A Ride Home: Tampa FBI Two

by C. Soto

  “Yes, there’s no way I’d leave Tammy alone right now.” James immediately replied.

  Tammy sat back, still stunned by the whole situation. She had a thought. “I don’t think he has followed anyone else or at least not Emily. Emily would have noticed if someone were watching her like she did at the scene. So we know for sure the killer hasn’t been to Derrick and Emily’s house or she would have felt the presence there.”

  She paused for a minute trying to analyze the situation better. “John you weren’t home, but if he followed us, he could only follow one of us from the office to home. He probably chose me since I’m a girl and was on my own? I’m obviously on his radar now.” That igniting an idea, “We can use that to our advantage. We need to let him feel a false sense of security. Chief, I don’t think it’s a good idea to put units outside my house or to move into a safehouse. I feel like we need to lure him in if he is stalking me.”

  “I don’t know Tammy, I don’t like the idea of any of you deliberately putting yourselves in harm’s way. We do that enough each day we are out in the field.” Eric knowing she was right and knew he had to give in to their suggestions. “We need to come up with a plan on how we would set a trap if it’s going to work.” Eric sighed, he knew they were all FBI agents, but they were his agents. He had a responsibility to them to try and keep them as safe as he could, given the nature of the job. It seemed like they were wanting to borrow trouble. He didn’t know how this would play out.

  “You guys brainstorm some ideas, and we can go over them later. For right now though, no one is to be alone ever. We’re working on a buddy system until this case is closed. John you will have Derrick and Emily drop you off at night and pick you back up in the morning. If this guy is targeting our team, the last thing I need is him trying to get to you while you’re alone. I’ll have units at least sit outside your house or Samantha’s since you don’t have a team member with you at night. The same for your house Derrick and Emily.”

  “Copy that sir.” They replied.

  “Okay good, now that’s settled, get to work so we can actually find this killer. I’ll check in later and see where you guys are at.” At that, Eric walked out and headed towards his office.

  Emily asked the team, “Guys, do you mind if I open up my energy to read yours? That may tell me more if the killer is attaching his energy to you. A word of caution, I may see something that is unintended, and might not have anything to do with the case. I can’t control the message of your energy. It may have a mind of its own and share what it wants. You know I’d never read you without permission, so if you are okay, then I’ll open my energy towards yours and see what it tells me?”

  James, John, and Tammy were in, anything that could help find the killer. Emily was a good friend, and they knew she wouldn’t pry or keep digging if the answers weren’t in front of her or purposely invade their privacy. If she did see something that was personal, they knew she wouldn’t spread it around. Derrick, well he was open all the time to Emily. It was the way their relationship worked, they opened to each other. They were married now, so he never wanted her to put a block up for him. That type of relationship between them wouldn’t work if they both weren’t open and honest towards each other.

  Emily sat back and closed her eyes, feeling their energy surrounding their bodies. She reached out with her indigo energy to Derrick’s energy. His energy was green, he had balance, love, self-control, and was a protector. She wanted to feel his first, to comfort her before she began reading the rest of the team. Whenever she opened herself up to his energy, it would always wrap around her, as if giving her a hug. After receiving her ‘hug’ from Derrick’s energy she reached out with her energy to touch Tammy’s energy, since they knew the killer was drawn to her.

  Tammy’s energy was blue, representing knowledge, health, and decisiveness. In Tammy’s energy, she saw the vision of her creeping through the woods wearing her tactical gear. She tried to pay attention to the surroundings in the area and where she was. However, all she saw where bald cypress trees. There was a smokiness of fog coming up from the ground, as Tammy was crouched down inching forward slowly. She saw as Tammy passed by the branches, pulling at her jacket, she was not even fazed by the branches scratching at her arms.

  Emily didn’t see anyone with her. She didn’t know why Tammy would be there by herself. She hoped the others were nearby. Since this was in the future, it was hard to know what the scenario would be that would lead Tammy to be in this location. Was it for this killer or was it something further down the road and something unrelated?

  Tammy wasn’t in trouble or running away from anyone. It appeared like she was the one hunting, stalking her prey with each step she took.

  The images went on to show things that were unrelated to the case, so Emily quickly put back up her block so she wouldn’t receive any more images from Tammy. She moved on to John and James however their images were also unrelated to the case.

  All she gained from that reading was Tammy in the woods on her own. Emily relayed to the team what she saw. John got up and wrote the details on the white board.

  John spoke to the team, “We need to investigate areas surrounding Tampa that have Bald Cypress Trees in a wooded area. Maybe that’s where the killer is located?”

  Tammy responded, “Yes, that sounds like a good start. Let’s send this information down to the tech team, they can pull up areas that have those trees. We can then scout out those areas and see what’s in those locations.”

  The team then moved on after shooting an email to the tech team to review those areas, as they have software that could run for specifics to a location.

  Chapter 18

  Once the driver’s wife was home, he let her know he was going to finish up his errands from earlier, then he would go to work afterwards. She knew he wouldn’t be home until late to early morning.

