Page 39 of Echo Road
Chapter 38
MERCY
Mercy checked their CuffMe profile in the conference room while she waited for Bree. TheMaster232 had not taken the bait.
Yet.
She opened the messages from other men who had messaged her fake profile and grew nauseated. Like many who had contacted Paige’s profile, they’d immediately launched into graphic sex talk. One by one, Mercy blocked them.
No, she did not want a pearl necklace.
No, she would not let him watch her with other men.
Scat play? She’d done a quick Google search, afraid she knew what he wanted, and then blocked him. Bathroom activities needed to stay in the bathroom.
So did vomit.
How do people come up with these ideas?
“No luck yet,” Mercy said as Bree walked in.
“What if he has more than one account?” asked Bree. “He could be one of these men. He was polite with Paige, but maybe he’s like all these other guys on another account.”
Mercy had wondered the same thing. “We’ll take our chances. If he doesn’t message by the end of the day, we can send him a message. But he contacted Paige first ... If he wants a submissive, he won’t like us making the first move. I don’t want to ruin it.”
“This isn’t going to work,” said Bree, an impatient look on her face. “We can’t be wasting time on this profile. We have things to do.”
Mercy raised a brow. “You’ve made a dozen phone calls this morning, talked to Shelly Fox, put out feelers for Jimmie’s drug dealer, and now I’m about to review more video from the Scarlet Falls Mall. We’re not wasting time—there is so much to dig into. If one of us is called out, we can go. Laptops are portable, you know. We’re not stuck here.”
“You’re right.”
Mercy opened the new mall videos. A few more stores had sent their videos from the day before, and Mercy searched each one, looking for someone who fit the description of the victim who’d been nabbed in the parking lot. “Think the kidnapped woman was from out of town?” she asked Bree. “Could be why no one has reported her missing yet.”
“I think we can toss our theory about her being an employee. We would have heard by now if an employee was missing. Out-of-towner is a possibility, but I still feel he was expecting someone specific.”
A ping made Mercy return to CuffMe. Her heart shot up into her throat. “It’s him.”
Bree rolled her chair around the table and they both stared at the screen.
TheMaster232: Good morning, beautiful
“Polite,” mumbled Mercy. “That’s our man.”
YourDoll945: Good morning to you too, Master
Mercy had started to comment that she liked his photos but worried the sentence was too forward and deleted it.
Be submissive.
“Say something else,” whispered Bree. “Keep his interest.”
“I think he’s testing me,” said Mercy. “Seeing if I’ll wait for his direction.”
“I hate mind games,” grumbled Bree.
A full minute passed before another message came through.
TheMaster232: Pink is lovely on you
“Oh, my God,” said Mercy. “What is his hang-up with that shade of pink?”
YourDoll945: I’m glad it pleases you
Bree made a retching noise. “Good thing you’re typing. I wouldn’t be able to hold back.”
TheMaster232: How is the weather in Boston today?
“Checking,” said Bree. “Sunny and clear. Humid.”
“I remember that was one of the first questions he asked Paige too,” said Mercy, trying to remember how Paige had answered the question. “She mentioned bikes,” she muttered.
YourDoll945: A clear blue day. Somewhat humid, but I’ll definitely get in a bike ride
They waited.
“Was that too much?” asked Bree, fidgeting in her chair. “Just how sensitive is this guy?”
Mercy said nothing as she realized she was holding her breath.
TheMaster232: Where do you like to bike?
“Crap,” said Mercy. “How specific do I have to be? I don’t know Boston.” She looked at Bree, who was scanning her phone.
“Deer Island,” said Bree, scrolling a Boston bike path website. “Say you take the ferry.”
YourDoll945: Today I think I’ll go to Deer Island. It’s a nice day for a ferry ride
They waited for his reply.
And waited.
The conversation vanished.
Mercy sucked in a breath. “He blocked us! What did I do wrong?” She slumped back in her chair. “Shit.”
“Was it because you had an opinion about the weather? Or that bike plan was too adventurous for the submissive woman he wants? Damn it!”
She and Bree continued to stare at the screen as if hoping he’d reappear, that it’d been a mistake.
“It was worth a try,” said Bree. “Maybe bike is a euphemism we don’t know, so we answered completely wrong.”
Mercy laughed. “Should we set up a new profile? Clearly we know how to write one to snag him. We can’t use Renata again. We’d have to find someone else.”
“That won’t be easy.”
Mercy thought on it, hating to let the profile idea go. They’d been lucky with Renata, and finding another woman of the right look who was also willing to be posted would take time. She picked up her phone. “I’ll let Evan know our experiment is over.”
“Mercy?” he answered. Background noise indicated he was driving.
“Our profile got blocked by TheMaster, Evan. I don’t think I said anything wrong, but there was something he didn’t like.”
“It was worth a try. And from what I’ve seen while monitoring his messages, he quickly blocks almost all the conversations. Most of the women immediately start discussing sex, and it appears that is not what he wants to hear.”
“Yes. It took a while with Paige before their conversations went there.”
“I’m keeping an eye on two conversations. SweetLittleGirl29 and DaisyMae455 are having slow, drawn-out conversations with him that haven’t veered into anything sexual yet. For some reason, he likes to take his time.”
“Can you find out who they are?” asked Mercy.
“The conversation needs to go further before CuffMe sees it as a problem and shares their account information. According to the lawyer I’m dealing with, there’s nothing here yet, and I think he’s right. If TheMaster takes as long as he did with Paige, we’ve got a lot of waiting to do.”
“We can’t wait,” said Mercy. “We need to find Paige. Now.”
“I know, Mercy.”
“Sorry.” Mercy rubbed her forehead. “I think I’m disappointed the profile failed. Let me know if anything else happens.”
“I will.” Evan ended the call.
“TheMaster is communicating with someone on the website?” asked Bree, who had been closely following Mercy’s side of the conversation.
“Yes. Two women. But the conversations are nonsexual and slow. The site won’t share their info with Evan because of that.”
“Something could still come out of it.”
“It won’t do much good.” Mercy slumped back in her chair. “TheMaster switched to texting with Paige before he made any plans with her. He’ll probably go offline again if he finds someone he’s interested in. And even if CuffMe does share a woman’s account information, it’ll probably be fake like TheMaster’s name and address were.”
“We’d still check out any account information,” said Bree. “Maybe we’d get lucky.”
I doubt it.