by Angela Ford
“We’ve been having a lot of fun trying to have a baby,” Sandy smirked.
“I still picture us as kids; not having them,” Jess shook her head.
“We had some great summers together Jessie, the three musketeers.”
“I was always the third wheel.” Jess laughed.
“There were lots of boys interested; you just never gave them the time of day,” Sandy remarked.
“No, there weren’t. I don’t recall even one boy interested in me. Can you name one?” Jess threw in her question in hopes of discovering a possible suspect.
“You’re right. There weren’t. They all knew you weren’t interested in dating a villager,” Sandy agreed.
“I was only here for the summers. Long distance relationships never work,” Jess answered, defending her decision as she walked over to the fireplace.
Sandy joined her.
“What’s this?” Sandy picked up a photo album from the coffee table.
“I found that old album in my room today,” Jess told her. They had a great time remembering all the times shared and treasured as they looked through the album.
“Hey, who’s that in the background?” Jess pointed to the picture of them at a bonfire party on the beach. There was a man standing in the background. It was hard to see him. The picture was dark and he stood away from the crowd out of the firelight.
“He doesn’t look familiar but it’s too dark to tell. Maybe he was a tourist walking by and got caught in the picture?” Sandy guessed.
Jess studied the photograph. He appeared to be about mid-to-late twenties, brown wavy chin-length hair, jeans and a T-shirt. There was a mark or dirt on his arm by his sleeve but she couldn’t make it out. Jess would take a closer look when Sandy left and take it back with her tomorrow. Mike could work some magic on the picture.
“I’m tired Jessie. I think I’ll head home now. Bill gets back from Seattle tomorrow. More baby-making time” Sandy grinned.
“I’m heading back tomorrow morning. I’m sorry I missed Billy. Bill.” Jess corrected herself again.
“I can’t get used to calling him Bill.” Both women laughed. “Give him my best.” Jess hugged Sandy at the front door.
“I will. Don’t be a stranger. Come visit again. I’ve missed you, Jessie.” Sandy waved goodbye as she opened the door.
“I will,” Jess said and closed the door and locked it. She’d thought she only needed to worry about ghosts. Now, she was beginning to think differently.
Immediately she went to the album and took out the photo. Who was that man? Was he a tourist or the stalker? Jess wondered. Was it coincidence that Billy used the same three words that were on her postcards? Maybe that’s why the words were familiar to her.
She’d survived a struggle with the UNSUB, only to be sent to a place where she had to deal with ghosts. Now she had to deal with a hidden secret that chilled her veins and drove her crazy. Maybe it was supposed to happen this way. Her mother always said, “Everything happens for a reason.” Nothing would stop her from digging deeper to solve it.
Chapter Six
Eric answered Tom’s call and put him on speaker. Gina told him there had been no hits on the chat groups they monitored, and Eric informed Tom about his tracking and contact with the local authorities regarding calls involving teenage girls.
“Maybe he recognized Jess and is lying low for now,” Eric guessed.
“I still believe he would have showed at the seminars if he knows who she is. Perhaps he wants to toy with us, knowing if all is quiet we will bring her back.”
“So, you’re bringing her back?” Gina asked.
“Yes, but not on the front lines; it would be a security risk.” Tom knew Jess and there was no way she would sit still doing research behind the scenes. He would have his hands full trying to protect her.
“Does Jess know you’re bringing her back as a decoy?”
Gina’s angry tone startled Tom. She’d never spoken to him that way before. He shrugged it off, understanding her concern for Jess’s safety. If anyone was more concerned and worried, it would be him. It tore at his heart to even ponder the thought of using the one he loved to lure the UNSUB into a trap; but he was the boss. He had a job to do. This predator had to be stopped before his fourth victim would suffer at his hands. Though he still felt like he was deceiving Jess. His heart was awakening and it was inevitable. He kept his desire for Jess hidden in the depths of his heart but could no longer control his love. He decided to confront his feelings and honestly tell her how he felt—after the case was closed.
“She will be protected. Remain focused on the case.” Tom directed Gina and reminded Eric to continue monitoring every call with the local authorities, then ended the call.
****
Mike arrived at his home after the seminar, emotionally drained. It was first seminar without Jess plus he was worried about her. When he opened his fridge, all he found there was leftover take-out which smelled way beyond edible. He grabbed a beer and contemplated a slice of pizza he thought might only be two days old, when his cell rang.
“Hi Mike. I thought you might need to talk like we always do after a seminar.”
“Ah…Jess I was just thinking the same.”
Mike smiled. Just the sound of her voice, and knowing she was safe was enough. Since he’d joined the FBI, she’d always been at his side. After the first seminar they did together, Jess invited him for a beer. She must have sensed he was disturbed by what they taught and by the horror in the parents’ eyes. She said they were to talk about anything but their work and when Mike said “you,” Jess sarcastically laughed and said they’d talk about the weather. It was an inside joke that continued with every seminar.
“The sun shone today where I am. What about there?”
“The moon is shining now.”
“Feel better?”
Mike laughed and said he did.
