The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith

by S Jay Starring

  Although Thomas had enough free time to kidnap a woman in the early evening at B13 but if considered from his physical condition he couldn't do it. He was thin, long hairs, soft makeup, his press-on nails were bright red and he had breasts.

  “Do you know the meaning of a hexagram, Mr. Ivan?” Kate asked.

  Thomas tilted and looked at her face, wondering. “A hexagram is probably something symbolic that religion likes to use, I think. Oh ... I love the color of your lipstick. It suits you very well, you know?” He smiled and the eyes sparkled.

  “Oh, well ... Thank you, Mr. Ivan,” Kate replied, smiled proudly.

  The interrogation has nothing to associate with him as the killer both behavior and sexuality. He didn't know any binary code, decimal code, or hexadecimal code, because it's not necessary for opera.

  “Do you know the three women in the news, Mr. Ivan?” Kate asked after told him about the case briefly.

  “Oh ... please call me Tossy. It sounds more intimate between ladies, you know. I watched that news and I didn't know any of them. Poor girls, didn't know what happened to their life,” Thomas said sadly.

  “Do you have any problem with your ears, Tossy? ...” Kate asked. Felt strange a bit to call him Tossy.

  “Ears? My ears are normal, but not big enough to hear the voice of this handsome,” Thomas replied, sent his flirty eyes to Jason, who stood behind Kate. And Jason quickly turned to another way with alarming eyes.

  “You know what? I think you're much more handsome than our Smith. If there’s a chance, I’d like to have a cup of coffee with you,” Thomas continued and blinked at Jason.

  Our Smith? It would be nice to get away from them... “Where is he? your Smith,” Jason asked curiously.

  Thomas smiled happily, finally, Jason talked to him. He pointed with a gentle index finger to backstage. “He should be there. He’s a voice controller,”

  Jason quickly excused himself from the conversation and walked backstage. He saw Jason Smith wore a T-shirt and big jeans, talking to an actor before turned to see Jason in a super black suit.

  “Oh ... Jason Smith, so where are you from?” Jason from B02 greeted in a good mood. He smiled at another Jason who has just met for the first time and his teeth made from steel.

  “Well…my partner and I came from B07,” Jason replied.

  “That place is really interesting to travel, right? Nature and buildings blend perfectly. I like it. I've been traveling there twice but many years ago,” said Jason the metal teeth.

  “I like your outfit, you know, make you look really cool. I have to find one,” He continued.

  Jason looked at his cloth and smiled proudly. He must say something good for another Jason a bit for politely. “Well, ... I...I like your teeth. It looks very strong,” he said.

  Jason the metal teeth smiled brightly. He really liked his compliment, then he hugged and patted Jason's back like a sibling. It's felt good because this Jason wasn’t like the lawyer Smith. Jason talked about Thomas Ivan with Jason metal teeth. He warned him about Thomas because he liked to grab a bottom of muscular men when they were unaware.

  “Jess…” Kate's voice called him from the front of the stage. It's good that Kate called him like that, otherwise, it would be very confusing that which Jason she was called.

  Jason said goodbye to Jason the metal teeth before walked back to her at the front stage. Looked like she and Thomas had a nice chatting, and Thomas suggested makeup methods to cover the bruises and small cuts on Kate’s face naturally. So she didn't have to wear sunglasses all the time to cover it.

  “Don't need to tell you, Tossy isn’t the killer, right?” Kate said in a good mood.

  Of course, Jason was so confident since the moment he first saw him, though he has seen the security footage at the hotel that Thomas Ivan used the room for murder and knew that he had long hair to cover his ears. But this Thomas or Tossy though has a long hair but he surely wasn’t a criminal.

  The records of the three women of this universe has no one knew or related to each other at all. They just used to go shopping in the same mall, and the things they bought were basic things like every woman has to use.

  Jason and Kate went back to Todd's lab for using wormhole and Todd gave two boxes of boiled squid with soy sauce. One box for Emma and another box belong to Kate. Jason rushed to taste it immediately.

  “Very tasty, you cooked it yourself?” Jason cried while munching boiled squid.

