Chapter Six
“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Sebastian demanded. “Gone as in missing, or gone as in he’s dead?” He could barely speak as he waited for the fateful news.
“I’m sorry, he’s missing,” Alec clarified. “Janet and two other cops are dead. Wyatt is missing. There were signs of a struggle so whatever went down, your killer didn’t just walk in there and snatch the boy.”
“Damn, how could you let this happen? You told me you were going to take them to a safe house.” Sebastian growled at his partner.
“How the hell do I know how it happened?” Alec exploded. “I did take him to a safe house. I personally picked out two of the best cops I knew to watch over your son and your mother-in-law. I even went over there and had supper with them last night after work.” Alec paused to catch his breath. “Damn it, he must have followed me over there.”
“He must have left here in time to follow you over to the safe house. Then he came back here to finish off Sable and he went back to kidnap Wyatt.” Sebastian reasoned.
Alec didn’t answer for a moment and when he did, it was to say, “I assumed this bastard was in or around Baton Rouge. I wasn’t expecting him to be anywhere near here. He got to your son because I got sloppy. I’m sorry. I fucked up and now I have to tell Sally Carter and Meg Keller that their husbands won’t be coming home.”
Sebastian felt a moment of regret for his friends. “I’m sorry man, but a killer has my son.”
“I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to blow up at you. What can I do to help?” Alec asked.
“Did you find Nick Granger?” Sebastian asked.
“He is on the missing list, but his neighbors aren’t too worried. He’s often gone for weeks at a time. There is still no word on Paul Moran. What are you going to do about Wyatt?” Alec asked. “Hang on a minute, I gotta a call from the Captain.” The line went dead for a moment and when Alec came back, he was growling. “That fucker not only got Wyatt last night but he took another woman too. He was caught on security tape struggling with her and putting her in his car. It was almost like he didn’t care if he was caught or not.”
“I don’t think he did care,” Sebastian admitted. “I think you’ll find her name is Kelly.”
A moment of silence then Alec asked, “How the fuck did you know that?”
“He told me in the letter he sent me. He told me he had my son and he had taken another woman and her name was Kelly.”
“Fuck me,” Alec whispered. “He must have been watching her for weeks and we never knew it. That’s what the Captain wanted me to tell you. He took another woman, her name is Kelly Walker. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll hear from him again. I’ll let you know when I find something out.” Sebastian ended the call. He looked at the others. “That bastard has my son. He killed my mother-in-law and two cops Alec sent to watch over them. Then on top of all that, he took another woman. He left evidence on a security tape.”
“Why would he do that?” Ian asked. “He’s kept any and all records of his escapades off grid until now. Why would he break his rules now?”
“This is all a smoke screen to draw Sebastian into playing his twisted little game,” Jesse informed them.
“You said earlier that you found out what he looked like from the tape Callie brought over.” Rob reminded him. He wasn’t trying to distract Sebastian but they needed to know who or what to look for.
Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, I know what he looks like. Didn’t you find it odd that three relative strangers all claim that they knew you Jesse? I know I did.” Sebastian picked up the tape and the photo off the sofa beside him. Handing the photo to Rob, he waited for their reaction.
Rob looked at the photo then handed it to Ian. Ian looked at it and handed it to Jesse.
After Jesse viewed the damning photo, he looked at the other three. “This is not a photo of me.”
They all saw the similarities, yet there were subtle differences. Both men had the same square face type, but the man in the photo had a scar above his left eyebrow and his eyes were slightly different. His eyes were cold.
“Do you have a twin brother?” Rob asked.
“No, I’m an only child,” Jesse stated. He sighed heavily and finally he knew he had to admit what he’d been trying so hard to hide. “But I do have a first cousin that is often mistaken for my twin.”
“Excuse me?” Ian interjected. He was astonished by this news.
Jesse had known this killer all along.
Sebastian made a low growling sound in his throat and looked as if he was ready to spring at the other man.
Rob had to put his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder to stop him. When Sebastian glared at Rob, Rob just shook his head. “Give him a chance to explain before you punch him.”
* * * *
“It’s complicated, so bear with me while I explain.” Jesse ran his hands through his hair while he thought about what he would tell them about his family. He knew what he was about to tell them wouldn’t look good in any light but he had to try and make them understand. “My father has an identical twin brother, Ethan. They married identical twin sisters, Emily and Joyce. My parents had me and Ethan and Joyce had a son they called Tucker. We were born in the same month about three weeks apart. I’m the younger one. Tucker and I have always been mistaken for twins because we look so much alike.”
