by Amy Briggs
Scott took a quick shower, made some breakfast and pondered whether or not he had any questions of his own for the expert. He couldn’t think of any, but thought that perhaps as they chatted, something would strike him. Typically, when Scott was trying to figure out the solution to something he was working on, he’d just carry on doing his daily activities, and something would lead him down the path to an answer organically. The harder he tried to figure something out, the less likely he’d come to a swift resolution.
Once he was all set, he headed back downtown to meet up with Clayton. While he wanted to spend his Saturday with a Moore, it was the wrong one. He did admit to himself that he was intrigued to meet the weapons expert and maybe learn something new that day.
24
When Scott pulled up at the precinct, Clayton was already outside waiting for him. “Hop in my car man,” Clayton motioned. “We’re gonna go to this guy’s house.”
“Oh, did he get to sleep in today?” Scott teased.
“Fuck off and get in the car,” Clayton laughed. “Nice shave. You look more like your squeaky clean self now.” He had begun to grow a fondness for Scott, especially since he seemed to be making his sister so happy, he couldn’t help but to tease the guy.
“Aw, do you like my baby face, Detective?” Scott gave it back.
“Shut up Walker,” Clayton chuckled. He appreciated a guy that could take the ribbing, and give it back as well.
“So where does this expert live? Does he know we are coming?” Scott asked, changing his tone to serious.
“He lives across town, and no, he doesn’t know we’re coming. In fact, he lives kind of close to Dani,” Clayton replied.
“So, basically, I could have slept in and you could have picked me up at Dani’s house?”
Rolling his eyes at Scott, Clayton snorted. “How would I have gotten my good coffee today if you didn’t come?” They both laughed at that one.
“Well played, sir,” Scott replied.
“So, while we’re on the topic, did you guys go to the aquarium yesterday?” Clayton asked casually.
“Yes! We did. Dude, you were so right. She was like a happy little kid in there! It was awesome,” he beamed in reply.
“Did she make you pet those fucking otters?”
Laughing, Scott replied, “Yea, she totally did. I guess they’re kind of cute. I think they’re kind of like giant rats myself, but whatever, it made her happy.”
“Bro. Otters are vicious as fuck. I keep telling her that, and she thinks I’m full of shit.”
“What?!” Scott exclaimed.
“Uh, yea. Google that shit. They’re mean little fuckers. I’m not petting those vicious bastards ever again,” Clayton indicated.
Scott whipped out his phone and typed in “Are Otters...” in Google and was shocked when not only the word “Mean” showed up as the first suggestion, but also what he saw as the top headlines.
Google Results:
Sea Otters do Terrible Things to Baby Seals
The Cutest Animals in the World are Evil
and his personal favorite, “Otters are Violent Little Terrorists of the Shores…”
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Mouth hanging open, Scott gawked at Clayton, who immediately started laughing at his mortified expression. “I told you dude. They’re nasty fuckers. I don’t know why they let anyone pet them. Someone’s going to die there from a fucking otter attack. I should have warned you. My bad bro.”
“Son of a bitch. I’m not rubbing any fucking otter bellies any fucking more, God damn,” Scott shook his head in disbelief and sent Dani a text.
Did you know how horrible otters are? You need to Google what they do to baby seals before we ever go back to that aquarium!
Still in disbelief over the heinous activities of otters, Scott shook it from his mind as they slowed down, getting closer to Reyes’ house.
“I’m parking a few houses away, I always do,” Clayton indicated to Scott who was looking around not knowing which house they were looking for.
“Oh ok, which one is it?”
Clayton pointed two houses away, on the opposite side of the street to a small one story brick residence. Scott had a habit of sizing up a house as if it were on fire no matter where he was headed. He took note of the shrubs around the walkway and how they’d been ignored, and were dying in the sun. It was a warm day, like most days in the southeast that time of year, and the yard was clearly neglected. The shingles on the roof appeared to be aging poorly as well.
While Scott sized up what he saw, the front door opened, and a tall, lanky man exited the house wearing unseasonably dark clothes with long sleeves, and carrying a duffle bag. “Yo, is that our guy?” Scott nudged Clayton who was digging around the backseat looking for something.
Stopping to look up, Clayton recognized Reyes immediately, “Yea, that’s him. But that’s kind of weird.”
“What? The fact he’s dressed for a cat burglary in the middle of the day in this heat?” Scott retorted.
“Uh, yea. Let’s stay right here and watch him for a minute. This is fucking suspicious,” Clayton muttered. “Did you see what he just put in the back seat? I missed it.”
“It looked like a duffle bag. Also black,” Scott answered.
“Also fucking suspicious.”
“Well, if I had to guess, it wasn’t a gym bag based on the way he’s dressed,” Scott said. “He’s going somewhere.”
“He is, and we’re going to follow him. You’re officially on surveillance with me now Walker,” Clayton replied while turning the car back on. Waiting the customary three seconds before pulling out behind Reyes, Clayton put the car in drive, his heart rate starting to pick up. Something weird was going on, and it didn’t look good.
