Jaxon walked into the station with Victoria following behind him. The mood was still somber as the loss of one of their own was still fresh, like an open wound, but the appearance of an old friend, even one who had defected to the Feds, was an occasion to be happy. She reveled in their camaraderie and many of the old timers had stories to relive and jokes to tell. Stansfield came over and gave her a hug. Her old partner looked awkward around her, but Jaxon could tell he was glad to see her.
It felt surreal to be in this room, with these people, and her here with him. They stole glances at each other and for a moment, Jaxon felt the world tilt. Almost as if time had doubled back on itself, the old and the new merging. It lasted only a second, and then the real world came back, just as it always did. Victoria’s cell rang, and it was Holt.
She took the call in a quiet corner and Jaxon kept looking her way. He didn’t know what he expected, but whatever he was feeling, it left a bitter taste in his mouth. She laughed loudly at something Holt said, and Jaxon actually felt a pang of jealousy. Looking inward, which was something he hadn’t done in years, it had been too painful, he chuckled to himself and realized he would have to fight for this woman if he wanted to have her back. Holt was now the enemy, in a sense, and that felt weird. She ended the call and came over to his desk. He must have had a funny look on his face.
“Ok?” she asked.
“Yeah-you?”
She nodded. “He was checking in. I hadn’t called him since this morning. He was updating me on the hacker’s computers we sent to Quantico.”
“Anything?”
She shook her head. “The geeks are working on it, but the kid was good. They don’t want to lose any of the data and are taking it slow.”
He nodded, not expecting anything new from them.
“Something’s bothering you?” she asked, sitting on the corner of his desk, the bruise on her forehead a little more prominent. The makeup she applied at his place had been rushed and she hadn’t been able to fix herself up as good as before. He grinned knowing he had something to do with that. She saw him staring at her head and said, “What?”
“Nothing.” He turned away. “I have this tingling going on in the back of my mind and I’m trying to figure it out.”
“Spidy-senses kicking in?”
“Yeah. Right.”
“Let’s talk it through and see if it brings something to the surface.”
“An FBI tactic?”
“Yes. It works. Just try it, alright?”
He sat back in his chair and spread his arms wide. “Go for it.”
She grabbed the chair from the desk next to them and pulled it up close to him. “What did we learn today?”
“That I still got it?” He grinned.
“Will you stop it!” she whispered. “Seriously-come on.”
“Alright, alright.” He sighed. “We now have four more dead bodies.”
“Right. The Hacker and his family. Quentin Jenson. What did we see there?”
“Lots of flies.”
“Are you going to even try?”
“Well, there were. Let’s see-more animal decapitations with the heads missing and the boy’s head which is also missing.”
“But the adults he left intact.”
“He did, didn’t he? I wonder why?”
“He made it a point to keep the dogs’ heads and some of the kids’ as souvenirs, just like he’s done in the past. With a few exceptions.”
Jaxon saw it right away. “Michael.”
“Right. Why was Michael different?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Michael mean something different to him? I can’t make myself think like him. Michael keeps getting in the way. We’re too close to this.”
“I keep hearing his voice in my head, his real voice. He said Michael was nothing to him. I don’t believe him.”
“I don’t either.” She paused. “He also knew we had spent time with Luke and Ellie. He must have some way to see what they’re up too. We need to check Luke’s court and see if we can find any cameras.” She stopped. “Shit, he may know she’s there.”
“Even if he does, we’ve got guys crawling all over the house and neighborhood. His father owns a gun, too, and said he wasn’t afraid to use it.”
“I hope he won’t have to.”
He nodded. “Ok,” he said, “What else? He knows quite a bit about technology, yet he let himself be tracked by a bunch of kids.”
“He’s got to be arrogant,” she said. “We know he likes to taunt us, so he underestimated these kids. He’ll probably keep thinking he’s smarter than them and that may be a mistake. How did he know about the Hacker? That’s what’s bothering me.”
“Right-no cameras or web-cams in the Jenson area. Do you think he’s got a bug, or tap, on the Harrison’s phone? We never thought to check that.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him. Let’s follow up on that.”
He made some notes.
“Let’s keep working backwards,” she said. “Before the Hacker’s house, we were at the Harrison house talking to the kids.”