“So the killer has a name, Tucker Cooper,” Sebastian murmured as the rage inside him grew.
“He prefers to be called Tucker Briggs,” Jesse told them.
“Why?” Rob asked. He looked at the photo again and found the resemblance a little unnerving.
Jesse sighed again. “Twins do everything together. They work together, play together, eat together, they even sometimes think together. Our two families were like that. Our parents both being twins, never had any reason to change. Tucker and I weren’t twins and that fact somehow escaped our parents. They didn’t know how to deal with it so they ignored it until it became a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Ian asked.
“Tucker went out of his way to stress his individuality. When he was a boy, he would cause trouble just to get his parent’s attention. Just little things mind you but it was enough to get attention focused on just him. When he got a little older, he began setting small fires. No one really got hurt and the fires were never out of control, but he was.” Jesse paused in his story to think about how to tell them about the next phase in Tucker’s destruction.
“What changed that turned him from a prankster to a killer?” Sebastian asked already fearing the worst.
“Ethan and Joyce had another baby. Tucker was about fifteen when his mother got pregnant. This time, they were going to have a set of twins. Everyone was so excited about the babies that they forgot all about Tucker’s little problem. Things got really bad there for a while.”
“What pushed him over the edge? What made him a killer?” Sebastian demanded.
Jesse dreaded telling them this part of the story. His own part in what happened next only made things with his cousin all the worse. After what happened next, there was never a second chance for Tucker. “Like I said, we were fifteen and in chemistry class when one of the school’s big mouth’s found out about the twins due to be born any day. He started teasing Tucker about having a reason now for his being such a wimp, and that he would have to be sure and teach the new babies how to follow in their big brother’s footsteps.” Jesse ran his fingers through his hair again. “You have to understand something. When Tucker found out that the babies were coming he was furious. His own sense of self deteriorated after that. He felt invisible and John Orland’s words pounded home that fact. Tucker looked to me for help against John and I just pretended I didn’t hear what was being said. Hell, John had half the school afraid to walk on the same side of the hall as he did. Tucker and I were only fifteen.”
“What happened?” Rob asked.
“Tucker went over to his chem. lab table and began mixing chemicals together while the teacher was giving us our assignment. I was his partner but I wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing, I was listening to the teacher. The next thing I knew, Tucker walked over to when John was sitting and threw a formula in his face. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone scream the way John did that day. Whatever Tucker had mixed up had done the trick. The solution burned John’s face so badly that he ended up in the hospital. He barely survived the attack.”
“Is he alive today?” Ian asked.
Jesse shook his head. “No, he couldn’t live with the way his face looked after the solution was washed away. It took most of his face. John ended up committing suicide a year or so later.”
“What happened to Tucker?” Sebastian asked.
“Rather than go to jail for assault, he ran away. Our parents tried to find him, but when Tucker makes up his mind about something, he doesn’t often change it. He felt he had no place at home and the only time I spoke to him since then, he made it very clear that he wasn’t coming back.”
“What tipped you off that he might be the killer?” Ian asked.
Jesse took a deep breath. “It was the design he was leaving on his victims. When I was about seven or eight, I had a dog. When he died, Tucker and I were devastated. Tucker sat down the day we buried the dog and drew the design for the headstone. It was so cool back then. We had his dad burn it on a piece of wood we used to mark where the dog was buried.” He paused then added, “Now he uses that same design to mark the people he kills.”
“I don’t get it. As far as I can tell there’s no set pattern, it’s all a bunch of lines and squiggles.” Rob said.
Jesse shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re looking at. Look, I’ll show you.” He went over to his briefcase and pulled out one of the photos inside. Then he went over to the one way glass and held up the picture. The reflection on the glass showed exactly what Rob said it would a bunch of squiggly lines and curves. Jesse reached for a marker and began connecting the lines and soon a pattern began to merge.
The pattern showed a headstone of sorts with a name inside. The name inside this headstone was Paula. She was one of his first victims. Not only did he torture his victims, he marked each one with their own headstone.
“Why wasn’t this information ever known before? Why did you keep it a secret?” Ian demanded. He didn’t know what he was going to do about this latest turn of events. It seemed that both men had a personal reason for hunting this killer and that could be an advantage or a disadvantage. Ian knew that Jesse’s story didn’t show him in a good light but his willingness to try and stop his cousin could. They would have to wait and see what developed next. He glanced over at Sebastian and saw the hatred in his eyes. Ian had to wonder if the hatred was for Jesse or his cousin Tucker.
