Capturing Them

Chapter Forty Nine

The man has white hair at the sides and back but is completely bald on top. He's a bit of a chubby man and it shows in his face. His eyes are covered with sunglasses but I get this odd feeling inside me like I've seen him before. But that's impossible, right?

My eyes take in the rest of the photo; he's wearing a black suit with a light blue shirt, no tie. Around his wrist is a silver and very expensive looking watch. Two people walk on either side of him. They are also wearing suits but with black ties and white shirts and both have on sunglasses.

"His name is Michael Carter, fifty three years old," Axel continues and I bring my eyes up to his face and away from the picture. Axel is sitting on a dining room chair, legs slightly parted with his elbows resting on his knees. The sleeves to his white button down shirt are rolled up and I can see the grey neckline of a tank down his shirt. His glasses are perched on his nose and his hair is tied back in a bun. Michale Carter. I feel like I know that name but I'm not sure. "He has two sons, both in their twenties; mother deceased."

"How did she die?" I ask.

Axel's dark eyes come to mine. "Drug overdose." That doesn't surprise me.

I nod my head and find myself looking back down at the picture. I reach forward and pick it up, my eyes narrowing as I tilt my head to the side and bringing it closer to my face.

Something catches my eye—a tattoo. I think it's a spider going by the four lines that look legs peeking over the collar of his shirt. An image flashes in my mind's eye and I drop the picture like it's burned me. "Oh my God," I breathe in a whisper.

"Miss Sorensen?" Mr Blackbourne questions. My eyes lift to where he stands by the window, grey eyes showing me his concern.

"I'll be right back," I murmur, shooting up and out of my seat. I quickly leaving the room, my heart hammering and my legs working quickly to carry me upstairs.

Heavy footsteps quickly follow me, but I don't stop as I barge into my camera room and to the boxes of photo albums that sit in the corner ready for me to place nice and neatly on my new shelves.

My hands shake as I start pulling the albums out, knowing the one I want is at the bottom, buried deep under all the others.

"Sang?" Gabriel asks, a slight hint of fear in his voice.

When I reach the small black photo album with no label or title, I stand up and turn around, finding all fourteen boys standing just in the room and watching me closely. "Two years ago, Dad had a business trip to Vegas over summer break. I asked if I could go with him and he said yes. While he worked, I explored the city; taking pictures of the night life. I was there a week and every day, without fail, I saw the man with a spider tattoo."

I take a breath and hold the photo album out to them. Mr Blackbourne takes it from me and opens it up. "I took pictures of him because I had never come across someone with his... aura. He naturally put fear in someone just by glancing in their direction. My last night there, a lady and her young daughter kept him company in the hotel's restaurant. I didn't think anything of it, apart from that it was different to his normal routine."

"These them?" Dr Green asks, pointing to a picture.

I nod my head. "Yeah," I pause for a heartbeat before adding, "Go to the back."

Mr Blackbourne turns to the last page where the newspaper clippings are. It's not something I allow myself to think about. Knowing that I was one of the last people to see them makes guilt settle low in my stomach.

"The next morning, both the daughter and the mother were found dead—both had been raped and tortured first," I whisper.

"Sang," Dr Green murmurs, wide, green eyes coming up to me as Mr Blackbourne passes the photo album along. "This is serious."

Closing my eyes, I nod my head. "It's the only time I've ever hated myself for not being able to find my voice, because maybe I could have somehow stopped it."

Heat envelopes me on both sides. An arm comes around my shoulders and I'm pulled into a warm chest. My arms go around his midsection as I breathe in deeply, welcoming his ocean scent as someone steps up behind me, putting their hands on my hips. My heart skips a beat at being sandwiched between them.

"Peanut, you didn't know something like that would happen," Nathan murmurs in my ear from behind. "Don't put any blame on yourself over this."

"He's right, Aggele," Silas murmurs, his arm tightening around me just a little.

"Mr Korba and Mr Griffin are correct, Miss Sorensen." I lift my head and look at Mr Blackbourne. "I do think, however, that we're working with something more than what we realized."

"Someone more dangerous than we realized," Raven adds.

"Absolutely," Axel agrees. "We can't go running into this now without knowing all the facts. We have to keep him close, but stay at a distance too. This can't be rushed."

We all look around the room at each other, our eyes darting everywhere. "What does this mean?" I ask.

"It means that we need to keep our eyes open, our ears on alert and make sure that everyone is kept safe from this moment on," Kota says. Looking to me, he adds, "Sang, I'm sorry you've been brought into this, but out of all of us, you're the one who is most vulnerable right now."

"You've become a target," Marc adds quietly.

I shake my head and correct him, "We're all targets. So we have to protect each other, every step of the way."

Corey's lips tilt up into a smile. "Spoken like a true Academy girl."