The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith

by S Jay Starring

  Jason remembered that he was sleeping in the nursing room, felt that it was still very early.

  Although he wanted to sleep a little longer but the ache and pain of the muscles told him to wake up and change his posture, his back, waist, shoulders and neck were full of pain.

  Never understand how people in the movies could sleep in this posture. Jason tried to move as lightly as possible, avoided to make a noise that could wake Kate.

  “Good morning, Jess,” Kate's voice rose interrupted his new posture arrangement. Jason slowly turned to look at her and she was looking at him with bright dark brown eyes.

  “Oh ...well, you woke up?” Jason said timidly.

  Kate nodded and smiled at him. “You snore loudly,”

  Her answer made Jason feel ashamed. “Well,...I was tired last night,” he answered while shrugging.

  “You hold my hand like this all night?” Kate said, rose her hand that Jason holding.

  Jason blushed from the neck to the ears. He quickly released his hand from hers. “…well, ... Just in case you wake up in the middle of the night because of nightmare you’ll know that I’m with you,” he replied blushing.

  Kate smiled at him gently. “You're sweet more than I thought,”

  “Are you still hurt? The body, the bruises,” Jason asked her to change the subject, but his ears were still red.

  Kate shook her face gently. “No, I mean, if I stay still. I think I’ll get hurt at the area he has kicked,” she answered, pointing around her rib on the right side. Even if her facial expression looked better but the body still bruised. It would take time to recover.

  “You found me,” she said.

  Jason nodded, “Yes, because of bread crumbs you left,”

  “Bread crumbs?” Kate frowned.

  Jason smiled, “Yes, but it's not really a crumb. I mean, I found your smartphone in one room of the building which the wormhole took you through,”

  “It allowed me to know the direction you went and where you went next. From the bench at the entrance of the park and the room of the building where I found your smartphone, it went in the west and there were just a few tall buildings on that side. I calculated from the place that could see the park and other places of the scenes. There were only two buildings,”

  Jason smiled proudly before continued. “The first building is the building that we arrived. It’s the tallest building in the city, suitable for victim observation. But that building is a rental office. There’s no way that the killer used that building. So I started searching for another building with monthly rental rooms. It’s a building where police found the body of Jessie Lee from B11. I asked for a room with something wrong from the receptionist,”

  “Something wrong?”

  “Yes, the killer doesn’t rent a freezer anymore but he still has to chill the dead bodies to waiting for three of them. For shift ears. He couldn’t take their bodies to drop elsewhere until their ears are shifted,”

  “I thought that there must be a room with more requests than usual. Then the receptionist at the counter took a long time to search for information because there were strange requests from many rooms; requested an extra bed, requested a bowl, requested to clean the room at 2 am. Then they found one room that requested three refrigerator. So I think it must be him. But he didn't use the name Tom Lightbulb but used the name Freddie Max,” Jason described thoroughly.

  Kate frowned. “That’s a real wit,…but…I ... I couldn't follow the bread crumbs,”

  Jason smiled and laughed comically. “It just metaphor, Kate. It came from a children's tale. Two siblings left in the forest and both of them dropped bread crumbs on the path so it could take them home,”

  “.... Why didn't they use a GPS?” Kate asked frowning.

  Jason laughed in a good mood. “Kate at that time didn't have anything like that. This tale has been told for hundreds of years,” He then told her stories from beginning to the end.

  “It would be better if my smartphone didn't fall on the way. It’s like the bread crumbs that the children left but was eaten by birds. So you could follow me just halfway,” Kate said and they laughed together.

  Looked like it was the start of a more intimate relationship between them.

  Chapter 16

  Kate discharged and back to her room on Saturday evening. Her body has better a lot from medicine and good care of doctors and nurses here, although still could see burns from electric shock and bruises clearly on her body, but it's not serious. She just wore a turtleneck, then no one saw it.