Jesse put the photo down on Ian’s desk. “I kept hoping that I would be the one to find him. If I could then maybe, I could get him the help he needs. He is still part of my family.”
“He has my six year old son and another woman in tow. Will he kill a child?” Sebastian insisted on knowing.
“He hasn’t yet, but I don’t know what he’s capable of doing anymore,” Jesse spoke frankly. He needed to gain back the trust his story and his connection to the killer had lost.
“Does anyone in the FBI know about your connection with this killer?” Ian asked.
Jesse nodded. “My boss, Clayton Wakefield knows. I had to tell him when I figured out it was Tucker we were looking for. He was going to pull me off the case but I told him I was the only one that could find him. We grew up together and no one knew him better than I did. Clayton agreed to my staying on the case but he told me that he was going to watch me closely. He insisted that I check in with him on a regular basis.”
Ian nodded and stared at Jesse. “As long as your intent is to stop him, not assist him I’ll hold off passing judgment, but now you’ve got two people watching your every move.” He looked at Sebastian too. “If I have any concerns about either of you I yank you both off the case.” He reached for the phone. “I’m calling the boat patrol and see if they’ve found anything yet. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
* * * *
As the morning slid into afternoon and there was still no word about Wyatt, Sebastian felt like he was going crazy. He drifted in and out of sleep and the fact that he was weak yet bothered him as well. He wanted to be out on the street pounding on doors, at least making the effort to find his son. Instead, he was stuck in the station, waiting for news. He had already decided the waiting was the worst. As a cop, he could handle the searching, because he knew that maybe around the next corner, he might find what he was looking for, but the waiting while others searched was enough to drive him insane. He knew he had to keep himself busy to stop the wondering about what that bastard was doing to his son and the woman he took.
Alec had called back and Sebastian had had nothing new to tell him. Sebastian asked Alec to send him the rest of the files they had on this killer. As long as he had to wait, he figured he might as well be busy doing something. The files had been emailed a couple of hours ago and Sebastian was already going through them. Sebastian having copied the files and pictures out, so he wouldn’t have to strain his eyes on the computer.
He was on the Robin Myron case. The first two cases hadn’t really told him anything new, or at least he wasn’t seeing anything new. As he opened the Myron case file, a picture fell out. Sebastian reached down to pick it up and had to stop to catch his breath. The picture was of his wife Carolyn. It had been snapped at the Fourth of July picnic, just two weeks before her death.
Carolyn was sitting on the merry-go-round in the park near their home. She looked so relaxed and carefree and the love in her eyes for him made him realize just how much he missed her. The full pain of her loss slammed his heart, crushing his senses.
How the photograph of Carolyn ended up in the Myron file, Sebastian didn’t know. That was the day they had found the body of Sandy Danvers. Sebastian suddenly sat up. He remembered something. He, Carolyn and Wyatt had been in the park that day having a picnic when someone came running up to him. A body had been found and everyone in the area knew he was a cop.
He had called it in to the precinct and while they were waiting for the Crime Scene Unit to get there, it looked like it could rain, so Sebastian began snapping pictures of the crime scene, just in case the rain came and washed away whatever evidence was there. Just about the time the photos were done, the rain came and with it came no chance to collect the evidence. Sebastian’s photos were all the police had of the crime scene. Carolyn’s photo must have gotten shoved into the file by mistake.
Sebastian needed to see the rest of the photo’s he took that day. He reached for the phone and called Alec. The Sandy Danvers file wasn’t in the files Alec had sent earlier.
Alec answered on the first ring, “Hunter.”
“Alec, this is Sebastian.”
“Has there been any word on Wyatt?” Alec asked.
“No, nothing yet, I only wish there were. I want him back with me. I called to ask you to send the photos of the Sandy Danvers file.”
“Why? What does Sandy Danvers have to do with the killer?”
“I don’t know, maybe nothing, but when I opened the Robin Myron case, file a picture of Carolyn fell out. I remembered that it was the day of the picnic that we found Sandy’s body. CSU couldn’t get to the crime scene before the rain and I ended up taking the photos. Maybe there is something in them that will link the two crimes together. It’s a long shot but right now, it’s all I’ve got. I need something to keep me from thinking about what he’s doing to Wyatt and the woman. I need to concentrate on that, so I don’t go crazy.”
“I’ll have those photos to you as fast as I can get the file.” He paused and then said, “I hope you know that I would never put your son in any danger. I know I screwed up by not watching for someone following but I never meant to put Wyatt or anyone else in danger.”
