by Susan Harper
“Whitney is a terrible swimmer!” Brittany said. “We have to find her!”
“Sweetheart,” Agent Toft spoke gently. “We don’t know how long ago this video was shot. She might be—”
“No!” Brittany pulled away from Jack and Jefferson and pointed a finger in the agent’s face. “That creep put this video in here for a reason. He wants us to try to find Whitney! It’s a game! A sick, twisted game!”
“Maybe he left us some sort of clue?” Felicity asked, glancing around the room. The group seemed to awaken from their horrified trances and dispersed immediately. Looking for something—anything—that the killer might have left to tell them where Whitney was.
Felicity looked back at the video. The camera was starting to pan out. “Wait!” Felicity exclaimed, leaping forward as the video skimmed the interior of the well’s wall. She paused the video. “Jack, look!”
Jack came by her, kneeling in front of the television. There were names carved all over the well, but two names were carved inside the top rim of the well within a heart: “Jack + Felicity”
“I know that well!” Jack exclaimed. “We used to hang out there back in high school. It’s not far from downtown Tyrone.”
“Call Agent Ryan right now!” Felicity shouted. “Get me on the phone with him, and tell him to send a team to get Whitney!”
Agent Toft nodded in agreement, and he and Felicity hurried to the landline so that she could explain the exact location of the old well that Whitney was trapped in. Agent Ryan thanked Felicity for her intel and then informed Agent Toft that a team was arriving to escort all of them away from the safe house and back to the station in Senoia until they could find a safer location.
They didn’t have to wait long. Two large, black SUVs arrived outside of the safe house. Felicity, Jack, Brittany, and Jefferson went in one. Monte, Dawn, Autumn, and Veronica took the second. Felicity and Jefferson sat by one another, Jack and Brittany behind them. Brittany sniffled a good bit during their ride while Jack attempted to comfort her. “The killer knew I would recognize that well,” Felicity said. “How did they know we carved our names in that thing all the way back in high school?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “This guy knows way too much about us for someone who was just following us in the news. He must know us personally.”
“That’s unsettling,” Felicity said.
Agent Toft was seated in the passenger’s seat of the vehicle. He was on the phone, and they could hear him saying under his breath, “Yes, sir. Of course. I’ll let them know.” He hung up and turned in his seat. “Miss Lull,” he called to Brittany in the back. “They got Whitney. She was still in the well.”
“Is she okay?” Brittany asked.
“Yes, well, mostly. She’s alive, but she’s being transported to the hospital. That’s all we know right now. Agent Ryan says he will try to have more information for you when we reach Senoia,” he said, and Felicity could hear Brittany sigh with relief.
They arrived at the Senoia station within the hour, and were all taken to the chief’s office where Agent Ryan was waiting for them. He smiled and nodded toward some chairs they had set up in the office, encouraging them all to take a seat. “How is Whitney doing?” Brittany asked.
“She might have some minor brain trauma after her near drowning experience. She was unconscious and under water when we reached her, but my people were able to revive her quickly. We just don’t know the extent of it just yet. She was in a lot of pain, so the hospital placed her in a medically-induced coma until they can flush some of the water out of her lungs. I’ve been assured that she is going to be all right by medical staff, but until her condition improves, she will be staying in her coma. For her, that’s probably a good thing, but for us, that means she can’t tell us who took her,” Agent Ryan said.
“At least she’s going to be okay,” Brittany said. “That’s all that matters.”
“But now we have a new problem,” Agent Ryan said and turned toward Felicity. “I am sorry, but Brian Studford was abducted from within the courthouse before my agents could get to him. All we have is the back of some man’s head on camera, and we see that Brian left willingly with him. But based on body type and the fact that a witness has told us that Brian was forced by gunpoint into a vehicle once they reached the parking lot, we have no doubt that he left the building with our killer.”
