Page 20 of Hack
Carter glanced over at him. "What makes you say that?"
"The condition of the girls. They've been fed, taken care of. There are no signs of malnourishment or scars from bindings on their wrists or ankles. To keep that many girls in one location and keep them fed, and as much as I hate saying it, safe, would be more than one man could handle. I think he has a woman as a partner. Someone to play the role of mother to the girls. The woman cares for them, cooks, sews, and does whatever. Every injury found on the girls were from the sexual assaults, there is nothing to show any other kind of abuse." Archer reached for a photo of the most current grave. "The rape and strangulation are the only signs of abuse. Every other sign points to the fact that they are well cared for other than the rape. I know it's hard for you to hear, being one of the victims is your daughter, but I really think he creates a home for them."
Carter pinched his nose as he thought about it. "It would make sense that there is a partner. At any given time, he could have as many as ten or more girls. But if that's the case you'd think one would have escaped by now."
"Depending on where he is, they might have tried, but if the location is desolate enough, he would capture them before they could get to help. An old ranch or farm somewhere off the beaten path would make sense." Archer pointed to the photo. "The FBI tried to trace the material the dresses were made from, but it's a commonly sold material that is available at any Walmart location. None of the girls were buried wearing shoes, but their feet showed no signs of them being barefoot for any length of time. Each girl's hair was brushed, some braided, and other than the dirt from the graves, they appear clean and bathed."
Carter reached for one of the autopsy reports. "Fed as well, according to this one. The graves that were found quickly have shown no signs of malnourishment, and there was food in the stomach content." He glanced over at Archer. "You're probably right. There has to be someone helping him, and it's probably a female. It would explain a lot. I've also wondered about the flowers the girls are holding. Most of the graves are a different bouquet than the last. I think only a couple have repeated, each girl holding the same flowers. The same amount of each flower in each girl's bouquet. Lyle has to have some form of OCD or some mental thing to do with numbers. The grave measurements, the number of flowers. God knows what else he does that we are missing."
"I've looked into the flowers. I hoped there would be some clue there, but they are all mostly common, none of them very rare or prominent to one location. Some are harder to get than others, but most can either be bought at any local nursery or even a flower store. The bouquets are all handmade, tied together with a pink satin ribbon that matches the ribbon on the grave marker he leaves." Archer reached for a folder. "Here is everything I have on the flowers."
Carter took the file and looked through, trying to find a pattern. "The clues are here. I just can't see them." He hated how much information they had, yet they couldn't put the pieces together. "Has anyone tried to trace the pink satin ribbons?"
"Yeah, the FBI did. Again, it was commonly sold at stores throughout the country. They even tried finding if any of the material and satin were bought together and came up with nothing. They hoped they'd find a bulk purchase or something." Archer tossed the file he was looking at back on the coffee table. "The guy is careful. What I've never understood is he's so careful about everything, yet he always, at least as far as we know, makes the graves easy to find. Most are found within a few days, weeks at most. He buries them in areas that are common for people to hike or recreate to. I mean, he doesn't leave them on a trail, but they are close enough that they could be seen by almost anyone in the area. That's a risk, especially with the time he takes to dig the graves and place the bodies in perfect dimension."
Carter bit the inside of his cheek as he thought about all he was learning. "Would you mind if I took this information and put it on my computer, made a few spreadsheets and stuff? I work better that way."
"Go for it. If it helps you, it helps me." Archer smiled. "I had a feeling you might do that being you're a computer guy."
Carter stood and stretched. "It's how my mind works. By the time we're done, I'll have all this on a searchable database so we can find links. I know there is something we are missing, probably a lot of somethings." He reached down and picked up the oldest files that Archer had. "I'll be in the office if you need me. If I get tunnel vision, make yourself at home."
Archer waved him off. "I'll be here doing my own thing."
As Carter made his way to his small office to boot up his computer, he realized he felt something he hadn't felt in years… hope. And that hope was going to push him to dig into this case like he never had before. It was time to find justice for Angel, and he was going to be the one to bring it to her.
