Brew has just discovered that Alathea is only the latest in a long series of 12 & 13-year-old girls who have disappeared in the past two years. All of them before her have been found dead, addicted to heroin and evidently prostitutes. The police had not connected the cases, until Brew and Ginny’s investigation nudged Sergeant Encino into looking for more like Alathea.
Ginny comes in like a tigress. Her grilling of Encino is interrupted by the entrance of Policewoman Rand. Evidently it would have been dangerous for police department politics, to let Rand know Encino was helping P.I.s investigate the "runaway" girls, so they help him by pretending he has refused. On their way out they providentially collide with Ted Hangst, another P.I., whose daughter has also disappeared and has sent him a note identical to the ones sent by the other missing girls.Brew wrote:[Ginny] came in so fast that she almost hit me with the door. Her eyes jumped back and forth between Encino and me, trying to figure out what was going on. She was on the alert, ready to explode ... I was so glad to see her that I wanted to hug her. Just having her there made me steadier.
Once Brew and Ginny have taken Ted out of sight of Policewoman Rand, they learn that Ted holds positive proof. The notes written by Alathea and Mittie are torn halves of the same piece of paper, and both girls have written something that they would never have written unless the notes were being dictated to them.
The kidnapper is working faster, taking girls more frequently. Ginny, Brew, and Ted now know for certain they have a serial kidnapper to catch – soon. Otherwise he will kill the little girls he has, capture more, and force them into prostitution and drugs.
Though seemingly busy filling us in on the facts of the other girls’ cases, SRD is also unobtrusively building Ted’s character for us. Feeling helpless in his loss, Ted has fastened on Brew and Ginny as his only hope.
The essentials for the seven preceding young girls are all the same. All were attractive, all failed to return home from school, all parents received notes telling them not to worry, all were found dead within a few months. All were labeled by the police as runaway heroin addicts who turned to prostitution to support their habits, and all the investigations were, by now, focused on where the girls got their drugs, rather than on the girls themselves.Brew wrote:He must’ve been paying attention despite his grief. He ... fixed his watery eyes on me and didn’t let go.
This makes it seem a monstrous stretch when Ginny tries to reassure Ted by telling him they don’t have proof that the cases are tied together. I mean, hello, the same piece of paper?
Anyway, Ted doesn’t seem to pay much attention to her reassurance. He gets his assignment from Ginny but looks like he has other ideas he isn’t telling. He leaves in a hurry. Brew and Ginny agree on where Alathea must have been where she disappeared, then Ginny takes Brew home.
Brew knows he’s on the verge of another withdrawal crisis and has planned ahead. He told us in passing that he was eating a lot because he thought this would be the last food that would stay down for a while. But on the way home he is able to tell Ginny about how Encino changed his mind.
Here is another example of how little Brew appreciates his own good qualities. He doesn’t think it worth mentioning to us again that he was a hero and stopped a rape. Ginny isn't paying attention to Brew's heroism, she's focused on its effect on their case.
Brew wrote:That must’ve made a difference to her, because when she said good night she didn’t look anywhere near as worried as she had earlier. She looked like a woman who knew she was on the right track.
