Page 39 of Nocere

"Just the three of us?"

"Yes, Rosie." Ainsley smiled and patted my hand. "Just us."

"Okay. Everyone is inviting me for meals lately. It's a little unusual," I said while fiddling with the papers in front of me.

"We've always invited you for meals. It's you accepting invitations more often lately," she said, lifting her shoulders in a shrug. "And we like it."

Her reflection brought me pause as I considered what she said.

"All right, people. Let's get it together and give Bryant the floor here," bellowed Walsh and the room quieted down after a moment. "Let's make this to the point, Bryant."

"Of course, Sir." Once everyone settled in, their gazes fell on me and I began my presentation. "Detective Stiles made a request that I search back over his three-year tenure on the Sex Crimes Unit to track trends in reported sexual assaults." I clicked the button on the handheld remote that turned on the digital screen. "Right away, I found a rape-crime trend beginning with Victim One; a white female, twenty-two, who reported a sexual assault in the middle of the day in an office building parking lot downtown. She reported her attacker to be a white male, approximately six-feet tall in a white baseball cap, who smelled strongly of coconut or sunscreen." I pressed the remote and a map of Seattle appeared on the screen with a red dot over the origin of the report. "Victim Two was a white female, twenty-six, reported being raped in the middle of the day at a bus stop. She told the bus driver when he pulled up and he called the police. This victim reported the same; white male, six-feet, white baseball cap, smelling of coconut." The second red dot appeared on the map. I gestured to it and a few people began jotting down notes. "I ran a search based on victim parameters, with one change."

"What's that, Bryant?" asked Officer McCarthy, his brow furrowed.

"I included all races and ethnicities." I pointed at the map and twelve other red dots appeared. "In three years, fourteen female victims around the same age, twenties to mid-thirties. Majority white female, second black female, third Hispanic. Body type of each victim differed. All of the assaults occurred in the middle of the day in public places. All of the victims reported the smell of coconut or sunscreen. All of the victims reported wearing blue skirts or dresses at the time of their assault. All of them had bruises on their necks. These assaults occurred about ten or eleven weeks apart. At first, I compared all of the files from the Sex Crimes Unit, plus independent reports, and imported documents from all precincts to garner this fourteen."

"What about the larger scale search?" asked Eve, leaning her elbows on the table.

I nodded to Chief Walsh. "I was given access to the state-wide system and found this." I turned toward the digital screen and pressed the button again. Red dots lit up the screen. "Fourteen in three years. Twenty-five in six. Forty-two in ten years, statewide. All victims match. All descriptions of the perpetrator remained the same. This does not account for crimes that went unreported. I expanded the age range before this presentation to include victims eighteen to forty-five and the final count appears to be fifty-five." The map lit up like neon lights and I scanned the room at the stoic faces that stared at the screen. The micro expressions—smoothed brows, wider eyes—told me of their unified horror.

"When was the last assault?" asked Eve.

"Three weeks ago." I pointed to one of the dots on the map by the University of Washington.

"How did we miss this? For fuck's sake," a woman said, but I didn't know her name.

"Districts don't talk to each other. Rape kits go unprocessed. This is the result." I gestured to the screen. "It's my firm belief that we have at least one serial rapist in Washington state. Of note, most assaults appear to occur in and around the Seattle area, with the second largest around Spokane."

"Bryant, what do you recommend as the next steps?" asked Walsh.

"Linking the victims further. We need to get more details from them if we can. We also need to pull the evidence from the processed rape kits, and process the unprocessed rape kits to see if we can get a DNA signature," I said, setting down the report on the table between me and Ainsley. Unlike the others, her expression appeared more somber and sad rather than angry.

"I'll requisition all the kits," offered Eve.

"We should also contact the FBI to see if they've found a connection with any of this," said Stiles, gesturing to Walsh. "Sir?"

"Agreed, Stiles. Use your resources and get that information. Grant, you're on kits. Take Nolan with you. Ramos." Chief Walsh pointed at Sadie who sat in the back of the room. "I want you to expand Bryant's research further. Contact Oregon's Central to start."

"On it, Sir," she said, her brow cocked in my direction. I gulped under her speculative glare.

"Bryant, I want you to examine the timeline." Walsh stood from his chair which meant the meeting was all but over. "Work your goddamn voodoo magic or some shit. Whatever you need. Resources. Assistants. Whatever."

"I've started that work, Sir. I'll continue."

"The rest of you, keep your eyes out on this. File your reports. McCarthy, review all complaints coming in from the hotline."

"Yes, Sir."

"Ramos." Walsh pointed at Sadie, his brows narrowed.

"Yessir?"

"If we catch a bastard, Bryant gets a promotion." He grumbled before heading out the door and pulling a cigarette from behind his ear.

Sadie smirked, her hands in her pockets as she followed him from the room.

Some of the folks chuckled on their way out, but the volume of discussion escalated with their furor. Everyone cleared out except Stiles, Ainsley, and Eve. He met my gaze, and pointed at me, though he seemed to hesitate before speaking.

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