The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith

by S Jay Starring

  “Sounds like you're doing a very big case,” Paul said.

  “Ted and Matthew and others who commit this should be charged for obstruction the work of ACPSP. I will take care of that and for the bribery, it's your case, Paul,” Kate said.

  Paul nodded, “As you wish, I’ll take care of Ted and Matthew myself,” Paul replied firmly. He didn’t look neat like Dr. Paul from B07.

  “I will bring an arrest document for tomorrow morning, Paul. But now I want the records and addresses of all three women,” Kate said.

  Paul nodded in response and walked to the monitor that looked like clear glass. He used his finger to touch the glass before it appeared many files and he picked up the registration of personal record files. Search for the names of the three women and those records were nothing inside.

  “I’ll try to use my personal code to unlock it. Bottom-line officials can't access this information. If anyone asks about this group of women, they’ll think there were no records. Someone has to set up the system, I guarantee Ted and Matthew would be involved,” Paul said and pressed the keyboard. Then, all three files appeared. “I'll send the information to your tablet, Kate,”

  “Thank you very much, Paul. Next time, I'll bring you something special,” Kate said while smiling and gave him a blink. Jason wondered, did he just imagine? She was flirting with that detective. He had previously seen her use this approach with the police at B11, Mr. Lewis, and it worked. He was fascinated by her, made it easy to work with a non-wormhole technology parallel universe.

  They said goodbye to Paul and Jason saw that Paul looked following Kate with mourning eyes.

  “Did you flirt all the guys you work with?” Jason asked, narrowing his eyes on her.

  Kate just smiled but said nothing until they got off the elevator on the first floor. “I just accidentally looked like his ex,”

  “Ex-girlfriend?” Jason asked, frowning.

  “Katherine Isaac of this universe was his girlfriend. She works in the accounting department,” Kate answered, pointing for Jason to look at the board of accounting department. He saw Kate's picture attached on the board with three other accounting staff.

  Jason looked at her picture considered. “You ... dressed like my aunt,” he said with a flat face and Kate nudged him at his rib.

  “Be polite, Jess she just dressed neatly,” Kate said in an angry voice, and Jason only bent, both hurt and laughing at the same time.

  “Come on, dressed neatly? With those glasses? That hairstyle? And that work cloth? You know, my aunt looks younger than her. Haven't seen the shoes yet. I think it must be an old-fashion shoes. Paul likes a strange woman, right?” Jason said, laughing.

  Kate only sighed bitterly with his laughing voice. “You can't laugh if you know what you are doing here ...” she said mysteriously.

  Jason in all ears. “What’s he doing here?”

  Kate smiled and looked at him with cunning eyes. Could feel that eyesight would not be a good thing.

  “You are a criminal, Jess. I heard that you were sentenced to serve 3,534 years to life in prison,” She answered and pointed him to the board in front of the police station. It was a board showing the performance of arresting criminals in this city.

  Jason saw a photo of a man full of beard, a scarred face with a single eye stood holding a sign with the name of Jason Smith and his identification number. His left hand was a hook. The picture got a red cross on it, meant that the criminal had been captured.

  “Is that Captain Hook?” Jason humbled with disgust. Even though he was a scarred face and full of beard but Jason still remembered that it was himself. Why his appearance in other parallel universes were no one good?

  “Aunty like me looks better, isn't it?” Kate said mockery.

  Jason scowled and walked out of the police station. “Where’re we going next?” He said with a strong voice.

  Kate smiled amused with his sullen face. “Come on, don’t be upset, Jess. I think you are the best of all Jason Smith, I mean Jason Smith who still living,” she said. That’s better.

  Jason and Kate then took a taxi to Thomas Ivan's house in a village almost outside the city. They were determined to meet him again.

  Kate took a deep breath many times for relief the excitement and anxiousness. But finally, she asked Jason to press the doorbell and talked to anyone who opened the door....

  But unfortunately, no one came out to welcome them. Jason tried to knock on the door and pressed the doorbell several times. He even tried to put his ear to the door in case he could hear anything inside but it was quiet.

  Where was he?

  Jason asked Kate to look around the house, in case he might escape through the back door but couldn't find anything. The back door was still locked. This one-story house looked luxurious, probably didn't have another way to escape.

  “We will be back with search warrants tomorrow, Jess,” Kate said. Jason saw the relief in her eyes for a moment.

  They went to an apartment that a little away from the city. Both Jason and Kate would like to know whether those women still alive. If they were still alive then they would take them to a safe house. But if not, they must hurry to find Thomas Ivan.

  “Their records have nothing connected, school or work or home or even dating websites. They are just the same age, I'm not even sure they know each other or not. What kind of thing we should link them together?” Kate said after reading the information of all three.

  “They may be the bribe payer to the police to delete their records. It’s not strange if their records were modified or deleted something, right?” Jason said.

  “I agree, we should talk to one of them, first. In case there is any information that can be linked. Or at least if they conceal anything, we will know,” Kate said hopefully, but when they reached Jessie Lee's residence. Kate was deeply disappointed.

  “She hasn’t been here for months and left all her belongings in the room. We had to take it out then, the new renter could get in,” The apartment manager said.

