“You made him angry,” Kate said to Jason but he just shrugged.
“So, we have to find another Thomas,” Jason said and Kate nodded.
Then, Jason, Kate, and Todd returned to their rooms to take a shower, changed clothes, and came back to meet each other after six in the evening. Jason ate a few sliced bread for appetizer because he was a bit hungry.
“What are you guys dressed?” Jason blurted out in angry. He saw Kate in a short evening dress, peach color with laces, high-heeled and put up her hair like she was going to a luxurious party at a five stars hotel. Todd wore a plaid suit, trilby, red bow tie and leather shoes. But Jason only wore a polo shirt, slacks, and sneakers.
They looked at Jason's sullen face. “We just dress normally, Jess,” Kate answered.
Dressed normally? It looked like they could go to someone's wedding party. If they wanted to dress up fullest like this, they should tell him. But they just told him to dress casually.
“We dress like this when going outside. It looks neat,” Todd answered. “Oh, we have to wait for Lily and Nora, They said to come down a little bit late,”
“Well, ... I'd better go back and get a suit. My clothes don’t properly,” Jason said.
“It’s ok, Jess. I think you look good,” Kate said.
Really? ...
“But I think ...” Kate continued while contemplating. Wondered if she realized that he looked like a bellboy.
“You should wear Todd's hat,” she said, grabbed Todd's trilby and put on Jason’s head. “Now, you look much cooler,” She looked at his face, smiled brightly and putting his collar up a little. Jason didn’t see any wound on her neck or on her body, an amazing foundation that could completely covered it.
If Kate said that he looked good, then probably would be okay.
“Wow ... You look younger almost ten years,” Lily and Nora's voice has been rose from afar. They all fullest dressed as well. “I thought you are a new guy,” Nora said and blinked with flirting at Jason.
….This was not bad.... Jason happy. Then they called a taxi to go to the restaurant. The nightlife in this city quite a bit bright. Many high-rise buildings switch on colorful lights alternately. The trees and the park were illuminated and glittering, made it looked like stars when saw it from high view. The streets full of bright street lights and people could walk around safely.
The restaurant they went to was a casual place mixed between bar and restaurant and similar to a coffee shop, but the light was dimmer and looked warmer, made the girls looked more beautiful twice.
And the food here was very delicious, especially the marinated pork grilled with sauce. Jason talked to his colleagues, knew them in other moments that he had never seen. He didn't even know that Kate was an alcohol-tolerant, she could drink 10 shots of vodka and still walked like normal. Lily and Nora seemed to be of the same age but actually, Nora was about the same age as Jason. And Todd was a gentleman who carried shoes for the girls on the way back.
Being in another parallel universe was also fun, Although Jason came here by accidence but when he used to it, everything all around looked more colorful and more exciting.
Curiously, did Thomas Ivan still watching them from anywhere? ....
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The doorbell of Kate's room has rung more than 5 minutes, but there was no one open, yet and the person who rang the bell seemed to not give up. Until the 7th minute, Kate opened the door with a bad mood.
“Kate, let’s go to the learning center at B01,” Jason blurted out when the door opened before Kate could say anything.
“.... It’s just 7 a.m. on Saturday, Jess,” Kate said with a sullen face. She still wore a pink pajamas and bunny slippers.
“Quickly, Kate. Dress up,” Jason didn't listen to what she said. He broke into her room, dragged her arm to the bathroom and prepared herself for travel with him. He rummaged the closet and chose her outfits.
Didn’t know where his energy came from....
After breakfast, they traveled to the parallel universe B01 by wormhole vending machine. Jason rushed straight to the 16 parallel universes sculpture at the learning center for children over 8-year old with enthusiastically. But Kate just walked behind him drowsy.
“Come on, Kate. Be active, it's a weekend,” Jason said cheerily. “Where should I start?” He asked while looking at the children that were playing inside with fun.
“Are you serious?” Kate asked, while sighing. Jason seriously nodded as an answer.
“You can start from anywhere. The routes all connect. Oh ... Be careful of the children, too, they are ten times smaller than you,” Kate said.
Jason looked at the metal sculpture high as a three-story building intently. The kids slit down from the model of various parallel universes with fun.
“Let's play together, Kate,” Jason said to Kate who was stood still with a bored face, and that was his last word because after almost half an hour the voice that came out of his mouth was just a long scream of excitement and thrilling.
Jason flew along a giant tunnel until he reached the exit of B10 parallel universe and reached on a wide fluffy lawn where children were running around.
He planked there for almost ten minutes. Gasped with terrified from sliding throughout the way from the top to the bottom.
Then he gradually sat up and looked for Kate. He remembered that he just heard her screaming voice with fun about a couple of minutes ago. Where was she now?
“Jess, let's start from here,” Kate's voice came from above. She continued to play without resting for more than half an hour. Then, where her energy came from…maybe she just forgot the feeling when she arrived.
“I'm tired, Kate,” Jason said. And Kate continued play for nearly twenty minutes before slit down to meet him at the bottom.
