The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith

by S Jay Starring

  “It was the big news, and finally, WHOLE sent the agents to catch him up and sent to court and erased all the memories. Now he can't even remember his name. There’s a live broadcast when the court read the verdict,” Ted continued.

  That sounded creepy for Jason. It was the way how to check the people who accidentally entered in other parallel universes; did they tell this story to anyone? He really hoped that he won’t be erased memory like that. But…did Ted intentionally tell him this story?

  “Do you know where the place she was kidnapped, Ted?” Kate asked.

  “Yes, in the news said the security cameras saw her walking into the laundry. There are only coin-operated laundry machines and no other customers in the shop just 5 minutes. The laundry basket she brought was still on the floor,” Ted replied.

  “Oh, the reporter calls this incident ‘a mysterious disappear’. Someone saw strange light from the shop thought that there were electric transformers exploded but there was no sound. Security cameras in the shop could record the flash of bright light and couldn’t see anything for a while. Then Jessie Lee disappeared,” Ted said.

  Kate turned on the tablet and looked at the city map. She asked Ted to help identify the location of the incident and he circled it in red color. That seemed to be the beginning of another equilateral triangle.

  “I’m so sure that soon the people who believe in alien in your universe will give an opinion to a reporter,” Ted turned to talk to Jason with a serious face.

  “We should go to see the scene,” Jason said, and Kate agreed, but he didn't want to wear glasses and combed his hair for disguise again because it couldn’t fool anyone.

  “Do you have any other ways to disguise, Kate?”

  Kate looked at his face while contemplating.

  @@@@@@

  Jason and Kate appeared on the rooftop of the tallest building in the city. Pleasant that this time Jason was just nauseous, but didn’t vomit.

  “Wow, you can adjusted,” Kate said with joy and looked at the pale face of the young man who standing beside.

  “I think ... let it come out is better. Be like this, make me suffer,” Jason said.

  Kate chuckled “You will get better soon,” She handed him a lemon-flavored candy, and after getting the freshness from the sour taste, Jason looked better and ready for work.

  “Now, tell me why I have to dress like a pirate,” Jason asked. He had a red scarf on his head and fake braids emerged beside his ears, yellow Hawaiian shirt, slacks and leather shoes.

  “You’re not a pirate, Jess. You’re an artist who has your own style,” Kate replied. It was a style that invited the police to suspect him.

  “Why you wear a long skirt like that?” Jason shrieked because Kate wore a white shirt with a long skirt covered the ankles. It wasn’t dexterous cloth.

  Kate smiled, “I don't let your Ted could remember my hips again,” she replied. It sounded like a good reason. Never even know that Ted could remember the women’s hips accurately.

  Then, they went to the scene of the kidnapping. The laundry shop was far from the Longtime sky train station for five blocks. Kate looked at the city map from the tablet. It's exactly the same as Ted has marked the location.

  “The next kidnapping will happen again soon,” Said Kate, and Jason agreed. They just didn’t know when it would happen. Interfering the killer's plan made him work faster and couldn’t predict the duration of his crime.

  Jason looked at the area in the shop. He saw a window but from there he couldn’t see a building that high enough for see all over the city. “He might saw her walked in from the front of the shop,” he said.

  “But he can't see inside the shop. How could he know the shop was completely clear?” Kate asked and Jason pointed at the mirror in the laundry. It was a decoration and made the shop looked wider. And more importantly, it could see all inside the shop.

  “Clever,” she exclaimed.

  “What’re you doing, Kate? You keep holding your smartphone in the skirt pocket. Are you waiting for a phone call?” Jason said in doubt. Today was Friday, he thought Todd should ask her to go somewhere.

  Kate looked at his face, sighed. “I'm not waiting for a phone call, Jess. My skirt pocket is shallow, and I don't want to lose my phone here,” she replied. If she dropped something from other universes, especially high-tech devices, it might become a big deal. If someone has collected and used it for development or show it to the reporter. This would make damage to a balance of life in a world without wormhole technology.

  “Put it in your handbag,” Jason suggested.

  “If I do that, I may not hear the sound when someone calling,” Kate replied. So, was she waiting for a phone call or not? Jason doubted.

  Jason instead turned his attention back to work. He looked around.

  “I wonder, is he watching us now?” Jason said. From there, many tall buildings that could see this laundry shop.

  “I’ll call the freezer rental company, is there someone on a tall building want to rent some?” Jason said and started to call the freezer rental company one by one. But there was no one suspect rented it. So disappointed.

  “He knew we're following him. Not sure he might change a lot of things because of our disturbances but it was okay, I think we should go to the next expect location he’ll do the kidnap,” Jason said.

  Kate frowned, “You don't care about Jessie Lee, right? She may be still alive, and we should hurry to help her,”

  “Or she may die, Kate. He hurried to kidnap her like this, it means he would probably hurry to kill her too. Even a freezer, he doesn’t use it at all. We should help the entire women who really still alive,” Jason replied.

  “But it just last night. She may still survive. He’ll rape her first then kill her. We still have time,” Kate argued.