“We discussed the Hacker and talked them into giving him up. Ellie had also received a message from Smith saying he knew her father.”
“Leonard Worthington, and her real name is Eliana Worthington. Or at least it used to be.” He was typing into the computer and watched as information came up on one Leonard David Worthington. The last known address was Ellie’s.
“Nothing on him since he lived there?” Victoria said. “I’m calling Holt and see if we have anything in the database.”
She called him and while she was giving him the info, he scanned the rest of the file. Driver’s License records were clean. No citations or DUI’s. No arrests, either, but an old domestic disturbance call showed up. It was Ellie’s address way back in 1997.
“He’ll get back as soon as he has the info,” Victoria said hanging up. She leaned in close as Jaxon continued to scan the report. They both saw it at the same time. “You were the responding officer,” she said. “You made this report.” She looked at him stunned.
“I don’t remember,” he said. “I wouldn’t normally respond to a call like this. I must have been in the area and the patrol officers tied up somewhere else.” He thought for a second, then said, “No wonder she’s been such a bitch to me. She probably remembers me from that call. Damn! Why can’t I remember?”
“Is this what your Spidey-senses were tingling about?”
“Has to be.” He looked at the computer and scrolled down the screen. The report listed Madison Worthington as the caller. She had dialed 911 complaining that her husband was drunk and ‘out of his head’ breaking things and screaming at her. Apparently Jaxon had been able to convince the man to behave by ‘informing him of his parental duties and the consequences of neglecting those duties.’
“What did you tell him?” Victoria asked.
“I don’t know.” He thought about it but came up with nothing.
“Did you threaten to have Social Services take his son away?”
“Sounds like something I would do.”
“Yes, it does.” She gave him a look and stood up. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“To see Madison Worthington-or Pemberton. Whatever her name is. Maybe she knows where he is.”
They pulled up to the house to find the older brother messing with what looked like a model airplane. The engine was running and he was revving it up and down while he held onto it with one hand. White smoke was streaming from the exhaust. It sounded like a bunch of angry bees or even a miniature chain saw.
Jaxon and Victoria walked up and he shut the engine off, looking irritated.
“Patrick, right?” Jaxon said.
The kid nodded.
“Is your mother here?”
“Yeah. She’s inside.”
“Pretty cool toy,” Jaxon said leaning down and looking at it. “Is it hard to fly?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t tried it yet. I just got it.”
“I’ll bet it was expensive.”
“I don’t know. It was a gift.”
“Does it burn that alcohol fuel?”
“Yeah.” Patrick reached down a grabbed a gallon jug of greenish fluid. It had some kind of pump attached to it. “This is what it uses.”
“Be careful breathing those fumes,” Jaxon said. “They contain a chemical that might knock you out. It’s called Diethyl Ether.”
The kid looked at him like he was crazy.
“Have fun,” Jaxon said as he turned and walked up to the door.
When they were out of earshot Victoria said, “What was that all about?”
“Just passing on some knowledge I learned,” he said, grinning.
“He probably thinks you’re an ass.”
“Maybe, but he’ll still remember it.”
“Doubt it.”
He knocked on the door and Madison Pemberton answered looking tired and a little greyer. Her face registered annoyance and then worry. “What happened,” she said quickly.
“Everything’s fine, Miss Pemberton,” Jaxon said. “We didn’t mean to worry you. We just wanted to ask you a few questions if you have a moment.”
“Don’t you think you should be out trying to catch the man who wants to hurt my daughter?”
“It’s related to the case, ma’am,” Victoria said.
“And you are…?” Madison said.
“Special Agent Elliot, FBI ma’am. The Detective and I are working on the case together.”
“May we come in?” Jaxon said.
She hesitated, and then opened the door wider and stepped aside. Jaxon let Victoria enter first. The layout was very similar to the Harrison house only flip-flopped so the stairway was to their right as they entered and the half bath was to the left. She led them into the living room and asked if they wanted anything to drink.
“No thank you, Miss Pemberton,” Victoria said, sitting in a chair that looked horribly uncomfortable. Jaxon chose the couch.
“Miss Pemberton,” Jaxon said, “we’ve met before all of this, haven’t we?”