  Jason bought her a lot of snacks and cakes, most of which she liked, and some others he liked.

  “You look ... so happy, Jess,” said Kate, while sitting on the sofa in her room.

  Her room wasn’t much different from Jason's room but only has a few additional decorations, like the person that lived here for many years. Her room has a partition between the living room and the kitchen area and also has a small table for dinner as well. The refrigerator has various shapes of magnets sticking with photos of friends and family.

  Jason smiled with a mouth full of snacks. “I like the system here. The salary came even on a weekend,” he said in a good mood. Today was the end of the month and the salary since the day he came to work until today was transferred to his account that he recently registered last week.

  Kate laughed at his childish. “Yes, most banking systems here use AI. It doesn't need holidays or vacations,”

  “Do you know? I have worked for ten years but never have this amount of money before. Think about it I just work here for half a month,” Jason said excitedly, ate a snack he bought. “I’ll repay you, Kate, clothes, stuff and food,”

  “It's fine, Jess. You saved my life,” Kate said while smiling wide.

  Jason was a bit awkward. “... I’ll pay for the clothes,” He bargained and Kate agreed for his comfort.

  “After this, what will the killer do, Jess?” Kate asked.

  Jason pondered. After the killers' plan was destroyed in midway, He might angry and probably had to retread and pause for breath. “I think he should return to his universe for hole up somewhere and wait to see the situation. Wait for the right time to do it again, or else he'll blow up,”

  Kate agreed, “It means that we have to find him before he can set up again. But we have 16 parallel universes, it will take a long time to find him. I’m afraid he can settle and this time we have to chase him again,”

  Jason smiled back and gave her a mysterious look. “Do you forget this? There’re only 7 parallel universes that got wormhole technology,” he said, shrugged and took another pack of snack to unwrap.

  “Oh...yes, it's true. He travels with a wormhole like professional. I think I saw him with a carry wormhole connector, and he also calculated the travel distance in the same universe accurately,” Kate said.

  “And of course, it means he comes from the universe in the WHOLE group. Maybe I was attacked until confused and forget about this,” Kate shook her head gently with doubt, how could she forget this important thing.

  “Well, Jess... you…bought me that, didn't you?” Kate said, looked at Jason, who was eating snacks non-stop.

  Jason stopped chewing because of her question. He looked at her face embarrassing.

  “.... I'm… I’m hungry.... And this is delicious ... No wonder why you like it,” he replied while took another big bite with a little bit awkward.

  Kate giggled in a good mood. “So, let's go find something to eat. This time you treat,” She proposed and Jason agreed.

  @@@@@@

  “Can you tell me how Jason Smith die?” Jason asked after wiped his mouth and extremely full. They sat in a Japanese restaurant on the 8th floor.

  Kate looked at Jason's face and thought before answered his question.

  “At that time, we went to ambush to catch drug trafficking between parallel universes. They used illegal wormholes to transport drugs. Our informer has sent us information. We arrived their cargo, then
shooting occurred, Jason was shot at the neck and died almost immediately, I couldn’t help him. They use an antique gun that you use, Jess. It wasn’t just a sonic gun. I should know this or else we wouldn't lost many agents,” Her voice started to shake.

  “The drug dealers had more weapons. They didn't want to just stop us from working they want to get rid of agents in their way. They got all sonic guns and other types of combat weapons that use bullets to kill us. My informer never tell me that, but I should know and prepared for it. I shouldn't believe all his information. I should know that they wouldn’t likely use only stupid sonic guns that tuned to higher than normal like us. I have less experience,” Kate tear up.

  Kate looked at Jason’s face sadly. “Jason's death was my responsibility,”

  Jason looked at Kate's ruddy face calmly without a word. And she tried to hold back tears.