“It’s not me, right? This guy is up to something,” Scott inquired of Clayton, doing a bit of a gut check. Something was unsettling about Reyes being dressed the way he was. It was definitely way too hot to be dressed that heavily, and it didn’t add up. He wondered what was in the duffle bag. Just then, Scott flashed back to the second fire, and how he’d seen the lanky shadowed figure opposite the rest of the onlookers and his stomach tied in knots.
“Nope. Not you. This guy just became suspect number one,” he replied.
“I need to tell you something,” Scott said.
“What’s up?”
“At the second fire, I was assessing the crowd. I always do. I told you that at arsons, the perpetrator generally loves fire, and so they find a way to watch their work unfold,” he began.
“Yea, I remember. What of it?” Clayton’s eyes intently focused on the black sedan they were carefully following.
“Well, I saw something. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But, there was a guy watching, that matches this guy’s frame. Tall, lanky, and he was wearing all black.”
“I don’t have to tell you that’s not enough to go on,” Clayton replied, intrigued, but knowing they’d need more.
“Agreed. But what was odd is that he wasn’t with the rest of the crowd that had a pretty solid view of the fire.”
“Where was he?”
“He was exactly opposite; across the scene. He wasn’t watching the fire itself, he was watching us. He didn’t have a good view of the fire from that spot, he had a perfect view of the operations though. Me, you, the firefighters, and whatever we were doing.” Suddenly Scott realized that it had to be the same guy.
“Watching us? Why would he do that?” Clayton pondered.
“Maybe because what he’s really into is the whole spectacle of the operation. Setting up a crime scene that requires every form of emergency response, police, fire and EMS. Maybe what he gets off on is watching all of us run around trying to stop what he started as opposed to just watching a building burn down like a typical arsonist,” Scott suggested.
“Fuck,” was Clayton’s first response. “You’re right. Fucking hell. This was all about getting a whole fucking circus together that he cou
ld watch unfold.”
“What a sick fuck,” Scott muttered, realizing that this guy was probably just using the murders of innocent people as a pawn in his game. They already knew the two victims had nothing to do with each other, so there was no connection there.
“Ok, well everything we’ve surmised here is one hundred percent circumstantial, so I can’t grab him or anything until he does something fucked up and we see it happen. So, we’re going to follow him and see what the fuck he’s up to, and as soon as I’ve got a reason, we’ll call in a warrant to bring him in.”
“Okay, so we’ll just watch and wait,” Scott replied his understanding.
“Yea, for now,” Clayton uttered. They watched as Reyes slowed down to turn right onto a side street about four blocks from Dani’s house. Clayton stayed at the stop sign longer than necessary so they could watch to see where the dark car was headed. Three houses from the corner, Reyes pulled into the driveway of a single story house that was a bit run down looking, with peeling paint, and mangled shutters. There was already a car in the driveway, an older looking small red pickup truck.
Clayton wanted to make a quick right and just park so he could watch Reyes, but he feared they’d be seen making the turn and immediately parking, so he went straight through the intersection. Once he was confident his car was out of sight, he did a quick u-turn and came back to the intersection from the other direction where he could still see Reyes car in the driveway.
“Why did you pull down the intersection instead of just parking on the corner?” Scott asked.
“Well, if he saw us immediately turn and park, he might expect us to get out, and he knows who I am. So, to buy time and see what he’s up to, I went straight through the intersection and just came back around quickly. I don’t want him out of my sight for more than a moment, but now we just look like any other car coming to the intersection,” Clayton explained. “This is the perfect spot to see him from, however any driver knows when a car is behind him, and would instinctively look if someone parked at almost the same time as them. This just gave us cover really.”
“Makes sense,” Scott nodded as he turned to see what the suspect was doing. He’d never conducted surveillance in this way, but it made perfect sense; they had a clear view of Reyes, who was still sitting in his car. His adrenaline picked up and he could feel his heart began to pound against his chest as they waited for Reyes to make a move; it was exhilarating to be on what was his first stakeout, but also gave him concern over how close it was to Dani’s house.
A few minutes later after sitting motionless in his vehicle, they watched Reyes methodically exit his car and reach into his backseat grabbing the black duffle bag. He approached the front door, pulling something out of his pocket which appeared to be a key and let himself in. As the door shut slowly behind him, Clayton and Scott exchanged worried glances in silence.
25
Scott pulled out his phone to text Dani. She still hadn’t returned his text about the otters, which initially he found disappointing, but as he sat waiting for a crime to be committed four blocks from her house, he became concerned.
Hey, you ok?
Yea, I was reading, then I was in the shower. Otters aren’t horrible.
Yea, they are. Anyway, just checking in.
Ok? Are you ok?
Yea, the case just got weird and I wanted to check in. Stay inside ok?
You’re scaring me.
I’m sorry babe. It’s not a huge deal. Just stay inside. I’ll check in with you in a bit, ok?
Ok. Be careful. xo
Scott knew that it was unlikely that any of this would impact Dani, but he wanted her to be safe. Clayton checked Scott’s face, noticing the concern. “You all right man?” He asked.
“Yea, I just wanted to check on Dani. I mean you know she lives nearby,” he replied, pursing his lips.