  It wasn’t time yet for Sara to get off work, so he wanted to drive and check out the FBI’s lady’s house. He would check out the area from the street over. He pulled over on the next block in her neighborhood and parked. He saw contractors working around her house, so he pulled out his binoculars to see what they were doing. He saw motion detectors being installed around her house. As he swept the area with his binoculars, he saw more cameras were also being installed. He had to sit and think about his next move. The new security placed on her house would limit him on what he could find out about what she was working on. He was not happy with this new discovery, he didn’t like feeling limited. He was the one that was supposed to be in control, not her. He sat there stewing in his anger as he watched the contractors working. Looking at his clock, he knew he had to leave. However, after she ruined his plans, he would ensure he gave her a gift later to take back some of his control.

  He pulled up outside of Sara’s work a half hour later. He still had a half hour until she was due to be off. He sat in his car, scoping out the traffic and looking at the businesses surrounding her employment. Seeing which ones had surveillance and the directions they were pointing. He had to plan for a backup in case Thursday night didn’t go as planned. He jotted down notes on each business so he could study it later. He wouldn’t allow another thing to go wrong today.

  He glanced at his clock and knew any moment Sara would be exiting the building. His heart sped up at the excitement of seeing her again. He needed her soon. He’d been fantasizing about their first night together. Going over every single detail, it left him salivating, wanting her even more.

  He saw when she exited the building, then headed down the street to catch her bus to head home. When his morning stake out was interrupted to pick up his son, he looked through the job postings and saw the company she went to earlier was hiring. He knew he had to take her this week if he didn’t want to be delayed in learning a new routine for her. This week she would become his.

  As her bus pulled up, he watched as she made her way up to the stairs, scanned her bus pass, and took her seat. As the bus started to
pull away, he pulled in behind it to follow the route that would drop her off at home.

  To his surprise, she got out in front of a grocery store. He pulled over and watched as she exited the bus and walked towards the store. He sat and thought, Maybe this was now my moment. He waited as she entered the store. He scanned the building for any cameras and when he didn’t see any, he exited his vehicle and would re-introduce himself and offer a free ride. He had been her driver a couple weeks ago, so he hoped she remembered him and would feel safe in accepting his offer, especially if she had bags to haul with her.

  As she exited the store, he stopped her as he acted like he was walking past her. “Hey I remember you. You were a passenger of mine from a couple of weeks ago. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good, how are you? Wow, what a great memory you have. I’m sure you have a lot of passengers in a week.” She said with a pleasant tone in her voice.

  She surprised him when she asked, “Are you working right now? It appears the universe is on my side right now with you suddenly appearing. If you are, then I’m requesting a pickup in person.” She said laughing. “Then I won’t have to wait on the next bus, lugging these bags around.” As she lifted her arms, showing the bags.

  He laughed with her, “Yea, that’s no problem to give you a ride. How about this, this fare is on the house!” He said with a smile.

  “Wow, are you sure, I don’t mind paying?”

  “Yes, absolutely. I’d hate to have you lugging around a bunch of bags. I have a break in my schedule anyways, so it’s not a hassle.”

  He walked her towards his car, then popped his trunk so she could place her groceries in. Then he felt in his pocket for his syringe. He always had one on hand prefilled with Ketamine. He had his taser too, so he could stun her before injecting her with the ketamine. Being a gentleman, he opened the passenger side door and watched as she got in and buckled up. He then shut the door for her.

  He started whistling as he went around to the driver side, this went better than he could have ever imagined. Her asking him for a ride, now that was priceless. He didn’t even have to work for it.

  He got in the car, started it, and looked around. Once he saw no one was near, he reached over and zapped her. She sat while jerking from the shock of the electric currents running through her body. He then took the syringe and injected Ketamine into her neck. Afterwards, he pulled away heading towards his cabin right outside of town.

  Chapter 19

  The team went over the case files they retrieved from the police precincts. They already recorded the timelines Elisa and Laura went missing and their activities from before they were abducted.

  John wrote out the details from the three cases that Dr. Hutton gave them for Rose, Luna, and Addie. The timeline of the ladies’ abductions was from one to four years ago. The bodies were found in various public places and left in their 50’s attire. Their bodies were mutilated like the other victims.

  John addressed the team, “None of these victims have any connection to each other. The three out the four victims from recently all had their own vehicles, and they didn’t ride public transportation. I think that angle is dead. Only having one victim from the bus leans to Elisa met him another way. We need to find the common link.”

  Tammy replied, “I think you’re right. We have the four other victims that ViCap hit on. Two victims were, Mr. and Mrs. East, then two single ladies, Marley and Cassidy. They were in the span of the last seven years.”

  She looked at her notes and made sure that she wasn’t missing anything. “That leaves this killer having eleven victims that we know about in the last seven years.”