She smiled and laughed during the playtime. “I just traveled from B07 to B14 and also passed B09 and B02 as well. It was fun. It reminds me to think about my childhood. When I was 10 years old, I used to play this almost all day without being tired,” said Kate excitedly after met Jason who was still lying on the yard. She laid down beside him.
“Pardon?” Jason turned to ask Kate who was beside him.
Kate made a curious face. “Um ...well, I said I used to play this almost all day when I was 10 years old.”
“No, the earlier,” said Jason, sitting up.
“Well ... I just traveled from B07 to B14 and passed B09 and B02 as well,” she answered with doubt.
Jason hurriedly stood up and stared at the sculpture of 16 parallel universes considered. There was a name of each parallel universes attached on the front near the tunnels. The black giant slider path allowed us to throw ourselves pass through those parallel universes back and forth. He thought about parallel universes where three women were kidnapped and parallel universes where their bodies were found, B07, B09, B02, B04, B11 and B13 in order.
It sounded like the journey of the killer was random. But when looked at those paths together with the 16 parallel universes sculpture in front of him, it made him understood something important.
“I already know the route of the killer, Kate. It means we can predict which group of women he really wanted to kill,” Jason said with a serious expression.
Chapter 22
“The beginning of the case?” Kate said with wide eyes, excited. She hurriedly rose herself up and sit on the thick grass lawn to listen carefully to Jason.
Jason pointed for Kate to see all the metal signs attached to the parallel universes sculpture.
“Look carefully, Kate. B07 was the first place that kidnapping happened. Then their bodies appeared on B09,” He moved his index finger from the top of the sculpture, which had the number 7 attached, meant that it represented for parallel universe B07. Then moved his finger to B09, which was a little lower on the left.
“The criminal took the bodies from B09 to B02,” Jason moved his hand down to the next point in a little sloping line. “Then take the bodies from B02 to
B04,”
His hand started to move up. “And from B04 to B11 and B13,” he drew a straight line that was slightly upward until it looked like L-shaped.
“Can you guess what am I going to draw?” He asked Kate who was listening intently. She stood up and brushed the grass out of her skirt pants.
“It's going to be a triangle, right?” She answered.
Jason nodded “It's easy to guess if Thomas Ivan really crazy about hexagram?” He smiled happily.
“In addition to the long slash on the throat of the women, the killer might be a right-handed person. He should start drawing another upside-down triangle from the left,”
Jason pointed to the B16 parallel universe model at the far left and then drag his hand in a straight line to the right along passed other parallel universes until he got another upside-down triangle. He found that the last spot before back to connected to B16. Even though it was a bit distorted two triangles but still could be seen as a hexagram.
“B05?” Kate said excitedly.
Jason nodded in agreement. “We should try to find them there in case we can know all of the story and may help them. I think they are still alive,” he said and Kate agreed.
“What are you looking at?” Asked a girl, distracted Jason and Kate's attention. There was a group of children more than ten looked up at the sculpture that Jason pointed just a moment ago with interested.
“Um...well, nothing. It's not about kid’s staff. Let continue playing,” Jason said while waving to the children that stood together.
“I saw you play with the kid’s staff,” said a boy and made Jason quietly. The other kids agreed and started to be noisy.
Kate smiled and bent herself to them. “Ok, children, this sculpture is for children over the age of 8-year-old. It's not limited to the height or weight, and we are over 8 years old, which means we can play, right?” she said.
This time the children kept quiet, they were contemplating. Some were still confused and some nod in agreement. “But you are not children,” the girl aged about ten years old argued.
It was the thing that hard to argue. Jason was huge like a giant and Kate was 172 centimeters tall. Couldn't underestimate today's children.
“Well ... even though we are adults but still have a heart as a child and we really like this sculpture so much. We can have fun together, right?” Kate replied with a gentle smile for the children. That's a good answer.
The children started to look at each other. This time, most of them seemed to accept this answer. Then they began to scatter and continue playing. No one cared about Jason and Kate anymore. These children were generous.
“Let's go find something to drink. I’m very thirsty maybe I’ve screamed too much,” Kate said and grabbed Jason's arm to follow her. Why not she thirsty? She has been playing with this sculpture for an hour.
They walked to a nearby café for a cup of coffee, have some cakes, walked around and tried exotic local food in the city a bit. Jason saw a robot carrying luggage nearby. They were very polite and dodge for them to pass first. Shortly after that, it was lunchtime. They chose a restaurant near the building that had a service of a wormhole vending machine. Hopefully, they wouldn't meet lawyer Smith or lawyer Ivan there.
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“You guys are really diligent,” said Emma, shook her head. She was dressed casually in a big shirt and sweatpants but the shoes were fluffy slippers. “Sunday, but comes to work. You have to write a report, Kate. If being audited, anyone may think that you use government wormhole to hang out,” she continued with a sharp voice.
Kate smiled at her “I have done it. Tomorrow I’ll send to the HR department,” Although Kate has done a lot of thing that against the rules about Jason, but at least the documentation and other rules. She did it perfectly for redeeming.