  “But he won't keep her for long, Kate. He now watching the second victim,”

  “What the heartless, Jess?” Kate said indignantly.

  Jason looked at her face while sighing. “I'm not heartless, Kate. I just move on and my purpose is to stop him, but now we don't even know where to find him which building we should search, we can only prevent him to kidnap the next victim, and we can guess where the area he’ll do it again,” Jason explained.

  Jason's words sounded like he didn’t care about other’s life, but it's true. Now, even they wanted to help Jessie Lee but they didn't know where to find her. Searching for all high buildings in the city must waste a lot of time.

  He led Kate to take a taxi and went to the next place that they had predicted. No one knew exactly where it was. They just measured the distance for the next equilateral triangle to intersect. There were two places; the entrance of the park on the east side and the convenience store on the other side of the city.

  “We don't know where will happen first,” said Kate, while looking at a crowded convenient store on the roadside.

  “Yes, but you know what? If the two women aren’t at the place he wanted, they won’t be kidnapped. It’s the limit that the killer has made himself to the dead end,” said Jason, smiled happily. It was how to retaliate Mr. Perfect.

  Kate made a thoughtful face. “You are right. If I remember correctly, this area is far from Piper Mason’s office just two blocks, right? We may warn her not to walking around this area alone,”

  They went back to Piper Mason at the stationery store again. She was actively organizing things in the store, colorful pens organized orderly sorted by light to dark shades.

  “But that's the way back to my home,” Piper said while looking at Jason and Kate with curious. “Umm... are you going to a fancy party or something?” She asked.

  Jason and Kate looked at each other's costumes. Jason looked like a drunkard artist with weird dressing styles. Kate looked like a gypsy who worked as a fortune-telling with a leather shoulder bag.

  “Well ... we just disguise for…investigation, Miss. Mason,” Kate replied politely.

  “You have to take anoth
er route to go home. Maybe a little bit further but it's safe. You see the news of Jessie Lee has been kidnapped, right? I don't want to see you being missing,” Jason said seriously.

  Piper looked worried because what Jason just said was true. A woman named Jessie Lee disappeared from the laundry shop. She was one of the women who found her dead body despite she was still alive. Piper watched the news early in the morning and today she was working with anxious.

  “Got it, I’ll try to use another route to go home,” She promised firmly.

  “Then, the killer's plan has stumble. I think he would be maddening with this,” Jason said proudly after left stationery shop and came to the front of a convenience store that was the one ankle of an equilateral triangle. He looked around and saw four or five tall buildings that could see the convenience store.

  “Smile, Kate. He may be watching us,” Jason said.

  “Oh, really? But I want to show him a middle finger more than a smile, Jess,” Kate said, rolled her eyes.

  Jason looked at her face with surprisingly. Since he has known her, she has never actually acted like this before. “Well, ...if he watching us. It may be from one of those buildings,” Jason said, pointing to the four or five tall buildings that he could see from where they stood. One of them was a building they used for traveling.

  “We should search those buildings,” Jason said.

  “With these clothes?” Kate braked.

  Jason stood still for a while. He looked at his clothes. If they went to search those buildings, at this point nobody would trust them.

  “..... Okay, we'll come back to check those buildings tomorrow,” Jason said.

  “But tomorrow is Saturday,” Kate replied not very happy.

  “I know, but the criminal never stop, Kate. He has no vacation, no weekend and no holiday. We should come together tomorrow and may have to spend the night to watch both the killer and the two women left,” Jason said.

  Kate pouted. “Oh my,…tomorrow I have to cancel my hair make up appointment,” she muttered.

  After that, they went to another area where the kidnapping might happen; the main entrance of the park on the east side. It was an open courtyard with only a few benches and a boar rider statue.

  “This place isn’t near to Bella West's home nor workplace. The theater is on the opposite side, and why she has to come here?” Kate said.

  Jason looked around. The inside of the park was filled with trees and lawns where people were walking or exercising. It was like the lungs of this city, wide and shady. “I think she’ll definitely come here this Sunday,” he said.

  “Sunday? How did you know that?” Kate asked in doubt.

  “I have a sense, Kate. It’s a sense of the police,” Jason replied seriously, but Kate glanced over Jason's shoulder and saw a banner showing the ballet street show that would be held on Sunday at 10 am.

  “Sense of the police?” Kate sighed and rolled her eyes.

  Jason dodged her eyes. “He must kidnap her that day for sure,” he said confidently.

  “But that day probably a lot of people, Jess. She won't have a moment to be alone,” Kate said. It's true of her. During the weekend, many people came to relax and wander in the park. The outdoor activities let people crowed more. To kidnap someone without being seen was difficult.

  Jason rubbed his chin back and forth with thought. “For normal kidnapping may be impossible, but this is a kidnapping by wormhole. If there is a chance just for a second, I think the killer can do it,” he answered.

  Jason looked around the street, now full of cars and people heading home after work. Jason hasn’t seen the sky in the evening here for almost two weeks. The sun disappeared into the night and let the dark spread quickly but the light from the billboards made the city never sleep.

