You Can't Run by Hope Davis (best way to read books .txt) 📗

her run. But Julia Charles and Shanice Woods had also used RunTracker according to their families. They had submitted the requirements for the warrant a few days before, the company had sent a warning that it would be difficult to trace users, as accounts were only attached to an email, with a first name and last initial, but they did say they would work on it. It was already past four, which meant they probably wouldn’t hear until Monday at this point.

Atlas hung up his phone. “They’ll get us the rental list, but it probably won’t get to us until Monday.”

“That’s what I was just thinking about the RunTracker info.”

“Yeah, I almost forgot about that.” Atlas grabbed the popcorn bag back from Naya and began munching on what was left.

“Do you think those other girls finished their runs too? And they were grabbed before they reached their door?” He speculated.

“It’s possible, I mean all the families said the women practiced runners safety techniques and didn’t take predictable routes. It would make sense that he saw them leave their house’s then waited for them to get back. But what I can’t figure out is, just how is he finding these women?” She moved to the whiteboard which held their pictures.

“I mean, they’re all so different, they’re from different stages of life, different neighborhoods, and ran different routes. We have the almost adult child of affluent parents in Cherry Creek, the middle-class mom who is a track champion from Thornton, and now a young woman who lives in a neglected area of Downtown. What could these women possibly have in common?”

Atlas was getting to the bottom of the popcorn bag, and instead of grabbing the last few pieces, he lifted the bag to his mouth and dumped them in. He thought for a moment while he chewed and swallowed, then opened his mouth. “Your guess is as good as mine. I can’t see anything besides the fact that all three women were runners and used the RunTracker App.”

“Wait!” Naya pulled out her phone and pulled up her Run Tracker app. “You can have friends on here, look.” She showed him the friends tab. Hers was empty because she preferred to keep her runs private.

“Let me see that.” He held out his hand for her phone and she handed it to him. “So, if I wanted to add friends I would click here, right?” He pointed to the little plus in the upper right-hand corner.

“I think so, I never have. Give it a try.” She watched as he pressed it and a white screen came up with a grey bar asking her to type in her friend’s name.

Atlas quickly typed in Alia and watched as the screen filled with names and pictures of over a hundred Alia’s.

“How does he search through this? Especially with a name like Julia, which I’m sure there are millions of?” He quickly typed in ‘Shanice’ and over two hundred people named Shanice popped up. Above the search bar where he had been typing names was an invite tab. He clicked on it and saw you could invite people via SMS or Email.

“I mean with their last initial, that could help.” Naya suggested. Atlas quickly typed in Julia C. and angled Naya the screen even though she had already been watching.

“No way, there are three hundred, or more, Julia C’s here. This guy must be finding them another way.”

 Naya considered that as she watched as Atlas clicked around her app a bit more, looking for a way you could get more information. He opened her running history and let out a low whistle.

“Damn, you’re fast.”

“Thanks.”

“But look here, each of your runs comes with a little map, see? If you had any friend’s, they would be able to see where you ran. And the routes all clearly start and end in your neighborhood.” He pointed out.

“You’re right. Which is why I don’t. Even if you don’t post your runs until after you’re done, someone can get an idea of where I live, the times I run, and the general directions I like to run in, even if I switch it up…” She agreed. “So, what, is this guy was just randomly friending a bunch of people via SMS or email? And the girls that took the bait and accepted became his victims?”

“Maybe.” Atlas scratched his neck. “Maybe what these women have in common is that they agreed to be friends with the killer on RunTracker.”

“Since it’s only a person’s first name and last initial, if they had a friend with that same first name they may say yes even if they weren’t sure it was them. I mean, most people don’t have pictures on here.” Naya showed him the same screen he had typed the women’s names in, and sure enough, only about every tenth account had a photo.

“That means our killer uses a fairly common name.” He mused, turning to write ‘Common name’ on the board under the suspect profile.

“That would explain why he abducts from everywhere rather than sticking to a comfort-zone, like most killers do. He actually is opportunistic.” Naya glanced down at her phone and saw it was almost five.

“Exactly.”

They were both silent for a moment, thinking about the reality of what they just discovered. Naya who broke the silence. “Let’s release this information to the press. Tell women not to add anyone they don’t know to their RunTracker.”

“I’ll go talk to Captain Brody now.” Atlas put down the dry erase marker and walked towards the door. Naya stood and followed.

“I’m going to head out Atlas, but I’ll be in tomorrow. Even if we don’t have the information we requested, I have some ideas I want to check out.”

“Fair enough.” He agreed, taking the time to glance at his own watch. “I actually think I’ll call it an