Finder's, Keepers. | Scomiche

Chapter 6

     "Mitch. I know y'all have met in passing, but to formally introduce you, this is Steven Montgomery. Director Montgomery, Mitch Grassi." Mitch gently placed his hand into the one held out to him. He recognized this man from around the precinct sometimes, and he swore he remembers him being there the day they made him watch the news (but that whole day was a jumbled mess so he really wasn't sure). Stephen Montgomery was very large. Almost like Scott, but not in a good way. He held himself differently and Mitch didn't want to say it but he got weird vibes from this man. His hair was salt and pepper and his lips seemed to be constantly pressed into a thin line. He sidestepped towards Scott a little, uncomfortable with the man in front of him.

     "Nice to finally meet you, Mitch. I'm glad to see that you are doing well." Mitch tried his best to smile politely.

     "Scott will be briefing you on the intricacies of the case today. I just need you to sign these nondisclosure contracts stating that you will not share any information because it is classified to need to know personnel only."

     Mitch accepted the pen and folder, scribbling his name on the dotted line. He imagined that this is what selling your soul to the devil felt like.

     "Scott here will tell you everything regarding your case and if you have any questions, feel free to ask. If any faces or names seem familiar to you, please speak up. Anything will help us with the investigation."

     "Yes, sir. Thank you." Mitch nodded his head and watched Montgomery walk away.

     "You ready?" Scott placed his hand gently on Mitch's lower back, turning him towards the interrogation room.

     "I guess."

     "Everything will be okay."

***

     Mitch sat in the cold metal chair and watched as Scott spread what seemed to be an endless amount of pictures in front of him on the table. He eyes traveled over all of the different faces.

     "Do you recognize any of these people?" Mitch wanted to help in the investigation, but he really didn't know any of these people. The longer he stared at them the more they all started looking the same and he shook his head. "All of these individuals have been identified and are on the missing persons list." He gestured to a good portion of the pictures. "These people's bodies have been identified all within the last year." Mitch knew Scott was going to be talking to him bluntly and more scientifically, but nothing really prepares you to hear about the people you are looking at are dead. "None of the locations they were found in seem to have a connection as of yet, leading us to believe our killer or killers are not following a pattern." He gathered the pictures up and spread more out.

     "This is Katherine and this is Stephanie, who you already met. You and these two women have a few things in common. Your birthdays are all within a year of each other, Stephanie being the oldest at twenty-three, you and Katherine at twenty-two. All of you have moved to New York, none of you born here. And lastly, all three of you had the most pictures out of everyone, each right around two hundred, you having the most at two hundred and twenty-one.

     "Besides those three things, there is almost no other connections between you three. None of you are from the same state, have the same job, know any mutual friends. It's like you were just picked out of a hat a random and for some reason, the killer seems to have taken a liking to you."

     Mitch stared at Katherine. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and is absolutely gorgeous. He was sad that this had to happen to her. He wished they could've found the pictures earlier, maybe she wouldn't be missing.