  Todd nodded and smiled proudly. “If you like it, next time I'll do it for you too, Mr. Smith,”

  Jason nodded and poked a tiny splendid squids into his mouth non-stopped.

  “It’s mine, Jess ...,” Kate said with a sullen face. She didn't even allow him to eat her stuff.

  “Don't stingy, Kate,” Jason said. He leered at her unpleasantly. .... What the right to leer at her like that?

  Kate sighed at him and grabbed the squid box from Jason's hand. “I'm not stingy but you almost eat all of mine. When we’re back I'll share it. You have to eat with rice. It's more delicious,” said Kate, and told Todd to send them back to parallel universe B07 immediately before Jason stole her boiled squid with soy sauce again.

  Chapter 19

  Traveling to many parallel universes was so exciting for Jason. He was gripped by places in other parallel universes and waiting for the time to travel again in the next day.

  He woke up early, took a shower, dressed and enjoined the outside view from a transparent wall in his room. The different world that much more modern than the city he has lived in before came here. At this moment, he still couldn’t believe that he was in another parallel universe and had met himself in other universes. It's like he met many other sides of himself that he both liked and disliked.

  It was normal for us, sometimes we like something of ourselves and didn’t like some of our own habits. People who lived in the WHOLE group have a chance to see themselves frequent. Jason just wondered, did they feel like him?

  Then the doorbell rang and Jason knew immediately that was Kate, who came to pick him up at the same time. They regularly had breakfast together every day.

  “Hopefully we'll have some luck today,” Jason said while eating the emu fried eggs and bread, deliciously. Since he could travel without getting wormhole-sickness made him feel more appetite.

  “I hope so. We talk to three Thomas Ivan already. No one matches the characteristic of the criminal,” said Kate.

  “Yes, he should be an introvert, know about wormhole connector, know about binary code, obsessed with a hexagram, have a hearing problem and have personal resentment with all three women. They may break his heart, taunted his disability, or treated him like a fool,” Jason said.

  “Hey, how’s your work? Emma said that you guys are searching for Thomas Ivan, the person who caused the case,” Todd came in to say hi,

  “Wow, Kate, your face looks better a lot,” he said and Kate smiled at him. It was a power of makeup that Tossy taught her yesterday. “Tomorrow is Friday, are you free, Kate? Should we go to a bar outside to hang out? I’m tired of the bars in this building,”

  Kate smiled interested. She hasn't hung out since last Friday because of the incident, this Friday she thought she's ready to hang out and have fun with her friends. “Good idea, Todd. Would you like to go with us, Jess?” she invited. And he surely has free time.

  After breakfast, they separated and went to work. Jason and Kate have to travel to parallel universe B03 to interrogate the next Thomas Ivan.

  They appeared at the wormhole vending machine in a three-story building. The wormhole here was quite spacious than B01 and there were not many queues.

  “Thomas Ivan of this universe is a programmer. He is an employee who has a right to work at home and send work back to the company every week via email. Sounds like he should have a lot of personal time. I remember when I was covering my head, I heard the sound like typing a keyboard fluently. The programmer should be able to do something like that easily,
” Kate read a brief history of him that received from the local police and recalled the memory that happened to her.

  Programmer? Of course, he must know about binary code. The rest was if he had a bruise from Kate's headbutt and had a hearing problem or not. Kate called for a non-driver car from the government vehicle center service. The car picked them up in five minutes and dropped off at a luxury apartment.

  “Wow ... he lives here?” Jason exclaimed excitedly because this apartment wasn’t only enormous but beautifully decorated that reminded of a 14th-century king's palace.

  The inside was very luxurious. The smooth pink marble floor was polished until it could reflect Jason’s face. There were exquisite wallpapers and paintings on the walls and ceilings.

  They took the elevator to the 20th floor and stopped at the room number 203. Kate pressed the doorbell and a moment later someone opened.

  “Yes?” another Thomas Ivan opened the door. He looked neat, short hair and Jason noticed that he was wearing a small hearing aid on the left ear. Also a small bruise at the nose.