“Okay, ready? I’ll count down and you’ll arrive at the wormhole vending machine in front of the city park,” Emma said and began to count down. Jason and Kate stood in the middle of the room on the white platform and quickly put on their sunglasses. Waited for the wormhole to open. And at the end of Emma's countdown, they disappeared with the bright light from the giant light bulb.
In just one minute and two seconds, they appeared in a bright red room with a monitor showed the name of the travelers and the time of arrival.
“Red room?” Jason said while looking around the room.
“I used to arrive in a black room, hard to find the exit,” Kate said while walking him out of the room. Was this the humor of the designer?
The first thing that caught the eyes of Jason was a large object floating in the sky above an 80-story skyscraper. “Is that a spaceship?” He exclaimed.
Kate smiled for his question. “There are floating buildings. The population in this city has increased a lot, but the area is limit. Therefore, many buildings have been built into the sky and we call it ‘Sky city’,”
“Aren’t they afraid of falling?” Jason asked, looking up at the Sky city above that covered an area of several square kilometers in the sky.
“Some parts of those buildings are in the space to hold them afloat. They choose to expand the city in vertical like this instead of expanding in horizontal. It's cool, right?” Kate replied.
Houses and buildings here looked nothing more difference than Jason’s universe, but those sky buildings made this parallel universe more amazing.
“They haven't built tall buildings because they don't want to demolish the old buildings and replace them with a new modern style. The people here quite conservative and love the old style. And people from other cities came to live and find jobs more than my universe. So the city needs to expand,” said Kate.
Kate called the local police to request the record of the three women but she was denied. “What do you mean, nothing in their records?” Kate's voice became louder than usual. “Okay ... We'll go to see you there. Hopefully, you have a good explanation,” She hung up and turned to Jason with a bad mood.
“They told me, nothing in their records, the three women. It’s impossible. Even if they died for many years, but there must have a record. It sounds like we may have another case interrupt, Jess,” Said Kate, pondering.
They called a taxi to go to the police station. Today was Sunday, then they couldn’t use a non-driver car service from the government vehicle center. Even without drivers, the weekend was the day to check and wash the cars. Despite there were sky buildings but the cars or taxis here still the same as Jason’s universe. There were wheels and use electric power.
Soon the taxi was parked in front of the police station, which was just a normal 15-story building. Kate led Jason inside, she seemed to have been here many times.
“Can you explain what happens to the records of Jessie Lee, Piper Mason and Bella West’s here?” Kate asked the police officer who was in the registration of personal record department.
That was Ted Frinx, with a blank and puzzled face about what Kate just said. “Well ... who?” He stumbled back. “I think ... maybe ... a misunderstanding,”
Kate told him that she called to inquire about the three women records, but instead, she received an answer that there were no records of them. “I ... I ... will ask Matthew about this,” Ted in a dark blue police uniform said in an unsure manner before left the desk.
Kate sighed fed up. “Why doesn't he work like our Ted?” She complained with Jason, who stood nearby and looked around the registration of personal record department. There were desks along with many large servers. Ted of this universe seemed dazed and confused with his job.
“The population here is probably as many as you told me,” Jason said.
“They have high technology computers, collecting and searching the record of the population in this city wouldn’t be difficult. And the police should be able to answer where the three women live. Not saying, there were no records,” Kate said irritated.
It would be true, because they even have that Sky city. Finding someone's record would be
easier than building a floating structure in the sky. But he let Jason and Kate waited more than an hour.
“How to go up there?” Jason asked while looking up at the Sky city.
“Many buildings have elevators for going up. There were connecting paths on each building. Mostly are residences, supermarkets and stores very a few rental offices,” explained Kate.
“I never go up there either. I can't tell how it feels when force the storm. I think I may get a little sky-sickness,” She continued, smiled at him excitedly.
“I think it’s time to inform the detectives that there was a bribe case for concealing the records of three women,” said Kate wondered she might be bored to waiting for Ted's explanation already. She dragged Jason's arm to follow her.
“How can you know there is a bribe case?” Jason asked while following her and took the elevator to the Criminal Investigation Department.
“It’s impossible that nothing in the records of those three women in this parallel universe. They only have their names, surnames, ID number, but no other history at all,” said Kate.
“Despite they have a record of Thomas Ivan and if Thomas Ivan of this place is the real killer like you think, the three women must definitely be the key to this whole story. Therefore, the way to conceal their information is the person who responsible for the population register of this city, and the reason for doing that of course, it’s about money,” She continued.
Jason nodded in agreement, even though Kate wasn't skilled at the serial murders case, but this bribe case she did it quite well.
“Good morning, Paul. Thought today is your day off,” Kate greeted the young man who was reading a document.
He turned to her and smiled brightly. “Long time no see, Kate,” he was Dr. Paul Runner whom Jason knew, but here he was a detective. “Today I was on duty instead of Alex. You know, he is approaching retirement. This Sunday he doesn't really want to work. By the way, what is there for me to serve?”
“Well, I think I found a case of accepting a bribe to conceal the record of a group of women here,” Kate told him the whole story, including the serial murder that Thomas Ivan was the suspect.
The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith Page 20