Cross

06 | He's Back...

"People change and forget to tell each other." - Lillian Hellman

               Chapter Six

To say that I bolted out of my apartment into the street and to the FBI headquarters would not be an over exaggeration of what actually took place. I could not breathe, could not think, could not see. My mind was like a broken VHS tape, replaying the same scene over and over and over again. I could not take it, but I had to. It was a miracle I even reached my destination in one piece.

Another murder took place while I slept, albeit pitifully, and I could not prevent it. Things were getting out of control and although I did not know if the new murder was linked with the previous three, the heaviness in my stomach told me everything I needed to know.

Taking the train over to Manhattan and walking the short distance to the headquarters was a blur in my head, but once I was inside the building, I was on alert. Conscious of my surroundings, my actions, my thoughts, I took a minute to survey the atmosphere and organize the white noise in my head. I need a plan, and quick.

Looking at the hustle and bustle of the first floor, the sheer number of agents running around, dealing with the phone calls that were coming in by the hundreds, and the look of confusion and bewilderment on faces of the newbies, all I could think of was wow. This was not out of the ordinary for me, having been here for the past four years, but even I felt a little light-headed thinking about all the work I had cut out for me.

Just as I felt the urge to collapse under the heavy weight, I found my silver lining. The light at the end of the tunnel. The rock I could always fall back on. While looking around for a familiar face, my eyes zoned in and locked their target. Agent Beta.

I hurried towards her and placed my bag and blazer – which I didn't remember taking off – loudly on her desk with a frown on my face.

"Well, hello to you too," she said, placing a phone call on hold.

She turned around in her swivel chair to look at me. "I assume you've seen the morning news?"

I sighed, scraping my nails against my scalp, flattening my already flattened hair.

"I all but ran out once I did...can you believe it?"

She twirled a pen in her fingers as she closed her notepad.

"It's surreal, I know...but not anything we're not used to. Serial killers are a dime a dozen. You'll get to the bottom of the case, I can feel it," she said.

I placed my elbow on her cubicle wall and shifted my weight to one foot, my hand on my hip.

"I know I can, Agent Beta, but it's all happening so fast. First he killed three people in one night, and now another murder not even twenty-four hours later," I said.

"It's like he knows he's going to be caught soon, so he's just killing anyone he can get his hands on," I added, as an afterthought.

The wheels in my head were turning, making connections, jumping to conclusions, but Agent Beta stopped them in their tracks.

"I doubt that," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confusion swirling both in my head and my eyes.

"Well..." she drawled, "It's not my place to tell you as I'm sure Agent Hook wouldn't want me to put my nose in any business that's not mine, but since you asked...it sure seems like this serial killer has some kind of vendetta."

The look of distaste on her face when she mentioned Agent Hook's face momentarily blindsided me. I couldn't comprehend anything she said after that as I was too busy trying to figure out the implications of such a look.