  Kate looked at his face considered.

  “May I help you?” Thomas asked after Kate kept looking at his face silently.

  “Oh ... well, yes we’re from ACPSP. We have something to ask you about the case,” said Kate, while showing the agent's identity and the badge for Thomas.

  Thomas thought for a while. “I’ve heard the name of this agency. You all travel to other parallel universes, right? That sounds like fun,” He said with a smiling face and Kate nodded.

  “Can we get in?” Jason said. He wanted to see the inside to death and wanted to know how luxurious it was. Thomas didn’t mind he allowed the two agents to get inside the room before closing the door.

  “Do you know about the case of three young women kidnapped and killed? The criminal has dumped their bodies in other parallel universes and captured the same women there,” Kate asked after entered Thomas' room.

  “I’ve heard that news a bit. I think it doesn't get much attention, this universe hasn't happened yet, right? Otherwise, there would be more news or a lot of people talking about it,” Thomas said. Jason and Kate nodded together.

  This universe the case hasn't happened yet, so people didn't pay attention much, so it sounded like they were so cold. Those three women’s here still lived in normal life without worry?

  Jason and Kate looked around the large room that divided into many rooms, including a large living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom. “Your rental room is smaller than his living room,” Kate whispered to Jason. And he only gave her a frozen smile.

  “This room must very expensive,” Kate said, looked at the luxurious Louis-style furniture that decorated in the room, including sofas, writing desk, shelves, flat-screen television with gold patterns.

  What did the toilet look like? Golden?

  Thomas smiled at her, “Yes, it is very expensive, but all installments will pay in the next five years. My company pays me a salary quite a lot. It's good to have all of these things at a young age. I think my parents would be proud,”

  “Where were you last Friday?” Jason asked.

  “Friday? I was working in my room, the deadline,” Thomas replied, invited them to have a seat on the sofa.

  Jason sat down on the red sofa for three to four people. It wasn’t as soft as he thought. “Where that bruise came from?” he asked, looking at Thomas’s bridge.

  “Oh, it was embarrassing, last week I’ve opened the door while being drowsy and it hit my nose, I thought no one could notice it,” Thomas rubbed his nose.

  Open the door and hit his nose? Yes… sounded like embarrassing…and very coincident.

  “You know binary code, right?” Jason asked again. And Thomas nodded, along with explaining the principles and usage of binary code for them for almost 20 minutes. He looked at Kate all the time until she felt uncomfortable.

  “What’s wrong with your ear?” Kate asked.

  Thomas smiled “I had been attacked. The worthless gangsters tried to rob me. They slapped at my ear, the eardrum broke through,” He answered with a flat voice and didn't take an eye away from Kate. Although the manner of Thomas that he express was polite and friendly, but Kate felt strange.

  “Well,... I'd like to go to the restroom,” Kate said awkwardly. She got up from the sofa and walked inside the room but she passed the restroom on purpose.

  Actually, she didn't want to go to the restroom she just wanted to get out of Thomas' eyes. Kate walked into the end of the room, it was a kitchen with a large sink counter, overhead storage cabinet, kitchenware, refrigerator and dining table. On one side of the wall, there was a picture of 16 parallel universes, in a beautiful frame with golden Louis pattern.

  Kate could hear the conversation between Jason and Thomas from the living room softly. They were talking about a hexagram and Thomas said that he didn’t know the true meaning of it and he thought it was just a fashion. She considered look at the picture on the wall. The position of parallel universes was in a correct location like a sculpture at the learning center at B01.

  “Looks like you love this picture,” Thomas whispered in Kate's ear. He really shocked her and that made her retreated in panic. Thomas smiled at her before saying.

  “Oh ... my bad. I shocked you. Don't be scared. I just come to get some drinks for you. Would you like something special? Coffee? Tea? Soft drink? Or fruit juices?” He said while rose his hands up expressed that he had no weapon or intention to scare anyone.

  Although Thomas looked polite but Kate still shocked about what he just has done. He came quietly from behind, his voice, rhythm, accent and body smell still circled in her memory. It brought the fear from that day came back and attacked her again. Kate quickly walked away from him and left the kitchen to return to the living room immediately.