  “I tried to call her about the rent that was pending, but she never answers the phone, so I had to let someone else rent instead. We don't know when she will return, so we just let others rent last month. This is very kindly,”

  Jessie Lee disappeared? This didn't sound like good news. So they had to hurry and went to Piper Mason's apartment, in case she knew where Jessie was going, or at least they would know that Piper was still alive?

  “We haven't seen her for months. Her room is still in the same condition because she is the owner. If you want to see inside, I can open it,” Piper's apartment manager said and walked to pick up the spare key.

  “At first we thought she might have died in the room but I had tried to sneak in front of her room about two months ago. There was no ‘that smell’,” he continued and walked to take the elevator.

  Didn't have a rotten smell? ... That’s good news.

  Piper's room was a simple 30 square meter apartment which included with bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen area. The furniture in the room became dusty. Kate sneezed so many times that she had to cover her nose with a handkerchief. They looked at the closet and her belongings in the room.

  “Her empty hangers are a bit too much,” Jason said while looking at the left clothes.

  “Personal items also missing, underwear drawer almost empty,” He opened the drawer.

  “Well, I think you like that drawer, right?” said Kate, narrowing her eyes to look at him.

  “I'm not kidding. Some of her clothes were missing, mean her disappearing doesn’t a kidnap,” Jason said.

  Kate thought about what Jason has said. “She’s willing to disappear? Where does she go?”

  Jason looked inside the room in case there was any clue. “Her parents' house.” He looked at the picture of her family resting on the bedside table.

  Kate quickly called her parents. Her mother answered the phone and when she knew what agency contacted her, she began to scurry. �
��We haven't contacted Piper for many years since that thing happened for a couple of years,” Piper's mother told Kate.

  “What do you mean ‘that thing happened’? What's happened?” Kate asked, and that was the cause of silence from the end of the line for several seconds.

  “Um ... We ... we won't talk about that, officer. We all sad and disappointed,” said Piper's mother. However, she wouldn't tell what happened.

  “Well, do you know where’s Piper go, except her apartment?” Kate asked.

  The end of the line was silent again. Kate only heard the shortness of breath from Piper's mother that could confirm the line wasn’t cut.

  “Maybe Jessie or Bella's house,” She finally replied.

  That sounded like all three of them knew each other for sure. “Are they close friends?”

  “Yes, since they were young. Before, our three families lived in the same area. Until that thing happened, we had to move to many places,” said Piper's mother. “I can only give you this information, officer. Please don't ask about her again. We don't know anything,” She cut the line.

  “They moved? We only have their current information that can't relate to each other,” Jason said, pondering and rubbing his chin. The beard that just grew made his fingers felt a bit harsh but some kind of fun. “Why they have to run? So their parents don't want to talk about it, surely it's not just about stealing a sandwich,”

  Kate frowned curiously. They walked a little further inside the room. Nothing to tell where did she go “So, let’s go to Bella West apartment,” She proposed.

  Jason nodded in agreement and before left the room, Jason glanced at a piece of paper in the trash can. He took it out and unfolded it. “I think this should be a symbol we are looking for, Kate,” Jason showed her the paper.

  “She doesn’t accidentally crazy about a hexagram, right?” Kate asked frowning.

  “I think this may be the reason she’s packed and run away,” Jason said.

  Chapter 23

  “The hexagram is a symbol of Thomas, and she knew it well. That’s why she knows she is in danger,” said Jason while in a taxi on the way to Bella West's residence on one of the sky building.

  “So exciting, I never go up there,” Kate said in enthusiastic more than usual while looking at the Sky City above.

  “You don’t listen to me, Kate?” Jason complained, frowning at her unpleasantly.

  “I do listen to you, Jess. They run away because they know that the hexagram is Thomas’s symbol. But I don't understand why Piper's mother was talking about ‘that thing’ like it happened many years ago, why he just looking for them,” Kate said. And yes she did listen to him.

  Jason thought for a while. “You may have to ask your lover whether many years ago there was something bad had happened and involved with our four people. Especially Thomas,”

  “My lover?” Kate frowned.

  “It’s Paul,” Jason narrowed his eyes while smiling.

  Kate made a fed up face. “He is not my lover, Jess. I only look like his ex,”

  Jason looked at her face and showed his disbelief eyes to her. “This morning, he almost held your waist, Kate,”

  Kate pretended to be puzzled before continued, “I’ll ask him about the case,” She changed the subject.

  While the taxi was parking in front of a building Kate has already received an answer from Paul about a possible case involved Thomas Ivan, Jessie Lee, Piper Mason and Bella West. The information was blocked but Paul could solve it.

  “About ten years ago, there was a great fire that occurs in the residential area of the wealthy. Many houses were burned. The fire came from Thomas' house. He lost all his family because the fire happened in the middle of the night, his parents and sister. There was a witness that saw Jessie, Piper and Bella, fifteen years old, were around there on the evening of the incident day, they were smoking and looked like a little bit drunk,”

  “Smoking? Drunk? 15 years old?” Jason exclaimed, disgusting.