Felicity could feel herself starting to shake. “You promised you would protect him,” she said, feeling tears starting to form. She was thankful that she was seated, otherwise she was certain she would have fallen. Felicity felt Autumn grab her arm in a way that was both reassuring and encouraged her to remain sitting upright. “He’s going to try to kill Brian now too, isn’t he?”
Agent Ryan sat down in the empty chair on her other side. “I need you to keep your head on straight,” he said and placed a laminated piece of paper in front of her. “This was zip-tied to Whitney’s ankle when we pulled her from the well.”
It was similar to the paper that had been delivered to Felicity and Brian’s home. On one side were everyone’s faces in rows—some with the words “You Win” written across them. The only difference now was that Whitney’s face now had a red X across it, as though the killer believed Whitney was dead, and now Brian’s face was circled.
“Turn it over,” Agent Ryan said.
Felicity turned the page over, and once again she saw the strange symbols with the words “Ask Overton” written at the bottom. Felicity let out a loud scream and slammed the laminated page down on the table. “I don’t know what this is!” she screamed, and tears flowed down her cheeks. “It’s just a bunch of weird symbols!”
“Well, our killer thinks that you do,” Agent Ryan said.
“Wait,” Autumn said, grabbing the page. “I know what this is.”
“What!” Felicity exclaimed. “Enlighten me, because this creep has been using this coded system to mess with me!”
“Felicity, this is our coded system. Don’t you remember back in elementary and middle school, how we used to pass notes back and forth to one another? It was in case we got caught, so no one could read it,” Autumn said. “We are the ones who created this!”
“Can you read it?” Agent Ryan asked.
“I haven’t seen this since we were thirteen,” Autumn admitted.
Felicity stared at the strange lettering. “It’s coming back to me. I had forgotten all about this. We used it for only a couple of years. How would the killer know about this?”
“I don’t know,” Agent Ryan said. “But it is certainly revolutionary information in helping us narrow down a suspect. This code was on the back of the note at your home, so it’s possible he is telling you where to find his victims. The first note probably told you where to find Whitney, and when you didn’t figure it out, he sent the video. This one probably tells you where to find Brian. That’s my guess, at least.”
“We have to try to transcribe this!” Felicity snapped at Autumn.
“I think these are numbers,” Autumn said. “We had a symbol for every letter of the alphabet and then for numbers one through nine. These are numbers.”
The two of them went back and forth debating on what each symbol had meant to their childhood selves, but ultimately, the two women discovered that the killer had given them a longitude and latitude. Agent Ryan typed the specific longitude and latitude into the chief’s desktop computer. “It’s right in the middle of the Senoia park,” Agent Ryan said. He rose from his seat. “I’m sending a team now. Based on how he marked out Whitney’s face, he thinks he succeeded. If he finds out that Whitney is still alive, our killer might escalate. We need to move.” Agent Ryan shouted out the name of some of his agents, and they stood at the ready to dart down the road to the Senoia park.
“I’m coming with you,” Felicity said, and Agent Ryan stopped her.
“No, you’re not. Leave this to the FBI, Nancy Drew,” Agent Ryan said sternly. “You all need to stay here where you can
be monitored by my agents and local police. You’re not going anywhere. No one leaves this room…” He paused and looked at Jack. “Except maybe you. I need a favor.”
“Oh?” Jack asked.
“I need you to interview your Aunt Nadine,” Agent Ryan said, and Jack paled.
“Forget you.” Jack snorted and crossed his arms. “I’m not talking to her.”
“She’s up from surgery, and she says she won’t talk to anyone but you,” Agent Ryan said. “She cussed out one of my agents and dumped coffee on your partner when he went to talk to her during her lunch at the hospital. I’ll send some armed escorts with you to the hospital.”
Jack looked mortified. “I don’t want to talk to her. That woman killed my sister! I haven’t spoken to her since she was arrested.”
“She saw our killer’s face,” Agent Ryan said. “And the killer is targeting your friends. We need you to talk to her.”