“See you tomorrow.” He heard the dial tone.
Mike’s phone vibrated and a text appeared. “Can we connect? The moon is shining here now.” To protect any security risk, Mike and Jess shared a secret place where they could chat. They only used it when absolutely necessary. Within moments, Mike signed onto his personal laptop and saw that Jess had signed into her notebook.
“Is everything okay with you?” Mike asked
“Not really. I opened a can of worms,” she told him.
“What can I do?” he asked.
“I’m sending a secure file I need your help with.”
“No problem.”
“Made by Princess”
They had a one-minute conversation on a secured site, with phony names and IP addresses encrypted. No one in the team knew about it. Mike did not feel good about it at first, but Jess reassured him they would only use it when the other person absolutely needed it. He opened the secure file. Once he was in, he knew it was her dad’s computer. He began with the folders Jess highlighted. As he read, he began to see the can of worms she mentioned and felt even more worried about her. He could have no further contact with her until she came back the next day. It would be a long night.
His exhaustion left him as he opened the folder with the postcards. A shiver raced through his veins as he read the words, “I Crave You.” He wondered if this was why Jess never opened up and talked about herself or her past. He copied the postcards into his forensics application to dissect the handwriting, compare it and also run the words through another application to cross-reference with other cases on file.
While the application process ran its course, Mike transferred the picture Jess sent into his photo application for enhancement, to draw out the man on the beach. Mike looked through the other folders that Jess highlighted but there wasn’t much information. The only folder left unopened was encrypted within
FBI security. There wasn’t much in it other than a couple of potential stalkers from the Martha’s Vineyard area Jess’s dad had begun to investigate. But since it was encrypted, there had to be something in there someone wanted to hide.
Mike worked through the night into the early morning hours and assumed he must have dozed off because when he awoke at 5:30 a.m. he was still at his desk. His computer applications flashed on the bottom of the screen and when he refreshed them he was no further ahead. The picture, although enhanced, it was ten years old, taken on a beach at night with the man in the distance. It was clearer than before; maybe Jess could recognize him now. He did see a mark on the man’s upper left arm by his T-shirt sleeve. It didn’t appear to be a tattoo or a scar, but more like a brown birthmark. He would take the photo into the FBI lab at the office. There, he might get a better look to determine whether it was a chocolate birthmark like his mom had, or if it was dirt or even sand.
The cross-reference of the words, I Crave You, had not come up in any case previously filed, and no similarity to postcards sent from a stalker, cyber-stalker, or rapist placed on a potential list or charged with a crime. He couldn’t help but think that perhaps it was just a secret admirer of Jess’s when she was a teenager and her dad was an over-protective FBI agent.
Completely exhausted, he meandered into the kitchen to make coffee. After he’d spent the night researching old files instead of researching the existing case, he needed a fix to get his ass in gear before Tom called asking for updates.
After a quick coffee and shower, he was on his way into the office and planned to talk to Jess when she got back, about her can of worms.
****
Eric waited in the car at 7:30 a.m. when Melissa appeared after several hours of preparation, and slipped into the passenger seat.
“Takes that long to take years off?” he asked and laughed as he peeled out of the driveway.
Gina rolled her eyes as though she was a typical teenage girl and looked out her window with not a flinch or a comeback.
“What? No smartass remarks left in you?”
“I’m just good at playing my part, Daddy Dearest,” she replied, stressing on the word ‘daddy.’
“Stop calling me that when no one’s around,” Eric told her again, but Gina just smiled, knowing she’d had the last word.
Just before they reached Thornhill, they reviewed the staging of the finishing touches of their plan. Today they would put their plan into action. Today was the day that Daddy/Eric was to take off on his yacht and leave Melissa home alone.
Her new friends rushed up to the car when she got out and they tried to flirt and waved to him. Eric played his part with a smile and a wink. They asked where her Porsche was and when she said it was in the shop for a tune-up, they seemed to accept her explanation. The girls immediately switched the conversation to what interested them—themselves. They said they’d already begun to plan the party at Melissa’s while her Dad was out of town, and that’s all they had chatted about the night before until 1:00 a.m. Gina wondered how they could all look so good with just a few hours’ sleep.
Her first counseling session after school was with the same counselor their first victim had gone to. There was no pattern of a particular counselor with all three victims, but their fourth potential victim was a patient of the first victim’s counselor. Yet all the counselors were situated in the Bay area of Presario Heights and Pacific Heights. She may not have had any contact from the UNSUB, but the hope was that staging Gina at the school and on the web would catch his attention. It was well-advertised that her daddy was away and Melissa would be home alone after her counseling session. Her team seemed to think that Jess’s intervention with his last victim made him lie low for the time being. Gina was more worried about Jess’s safety and still irritated that Tom would bring her back as a decoy. If he was right—and Gina felt sure he was—Jess would be in harm’s way. Her arrival back on the west coast would definitely lure him out. But Gina followed her boss’s direction and continued to play her role.
