Chapter 25

Jason was so angry at rush hour traffic. It always worked out that when he was in a rush to get somewhere that there was something that was causing him a hold up. He knew that he needed to get to the airport to pick up Veronica and William as soon as possible. They had found out some information about the victims that they all felt was going to lead to bringing the killer to justice. He felt that if he did not get there in a timely fashion that it was going to be cutting into the time that they had to catch the killer.

The traffic was not letting up and for some reason Veronica’s phone was not working. It was starting to frustrate him that he was unable to contact Veronica. She had given him an indication that she had the information that was going to break the case wide open and Jason wanted to make sure that he got that information. If he was unable to get it from her, then he knew that the trip had been a waste. He knew that their plane had landed about fifteen minutes earlier and that it was important that he get there as quickly as possible. He did not want to have to worry about the two of them getting into a taxi to head downtown. He wanted to have the three of them travel together so they could discuss what had been found out.

He tried William’s phone and was finally able to get a hold of him. He told William to be waiting for him, because he should be there in no longer than ten minutes. William seemed a little bit distracted when he spoke to him, but Jason just thought that it had to do with the fact that he was thinking about the case. Often times when Jason was working on a case, he could sound detached. It was not the way that he wanted to sound, but sometimes there was not way to sound any differently. When a person’s mind was so heavily focused on a task, it is often hard to get it to think about anything else. That was probably the case with William. Jason hoped that there was nothing else going on that he was not aware of.

With the call having been placed to William, Jason felt much better. At least he didn’t need to worry about them getting into a cab and missing the opportunity to speak to the two of them. With the information that they had gathered, the connections between the victims had finally been figured out. They had all attended the same school and that is where they had all gotten the tattoo. It intrigued him that a group of people would be so willing to go through the pain and permanence of having a tattoo just to show that they were part of a group. It was not something that he would ever do, nor had he ever thought of doing.

This was impressive to him that all of these people had known each other and yet they had not been able to find out this connection until now. Of course, they had all moved here from the East Coast after they had graduated. Jason was not sure why they had chosen to move to Grangeville, but there must have been some sort of reason for them all to be here. He wondered what the draw had been to move to the same town. There had to be something that was attractive to all of them. It would have been one thing if it had only been one or two people who have moved to Grangeville, but to have at least four different people move to this small of a town was highly suspicious. Jason knew that they were going to be able to find out what that reason was and that it was possibly the key to the entire case.

Jason wondered if they still kept in contact with each other after they graduated. Did they all know that they were all living in the same town? Did they keep involved in each other’s lives as they had when they were younger? He knew that as he got older he lost contact with those that he had previously had been close to. That is just what happened when a person got older and moved on with their lives; they did not always keep connected with those that they had held close to their hearts before. If they did keep in contact, what was the common thread amongst them all? This was what puzzled him the most. Once that was all put together, the puzzle pieces would fall into their proper places; of this he was certain.

As the traffic finally started to move again, Jason started to feel his heart beat. He could not believe that they were possibly very close to bringing this case to a close. It was true that they did not know who “El Diablo” was, but by knowing what connected everyone to each other, they were one step closer. It might take a little time to find out who else had gone to The Xavier School, but once they knew who else lived in Grangeville, the task would be easier. Jason could not figure out whom else might live in this town and have connections to Xavier School but he hoped that Veronica had thought of that and had asked the headmaster the proper questions. If she hadn’t, he hoped that she had left the door open for them to contact him with any further questions. He was sure that she had done that as she was a very good at the job that she did.

The task that was facing them did seem daunting but Jason knew that with everyone working together that it would be more manageable. It is always hard to have to work one on one but when there are three other people to work side by side with, it is much easier. Once everyone was back downtown and in the conference room going over everything that they knew, Jason was confident that the name of the killer would soon been discovered. He was looking forward to putting a name and a face to this killer and letting everyone in Grangeville know that they had caught the madman who was hurting their town.

When Jason arrived at the airport, the place was packed. It took him another five minutes just to find a parking space. Once he had found a place to park his car, he made his way into the airport. He was looking around hoping to find both Veronica and William together. He knew that they would enjoy working together and therefore expected that they would be walking close together when he found them. He spotted William right away, but did not see Veronica.

“Hey William, it is good to have you back here in Grangeville. How was your trip to the school?”

“It was very informative. I did not realize that everyone who has been murdered went to school so close to each other. I guess I never really paid any attention to what the age range was of the victims.”

“That is very interesting. Hey, where is Veronica?”

“I am not exactly sure; she said that she needed to go to the bathroom. I think the airplane food did not settle too well with her. Once you called, I called her and left her a voice mail to meet us here. I am sure that she will be here any minute.”