“Aw shit man, you’re right. Good looking out. I’m guessing everything is fine?”
“Yea, I told her to stay home,” Scott stated.
“Good job. That’s exactly what I would have said. The chances of us losing this guy are slim, but you can’t be too fucking careful. Hopefully something will happen soon, this is definitely one of the most boring parts of the job,” Clayton said.
“Do you do stakeouts and stuff like this a lot?” Scott asked. He knew that television was a poor representation of what any of them did for a living, but still couldn’t help but think police work must be more glamourous than sitting in the car all fucking afternoon.
“More than I care for. Gotta observe and wait. It’s generally an all day affair. I’m sure you know the job isn’t anything like what people expect. I do more paperwork than anything else,” he rolled his eyes.
“Yea same here. I swear, the trees I’ve killed in the last six months alone for the sake of doing paperwork in triplicate for the county is ridiculous,” Scott retorted sarcastically.
“Tell me about it brother,” Clayton replied. “It’s not all high speed chases and hopping over fences to catch the bad guys. It’s usually sitting on my ass watching people do dumb shit.” He let out a little chuckle thinking of some of the things he’s seen people do when they didn’t know he was watching; from picking their noses and asses, to stealing out in the open.
“So, do we know anything about the owner of this house?” Scott asked.
Clayton pulled his phone out to read something. “I messaged the address to someone downtown and it was returned as a rental property. It’s currently rented to…” Scott interrupted him.
“There he is, he’s coming back out!”
Clayton put his phone back down, and started up the car. “Okay, here we go. We’ll have to get a warrant to go search this house later. I want to follow this guy and see where he goes next.”
Reyes walked quickly to his car, tossing the black duffle into the back seat. He scanned the area around, and then planted himself in the driver’s seat and started to roll backwards out of the driveway. Realizing he wasn’t parked in a convenient spot to turn around, Clayton anticipated which direction Reyes was going to go. Fortunately, he backed out of the driveway and started to drive away slowly past the house, making it easy for Clayton to follow.
Scott stared out the window at the house as they began to roll past it slowly when he saw something that caught his eye. “Fuck! Stop!”
Clayton slammed on the brakes, “We’re going to lose him, what?!”
“The house is on fire!” He hopped out of the car, then realized he had nothing to fight the fire with, grabbed his phone to call it in. “This is Investigator Walker, we have active smoke at 9213 Woodlands Drive downtown!” He yelled into his phone.
Clayton had hopped out of the car to grab the fire extinguisher quickly handing it to Scott before the both jogged to the front door. After trying the doorknob, Clayton met eyes with Scott, who nodded at him. Bracing himself and kicking it just below the lock causing it to fly open, Scott immediately rushed in, looking for the fire, when the bright white light of magnesium strips practically blinded him from the rear of the house.
Presuming there was also a victim somewhere in the house, Clayton furiously ran around calling out, hoping for a reply when he stumbled on a crumpled up body behind the couch in the living room. As Scott put out the fire, Clayton called in for an ambulance, realizing that the victim wasn’t dead.
“Hang in there buddy, we’re gonna get you some help, just stay with me,” he bellowed to the victim. Propping the victim’s head up onto a couch pillow, Clayton took note that the man was average build, with no noticeable injuries except a gaping hole in the left side of his abdomen that was bleeding profusely.
Scott ran out of the kitchen to find Clayton on the floor with the victim, “the active fire is out, how is he?”
“I don’t know man, not good. There’s blood everywhere,” he replied.
“Okay, let me in there, I’m a paramedic too,” he kneeled down next to Clayton, taking over.
“What
do you need?” Clayton asked, not being trained in a trauma situation.
“Grab me some towels or a blanket, I need to get pressure on this wound or he’s gonna die right here,” Scott yelled.
Clayton ran to the kitchen, coming back quickly with a stack of dishtowels he found on the counter and tossed them to Scott. Needing more room, Scott shoved the couch away from them by about two feet, using only one arm. Propping the victim up, Scott assessed the wound to see if whatever he was shot with had gone all the way through him. Realizing that it had possibly missed any major organs and went clean through soft tissue at the man’s side, Scott applied a balled up towel to both the front and back and applied pressure before laying the victim back down on his back. “I need you to hold this towel right here, and apply really firm pressure. I’m gonna try to get some vital signs,” he instructed Clayton, who immediately dropped back to his knees to do as Scott requested.
Scott leaned over the victim's face in an attempt to hear his breathing, trying to determine if there was any fluid in lungs. Wishing he had his jump kit from his own car that had a stethoscope and a variety of other medical equipment, he made do while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. While the breathing was shallow, the victim had a strong pulse, and wasn’t gone yet.
As the sound of sirens approached from the distance, Scott thought this victim might survive, surprising, but a relief, giving them all the evidence they needed to go after Reyes in full force.
“This right man?” Clayton looked to Scott anxiously to make sure he was holding the pressure appropriately on the bloody victim.
“Perfect. Sounds like the cavalry is just about here,” he replied, as he heard the screeching of tires out front.
Jax came running into the house, holding an axe and a water can, prepared to put out a fire.