  “We have arrested many criminals, but I think it’s not worth what we lost,” continued Kate. “So, that’s why Julia doesn't like me much. Surely, I’m the reason her husband die,”

  “You know what, you don't have to blame yourself for everything about Jason’s dead. Drug dealers in my universe always have a surprise for the police. They have more weapons than us. I‘ve even fought with Bazooka. Arrest them never so easy. I've also lost many of my colleagues,” Jason said.

  Kate still regretted about Jason’s dead but the most sympathized person would be Julia. Because of this, she was very strict about working with junior agents, so they wouldn't make a mistake or loss of talented staff.

  “I used to ask for Bazooka from my boss as well, but he didn't agree,” Jason whispered, shrugged with disappointment, and that made Kate smiled again. “The police often have inferior weapons than criminals, but we are trained, Kate. So we have to use more abilities and intelligence to beat them. You could catch them, it's a good thing,” he continued grimly, as if teaching her.

  Kate looked at Jason's bearded face. Her eyes looked thoughtful. “You say like him ... I mean like Jason. I don't like to compare, but today you ... speak well,”

  Jason shrugged. “Actually, I speak well every day and he might copy me,” he joked, although he didn't like the way people in this universe tend to compare between himself and Jason Smith who died, but he tried to act as he didn’t care.

  Kate smiled at his joked and at that time Todd came to them.

  “Kate, you’re here, I thought you’re still in the nursing room. The staff there said you have discharged and back to your room since evening,” Todd said. “I went to see you there and I think this will make you feel better,” He gave her a big bright smile and held a bouquet for her. Kate thanked and took the flowers.

  That’s a young man and young woman flirting. Better for Jason to turn to pay attention to other things, and he saw Lily and Nora walked in the restaurant together. Was this a family day?

  “Kate, you feel better?” Lily greeted and walked toward them.

  “I thought you continue to stay at the nursing room,” Nora said. “We bought snacks for you. We went to your room, but you didn't there and didn't answer the phone. So we come down to find something to eat,”

  Kate didn't take her smartphone because Jason would treat. And after that, the three came to sit at Kate and Jason's table. They all talked to each other and have a long disgusted about the menus.

  POW!

  The sound of Jason's shin was hit hard. He startled a bit and tried to look for where the shadow kick came from. Then caught Kate’s eyes. She made a fidget face like a sign. But Jason couldn't understand. He only made a numb face back to her until Kate had to speak with him without sound so that he could read her lips. And what Jason could read was ‘Take me to my room’

  Jason understood what she was saying but didn't know what to do when the three other newcomers were still trying to talk to her. Lily was talking about fashion that could cover the burns on Kate's neck, but Nora told her to use a foundation. Todd tries to offer menus for everyone. This would make them back to the room very late.

  “Well... I'll take her to the room. She should take a rest,” Jason said, interrupted the loudness from tablemate. Then everyone had to stop and turned to look at him.

  “Yes, the doctor told me to take a lot of sleeping. The body will recover quickly. Well, actually, I still hurt around my ribs,” said Kate. Then both of them got up and paid for the meal and quickly left the restaurant. Todd, Lily and Nora just speechless.

  Jason walked Kate to the room. “Those guys are so messy, aren't they?” Said Kate on the way.

  “Yes, so noisy I don't know who I should listen to. If we're still there, I think we'll probably go back to the room late,” Jason said. Kate nodded agreement.

  “Good night, Jess,” Kate said after reached her room.

  Jason smiled gently for her. “Good night, Kate,”

  @@@@@@

  Monday morning, Jason went to Kate’s room and went to have breakfast together. On Sunday, she’s got fully rest but still felt like it’s not enough. She had to wear sunglasses to cover the bruise near the corner of the right eye. It wasn’t very big, but it made her felt unconfident if going outside.

  “If I meet him, I can definitely remember his voice. His voice was still ringing in my ears,” Kate said while sighing. Being attacked and survived often affected the mentally of the victim. She would be paranoid and got a nightmare but it has an advantage as well because she could remember the details about the killer precisely.