She knew that Eric must now be at the waterfront marina to board the yacht. He would leave on the yacht, and then switch with a decoy once out of sight. He would then head back to the house and watch from a distance. His job was to protect his partner at all costs. Mike and Tom would be at FBI Headquarters, and Jess would join them later in the day, Tom confirmed the night before. They all had their posts set up, and hopefully they would finally catch the UNSUB.
****
It was 3:00 a.m. on the east coast and Jess was packed, waiting for her driver. Her flight was leaving at 5:00 a.m. and she would back in San Francisco by one o’clock. Two days at the beach house were emotionally exhausting and terrifying to her. In the last forty-eight hours, she finally dealt with her parents’ deaths and discovered a part of her past she hadn’t known about.
A knock on the door alerted Jess that her driver arrived. She grabbed her purse and bag and hollered toward the front door, “I’ll be right there.” She took one more look around the beach home, then said, “Goodbye, Mom and Dad.” She realized she felt relieved at finally dealing with and accepting their deaths. She also felt a sense of ease that she had come back to her place of peace, and now felt she could return at any time. She smiled as she walked to the front door. She unlocked the chain and the deadbolt and opened the door. Jess almost jumped out of her skin at the man standing at her door. She gasped at what she saw before her. Jess stood frozen in time as she stared into the eyes of a dead man.
Chapter Seven
Mike pulled into the underground FBI parking garage. He parked his car and noticed Tom’s car wasn’t in its space. That’s odd, he thought, and then remembered Jess’s dad’s files. It was the perfect opportunity for him to run a few investigations before Tom arrived.
He wanted to run the picture of the man on the beach through a few programs that might enhance it—especially the mark on the upper left arm. Also, he wanted to see how far he could hack into Jess’s dad’s secure files. Jess should be back at headquarters around one o’clock and he hoped to have something to tell her.
In the forensics lab, Mike re-analyzed the photograph with microscopic analyzing. He hoped the process of enlarging it would show further critical detail. First he had to scan it to digitize it because it was an old conventional photograph. After doing so, he was absolutely sure the mark vaguely seen on the man’s arm in the photograph was a birthmark. The face did not become much clearer than the original photograph but maybe Jess would recognize the hair or facial structure. He took it back to his desk while he made another attempt to hack into her dad’s secured files. He walked past Tom’s office and saw that it remained dark and empty. This worried him. Mike pulled out his cell and dialed Tom’s number. It went right to voicemail. He then tried Tom’s home number, but it rang five or six times and went to voicemail. He told himself not to be alarmed, but Tom was always at the office before anyone else. Mike figured he would give it some time. Tom would probably be in soon, and he did not want to send out a false alarm to Eric or Gina as he knew they were already in their undercover positions. He decided he would work on the secure files while setting up the tracking investigations on the UNSUB. He had more than enough to keep himself busy.
Simultaneously Mike set up two laptops in their situation room at the headquarters for his research. On one, he signed into various social networking sites and chat rooms so he could monitor any action. Even though schools were now in session, today’s teenagers still found a way to interact in the cyber world during class. He often wondered if the schools or parents were aware of how much time their teens spent texting or surfing at school. On the other computer, he signed into the FBI records and again tried to hack Jess’s dad’s secured files. He also wanted to research more on Mark Withers, even though he had been killed in a car accident. Perhaps he had researched Jess’s potential stalker and her par
ents’ deaths.
Mike read that Agent Mark Withers died in a single car accident the previous summer in San Francisco. He had been with the FBI in the Washington office but had moved to the west coast after his retirement. The FBI internal records showed that his career began in Washington in Internet security and his supervisor was Special Supervisory Agent Nick Resario, Jess’s dad. There were internal records of the cases the two men worked on and behind them was an encrypted record. Mike hacked into the encrypted file. As he read, he discovered the two men started a case on their own, without FBI approval.
The first memo, written from Agent Nick Resario to Agent Mark Withers, was in regard to his suspicion that his seventeen-year-old daughter was being stalked. Attached to it, were copies of the first two postcards with, “I Crave You,” hand-printed on both and with “Jessica” hand-printed on the opposite side, with no postage affixed. There was also an FBI memo written to Agent Nick Resario from the Washington FBI office stating they believed it to be a teenage prank, but if anything further happened they would discuss it again. This did not appear to sit well with Agent Nick Resario from further memos Mike read addressed to Agent Mark Withers. There was nothing else in the file besides the memos and the postcards.
Mike began to believe that it wasn’t just a father’s protective way. The two agents prepared a profile and were looking into stalkers and potential predators. After the second postcard arrived, Resario sent a memo to Withers with a picture attached.
When the picture came up on the screen, Mike paused and then reached for the folder on the desk behind him. He grabbed the picture he had just enhanced of the man with the birthmark on his upper left arm. “It’s the same man!” Mike swore as he compared both pictures. He searched through the memo but there was no name associated with the picture. Resario wrote in his memo that he took the picture from the deck of his beach home because the man appeared a few times on the beach but did not appear to be a tourist, was always alone, and appeared when his daughter and her friends were on the beach. Agent Withers replied in another memo that he ran the picture through FBI records and found no matches.