She nodded. “I didn’t think you remembered. 1997. I had to call the police on my husband and you were the responding officer.”
“What happened?”
“You don’t know?” she said, surprised.
“It’s been a long time. Refresh my memory.”
“My husband was not a pleasant man,” she said. “He had been drinking and we got into a fight. I was pregnant at the time with Ellie and was not providing him with enough-uh-‘entertainment’ as he put it and he started slapping me. He was a hitter. I ran from him and called the police. Your delayed arrival allowed him to drink even more. As soon as you arrived he started in on you, and you had to-subdue him. Patrick was two at the time and was crying from all the shouting. My husband screamed at him to shut up and you then threatened to take the child away if my husband didn’t settle down. He must have gotten the point, because he stopped struggling and shut his mouth. It was like a switch had been turned off.”
Jaxon nodded, remembering now. The man had been huge. Six-four, six-five, two hundred fifty pounds at least. The only reason Jaxon was able to get him on the ground was because he was staggering drunk.
“Leonard was very protective of his son,” she continued. “He did not appreciate you threatening him and he told you…”
“That I would regret it.”
“Right-so you do remember.”
“It’s coming back.”
“I was surprised you didn’t take him in,” she said, looking directly at him.
“It usually only makes things worse. He seemed under control after that.”
“He beat me with a belt.”
Jaxon didn’t know what to say.
“I almost lost the baby and had bruises that stayed for weeks.”
“I’m sorry,” he finally said.
She turned away from him and stared off into the distance as if it didn’t matter. “It’s over and I’m free of him.”
“Did he ever touch you again?” Victoria asked.
“No. My father took care of that since the police couldn’t seem to.” She turned and looked him in the eye again. He had to look away.
“My father stayed with me for months and pointed a shotgun at him every time he came around. He finally got the point. My father even fired it at him, but if it hit him we never knew. He left and has never been back.”
“I’m truly sorrow, Miss Pemberton,” Jaxon said. “The system failed you and I don’t know what to say. I feel like I let you down.”
“You did,” she said bluntly. Then dismissed it. “It doesn’t matter,” she continued, waving her hand at him. “All that’s in the past. What I want from you now is to not fail me again. You need to find this madman and stop him from hurting my daughter. Can you do that?”
“Yes, Miss Pemberton,” Victoria said. “We can.”
She looked Victoria up and down, and then nodded once.
“Where is he now?” Jaxon asked.
“My ex-husband? I don’t know and I don’t care.”
“You have no idea where he might be?”
“Why do you care? What do you two want from me today?”
“Ellie didn’t tell you about her father?” Victoria asked.
“What about her father?” Madison suddenly looked alarmed.
Victoria looked at Jaxon. Jaxon said, “Ellie got another message from the killer. He said he knows her father.”
She looked shaken. She sat back in her chair, deflated, her hand rising to her face, then stopping where it fluttered for a second and then sank to her lap.
“We need to find your ex-husband, Miss Pemberton. We need to find Leonard Worthington.”
“You can’t,” she whispered. She looked haunted and her eyes grew dark.
“We will,” Victoria said. “Whether you help us or not.”
“You can’t,” she said again. “You can’t, because he’s dead.”
They spent the next half hour getting the full story from Madison Pemberton and then made some hard decisions about her future. It only took a few minutes to decide. It was the right thing to do, and as Jaxon had learned in his years of police work, sometimes people just took things into their own hands and justice was served. Victoria felt the same way. She called Holt back and told him the Worthington thing was a dead lead and not to expend any more time and energy on it.
Jaxon could only hear one side of the conversation but Victoria told him what was said. Holt was curious as to what had happened but did not push it. She hinted it was something she would discuss with him later.
“Are you going to tell him?” Jaxon asked after she hung up.
“I think I’ll have to.”
“What will he do?”
“The same as us-look the other way.”
Jaxon wasn’t so sure. Holt seemed like a by-the-book kind of guy.
After Madison Pemberton’s revelation, they got her talking. Apparently her father had been a better shot with the shotgun than she had originally stated. During one of Worthington’s surprise visits, he became violent and would not leave. Her father broke the gun out and pointed it at him telling him to vacate the premises. Worthington refused and charged the man. He fired the weapon. It took two shots to bring him down.
