Silent Desires (Shattered Silence Duet Book 1)
Silent Desires: Chapter 20

“Is it enough?” I ask Ben from where I sit on his bed. After a minute, I prod him again. “Ben?”

“Come on, move faster.”

I sigh, knowing if he’s talking to his computer, he’s gone into his hyper-focused mode. He had a tendency to do that when he’s trying to solve a particularly hard puzzle.

He’s been known to accidentally skip meals and forget to go to sleep if we don’t stay on top of him. But if there is anything to be found, he’ll replace it. You don’t graduate top of your class at MIT without being the best.

“Ben?” I ask again, trying to get his attention, but a glance at his screen tells me he’s deep in the middle of his search.

I pull my pocketknife out and stare at the initials C.M. as I rub my thumb over them. Carlos Mendoza. We went through training together and were then deployed together. Unfortunately, only one of us made it home. I flick it open and spin it in my right hand, an action I’ve done a million times before, when I’m restless. It’s like a reflex at this point. I hate sitting around doing nothing, but without more info, there wasn’t much I could do.

My mind drifts to a certain brunette girl. Playing that game with Mina today had been a genius idea. I only wish we had stopped before we pushed her too far. Although I can’t say I was upset about having her fall asleep in my lap.

I’ve been intrigued by the mute girl since she first stepped on our radar. At first, I thought she definitely sounded like someone hiding a dark secret, being mute was a decent cover to not expose yourself. But the more the twins told me about her, the less I thought she could be involved.

Besides, she’s far too young. This serial killer hasn’t just been killing young girls from Blue River, they’ve left a trail of bodies all over the country dating back almost ten years. The only reason the FBI isn’t on the case is because they can’t replace any pattern to the locations. After we were hired by a past victim’s family to replace their daughter’s killer, we started looking into murders with similar victim profiles and cause of death, and were shocked to replace how many appeared to be done by the same person. After that revelation, the local police agreed to work with us to solve this case.

It was only from talking to the friends of a victim in the last town that we got the clue of Blue River, and when a girl fitting the victim profile turned up dead, we knew we had to quickly infiltrate ourselves in the high school. Past patterns proved that anywhere from three to six girls fitting the profile would turn up dead before the killer moved on. We also know that many of the more recent victims have been reported dating a college aged male, so unless Mina is amazing at disguises, she can’t be the killer.

She could, however, be helping them. Right now my money is on this Jeff character she mentioned, although I have a feeling her mother is somehow involved as well. But for all we know, Mina is lying about not having a father to protect him, and he could be our killer.

We got a lot of new info from Mina today, but whether it’s all true, and whether it’ll be enough to figure anything else out, is still unknown. If what she’s said is true, we know her father has been gone for most of her life, her mother is dating a guy named Jeff, and she’s lived in a dozen cities over the years. It’s not a lot to go on, but it’s something. And if anyone can replace something with what little info we have, it’s Ben.

He might be the tech guy, the tracker, on our team, but I handle security and protection, the muscle. If Mina poses a threat to us, I need to know now. Of course, now that I’ve met her, I understand why they all feel so protective and obsessed. She’s fragile and delicate. I just need to be a hundred percent sure it’s not an act. I don’t think I glanced away from her once the whole time she was here. She’s gorgeous—and only seventeen fucking years old.

I drop my head back onto the bed dramatically and sigh. I need to stop thinking about her like that.

After two hours of digging, Ben suddenly exclaims, “Ah ha!”

I jump up quickly, looking over his shoulder. “What did you replace?”

“Okay, see this here? It’s her current license: Helen Davies. Now look at this one here.” He pulls up another file beside it.

“Hellena Davenport,” I read aloud.

“Look at the pictures,” he adds.

The haircut is different, but it’s clearly the same person. “That’s great! What have you found on Hellena?” I ask, staring at the screens, excited to finally have a lead. People don’t just create fake identities for the fun of it.

“Nothing yet—I literally just found this,” he says, already clicking away. I pace back and forth, squeezing my stress ball while he works.

“Okay, here’s what I’ve got: Hellena only seems to have existed for four months and lived in Rock Springs before just up and leaving one day. Nobody’s heard from her since. She rented an older home for cash and, according to reports, lived there with her husband and son.”

“What? That doesn’t fit with what Mina told us. She said Jeff has only been with them since they moved here and there’s no mention of a daughter?” I ask, confused.

He keeps clicking. “No… weird. Let’s check the dates of any murders in the area. They’re not really a match, but…”

“Go on,” I say, prodding him to explain.

“Just about two weeks after she left, a seventeen-year-old girl was murdered in that same town, and they still have no suspects or leads.”

“But that was two weeks after Hellena left, so either it wasn’t her…” I trail off.

“Or… they lived somewhere else for a few weeks, knowing the timing wouldn’t match up,” Dom adds from the doorway. “We need to put together a timeline of each murder and track Mina’s family’s movements to see if it matches,” Dom states.

I nod, already picturing the perfect wall to pin this out on. I love mapping—laying out the whole case on the wall is like a visual snapshot, it lets you think about it in an entirely different way. You don’t have to waste your brain power remembering little details if you lay them out in front of you. Then you can just look for patterns or similarities and connect the dots.

“I’m going to keep looking to see if I can replace any other identities for Helen,” Ben says absently, already clicking away with his keyboard. Dom nods and leaves the room.

I slap my palm on Ben’s shoulder and give it a squeeze. “Good job, bro. It feels like we’re finally getting somewhere after months of almost nothing.”

“Tell me about it. But… Atlas?”

“Yeah?” I stop mid-exit to look back at him.

“Do you think Mina is involved?”

I sigh. “I hope not. Why would she tell us about all those cities if she was? But there’s definitely something going on with her. She is involved somehow and hiding something. She might be protecting someone.” He nods sadly in agreement.

I leave the room, thinking about the sweet girl who’s working her way into all our hearts.