  “What's wrong, Kate?” Jason asked, he saw that Kate was pale and shaking.

  “Jess, ... that's him. I'm sure that's him,” Kate said with a trembling voice. Her eyes filled with fear. Jason quickly pulled the gun out of the holster to prepare.

  “You wait here,” Jason said. He knew that Kate was still wholeheartedly afraid of Thomas Ivan, who abused her.

  “I ... I'll go with you,” Kate said, gasped.

  “You have to wait here in case he can pass me,” Jason said logically, and Kate nodded while pulling the sonic gun out of the holster as well.

  Jason slowly walked through the passageway inside. He saw Thomas was opening the fridge and picked a bottle of water as if nothing happened. Then Thomas turned around and saw Jason was standing in front of the kitchen with a sonic gun in his hand.

  “What are you going to do, Mr. Smith?” Thomas greeted up while holding a tray out of the kitchen and stopped at a long passageway in front of Jason.

  “Put that tray down and let me see your hands, Thomas,” Jason said.

  Thomas Ivan smiled back at him. “Oh ... you think I'm the killer? Come on. I have evidence that proves I stayed here or you can see on security camera. I’ll call the apartment keeper,”

  “Raise your hands,” Jason repeatedly said, raising his gun to aim at Thomas.

  Thomas shook his head tiredly. “You should drink some water. You got a husky voice,” he said and walked a few steps closer to Jason.

  “Back off Thomas and raise your hands,”

  Jason looked at both sides of the passageway. One side was the restroom and the other was the first bedroom, and Thomas's gestures were like finding a chance to get inside the bedroom. There might have weapons.

  “How can you escape, Thomas? You can’t pass me,” Jason said.

  “Yes, I know,” Thomas replied, looked at the restroom door next to him. Would he find a chance to go inside the restroom? “But I can find the way,” he said confidently.

  The atmosphere pressured, they both looked at each other for the occasion. And at a second Jason tried to block the restroom door, Thomas took a chance to throw a tray with bottles of water at
Jason and squeezed to the bedroom door. That’s no luck, Jason guessed the wrong way.

  The bedroom was locked immediately. No matter how he knocked, Thomas probably wouldn’t open. Kate hurriedly came to Jason, she already to be calm. Jason let her stand on the side of the door, in case Thomas would shoot through the door. Then Jason smashed the door harder.

  “Thomas, come out!!” Jason shouted in. But there was no response.

  “Jess, what does he do inside?” Kate asked.

  “There may be weapons inside,” said Jason.

  Kate pondered for a moment, and her manner looked like thought off something,

  “Jess, he may be running away. He has a carry wormhole connector,” she said, and Jason decided to shoot a sonic gun at the doorknob and broke in. But what they saw wasn’t Thomas escaping, but it was Thomas lying on the floor shallow breathing and filled with blood.

  “He slashed his throat?” Kate screamed with shock and jumped in, pressed her hands to stop the bleeding. Jason looked for a cloth to absorb the blood. He pulled a shirt from the hanger and gave it to Kate. She hurriedly pressed on the wound to stop the bleeding.

  “Call the ambulance, Jess,” Kate blurted. Thomas was choking on his own blood, his hands and feet tensed and his eyes wide open. His mouth moved as if tried to say something but she couldn't catch. Then a few seconds later he remained motionless.

  Jason looked at Thomas' wide eyes, which still remained with fear.

  “Kate, he’s dead,” He gently touched her shoulder because she was still trying her best to stop the bleeding for the cold-blooded killer who has killed many women in many parallel universes.

  Chapter 20

  “I don't want him dead, Jess. I want him to be punished,” Kate said disappointed, while the team of forensic science from ACPSP of B07 was working. Kate still trembled and stressed.

  Jason and Kate were talking in front of room 203, Thomas' Room. He looked at blood-stained on her body. He understood how she felt, and he wanted the same, but it couldn't help that Thomas has chosen to kill himself to run away from everything. That’s like Thomas said ‘I can find the way.’