The father took complete charge of the situation and disposed of the body in a location Madison didn’t have knowledge of. No one missed him. His parents were dead and he had no brothers or sisters. Madison’s father died a few years later and the secret of his burial place died with him. Madison never learned what her father did with Leonard David Worthington.
Jaxon and Victoria talked and told her they would keep the information confidential unless they discovered she had lied to them. She thanked them and swore what she had told them was the absolute truth. Jaxon saw something in her eyes that had changed. The burden of her secret lifted from her shoulders and for the briefest moment she appeared happy. Then, when they mentioned they were going over to check on Ellie, the world came crashing back in on her and the strain of everything weighed her down again. Jaxon suggested she have a stiff drink.
As they were leaving she said, “My father was a good man. Please don’t tarnish his memory by glorifying my monster of a husband. My father was only protecting his daughter and grandchildren.”
Jaxon and Victoria believed her.
They were now parked in front of the Harrison house about to go in and check on the kids.
“Should we tell the girl anything?”
Victoria looked at him and said, “We could lie and tell her we checked him out and there was no way William Smith could know her father.”
“It’s partially true,” he said. “He could not know him if the man is dead.”
“It might make her feel better.”
He nodded. “Alright, we’ll be vague.”
They stepped out of the car and walked over to the uniformed officer parked in front of the house and talked with him for a few minutes. Everything had been quiet he said. The other car was over parked in the court behind the house watching the entrance to the backyard from the pool complex. Quiet there too.
They knocked on the door and were greeted by Mr. Harrison who looked a little relieved to see them.
“Thanks for stopping by,” he said, and opened the door for both to enter.
“How are the kids?” Victoria asked.
“Actually, pretty good. There’s a little tension in the air, but they had some friends over and have been pretty busy goofing off. Don’t challenge those two to an air hockey game,” he said. “They kicked my butt.”
Victoria smiled and looked relieved. “I don’t want to upset them but we have some news that might make her feel a little better. Can we talk to them?”
“Ok-I’ll find them.” He left to search the kids out.
Jaxon and Victoria sat in the living room, and the kids walked in together a minute later. The girl looked much better and the boy beamed beside her. They sat on the couch next to each other, holding hands again, and waited expectantly.
“You guys look happy,” Victoria said. “Have you had a good day today?”
They both smiled and nodded. “Well, except for this morning,” Luke said, looking a little somber now.
“Good,” she said. “I’m glad. Ellie, we found some information that might make you feel a little better.”
Jaxon watched the girl who looked at them warily. She didn’t trust them yet, and Jaxon didn’t blame her. She’d been through a lot and probably had doubts about life in general. Her perspective had grown up a lot in the last few months and she was getting an above average dose of adulthood tossed her way.
“What is it?” Ellie said.
“We tracked down information on your father and there is no way William Smith could know him.”
“What kind of information,” Ellie asked, and this surprised Jaxon. He expected her to just take their word for it. Victoria never faltered.
“He is nowhere near us and hasn’t been for some time,” Victoria said.
“Where is he?”
Victoria looked at Jaxon. He had nothing to offer. Maybe this had been a mistake.
“Can you just take our word for it right now?” Victoria offered. “I know it’s confusing for you, but just trust us.”
She seemed to accept this and nodded her head and sighed. “Well, that’s good,” she said. “That does make me feel a little better. The killer’s still out there though, right?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Jaxon said. “But we’ve got you well protected here, and I know he won’t try anything. Besides, he doesn’t know you’re here.”
“I hope not,” Luke said.
“We will still pretend like he does and keep a couple of officers parked in front and back,” Victoria said. “Does that make you feel safe?”
She nodded hesitantly.
“What is it, sweetheart?” Victoria asked.
“He’s smart,” she said. “He always seems to know what’s happening.”
“It appears that way at times, doesn’t it?” Victoria said. “What if Detective Jennings and I stayed in the house with you tonight? Would that make you feel safer?”
Jaxon jerked his head toward her, but saw the girl smile and nod her head. Victoria looked at him and smiled, and he knew he’d be sleeping on a couch tonight.
Ellie said, “Great!”