  Jason asked Ted for following the news in other parallel universes to perceive the killer’s movement, but now there was no news about Bella West or Piper Mason has been kidnapped from B13. The killer might be hiding.

  “Today I’ll follow the autopsy results and evidence analysis from the killer’s room,” Jason said while taking strawberry yogurt into his mouth continuously. “We may know who he is,”

  Kate nodded, even though her eyes still shown up fear but her determination to catch the killer was still full. And at that moment she saw Julia walked in.

  “Um…Julia, that day, thank you for helping me to collect evidence on my body,” Kate said to her.

  “Forget it, I’m a woman, too. There wasn’t any woman deserve that. Hopefully, you can catch the killer quickly,” Julia said with a flat face and turned to look at Jason eating yogurt and sighing gently. “I hope you can really help her to catch the killer, Mr. Smith,” she said.

  Jason immediately stopped eating because he felt that the atmosphere surround was a bit pressure. He looked up at Julia and her words from that night came back into his head. He might not be able to work well in her view, but at least he was a police officer who has been trained to catch the criminals and Kate believed in him, so she allowed him to help her even though it was breaking a hundred of the rules.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll catch that jerk,” He replied with a serious voice.

  Julia nodded pleasantly and walked out of the cafeteria with Todd followed. Jason heard them talking a bit. “I want to talk about the case of people from our universe illegal immigrant into B06. We have to prove who came from our universe,”

  There was an illegal immigrant to the city by using wormhole? It seemed like taking life of ourselves in another parallel universe, sounded a bit creepy. There were people who came and live instead of us and looked like us. If this happened in a parallel universe that didn't have wormhole technology, people there probably thought that aliens tried to occupy the world.

  Jason and Kate received the results of Kate's clothes and the room where the killer used and Jessie Lee’s body in the fridge with her heart and left ear. She was raped and killed in the same way as previous.

  The bathroom was filled with bloodstains of the victim. There were no fingerprints of the killer in the room. He probably wore gloves all the time. Kate's clothes didn't have his DNA attached. Only found a gel from a condom on her hips, the forensics science officer said it belonged to one of the famous brands that could buy from normal convenience stores
at B13.

  Even though there was no his DNA on her clothes, but the pillowcase that the killer used for covered her head had a bit of bloodstain of the suspect.

  “Wow, you headbutt that jerk, I wish his nose broken,” Jason smiled in a good mood after reading the report.

  Kate smiled proudly. She showed an eye of satisfy. “I'm sure this time we could catch him,” Kate wasn't sure which part of the killer she had hit, but she was sure there was a trace.

  “His name is Thomas Ivan, 25 years old. They compared the DNA from the criminal history of citizens here, and luckily two years ago Thomas B07 has a record as an illegal tour guide,” Jason read the report. “Well, which universe should we start?”

  Kate made a thoughtful face for a while. “We can start from here. The whole story began with three women from here disappeared. I will look for Thomas Ivan's information and we’ll probably visit his home today,” she said confidently.

  “I think it would be too easy if Thomas Ivan’s here is the killer,” Jason said while shrugging. If the killer was able to travel to all 16 parallel universes, fooled WHOLE and the police in no wormhole technology universes like this, then he wouldn't foolish and easy to catch.

  “You may think too much, Jess. Some criminals may be smarter or stupid than we thought,” Kate joked.

  “Did you see her face?” A whisper from someone blew to Jason’s ears.

  “I told you he can’t do the case,” another one whispered back to the first one.

  Jason glanced at them, they were the same agents that gossiped him at the office.

  “Or else Kate wouldn’t be like this,”

  “She deserves that, you know she chose him to work with, there’re a lot of agents here but she chose him,”

  “Oh, it’s call lesson for choosing a new partner,”

  Jason stood up furiously, this was too much for them to talk about others.

  “Shut up! Ali, Max!” Kate’s voice rose with angry.

  Then the cafeteria has silence. Everyone stop their business and looked at her.