Free Relatively Rainey by R. E. Bradshaw Page A

next few questions.
    “Has Kaitlyn ever ignored your communications before? Maybe you sometimes disagreed. Is she a bit rebellious, a little resentful of having to check in with her big brother? Does she have a boyfriend?”
    “I understand why you are asking these questions ma’am, but if you will permit me to tell you what I discovered at her home, I think we might be able to speed the process up a bit.”
    Sheila sat back in her chair. A seasoned investigator, she could read people and knew when to be quiet and listen. This young man was bursting to have his story heard.
    “Okay, Staff Sergeant, tell me why I should be looking for your sister.”
    “When Kaitlyn didn’t respond to anything by Sunday morning, I went to my CO, explained the situation, and caught the next transport back to Carolina. I can’t tell you where I was unless you get some clearance from someone above my pay grade.”
    “That probably will not be necessary, but why didn’t you just call the police and ask for a welfare check.”
    “I did ma’am. They went by the house. Her car is still there. They found a note taped to the inside of the front storm door. It’s addressed to someone I don’t know, but it says Kaitlyn was sorry she missed them and would see them soon. She wouldn’t do that ma’am—just leave without telling me. I knew something was off.”
    “Not to mention, who leaves notes on doors these days? You say Kaitlyn texts and emails, has a phone—Do you have this note?”
    “Yes, ma’am.” Russell reached into his chest pocket, but before he handed over the note enclosed in a plastic bag, he finished his story. “When I got to her house, I used my key to get in. The minute I walked in, I knew something was wrong. Her purse and keys were on the table by the door. I found her phone on the bedside table in her bedroom, resting on top of the program from the lecture Friday night. It looked like she came home, went to bed, and then just vanished into thin air. I came straight down here to report her missing.”
    He handed over the bag.
    Sheila read the handwritten note through the bag. She hoped the gasp that left her throat had not been too noticeable, but when she looked up to see the expression on the Staff Sergeant’s face, she knew he heard it.
    The note read:
    Rainey,
    Sorry, I missed you. See you soon.
    Kaitlyn

    #

    A few minutes later…
    The Bell-Meyers Residence
    Chatham County, NC

    “No, I don’t know her. I’ve never heard that name to my knowledge,” Rainey said into the phone, one whimpering child on her hip and two all out bawlers wrapped around each knee.
    “Then it’s him, toying with you—us.”
    “Ya’ think, Sheila?” The sarcasm indicated the mood she was in.
    “Don’t be a smartass. Why are those babies crying like that?”
    “Because they picked up a stomach virus at the women’s center day care and have been spewing from both ends since two-thirty this morning. I’m not sick, but I’ve spewed a few times myself from the smell. I may not survive this.”
    “Oh my,” Sheila said. “Where’s Katie?”
    “Katie and her mom are cleaning the nursery and I’m really glad I am not involved. This is— Oh, crap— Hey, I’m going to have to call you back. No, no, no, don’t puke in the vent. Hey, hey, hey, oh god—”

CHAPTER THREE

    2:00 PM, Wednesday, March 4, 2015
    Durham Police Academy
    Durham, NC

    Just over one hundred law enforcement officers representing four North Carolina counties—Wake, Chatham, Orange, and Durham—squeezed into the large conference room. There to hear what the multi-jurisdictional task force had to say concerning a two-year escalating crime spree in the area, the air was thick with conjecture. As she made her way to the front of the room with Detective Robertson, Rainey heard snippets of the speculation.
    “This guy is a psycho. No doubt about it.”
    “Breaking into houses to jack off in some woman’s underwear. This guy is a freak.”
    “Some of