CCTV a block away and got the rest. Dark, four-door Chevy sedan rented under an alias.”
“Alias? So Hayes isn’t his real name?”
“It is, but he rented the car under the name Ty Buendd.” Derek spelled out the odd name before going on to explain. “It’s a fucking anagram. Rearrange the letters, and it spells Ted Bundy.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. Sick fuck, our guy. Anyway, using the falsified information on the rental car agreement, I was able to find a hotel reservation under the same name.”
Eric’s pulse rate spiked. “You know where he is?”
“No, but we’re getting damn close. Your unit’s processing the guy’s hotel room, now. Cap asked me to call and fill you in, but it’s definitely our guy.”
“How do you know?”
“For one, they found an empty vial of sodium thiopental, along with a syringe that appears to have been used recently.”
Probably the same one the bastard used on Maggie.
They also found a book containing newspaper clippings of all the murders. New York, Colorado and Wyoming, and here. And...there’s something else.”
The something he wasn’t going to like.
“What is it?”
“Eric, the guy had Riley’s medical file from a hospital back in New York.”
“What?”He swung his gaze back to where she was still standing.
