Slenderman by CeeRee Fields (good novels to read TXT) 📗

Rian nodded.

“Could we see them?” Jo crossed her fingers hoping this was a fluke because Rhys would kill her if she involved Rian in a serial killer case.

She wanted to be right about the game. If it was, it would make a huge impact on narrowing the suspect pool, but not at the expense of dragging Rian into the middle of this. Hell, they didn’t even know who they were looking for except that the killer was a male.

“We’ll get our laptops and show you.” Rian tugged Evan out of the room as they talked excitedly about helping Jo in an official investigation.

Redden dodged around Karma to confront Jo. “What the hell, Rayburn? I needed them to—”

She crowded into Redden’s space. “I know what you were going to do, and the answer is no. Those kids don’t have the mental capacity to see the photos you were planning to whip out.” Even Jo had a problem seeing the blood-soaked bodies and pain-filled faces.

“Jesus, Rayburn. Rian looked to be twenty and Evan twenty-two or three. If they game—”

“Rian has the mind of a twelve-year-old and has nightmares just watching a crime show on television. Evan is a high-functioning autistic kid who has so many triggers he’d make Jigsaw’s house of horrors look tame.” She jabbed the FBI agent in the chest. “So we will gather clean pictures of the other victims to show the boys and see if they can identify anyone else.”

Redden gulped and nodded.

“You know this is thin,” Karma piped up. “A video game? They aren’t all going to play it.”

“Do you have a better lead?”

Karma gnawed on her lip several seconds before her shoulders slumped in defeat. “Nope.”

As the boys rushed back into the room, Karma held her hand up. “Look, it’s dinner time so how about Ian and I go grab us dinner while you two brainiacs set up.”

Jo wanted to tease Karma at using Blair’s first name but refrained since she never knew what would come out of Karma’s mouth. Rian beamed from where he was booting up his laptop. Most days Jo knew he felt slower than everyone else. She wanted to hug her sister for making Rian feel as smart as the rest of them.

“Ri, here.” Evan passed Rian a handful of cables.

Karma dragged Blair out the door while Evan and Rian chatted quietly at the yellow table.

Jo motioned to Redden, and they dug into the twelve files looking for clean photos of each victim while Sullivan and Maker finished filling in the notes on the board. She trusted them not to add anything scary that Rian and Evan could absorb.

“Do you really think they can identify the others?” Redden whispered.

Jo shrugged. “We have victims from Norway, the Netherlands, England, Canada, and the US who all played the game. It was one common factor that seven of twelve had, which is too high a rate to be purely a coincidence. If we could get the other governments to cooperate, we’d know if it was the common factor. It’s why I don’t think our killer was dormant. I think he still killed, but in countries that don’t play nice with the rest of us. I never bought the conscript angle Karma and Blair tossed around.”

“That would make sense but how is he able to get in and out so easily?”

“No idea.”

“Well, this is worth a shot.” Redden opened an empty folder and began placing pictures in it. “I don’t think it will help though.”

“Can’t hurt.”

They sorted out several in case the official photos didn’t jog the boys’ memories. By the time they were done, Karma and Blair were back with pizza, a treat Evan rarely was allowed since his parents were health nuts.

After they ate, they cleaned the grease from their hands and picked up the mess. Jo flipped through the photos one more time while the others worked on filling in the rest of the board and profile while double checking each other’s work. Most of police work was getting as many eyes as possible on the case, so more ideas formed. Redden stood behind Rian and Jo behind Evan as they ran through a black and gray forum site with pictures of Tengku with his wife and dog.

Both boys pointed at their screens, and Jo leaned over for a closer look at Evan’s while Redden examined Rian’s. Tengku was the same man they called FishRFriends.

Taking a breath, she motioned the boys to move to the other side of the table. They scooched to the other seats and dragged their laptops with them.

“We need to ask you if you know any of our other victims.” Jo passed the file with the photos in it, and the boys sorted through them. Four were placed in one stack, and the other eight were arrayed between them.

“These we know,” Evan stated his voice held the same expressionless tone as if he had ordered lunch or chocolate milk. He wasn’t good with inflection but was always very precise.

“From your game.” Jo clarified. “But you don’t know these four?”

“Yes from our game, and no we do not know those four.”

Redden looked at Jo. It didn’t fit. The four victims the boys left off the list played the game too. Before Jo could question them further, Rian chimed in.

“They may play. I mean, the game has over a million players from all over the world.” Rian looked to Evan as if seeking confirmation for his idea. Evan nodded.

“But these eight you definitely know.” Redden tapped the stack.

“Yes, they were in our clan.”

Jo was lost, but Redden seemed to understand when he said. “How big is your clan? And do these eight people have any pictures on your forums?”

“We have a little over three hundred members. And yes, those eight have pictures on our forums site.”

“Can we see them?”

Evan dragged his laptop over and hit a few keys then turned it around again. “Just scroll through the album.”

“Ev, you know how some of our friends disappeared?” Rian shared his laptop with