Jack looked like he would fall out of his seat. Felicity reached across the table and touched his hand. “I’ll go with him,” she said.
“Me too,” Jefferson said and placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder.
Agent Ryan frowned. “Fine,” he said. “But that’s it. The rest of you are staying right here where we can keep an eye on everyone.” Agent Ryan turned to his team. “We need to move right now. If this is anything like what our killer did to Whitney, we have a time limit to find Brian.”
Chapter 9
Felicity wished that she could be more focused, but she was far from it. Her mind was at the Senoia park, and with Brian. She was imagining a thousand different scenarios regarding Brian. Jack stood at Nadine’s bedside with a scowl on his face as he reached around for a chair to sit. Jefferson stood by him as moral support. Felicity wanted to be more supportive than what she was being, for she knew this had to be difficult for Jack, but she couldn’t help but continuously glance out the door of the hospital room where a number of police and FBI escorts were. She kept expecting them to get a call; Agent Ryan had promised her this much—that as soon as they found Brian, she would be informed.
Nadine had on this satisfied grin as Jack scooted his chair next to her. “Jack, it’s really good to see you,” she began.
“Save it, Nadine,” he hissed. “You think holding out information to get me here is funny? You know I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”
“Can you cut me a little bit of slack? I was shot,” she said.
“No,” Jack growled.
“We are family, you know?” she said.
Jack crossed his arms. “You married my uncle. You and I are not family,” he said. “And he left you after what you did to my sister. Whatever you were to me before is gone now. If you want any sort of redemption, start talking about what happened to you on that prison escort.”
Nadine sighed. “You and I used to be close when you were little. I really hate that—”
“You pushed my little sister off a building!” Jack shouted. “Stop playing around. I’m not here to try to mend whatever relationship we used to have. I am here for information, and that is it.”
“Fine,” Nadine said. “I’m not sure if there is anything I can offer you to help you find this lunatic.”
“You saw his face?” Jack asked.
“No. He was wearing a mask,” Nadine said.
“He had come on a mission to kill all of the women in that bus,” Jack said. “What made him change his mind and kidnap Whitney? Tell me.”
“I think it was something that Whitney said,” Nadine explained. “He was ranting about finishing what Felicity Overton started. Screaming about justice. Going off on this crazy rant about us getting what we deserved, but he was really focused on Overton. About fulfilling her mission or whatever. Really, he sounded nuts. Whitney, the little creep, hid underneath Candice after she passed out from being shot. Whitney started screaming at him to leave her alone. She said something about Felicity doing the job that the police and FBI couldn’t handle, and that’s when he snapped. He got so angry... I mean, really angry. There was this horrible hate in his eyes. Before, it had seemed almost like a fun mission to him, but after she said that, he lost it. I thought for sure he was going to kill us all then, but instead he grabbed Whitney and dragged her out of the back of the van. That’s all I remember before I passed out from the blood loss.”
“So Whitney makes a jab at law enforcement, and then he just changed his motive?” Jack questioned.
“Looks that way,” Nadine said. “There was a definite change in him after she made that comment about the police and the FBI. She said that Overton was going to handle this case too and catch him and put him away. Then he just changed. It was like he was a different person.”
“I need to call Agent Ryan and let him know,” Felicity said. She slipped out into the hallway, taking a few steps away from the police lingering by the door—keeping an eye on Nadine, mostly. She dialed the man’s number, and his voice was somewhat raspy as he answered.
“Overton?” he asked.
“We got something from Nadine,” Felicity said. “Apparently, Whitney said something to him along the lines of me having to do the job the police and FBI should be doing. After that, he lost his temper and decided to take Whitney instead of killing her. Nadine says it was like he became a different person.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Agent Ryan said. “The taunting would explain why the killer escalated and went from missionary killer to revenge killer. It’s what I expected.”
“What is it you expected exactly?” Felicity asked.