  Then, Kate's smartphone rang louder broke the traffic noise of the city.

  “We haven't returned yet, Todd. But I think it won’t be long I'll call you promptly when we arrive,” Kate said to the other end before hung up.

  See? She was really waiting for the phone call. So where would they go tonight?

  Jason persuaded Kate for dinner before went back. At least a warning to Piper Mason not to walking around the convenience store would have saved her from kidnapping. Bella West should be kidnapped on Sunday, meant that they still have time to find something to eat. And tomorrow they would warn them again.

  See? Jason really could do the case. He planned everything and then followed it.

  “Hopefully we won't meet Ted and Todd again,” Kate said fed up.

  “They don't like restaurants in this area they think it too expensive. Oh, are you sure Ted will be okay after you shot his…well,…crotch?” Jason asked suspiciously and Kate only smiled shamelessly.

  “Well ... at least he is… safe, Jess,” she answered. That had to wait and see if Ted could have a baby or not.

  And after dinner, they walked through the main entrance of the park again to call a taxi from another side of the park. No one came into the park and the path was empty. After the late night, the people who went out for exercise were all back home and after 9 p.m., all the gates would be closed for safety, in case someone would do something bad.

  Kate picked the smartphone from her skirt narrow pocket that she has fought with it for half a day and contacted Emma, told her that they were leaving and she still had time to enjoy the Friday night.

  “Good evening, detective,” a woman's voice greeted them from afar.

  Jason and Kate turned to look follow the voice and they found Bella West was sitting at the bench near the boar rider statue. She smiled and waved at them.

  “I come to see the showing area,” she said. It was a time they both shocked.

  Jason began to look around, the people in front of the park was gone. Kate rushed to walk toward Bella and before Kate reached her, a bright white light hit Bella, and Kate hurtled into that light.

  In a few seconds, the white light disappeared. Jason was blurry for a while. People around that area hasn't noticed anything. They just looked around for finding the source of strange light, but didn’t care and continued their routine life.

  Jason ran at full speed to the place that the white light just appeared. He knew what it was. The killer was kidnapping Bella West who was appeared unexpectedly in this area. The disturbance of the killer's plan made him kidnapped this group of women faster and not in order?

  “What happened, detective?” Bella asked in panic. She was sitting on the ground next to the bench, delighted that she saved from kidnapping.

  But Jason looked at her face with panic eyes because his partner, Kate disappeared, left only her handbag and a circle spread of dust near the bench.

  Chapter 14

  “What do you mean Kate’s missing?” Emma's voice said alarmingly through Jason's smartphone speaker.

  “The killer got her instead Bella West,” Jason replied.

  The other end of the line was quiet for a while. Jason only heard her breathing in panic. “What’s he going to do with her, Mr. Smith?” Emma asked worriedly.

  That was a question Jason didn't want to think about the answer because he knew, there was no way that the killer would just let her home. They disturbed the killer's kidnapping plan and of course, he must angry until he could do anything more violence than usual to her.

  Unless Kate could deal with the killer on her own even no sonic gun and Jason prayed for things to be that way. And he knew well she was good at negotiating.

  Unfortunately, her gun was in the handbag that fell in front of the park.

  “Can you track the signal from her smartphone?” Jason said, tried to calm down and find a way to help his partner. Her smartphone could identify her current location, which meant it would lead him to find the killer as well.

  “I’ll hurry to check,” Emma said before hanging up.

  “I’ll get you home,” Jason turned to Bella West who was in panic and didn't know what happened.

 
“What happened? How’s Kate missing? She…she pushed me out of the light and then she disappeared,” Bella said.

  Jason looked at her frightened face with serious eyes. He couldn't tell her what was happen at that moment. Otherwise, he and she would probably be erased the memories after this case ended.

  “I’ll explain this to you later, now you have to go home,” He replied to her promptly to buy him time while removing the headdress out. Didn't want to disguise anymore.

  Jason sat in a taxi on the way to take Bella West home. In his mind all confuse, stress, worry and anxiously tried to figure out how to find Kate. If Emma couldn't catch her signal. If the killer has a room that could block the phone signal, what would happen? He couldn’t find Kate and the killer could do anything to her.

  He thought of the burns from electric shocker on the dead bodies of three women at the police station. The killer used it to calm them before he did anything. They couldn't resist him, even though they wanted. Electric shocker would make their muscle has no strength, couldn’t do anything even lifting their arms or calling someone to help.

  His smartphone rang while he was in a taxi and near Bella's home.

  “Yes, Emma,” Jason replied.

  “I got Kate's signal, not far from where you are now, Mr. Smith. Hurry up and help her before that jerk do something. I’ll send you the location,” Emma said worriedly.

  Jason hurry sent Bella at home, urged her not to be alone and not stay close to the window. If possible, closed the curtain all the time. He then hurriedly followed the signal from Kate's smartphone to one of the buildings.

  “I don't know where exactly she is, or which floor, Mr. Smith. The signal is still rough but she’s in that building,” Emma said to him on the phone.

  Jason understood well because of this, traveling with a wormhole required a window for easier searching.