  “There was no evidence link to them. Because the witness was Thomas Ivan, the victim. Many people thought that he was only looking for a scapegoat. Because all people knew that the girls always bully him. Even though they and Thomas were not at the same school, they all enjoyed teasing him. The locals in the neighborhood knew that well,”

  “On the other hand, Thomas seemed to be an inventor since his teenage years, so something could go wrong as a cause of the fire and the evidence also showed the fire began from his own home, the paint buckets exploded,” Kate continued.

  Jason pondered followed what Kate just told him. Thomas is an inventor? He would probably build a wormhole connector if he really intended.

  “This case has just expired half a year ago about a month before the kidnapping at B07 began. At that time of the investigation, the three girls denied everything and said that they were at home while the incident happened. This story was confirmed by all three girls’ parents, there were people both believe and unbelieves. Because, as you know, they're not a good girl, right?” Kate said, rolled her eyes.

  15 years old girls who both drunk and smoked, was probably not being loved by many people in the neighborhood.

  Kate sighed, “How can Thomas be sure they were the cause of the fire? There was no evidence to confirm it. The security camera near the girls’ houses showed that they rushed back home before someone report for the fire. Then why doesn’t he choose to kill only them in this parallel universe?”

  “He may not be able to find them because the police concealed their records and addresses. Then Thomas had to revenge on this group of women in other parallel universes instead. The important thing is, it can scare them here too,” Jason analyzed.

  Jason and Kate walked into a building that was just a twenty-story building without windows. Jason saw the large pipes connecting from the rooftop to the Sky city.

  Inside the building, there were dozens of elevators. Kate inquired with the receptionist about Bella West's room, and she suggested them to take the elevator on the 12th floor and pressed number 220 and crossed the connecting path to the next building and found the room number 22091.

  “Do you understand what she's said, Kate? Cross the connecting path?” Jason asked while walking to the escalator for went up to the 12th floor. They found many more elevators were available. There weren’t many people using it. This building was for elevator service to go to the sky building above.

  They used one of the available elevator and pressed number 220 as the receptionist said. The elevator moved up quickly until tinnitus and in just one minute they reached the floor they wanted.

  “She told us to cross the connecting path to the next building? Up here?” Jason asked alarmingly after walked out of the elevator and saw the clouds outside the window.

  Kate walked along the route and found a connecting path between the buildings. It was a metal frame with clear glasses even the walkway. “Wow ... I really like this place,” she exclaimed pleasantly.

  “Can see the cars small as a pinhead down there? How can you like this place?” Jason said.

  “Afraid of high, Jess?” Kate said while narrowed her eyes to look at him.

  “No, I just feel insecure,” Jason replied.

  “Come on, you slit down from the sculpture at B01, but afraid of the clearing walkway? Let's go, Jess,” Kate pulled Jason's arm to follow her. His heart vibrated when the first and second steps on the glass, and the excitement gradually down in every next step. Hopefully, that Kate's high heels wouldn't make the glass crack.

  They followed the path, looked for Bella West’s room number, 22091. There was a doorbell for visitors to call the owner of the room. The gap under the door and the letterbox was full of letters stuffed. Looked like there was no one here for a long time.

  “I think nobody’s here, Jess, then where she can go,” said Kate.

  Jason rang the doorbell for a while and no one responded.

  “She’s not here, Jess,” Kate said disappointed.<
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  “Listen,” Jason whispered after pressed his ear on the door. “I think I can hear something moving inside,”

  Kate frowned and looked at a pile of letters that stuck under the door.

  “Are you kidding, Jess. If someone inside, then you should keep these letters in. Maybe it just an insect,”

  Jason smiled, “If she does that, people would know she lives here, Kate. Don't forget, she is running from Thomas Ivan,” He said confidently. “This is the last place we know and I think it’s the last place for them, too. It would be nice to pretend like nobody’s here,”

  Jason turned from rang the doorbell to knocked the door loudly.

  “Bella West. We’re from ACPSP. We want to talk to you,” He said loudly in case the inside could hear but there was no one answer and the inside was still quiet.

  “We want to talk to you about Thomas Ivan,” Kate said. Hearing another woman’s voice in front of the door would make someone inside felt a little bit comfortable.

  Jason heard a whisper inside. He was sure, it was a female voice and he was sure, it’s not his imagination.

  “Please open the door. I promise you will be save,” Jason said. And just for a while, he heard the unlocking multiple times and the white door gradually opened but just a bit. There was only a haft of someone’s face appear through the door gap.

  “What do you want?” Someone inside asked.

  “Miss. Bella West, right? We want to talk to you about Thomas Ivan. We know that he's looking for you and we come to help,” Kate said while showing her badge and identity card. And seemed like the owner of the room has reduced her paranoid.

  “May we come in?” Kate asked.

  The door gradually opened wider. Jason was sure that the woman who opened the door was Bella West. But she looked skinny and tired. They went inside and she quickly closed the door.

  The inside of the room made Jason felt depressed, she didn't even open the curtain to let the light from the outside in. The room was dark and musty, the smell of junks, the rotten messy spread all around the room. And she's not alone, Jessie Lee and Piper Mason were also in the room too.