Skip to main content

Atlas Missing - Part 8

'We're not even sure it is a him. Pandora's Children were all women. The Oak Leaf Killer could be too,' Jaci said.

'That's kind of #transitive, isn't it?' Hannah asked.

'Maybe, but we know nothing about them. We need a timeline and victim profiles for both killers.'

***

'We can get started on that as soon as we get to the office,' Hannah said as we drove toward her house.

'As long as we can #permute the timeline in the right order, we'll be able to figure out what happened when, which will give us our best hope of catching them both.'

***

'I'm having the Oak Leaf Killer's evidence couriered over from the respective jurisdictions. We should have the full #set by the time we get there,' Hannah said as she pulled up to a nice house in the suburbs. 'Welcome to Casa Derricks.'

'Any wife or kids?' Jaci asked.

***

'Ex-husband, ex-wife, two kids,' Hannah answered. 'Is that the #metric by which I'm to be judged?'

'I was just curious,' Jaci replied. 'I saw you were interested in Annie.'

'I've mixed business with pleasure before, and it didn't work either time. I'm a little gun shy.'

***

'I'll be here for as long as it takes to catch LaShonda Marcus,' I told her. 'You don't have to look at it in a #negative light. If you want something, there'll be no strings attached.'

Hannah smiled. 'Maybe. Come inside, freshen up, and then we'll go to the office.'

***

Hannah opened the door to let us in but hung back. Jaci went in first and Hannah said to me, 'the #finity of your stay is a point in your favor.'

Before I walked inside, I kissed her on the cheek. 'I hope to get more points then.'

She followed me in and closed the door.

***

'I love the #fractal pattern on the tiles in the bathroom,' I told her, emerging from said room.

'Thanks. They're custom made by a friend. You ready to go? Jaci's in the car already.'

'Yes. I want to take a look at this evidence and see what kind of set up you have.'

***

I was surprised when we got to the field office. We had a conference room and couple of offices in which to work, but an #archaeological dig this wasn't. The sum total of evidence from the five Oak Leaf Killer murders was in five bankers boxes, and none of them were full.

***

Jaci pulled the police reports from the boxes and I spread out the physical evidence across the table. There were #multifarious aspects to this investigation and we would have to explore each to bring both killers to justice. I didn't want LaShonda Marcus to escape again.

***

'I'm still waiting on the autopsy results from the first victim of the two killers working together. The chief medical examiner is being somewhat #obstreperous,' Hannah told us. 'I have everything else at my desk though. Another agent is bringing it up.'

'Thanks.'

***

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome To 2020

Welcome to my new blog, fresh for 2020. This will be primarily used, at least for now, for my Twitter #vss365 murder mystery entitled Pandora's Children. I plan to put other stories up on here as well, short stories and vignettes. Anything I write until I decide to publish it elsewhere. See you soon. Marc
Post a Comment
Read more

Pandora's Children - Part 9

We looked around the shack. Above the table was a cabinet with an old-fashioned teapot with China mugs. Beside the mugs was a small metal airtight canister. "What's that?" Jaci asked. "Green tea with #jasmine," Mrs. Marcus said. "Grace used it for her tea ceremonies." *** "Tea ceremonies?" Jaci asked. Mrs. Marcus nodded. "She kidnapped her victims she brought them here, had tea, and dumped their bodies in the lake. I tried to tell her she needed to find somewhere else but she was #obstinate and refused. Drain the lake and you'll see." *** We left the shack and Jaci said, "We need the CSI's to check this place out." "Enough of this #rigmarole," Mrs. Marcus muttered and pulled free of my grip. She knocked me over and ran for the water and disappeared beneath before I got close." "Shit! Now what do we do?" *** "You let her escape?" The captain asked, shouting to be heard over the #ca...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pandora's Children - Part 12

"No way," Eric and Judge said in unison. "Don't I get a say in this?" She asked. "No!" She scowled at the men. "I was put on Earth for a #purpose. I became a cop to help people. You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do." "It's too dangerous," Eric told her. *** Stevie stared the men down. "Too dangerous? Do you say that to a female #Soldier? Or firefighter? Or astronaut? You're not going to say that to me." I let myself smile a little. She would be the perfect person to join the cult and help us turn the women from the inside. *** I called the captain while they continued to argue. "Did you find what you were looking for?" He asked. "I have the bones and thousands of dollars in cash. I also think I have a #solution to a problem we didn't know we had." "Which is?" "How to get someone inside." *** "Inside the cult?" He asked. "Who'd be ins...
Post a Comment
Read more