Chapter 9

With everyone gathered for the meeting Jason Roberts felt confident that he had selected the best people for the investigation. It was not going to be an easy task and it was also not one for the faint of heart. The tasks that they needed to complete were lengthy. They needed to be done quickly so that they would be efficient with their time. There was going to have to be visits to the morgue to see the autopsy photos and reports to see what consistencies could be found between the cases, and there was also the possibility of having to go on to the scene of the next crime if the person who was committing these heinous crimes was not found first. It is always hard to work on a case that there is no pattern. Of course, there is always a pattern of some sort or another. It is just a matter of finding that pattern and then using that information to the best of your ablility.

Jason was very proud of the fact that he had thought to include Grace into the mix of people. Of course it didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes and to the ears. She had an uncanny way of putting a person at ease without them realizing it. She had an interview technique that could be matched by no other. She was a no nonsense type of woman who would always get the answers that were needed to be gotten however, the interviewee would not know what they were giving up the answers. She could coerce just about anyone to give up the information that they were withholding and that is what he needed.

Once everyone was seated and the introductions had been made around the room, the real reason why they were there was put out on the table. The introductions went very smoothly as William and Veronica had already been waiting some time before Grace and Jason arrived. It was now time for them to get down to business. There was a person who was terrorizing their town and it was going to be up to them to find out who this person was. They also wanted to find out how they could stop them from doing it again. This did not appear to be an easy task as there was not real evident pattern to their behavior. If there was some sort of pattern, Jason was sure that Grace was going to be able to find it.

The police who had gone on all three murder scene calls were not sure but they believed that it was a crime committed by a male. They were not one hundred percent certain but it would seem consistent with the behavior that they were seeing. It was erratic and there was passion behind the killing. The murders had been horrendous and were not done in a manner in which to give the victims any chance to get out of the way of their murderer. There appeared in the initial reports that there had been no defensive wounds on any of the victims but that would be the responsibility of the person who was chosen to go down to the morgue. They were going to have to find out as much information as they possibly could.

“The reason why we are all here is quite apparent to all of us, I am sure,” state Jason. He could actually feel tears welling up. He did not want to show weakness or any emotions yet. “We are here to figure out what all of our talents are going to be and how to best use them to crack this case. As you all know we have been working on this case for over a month and ‘El Diablo’ has already struck three times.”

It was apparent to Grace that this truly pained Jason. “El Diablo” was almost taunting him. She could see it written all over his face. She could not figure out why this case was hitting so hard for him, but there had to be a reason. The more that Jason spoke about the case, Grace realized that he was truly passionate about this. Not that it was important to her as to why it was so personal for him, but it did strike her as strange. It just caused the mystery to enshroud him even more.

“Grace and Vanessa I would like to see the two of you take the bull by the horns and speak to the family members of the victims. I believe that Grace will have a way with them and that you will make them feel comfortable and yet able to speak to you at the same time. William, you and I are going to go to the crime scene and talk to the people around the streets. Maybe they have seen something that they have not been willing to express before. If we are not successful we might bring Grace in with us to see what she can do. I believe that if we work in teams of two we will be able to get to the end of this quickly.”

Grace raised her hand. “Yes, Grace did you have something to add?” Jason asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Umm, I was wondering if there is any way that I could look at the case files before I tried to meet with the victim’s family. I always like to feel like I already know who I am speaking to so that I can put them at ease.” Grace smiled hoping that it did not seem to assuming that she would get to see the case files. I always feel better if I am able to know where the people are coming from. Everyone has a skeleton in their closet and it was best to know about it before she spoke to them so she made sure not to bring that up right at the first chance.

She had always made a point of getting to know who she was working with, family wise. She did not want to seem like she didn’t know who they were. It did not always work in her favor however. There had been the one time with the Grey family, that she had gotten a bit too personal and spilled the beans that the husband had a second family and that it had been there that he had been spending all of his extra time. Grace had taken that as a learning experience and made sure that it never happened again. It was a good thing to get to know the families but it was not a good idea to find out about all of their dirty little secrets.

Grace looked up at Jason and realized that he must have asked her a question because he was waiting for an answer. “I’m so sorry Chief Roberts; I was thinking about something else, could you repeat your question.”

“Not a problem at all, Grace,” Jason smiled. “I wanted to know if you would want to look at them today or if you wanted to meet with Vanessa first?”

“Well if it is all the same with Vanessa, I would love to look over them today by myself and maybe meet after dinner tonight to discuss what we should do from there. Is that okay with you Vanessa?” Vanessa looked a little bit shocked, “Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem at all. Maybe I will just call the families and set up times to meet with them. Would that be okay with you Grace?” Vanessa looked very smugly. “That would be wonderful Vanessa. I will meet you back here at let’s say 6:30.” “Perfect,” Vanessa snapped.

It would appear as if everything was starting to fall into place. Grace was looking forward to working so close to everyone else and to also be able to showcase her expertise. It was not every day that a young P.I. was given the chance to work hand in hand with the police department. She looked over at Jason and realized that he was deep in thought. She really hoped that she would get a chance to work closer to him. There was something about him that kept her wanting to come back for more. She was not sure what it was, but she was going to find out.

Jason looked around the room to make sure that everyone understood how important this was to him. Did they realize that there was something about this case that was eating him up on the inside? He truly hoped that they could not see it because then they would know what his true motive was with this case. It is never easy to have one of your close, personal friends die, let alone be murdered by a mad man. I can’t believe that I was not able to keep her safe; she had depended upon me to make sure that she was safe. She knew that something was coming after her but she could not express it fully to him. Why couldn’t he do more? Hopefully this taskforce would be able to help him bring this monster to justice and the murders would stop.