“Oh, that is fine. We can wait. I just hope that we will all be able to sit down and talk it all out as we put this all together. I think that we might have enough information to actually catch this guy before he kills again.” When Jason said this he noticed that William started to perspire. He thought that this was strange, but it was a little warm inside the airport so it probably was just a natural response to the way that his body was trying to handle the heat.

The two of them waited for another ten minutes, and still there was no sign of Veronica. William kept telling Jason that he thought that they should start fanning out and trying to find her. He was acting like he was very nervous that they and not seen her yet. Jason started to get worried and decided to use some of his police powers to find out where she was. He thought that at first it might just be a good idea for the two of them to go separate ways and see if they could find her on their own. William agreed that it would be a good idea if they went different ways; that way hopefully they would be able to find her easier.

William took the west side of the airport and Jason took the east. They both agreed to meet back at the front in fifteen minutes to discuss what they had found. Jason hoped that nothing bad had happened to Veronica and that it was just that the food had not treated her so well. Jason started to look though the crowds of people to see if he saw the familiar face of Veronica. When he did not see her in the ten minutes he started to panic.

He knew that it was not a good thing to panic about, but with a murderer on the loose he was afraid that maybe his own member of the task force was going to become the fifth victim. If there was even the slightest chance that the person was going to murder someone even closer to him than his next door neighbor he did not know what he was going to do. It was up to him to make sure that everyone was safe and that is what he planned on doing. He knew that if that happened he would have to give up his badge because he would not be able to live with himself.

Upon returning to the place that he and William had agreed to meet, William was no where to be found. Now not only could he not find Grace, had lost Veronica in the airport, but William was not anywhere either. He started to realize that he needed to calm down because he was starting to get hysterical. Maybe William had found Veronica and they were just taking a slow walk back to the place where they were supposed to meet. He was going to give them another ten minutes before he allowed the panic back into his mind.

When ten minutes had passed, Jason felt bile rising in his throat. He was getting physically sick because his entire task force was now missing. He was not sure, at first, what course of action he wanted to take. After thinking for a few minutes he realized that he needed to go to the airport security. He went to the security booth and showed them his badge and asked if they could make an announcement that the two of them needed to meet with him right away. The PA system went off asking for them both to report to the security booth.

The sound of their names over the intercom was an eerie sensation. It was not something that he wanted to have to hear. He had heard names called over the system many times but never had he heard them and know why they were being called. Most of the time he figured that it was because they needed to show their identification to someone or that they had forgotten something. This time he knew why the names were being called and he did not like it one bit. He knew that now on whenever he heard a name come across the intercom he would wonder if they were missing.

Another ten minutes went by and still they did not show up. He was starting to wonder what was going on. It did not seem plausible that he would now have a second, no make that a third, person from his task force missing. He was trying so hard to figure out how he was going to explain this to the mayor of the town. He defiantly was going to have to figure out how to handle that when the time came. Jason didn’t know what he was going to do. He racked him brain trying to figure out the best course of action. He asked the security to get all of their available men and women to pan out in the airport and to not allow any person to leave the airport until it had been properly secured. Jason placed a call downtown and asked that all available units make their way to the airport because they had two missing persons that needed to be found.

Little did he know that the plane that Veronica was on with Milly Tillerman had just taken off and they were safely on their way to Florida. She was working hand in hand with Grace and she actually had the next victim of “El Diablo” with her. There was no way that he would be able to figure this out because he did not know what Grace had planned. He would not be seeing Veronica until she returned later on in the day. Veronica’s phone had gone dead because she had forgotten to bring her charger, but she had decided that she would call Jason as soon as she got to the Orlando airport.

As soon as all the doors were secure and Jason knew that no one could leave or get in, the hunt started to find both Veronica and William. He could not figure out how he could lose two different people within the matter of an hour. He did not even consider the fact that the two of them might have left on their own accord. He knew that they expected to meet with him and he assumed that they would let him know if they needed to go somewhere else before meeting with him. This is where he started to get worried. It really started to make him wonder what kind of an officer he was. He could not even keep his own people safe and yet he was asked to keep an entire city safe.

If he could not find those who were missing that were supposed to work right next to him, what would the mayor be saying? He probably was going to be asking for Jason’s resignation if this was not all figured out soon. Now he not only had a murderer loose on the streets but he had three missing persons. He wanted to just sit down and cry because he did not know how he was going to handle this, but he knew that if he did that it would be a sign of weakness. He had to buck it up and do what was required of him and do it to the best of his ability.