Page 111 of Collide

“When?” I gritted out. Not that it would make a difference, the deaddidn’t speak, I knew that all too fucking well.

“One month after Anderson popped back up at the Police Academy.They died in a house fire along with another foster child, a young man named Michael Tucker. He was a year younger than Anderson but again, all of his records had been erased so there is no way of knowing how long he was living with the Browns before he died. It was three months after they died that Anderson had his first documented breakdown, it was only for the fact that he was already in the Academy and doing exceptionally well that he was allowed to continue.”

“Fucking hell,” I cursed under my breath. My hands were beginning totremble with anger. Not at Isaac, but at this whole goddamn situation.

Just who the fuck was John Anderson?

“So, for Anderson to have been able to join the Police Academy, hewould have had to have records, right?” Hendrix said, sitting forward.

“Yes, of course he would have. But the records held by the academyhave been tampered with which is why your friend Miles could only get certain information. Whoever has tampered with the files only wants certain information to be available. It’s almost as if they are giving you little clues to follow.

“Why else would the records have provided Anderson’s current homeaddress but not where he grew up? Or giving you snippets of his current medical record but nothing about his medical history during his teenage years? And all the details about the foster kids have been erased with the exception of Micheal Tucker. It doesn’t make sense, Mr. Wolfe. To me, it seems like someone is leaving you little breadcrumbs to follow.”

He made some good fucking points. Some fucker was playing gameswith me, games I had no choice but to play if I wanted to find out just what the hell was going on.

“Is there anything else you can tell us about Anderson during his timein the police service?” Hendrix asked the question that had been on my lips.

“The next seventeen years are all documented, including the subsequentmental health episodes, but I believe you already have access to those?”

Isaac raised a brow and I nodded at the reference to the materialMiles had identified when he had first looked into Anderson’s background.

“I assume you haven’t found anything to identify his currentwhereabouts?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

If he had known, Isaac would have started this whole conversationwith that. He wasn’t one for dramatics and wouldn’t have dragged it out, it was one of the reasons I liked him. He gave me an apologetic smile but shook his head.

“Very well. Send me the files on what you have been able to find. Iwant the old family address he lived in even if it was seventeen years ago that he lived there, and anything else you have, no matter how irrelevant you think it is. There’s got to be something we’re missing,”I said the last part more to myself, but Isaac murmured his agreementand went about tapping at the laptop on his desk.

"It's a big file, it may take a few moments to land in your inbox," Isaac said. I took that as my cue to leave and stood from my chair, buttoning upmy suit jacket before holding out my hand to Isaac. He too stood and reached out to shake my hand.“I will of course keep looking, Mr. Wolfe.”

“Thank you, Isaac. I’ll be in touch.” Hendrix stood and also shookIsaac’s hand and we both turned, ready to walk out.

“Mr. Wolfe. One more thing before you go,” Isaac said and I heard thehint of nervousness in his voice. I turned back to face him, the look on his face confirming he was worried about the next thing he was going to tell me.

“I….I thought you ought to know,” he sounded apologetic and lifteda shoulder in a shrug. “I dip into the dark web from time to time to keep an eye on what jobs are being advertised. Last night, there was an advert from an anonymous source advertising the capture of the young girl you had me follow, Ms. Bennett. The reward offered to capture her was just shy of one million dollars and there were a lot of people interested.

“The advert was for her to be captured by any means possible anderm, the…the source said once they had finished with her she would be given back to the person who captured her to, er well…to do whatever they wanted with her.”

My whole body tensed and my hands curled into fists by my side. Nowonder Isaac had been nervous to tell me, he would have known exactly how I would react.

Red blurred my vision and even though I knew Isaac was onlypassing on the information, it didn’t stop me from wanting to reach across the desk and squeeze the life out of him.

Taking a deep breath and making a real effort to uncurl my fists, Istraightened my suit jacket and gave Isaac a nod.

“Is there any way of finding out who the person who posted therequest is?” I gritted out, clenching my teeth so hard I feared they were about to crack.

Whoever had posted it was a dead man.

“I’m afraid not, that’s the beauty and frustration of the dark web. Iguess one could reply to the advert and see if contact could be established that way, but I suspect, like most people who use the dark web, their tracks will well and truly be covered,” Isaac said apologetically.

“Thank you for telling me.” The words tasted like acid in my mouth asI tried to get them out. And with that, I turned and walked out of the office.

As we descended in the lift, I made a mental note to speak to Miles about the advert when I got home in hopes he could reach out and establish communication with the cunt who had posted it. It was a long shot, but it was a starting point.

Hendrix was silent as I drove us home, for which I was thankful. Iknew Riley was at risk, I wasn’t fucking naïve enough to think the threat would go away after I had killed Toby. But now every man and his dog had been made aware of the price on her ass, she would be fair game, and the risk had increased significantly.

Maybe the idea of moving her to a safe house wasn’t such a badidea.

If only I could convince my stubborn pride it was the right thing to do.

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