  John walked up to the map and grabbed colored push pins for each victim. They went through and marked on the map the last known locations up to a month for each victim to see if they interlinked in any way. There were a couple that were in the same vicinity, but not really the same shopping districts. There wasn’t a circumference that the killer was operating in.

  Tammy sat looking at the map. She felt like there was information she was missing but she couldn’t put her finger on what she was missing. The feeling kept nagging at her. She thought, Hopefully after a good night’s rest, I’ll be able to pinpoint what is bothering me. Taking a step away always helps clear my mind.

  Emily sat and studied the pictures. The energy of the killer was all the same with them. She knew they were on the right track. Now they had to identify what linked them all together to get this killer’s attention. It also changed the dynamic when you added in married couples. It was a different victimology. The ladies were all the same characteristics, even the married ladies. They were on the petite side, all having brown hair. So, the killer chose ladies’ that were petite with brown hair, which made it more weird on why the killer followed Tammy. She thought, I would be more the killer’s type than Tammy. Maybe the killer saw her with Derrick and thought to go with the single person in their group.

  Emily relayed her feelings to the team, “It’s weird, if you look at all the ladies, they all have brown hair. Tammy, you have blonde hair, so you don’t fit his victimology. It has to be because he saw you were alone and maybe an easier target than the rest of the team.”

  Tammy replied, “Yes, that could be. It’s creepy regardless. I want to hurry up and catch this son of a bitch as soon as we can.”

  James telling Tammy, “Don’t worry Tammy, we’ll catch him. I won’t leave you by yourself. You have all of us and we won’t let anything happen to you. We are all in this together.”

  “Thanks James.” Tammy said gratefully.

  The team spent the rest of the time going over the case files, reading the detectives’ notes of who they interviewed, the witnesses’ statements of who found the bodies. They didn’t place any hopes on there still being surveillance videos this far out from the bodies being discovered, however, they would still follow-up and see just in case. The team did write down a list of family and friends they would interview again the following day if possible. With time passing, maybe they would remember something that they didn’t recall from before.

  Emily speaking to the team, “I want to visit each spot the victims were found. Maybe their energy is still hanging to the spot, and I can learn something from visiting the areas.”

  John replied, “It may also help to see the location in person. What businesses and parks are surrounding the area? We need to look at the location and see it from the killer’s eyes on why he selected that location.”

  Derrick agreed, “Yes, that sounds like a good plan. We need to get in this killer’s mind. Also, to see if the victim visited that location before their abduction. Is that where they met?”

  The team all agreed on the upcoming days’ plan. The team would canvas each location that the victims were found in and then split off to do interviews.

  John looked at his watch, saw it was nearing 8:00 p.m. “Well let’s call it a night and head over to Tammy’s house. We can order delivery once we get there and maybe set up a card game.”

  “Sounds like a plan, I’m starving.” Tammy replied.

  The team arrived at Tammy’s house thirty minutes later. Tammy took out her take-out menus and the group decided on ordering from the chicken wings restaurant. They all sat around her dining room table discussing the killer.

  “Why do you think he mutilates the bodies? Why would he do that to his victims?” Emily asked the team.

  “The carving of the bodies wasn’t frantic. It was careful, like a creation he made. The killer was very methodical in their approach to carving up the body.” John replied

  John taking his last gulp of his drink, “He has that power over them, the control he took from them. That turns him on. Then he mutilates their bodies to show his hate for his victim.”

  John got up to grab another drink, “It’s a compulsion for him. However, what is scary is not knowing how many victims there are. We know so far there are eleven, but that can’t be all of them due to the space of tim
e. For this killer and his latest timelines of four within two months. There has to be God knows how many more victims.”

  Derrick replied, “Yes, we need to get a handle on this case and find him. The news is going into a frenzy with the four they have put together. If they put the other seven together, this town is really going to go nuts. Let’s hope no one leaks that information. However, you know how that goes in this town. So, I would bet on it airing sooner than later.”

  Everyone groaned at that thought. That is exactly what they didn’t need, the media sensationalizing the case even further than they were. They already named the killer, “The Hacker”. People were scared to leave their homes for fear of they could be next. But as the killer has shown, a person is not even safe in their own home.

  A few minutes after the conversation died down, the food arrived. They sat around eating and started to discuss lighter topics. Right then John’s phone rang, as he looked, he saw Samantha’s name. He got up to walk in the other room for privacy.

  “Hey Babe, how’s it going?” He answered the phone greeting her.

  “Hey! It’s going well. Just finishing up some projects. I wanted to call and see how you were doing. Have you guys made any progress on this killer?”

  “Unfortunately, not yet. Still trying to gather all the information. We’re at Tammy’s house right now. The killer was at her house last night, stalking her through her windows. For right now, we all need to stick together, so no one is left by themselves, just in case.”

  Samantha gasped in horror, “Oh my god, that is terribly scary John. Is she okay? He didn’t hurt her did he?”

  “No, he never came in her house. She’s fine, just really shaken up, as you can imagine.”