Chapter 41: Best Friends
"Holy shit!"
Frank steadied himself, rubbing his buzz cut with his uninjured hand. He couldn't help but mutter classic profanity, tilting his head and squinting as he studied Chuck repeatedly. An involuntary grin spread across his lips. "Brother, I'm proud of you."
Only he knew the incredible difficulty of this achievement for Chuck.
As a younger brother, even if he was angry with his sibling, he couldn't help but speak his mind at this moment.
"I know."
Chuck nodded.
"How'd you manage it?"
Frank grinned, wearing the knowing expression every guy recognizes.
"Practice!"
Chuck's answer was simple.
"Who was she?"
Frank, somewhat unsatisfied with this level of detail, pressed on. "How many times?"
"Not her,"
Chuck shook his head.
"No way!"
Frank's face darkened.
As a tough guy heavily influenced by his military father, he instinctively rejected certain alternative lifestyles.
"Them!"
Chuck, noticing his misunderstanding, corrected him. "Six practice partners, totaling 76 sessions, for a cumulative 55 hours, 35 minutes, and 46 seconds."
"..."
Frank was relieved at first—thank God it wasn't what he thought! Then, hearing the precise statistics, his mouth twitched.
His brother truly treated everything like training exercises; he tracked it all so methodically.
Still, he was pleased with the outcome.
After all, he'd been worried his brother would end up a lifelong loner. Now, not only had he had "practice partners," but six of them total—far better than most guys.
You know, while the average American has 7-8 serious relationships in their lifetime, that's over an entire lifespan.
His brother was only 22, barely a few years into adulthood, and he'd already had "six experiences"—definitely above average... At this point, he suddenly felt something was off.
Damn!
It seemed like even he hadn't had six relationships!
"Is it one of these six who replaced me as your best friend?"
Frank suppressed his annoyance at being outdone in this area by his socially awkward brother and asked the question that mattered most to him.
He had always considered himself his brother's only and best friend.
But now his brother claimed he used to be, but no longer was.
This had been unacceptable to him before, but if this person was one of his brother's six partners, he could live with it.
"No,"
Chuck shook his head.
"Then who?"
Frank frowned.
He could accept a future sister-in-law replacing him as his brother's best friend.
Anyone else?
Absolutely not!
"You've met her,"
Chuck reminded him, seeing his insistence.
"I've met her..."
Frank was puzzled, then wracked his brain, suddenly remembering someone. "So it's her!"
Chuck nodded.
Frank shook his head with understanding.
Given their shared circumstances, she was indeed better suited to be his brother's best friend.
"What's your plan?"
Chuck added more firewood and asked.
"Obviously I need payback!"
Frank said fiercely, his eyes blazing as he recalled his ordeal.
"Can you handle it alone?"
Chuck looked at him.
While his brother didn't have the obsessive-compulsive tendencies that came with his own social challenges, he was naturally hot-headed and aggressive. Trying to talk him out of it would be pointless. And since he always followed his instincts, why try to stop him?
"Of course I can!"
Frank scoffed, looking at Chuck with irritation. "You really doubt my abilities? Don't forget I always had your back!"
"I didn't doubt you before,"
Chuck shook his head. "But I'm not sure now. Apparently, the aftereffects of... that state significantly impacted your performance."
Frank was speechless.
"If you can't handle it, then ask for help,"
Chuck said seriously. "Otherwise, if you fail to get revenge and end up dead, our little sister will mock you. I told her that all three of us siblings are cut from the same cloth, and compared to her two brothers, she's just a harmless kitten."
"Little sister, huh!"
Frank's expression suddenly dimmed.
Unlike Chuck, Frank was closer to their military father and harbored deep resentment toward their mother for leaving and remarrying. Even after changing his name to protect her, he refused to speak about her, much less visit.
He couldn't forgive the woman who had abandoned her sons during their darkest times.
This resentment even extended to his lack of affection for his half-sister.
"Edward Olson isn't ordinary,"
Chuck observed, offering only this warning without further comment.
"He's a billionaire,"
Frank scoffed. "I know he's got enough money to hire plenty of bodyguards, but when push comes to shove, I'm not worried about some rent-a-cops—they're all trash."
"I'm not talking about bodyguards, I'm talking about him!"
Chuck shook his head. "I was reviewing files at the Wind River Valley Tribal Police Department and found records of five runaway girls over the years who were never heard from again."
"That doesn't necessarily mean anything, does it?"
Frank asked, confused. "Small-town girls are like that. They dream of the big city but don't have the means to get there. So when they get the chance or can't stand it anymore, they'll bolt for the outside world."
At this point, his expression darkened.
Because Natalie had been exactly that kind of small-town girl. She saw him as her ticket out, and that's what she talked about most afterward.
"This might not mean anything by itself, but over all these years, none of them ever contacted their families, and there's no trace of their existence anywhere. That's highly problematic."
Chuck continued: "Then when I discovered the Olson family might be connected to this case, and that you were involved, I expanded my investigation.
The rate of girls running away and disappearing in surrounding towns is 4.75 times higher than in comparable areas, and all of them vanish without a trace afterward.
Looking at any single town, there's no obvious pattern.
But taken together, the timing of these disappearances almost perfectly correlates with Edward Olson's presence in the area."
"Are you saying Edward Olson is a serial killer?"
Frank was stunned: "I've seen the guy—he doesn't look like one at all!"
"That's why I said your judgment is poor."
Chuck stated bluntly.
"...That's it?"
Frank said skeptically. "Based on this, you're concluding that a billionaire is a serial killer who abducts and murders girls?"
"Of course not."
Chuck shook his head. "These were just initial suspicions. Then I kept investigating the Olson family and discovered that Edward Olson was a self-made first-generation millionaire. His father was just a long-haul trucker from Texas.
According to FBI statistics on psychopathic behavior, the heritability rate for serial killing is as high as 35.5%.
So I investigated the elder Olson's history and cross-referenced it with records of runaways and missing girls in those areas. I found that, just like Edward Olson, wherever the father appeared, the number of missing girls in the area was several times higher than normal. All of them lost contact with their families afterward, with no trace of their continued existence, as if they'd simply vanished."
(End of chapter)
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