“That our killer is law enforcement,” Agent Ryan said. “We’ll have to discuss this more when we return to the station.”
“Now tell me if you found Brian,” Felicity said firmly, and she noted that Ryan became quiet. She felt a knot form in her throat, and tears began to flow down her cheeks. “What happened? Is he hurt?” she asked, and she could hear her own voice croak.
“I am very sorry, Miss Overton,” Agent Ryan said after a long pause, his voice full of remorse.
“What happened?” she asked and pulled the phone away from her mouth for a moment to let out a desperate breath that she didn’t want Ryan to hear. “Tell me what happened,” she said as she allowed her mouth to return to the phone to speak.
Ryan sighed before explaining. “The coordinates were right. We wound up in the Senoia park.” He paused again and Felicity wanted to scream, demand that he tell her what was going on. Ryan cleared his throat and she could hear him take a breath. “Brian was buried alive in a wooden casket. We’ll have to get more information from his autopsy, but we believe he died from suffocation.”
“That can’t be right,” Felicity said as she grabbed her head to try to stop the sudden dizziness. “You have to be mistaken,” she heard herself say. She felt like she had somehow left her body and was watching someone else fall apart instead of herself. “This isn’t happening,” she said, gasping for breath. “Surely he’s not dead…he’s just unconscious…just like Whitney was. He’s going to be okay, just like Whitney.”
Felicity began to shake uncontrollably and finally her body gave in. She started to sob. Suddenly, someone was snatching the phone away from her. She turned to see that Jack, Jefferson, Officer Steven, and Officer Patrick had all come up to her while the rest of the agents and police had remained by the door of Nadine’s room. Jack was gripping the cell phone. He spoke into it. “Agent Ryan?” Jack asked. “Yeah, it’s Jack Hudson. We’re going to be a minute, but we’ll meet you back at the station.” Jack hung up.
Felicity desperately tried to wipe her eyes. “Brian’s dead,” she said, her hands covering her face.
Jefferson’s face went white as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. Jack wrapped himself around them both. The three of them stood in a tight embrace while Patrick and Steven stood uncomfortably aside. “We’re so sorry for your loss, Felicity,” Officer Steven said.
“Yeah,” Patrick added anxiously. “Umm, I r
eally hate to say this, but Steven and I just got called to go handle a domestic dispute down the road. We have to run. But we’re here for you if you need us. The agents will escort you three back to the station.”
Jack nodded and released Felicity and Jefferson. He shook Patrick’s hand and jokingly muttered, “Did you replace me, Patrick?”
“You’re constantly being put on sabbatical because of your personal involvement,” Patrick said. “And Steven’s partner has been out sick all week. Don’t worry, though. You’re still my partner if you ever manage to find a case you’re actually allowed to work.”
“Shut up, Patrick,” Jack said as his two fellow boys in blue departed.
Felicity was now openly sobbing. She pulled away from Jefferson and wiped her face. “Give us a minute, Jack,” Jefferson said and took her by the arm, pulling her a short distance down the hall away from prying ears. They found a bench and sat down while Felicity attempted to collect herself.
She took several deep breaths, and Jefferson touched her shoulder. “I am so sorry, Felicity,” he began. “I know Brian and I were not exactly friends, but he was a good man. He didn’t deserve this. He is probably one of the few good men out there who would actually deserve someone like you.”
“Thank you, Jefferson,” Felicity said. She sat upright and closed her eyes, leaning back into the bench. “I can’t believe he’s gone. Just like that. Who could do this?”
“I don’t know,” Jefferson said. “But you better believe we’re going to catch who’s doing this. I promise you that.”
Felicity opened her eyes, feeling a strange sense of calm. “Yes, we are,” she said. After giving herself another moment, she pulled out her phone. “I need to call Ryan again really quick.” She dialed the number.
Agent Ryan again answered. “Miss Overton? Are you all right? I’m sorry I had to deliver that news over the phone.”