Page 73 of Hidden

She’s his second cousin. That’s close enough for Cain to take the case as a favor to the man who has given him years of loyalty without question.

I make a note, tag it, and cross-reference it against everything I have on Renee Park. Then I let the system run the connections while I sit back and think about what this means for the shape of the case.

There’re too many questions in my head, and too many images of girls being hurt. I need to take my mind away from it.

I think about Grounds this morning, Sadie smelled like strawberries. I’ve smelled strawberries whenever I’ve visited her. She smelled like the angel she is. I wanted her to move closer to me, I wanted her to talk more, but the best part was that she called me sexy, and that made me smile.

I pick up the burner phone.

Miles.

Are you still with your friends?

I watch the screen. Nothing.

Miles

I've been thinking about you.

The message sits unread. She's either still with her friends or she's made a decision. I already know which one is more likely after last night. The bracelet she’d left on the counter, the bin bag with all the flowers, and the residence office visit where the building logs flagged to my system at nine this morning.

She's pulling back, but why? I didn’t do anything she didn't want me to. I asked her, and she said yes. So where did I go wrong?

I put the phone down and turn back to the laptop.

The third video is in a separate encrypted folder, the one that was flagged by the algorithm at the party, it queued while I was in the pool, waiting. I've been putting off opening it because the first two took something from me. The image of those girls crying and beaten just won’t leave me.

Mason told me to sleep. I would fucking sleep if I could, but I can’t. I can’t get the images out of my head.

I open the file. It’s forty seconds long. I watch it once with my hands flat on the desk, I force myself not to react. I’m angry, and feel sick watching it. It’s not going to help me find the girls if I don’t watch it and stop this. Finding what’s hidden in the footage will definitely help.

There’re three girls this time, not one. It’s in a room I don't recognize, it’s different from the first two videos, a different background, and a different quality of light. The same raised platform is used and it’s the same voices. But there’s something else in this one, it’s a background detail, which is easy to miss, I almost missed it on the first watch. There’s a window which is partially obscured, and the edge of something outside it. I pause the frame, then zoom in, and run the image enhancement on it twice.

The building is more visible; I can see the partial signage. There’re three letters that are visible before the frame cuts.

I write them down. It's not nothing.

It's the first concrete locating detail across three videos. They can’t be this smart, they have got to mess up somewhere. But how many more girls have to go missing until I figure it out?

I open a new window and start working on the images and the videos. On my other screen, the CCTV feed from Sadie’s dorm room waits quietly. I’m not a creep. I only have cameras in the bedroom, kitchen, and sitting area. I just need to see that she’s thinking about me, that throwing the flowers away was a momentary lapse. A mistake.

I lose myself in the case for hours. There’re Romanian audio clips, financial trails, timestamps, and missing girls. When I finally glance at the clock, it’s past nine. I haven’t eaten since this morning, and my stomach is hollow.

I push back from the desk and head to the kitchen, grabbing the cold pizza from the fridge and shoving two slices into the microwave. I don’t have time to make anything or go out for food, so this will have to do.

The moment I sit down, the live feed catches my attention.

Sadie walks into her dorm, drops her bag by the door, kicks off her shoes, and collapses onto the couch. She looks tired. Beautiful, but tired.

I set the pizza aside and pick up my phone.

Miles

You’re home. You look like you had a long day.

She stares at her phone for a long moment, then puts it face-down on the coffee table without replying. I watch her pull her knees to her chest.

I wait. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Still nothing.