into a chair. "I don't know."
Holly fumed. "That was your plan? Look at pictures of the other victims and then give up? Don't they have bios or something? Let's find out where they lived, who their parents were, where they went to school. There has to be some connection between them."
" The FBI would have already done that."
" Well let's do it again! Maybe they missed something!"
Dan clicked through more pages and read what he found. All the children had a single mom who collected welfare. The kids were all between two and six, which they already knew, and the author noted that each of the mothers had sought counseling from their local women’s clinic.
Holly remembered the haunting accusations of the killer, and how they centered on the choice she had made to keep Gabe. He assumed she had made the choice out of weakness, but it wasn't. It was the hardest thing she had ever done. It would have been so easy to make the problem go away. She was told by the State-funded clinic that it would be quick and discreet.
No one would ever know—not even her mother. Anyone above the age of thirteen was considered, in this circumstance, to be an adult; no parent signature was needed. Her mother didn't need to know. Her boyfriend didn't need to know. Her friends didn't need to know. Her reputation would have remained unscathed by the scandal of a teen pregnancy. But she’d made the hard choice and gave up everything to have Gabe.
How odd it seemed to her now that the sweet middle-aged woman at the clinic and this cold-blooded killer would share the same ideology. The woman at the clinic never once suggested that she should keep her baby. Instead, she took every opportunity to reinforce Holly's doubts about herself. She wasn't ready to have a child. What kind of life would she give a baby? What kind of mother would she be? Sure, she said it in a sweet gentle voice and with great compassion, but they were the words of a killer.
" Are you okay, Holly?" Jake had noticed her mood change.
" I think there is a connection with the clinic. I don't know how, but I think there is."
" What are you thinking?"
" I don't know. It's just a weird feeling I have about that place. The killer obviously has a real problem with mothers who aren't ready to be mothers. You should have heard him. It was like he was angry at me for choosing to have Gabe, like his life with me was so horrible it wasn’t worth living—just because I was his mom. He said it was better to kill him than let him live the life I chose for him."
" Don't let him get in your head, Holly. He's a whack job."
" He knew exactly what to say."
" Have you shared those thoughts with anyone? A boyfriend maybe?"
She shrugged.
" You must have said something to someone."
" I didn't even know I had those thoughts until he started accusing me."
" What men have had contact with Gabe in the past year? Has anyone new come into his life? Anyone who might be connected to the clinic?"
" I don't know, Jake. I know a lot of guys. But I don’t believe any of them are capable of something like this. Sure, they're a bunch of losers, but they're good guys."
Jake remained diplomatically silent.
" I know you don't approve of my friends, Jake, but they're good people."
" I'm not saying they aren't."
" But you're not saying they are, either."
" Let's not get into this again, okay? Gabe is out there somewhere in the hands of a very bad man, and we need to figure out who this guy is."
She wanted to be angry; she needed someone to lash out at. It hurt to keep the emotion inside. But Jake was right. She had to get hold of herself and concentrate on finding her son.
" What else is on that website?" she said.
Dan turned back to the screen and scanned through more articles and more photos. Some of the images were from the crime scenes. Holly had to turn away twice to recompose herself. It was desperately hard to look at the dead bodies of the other children. One shot in the head. One found in a
Holly fumed. "That was your plan? Look at pictures of the other victims and then give up? Don't they have bios or something? Let's find out where they lived, who their parents were, where they went to school. There has to be some connection between them."
" The FBI would have already done that."
" Well let's do it again! Maybe they missed something!"
Dan clicked through more pages and read what he found. All the children had a single mom who collected welfare. The kids were all between two and six, which they already knew, and the author noted that each of the mothers had sought counseling from their local women’s clinic.
Holly remembered the haunting accusations of the killer, and how they centered on the choice she had made to keep Gabe. He assumed she had made the choice out of weakness, but it wasn't. It was the hardest thing she had ever done. It would have been so easy to make the problem go away. She was told by the State-funded clinic that it would be quick and discreet.
No one would ever know—not even her mother. Anyone above the age of thirteen was considered, in this circumstance, to be an adult; no parent signature was needed. Her mother didn't need to know. Her boyfriend didn't need to know. Her friends didn't need to know. Her reputation would have remained unscathed by the scandal of a teen pregnancy. But she’d made the hard choice and gave up everything to have Gabe.
How odd it seemed to her now that the sweet middle-aged woman at the clinic and this cold-blooded killer would share the same ideology. The woman at the clinic never once suggested that she should keep her baby. Instead, she took every opportunity to reinforce Holly's doubts about herself. She wasn't ready to have a child. What kind of life would she give a baby? What kind of mother would she be? Sure, she said it in a sweet gentle voice and with great compassion, but they were the words of a killer.
" Are you okay, Holly?" Jake had noticed her mood change.
" I think there is a connection with the clinic. I don't know how, but I think there is."
" What are you thinking?"
" I don't know. It's just a weird feeling I have about that place. The killer obviously has a real problem with mothers who aren't ready to be mothers. You should have heard him. It was like he was angry at me for choosing to have Gabe, like his life with me was so horrible it wasn’t worth living—just because I was his mom. He said it was better to kill him than let him live the life I chose for him."
" Don't let him get in your head, Holly. He's a whack job."
" He knew exactly what to say."
" Have you shared those thoughts with anyone? A boyfriend maybe?"
She shrugged.
" You must have said something to someone."
" I didn't even know I had those thoughts until he started accusing me."
" What men have had contact with Gabe in the past year? Has anyone new come into his life? Anyone who might be connected to the clinic?"
" I don't know, Jake. I know a lot of guys. But I don’t believe any of them are capable of something like this. Sure, they're a bunch of losers, but they're good guys."
Jake remained diplomatically silent.
" I know you don't approve of my friends, Jake, but they're good people."
" I'm not saying they aren't."
" But you're not saying they are, either."
" Let's not get into this again, okay? Gabe is out there somewhere in the hands of a very bad man, and we need to figure out who this guy is."
She wanted to be angry; she needed someone to lash out at. It hurt to keep the emotion inside. But Jake was right. She had to get hold of herself and concentrate on finding her son.
" What else is on that website?" she said.
Dan turned back to the screen and scanned through more articles and more photos. Some of the images were from the crime scenes. Holly had to turn away twice to recompose herself. It was desperately hard to look at the dead bodies of the other children. One shot in the head. One found in a
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