Luke sat with Jimmy and Ellie on the curb sipping a Gatorade and watching as the police and rescue personnel moved about the area. John and his mom were standing next to them. She looked to be in worse shape than any of the kids. A cop named Stansfield was in charge and he was currently on the phone talking to someone. The conversation looked strained and Luke could hear Stansfield cursing into the cell phone.
“I don’t give a shit! You get Jaxon on the phone,” Stansfield yelled. “I know he’s in Indiana, but he has a cell phone, right? Just do it!” He closed the phone and stared at Luke and his group.
Mr. Lolly was talking to another officer but Luke couldn’t make out anything being said. Stansfield walked over and paced in front of the group. “So, let me get this straight,” he said. “You kids tracked this William Smith guy here using his cell phone GPS position and then called us? That about right?”
Luke nodded.
“How do you know it’s the killer?”
“It’s a long story,” Luke said.
“I have all night,” Stansfield said, but the way he was pacing made Luke feel that was not the case.
Luke explained the best he could and twenty minutes later Stansfield knew all they knew. He had a few questions.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone this?”
“He said he would kill us,” Ellie said.
Stansfield nodded. “How did you get his cell phone number?”
Luke paused. “I’d rather not say.”
“Well, I’d rather you did say. This is important.”
“I don’t want my friend in trouble. You can use the software he gave me, but I’m not telling who gave it to me.” Luke looked at Ellie and Jimmy and he could see they agreed with him.
Stansfield ran his hands through his hair exasperated and then his phone rang. He held up his finger to them and answered the phone.
Luke turned to Ellie and said, “I don’t want Q in on this. If the killer finds out, he’ll be after him.”
“I know,” she said. “I won’t say anything. They can torture me and I won’t talk.”
He smiled at her and she grabbed his hand. “We saved that boy.”
“We almost got killed,” he said.
“But you rescued me from him.”
“Only because I wasn’t thinking.”
“Are you guys gonna kiss and stuff,” Jimmy said. “Because I’m gonna puke if you do.”
Ellie leaned over and kissed Jimmy on the cheek. He stared at her for a second and then grinned from ear to ear.
“Alright, you can love on him if you want,” Jimmy said.
She leaned up against Luke and he stroked her soft hair, thinking how close he had been to losing her. He didn’t like thinking about that.
Stansfield hung up and said, “Alright, Officer Hinton’s gonna drive all of you to your houses. I want you to stay in them. Do not leave for any reason unless you are accompanied by your parents or a police officer. Detective Jennings will be over to see you when he gets back tomorrow.” He pointed at Luke. “I’m coming to your house and you’re going to show me this software. If we can get him tonight, I’ll feel much better about everything.”
Luke was in his room with Stansfield and the computer program was up and running, but Smith’s cell phone must have been off, because nothing was showing on the map. Luke was worried the killer may have figured things out.
“I need a copy of this program,” Stansfield said. “I bet the FBI doesn’t have anything this good. You sure you don’t want to tell me who gave you this?”
Luke shook his head. “The best I can say is I’ll talk to him and see if he wants to talk to you guys.”
“And he has another program that let you decode the cell number the perp was calling you from?”
“Yep.”
“That would be worth a million bucks to us. You need to convince your buddy to cough it up. Might save some lives.”
“I’ll see what he says.”
Stansfield nodded and turned to go. “Remember, stay inside until we nab this guy. He’s gotta’ be pretty pissed at all of you right now. Squad car will be parked out front to watch the house. You’ll be safe here.”
Luke wasn’t so sure about that, but he didn’t say anything. Stansfield went downstairs and he could hear murmurs through the floor as the cop talked to his parents. Luke wondered how Ellie was doing.
The Citation 500 cruised at thirty three thousand feet and barely a ripple coursed through the aluminum skin as the jet made its way back to Virginia. Jaxon sat, tense, as the smooth air cradled Victoria in her seat and she snored from the effects of the pain killers she had been given back in Indiana. He stared at her, unable to sleep himself, the events of the night too fresh in his mind.
Vick’s hair was fanned out over her arm and the dark strands stood out starkly against her pale skin. He remembered a vision from his marriage with her sleeping just as she was, a wispy smile on her lips, hair spread out around her and her bare skin glowing in the soft candle light. It had been one of those rare evenings when Michael was out of the house at his grandparents and they had an evening to themselves. He had drunk too much and she took advantage of him. Not that he had complained or anything. He had watched her sleep afterwards and felt his life could not get any better. He had been right. It had gotten worse. A lot worse.
He turned and looked out the small window into the night and thought of his dead son. Malcom Switzer had professed his innocence to Jaxon over and over again. Pleaded with him as he pointed the gun at the killer’s head, two of his buddies trying to keep Jaxon from shooting Switzer the night they took him down. It hadn’t mattered to Jaxon. He didn’t hear him. Wouldn’t hear him. He pulled the trigger just the same and as his friends and workmates wrestled Jaxon to the ground, only one of the bullets found its mark. In Switzer’s thigh. He had screamed like a woman and it had made Jaxon smile.
Now, he had to wrap his mind around the reality that Malcom Switzer had been right. Or at least it appeared he was right. The two frozen ears were on this very plane, along with the various animal parts, kept in the hold, under ice, awaiting the FBI’s forensic lab to analyze them and determine who they belonged to. Jaxon didn’t need the FBI to tell him that. He knew they belonged to Michael.
His anger and guilt had been aimed at the wrong man for so many years and apparently his aim was as bad as the night he shot Switzer. Switzer was a cold and brutal killer, Jaxon knew, but he wasn’t Michael’s cold and brutal killer. This new man…no…man wasn’t a word he could put next to him…this new beast was killing kids and stalking Jaxon’s mind. He had to be stopped. There would be none of Jaxon’s ‘friends’ around this time. No one to influence his aim. He would make sure of that. This asshole was going to die a slow and painful death in front of Jaxon’s eyes and nobody would be able to help him.
“What are you thinking?” Victoria’s voice startled him out of his thoughts.
He turned toward her. “Just imagining this guy dying slowly in front of me as I wrap my fingers around his neck and squeeze.”
She searched his face and yet he couldn’t read her reaction one way or the other. She sighed and finally said, “I’ll hold him down.”