frown planted on his face. Kylie shook her head at him, silently willing him to stay quiet. He had demanded she not discuss anything sexual. Kylie would simply argue that relationships at their ages, or at least of the ages of the younger three, probably weren’t sexual. Either way, she prayed he wouldn’t interrupt her line of questioning.
“It’s okay, girls. Everyone does it today, right?”
“Have you ever met anyone you’ve chatted with online?” Dani asked.
“Sure have,” Kylie said without hesitating. She didn’t add that they were fellow agents and the discussion was work-related. Her private life was just that. But gaining the girls’ confidence would let them open up to her and help her gain more knowledge of what they knew. “So let’s assume that each of you has.”
“I haven’t,” Denise offered.
“And you’d tell on any of us if we agreed to meet anyone,” Dani snapped, chastising her younger sister.
“I would not,” Denise denied the charges, but focused on the ground, her long hair streaming over and partially covering her face.
Kylie smiled at the twelve-year-old. She was very thin and in a year probably at the most would start filling out. If she followed suit like her sisters, she would be drop-dead gorgeous in no time.
“How do you know the person you’re chatting with is who they say they are?”
“And not some pervert,” Dani said, nodding. “They’ve talked to my friends, or there are pictures of them on Facebook that are taken around town and you can tell that they are from around here.”
“Have you ever talked to anyone who’s chatted with someone that they think is not for real?”
Dani and Diane leaned forward. Diane pushed her little sister to the floor and rested her elbows on her knees.
“A friend of mine has,” Dani said.
“Yeah, same here,” Diane offered, lowering her voice. “He said he was going to school with us, but when we read his messages there were things he didn’t have right.”
“So what did you do?” Kylie asked.
Diane turned and gave her uncle a pointed look. “I’m not going to answer her questions and risk you yelling at me,” she said, sounding cross.
Perry turned from the group and pulled open the sliding glass door. Kylie managed to keep her expression relaxed. She’d fought with that damn door forever this morning and wasn’t able to make it budge. He opened it as though he did it every day. Without saying another word, he disappeared into her backyard.
“He’s so moody sometimes,” Diane said, looking at Kylie and sighing.
“Mom says he just needs to get laid,” Dorine offered.
Kylie quickly cleared her throat and refused to allow the image of Perry’s buns of steels to form a clear picture in her head. All that mattered was gathering intel from these girls that could help her clear a path toward the pervert stalking children online.
Someone knocked on her front door and her alarm buzzed. Perry was back inside in a second, proof he hadn’t wandered too far. Kylie stood, grabbing her purse, and walked over to the peephole she’d drilled herself when Paul had set up her computer system. The pizza guy stood there holding a large black bag in front of him.
Opening the door, she grinned at the young, pimply-faced kid. “How much do I owe you?”
“Forty-three dollars,” he said, pulling the Velcro strap and then sliding out several pizza boxes.
Kylie pulled the bills from her purse and paid the kid as the girls came to the door to help. “Looks like you all ordered a lot of pizza. Sure hope you’re hungry.”
“Starved,” Dorine said, eagerly taking a couple of the boxes.
Diane stood in line to take the third pizza. Kylie watched the girls hurry to the table with three large pizzas and a couple smaller boxes that she guessed contained bread sticks.
“Hey, Jimmy,” Dani said, offering a limp wave. “She tip you good?”
“Hi, Dani.” Jimmy blushed so brightly his acne stood out. “Yeah. She did.”
“Good.” Dani walked to the open door and stood next to Kylie. “Any more word on Olivia?” she asked.
“Nothing, dude,” Jimmy said, lowering his voice. “She’s like totally disappeared. Word is she is like dead or brutalized or maybe sold into slavery.”
“God, Jimmy. Don’t be sick,” Dani said, sounding serious. “She probably flipped on her parents and skipped town.”
“Without her car?” Jimmy challenged. “Dani, grow up. You’re as hot as she is. Someone stole her cute ass, and you could be next.”
“Yeah, right.” Dani seemed to have lost the fight in her. She turned noticeably pale and didn’t say anything else, nor did she move.
“Man, sorry, Dani,” Jimmy said, and backed up down the sidewalk. “I’ve got your back, though.”
“That’s what we all have to do,” Dani decided, her spunky, confident tone returning. “If someone stole her and he wants to steal one of us, we’ve got to stop him.”
Jimmy looked at Kylie, and Dani did, too. “I’ll see you at school,” she said, backing away from the door.
Kylie closed the door and turned to look at Dani. The teenager scowled as she walked over to the boxes of pizza with her sisters and Perry. Kylie followed, her mind spinning with the conversation she’d just been privileged to hear.
“Do you know someone who is missing?” Kylie asked.
Kylie shrugged. “We were in the same grade. She was my ride home. Mom threw a fit until Uncle Perry vouched that she’d disappeared.”
“Who are we talking about?” Perry asked.
“You said her name was Olivia?” Kylie focused on Dani. “She didn’t get along with her mom?”
“God, no!” Dani shoved half a slice of pizza in her mouth and then spoke with her mouth full. “Everyone knew she hated her mother. But her mom was as uncool as they came, demanding to know everything her daughter did and reading her text messages and just smothering her, you know?”
“Do you have other girlfriends like that?” Kylie asked.
“Like what?” Dani frowned.
“Whose mothers, or parents, are smothering them.” Kylie was very aware of Perry watching her but kept her attention on Dani.
“Like everyone, dude. Most adults don’t have a clue.”
“If her mother read all her messages, though, she probably wouldn’t complain to her friends in chat messages about it, though, would she?”
“Why not? It wasn’t her fault her mother was a prude. Might do her mom good to read that she needs to back off.”
“Okay. So she would.” Kylie didn’t like the picture forming in her mind. “And a sympathetic guy, like Jimmy out there, would offer to protect and help her out of her misery when her world is caving in on her.”
“Jimmy’s harmless. Besides, he works two jobs. He’ll be a millionaire by the time he’s twenty.” Dani stuffed more pizza in her mouth and waved her hand dismissively toward the door.
“That is the kind of guy you want,” Diane pointed out.
“You can have him.” Dani snorted and reached for more pizza.
Kylie walked into her kitchen. The profile of her victims was the same as it always was. Her online predator hunted teenage girls who weren’t happy with their home lives, and who were pretty, and who somehow had the ability to get out of their houses on their own. The girls who’d disappeared so far were sexy, had an independent nature, drove their own cars, and were intelligent and leaders among their peers.
Her stomach twisted painfully and the smell of the pizza was nauseating. She’d only known Dani a short time, but the girl was very easy to like. She didn’t have her own transportation, but that didn’t stop her from getting around town without the help of an adult. Other than that, she fit the MO perfectly. Kylie needed to narrow down her list of suspects quickly. The thought of Dani being lured in by a sexual predator wasn’t a thought Kylie wanted to dwell on.
Chapter 5