Sebastian didn’t hesitate. “I know that and I was wrong to accuse you earlier. I know you love Wyatt almost as much as I do. Blame it on a father’s love, or on the fact that I’ve had a hell of a week and I was in a lot of pain. Don’t worry, we’ll find him, we have to. I can’t imagine anything else. Just fax those photos right away.”
“I will, and Sebastian,” Alec paused. “If you get your hands on the bastard, kill him once for me. Do not let him go.”
Sebastian huffed. “I don’t think escape is even an option. He has a lot to answer for and when I find him, he’ll pay.”
He then went over the Robin Myron case again and again while he waited for the photos from Alec to come in. Somehow, the two cases were related but he didn’t know how. Sandy Danvers’ killer had been her ex-boyfriend Toby Rains. That had been a case of domestic dispute gone bad. What possible connection that case had with this one escaped him. He’d gone over and over the crime scene photo’s until he couldn’t look at them anymore and still there was nothing he could find.
Sebastian got up to check the computer and his photos were already there. He printed them out and took them back to his desk then checked each one over carefully. He even looked over the fine detail with a magnifying glass. If there was something there, he didn’t find it. He threw the glass down in frustration.
He took a deep breath and got up to get a drink. A cup of coffee would taste good right now and he needed the stimulation. He saw Jesse just leaving the station and wondered if there was any news on Wyatt yet. Sebastian turned to check with Ian and found Jesse standing in the office door. He was stunned as the realization hit him. He turned toward the door and began running, calling out for the others.
Sebastian shoved the door open and hit the streets. Looking both ways, he thought he saw the telltale black cowboy hat down the street to his right. Rob, Jesse, and Ian were right behind him with their guns drawn.
“What’s going on?” Rob asked from two steps behind Sebastian.
“Tucker Briggs just paid us a visit,” Sebastian told them as he dodged the people on the street. He didn’t want to lose sight of the cowboy hat, but the traffic on the street was making it impossible to keep it in his line of vision.
When they got to the corner, Sebastian looked around again. The black cowboy hat was nowhere in sight. Frantically, he looked again, but the hat was gone. “Damn, where did he go?” He grabbed his chest wincing in pain as he tried to catch his breath.
“Whoa, wait a minute.” Ian grabbed his arm. “What did you say before?”
Sebastian turned and jerked his arm out of Ian grasp. “I was at the coffee pot and I looked up and thought I saw Jesse just leaving the building. I turned around to go back to your office and I saw Jesse standing in your doorway. The Jesse I saw leaving could only have been Tucker Briggs, so I gave chase. Now I’ve lost him again. Damn it.” Then he turned to Jesse. “Unless you have another cousin or brother that looks exactly like you and wears a black cowboy hat?”
Jesse put his gun away and sighed deeply. “No, that would be Tucker. I wonder what he was doing at the station.”
Rob and Ian put their weapons away as well. “Let’s go find out.” Rob said.
If the man had been Tucker Briggs, he was getting bolder almost brazen. His behavior was certainly unexpected.
When they entered the station house, Sebastian strode up to the front desk and asked the man behind the desk, “Did Jesse Cooper leave anything with you just a few minutes ago?”
Officer Larry Paulson nodded and reached behind him for the envelope Jesse had just left. Handing it over he said, “I thought it was strange that he would leave it with me.”
Sebastian pursed his lips. “It wasn’t Jesse that left it, it was the killer we’re after.”
Larry looked from Sebastian to Ian and Rob.
Rob just shook his head and followed everyone into Ian’s office to read the letter.
Sebastian ripped open the letter and began reading it. By the time he finished, he was scowling. Handing the letter to Rob, he simply walked away. He was in a dangerous mood right now and he didn’t want to hurt anyone. He went back to the desk he was using and glanced down at all the paperwork he’d been doing. The magnifying glass had fallen just right, and through it, he found himself looking at a man helping someone into a car. The woman looked like she was sleeping but what caught Sebastian’s attention was the black cowboy hat the man was wearing.
Sebastian grabbed the picture and looked at it again. The man he now knew as Tucker Briggs was standing there as big as life. That was what the connection was between the two cases and why Tucker had come after him in the first place.
Sebastian turned to go back into the office. His earlier rage was still there but now he had a reason why Tucker had zeroed in on him. “I got the creep. Now I know why he came after me.”
“Why?” Jesse asked as Sebastian handed him the photograph.
“I caught him on film at another crime scene. He’s helping his next victim into her own car. This picture was taken at a Fourth of July picnic, and it was three days later we found the woman in the car dead. That was exactly two weeks before he murdered my wife.”
“But how would he know that you got his picture?” Jesse asked.
“He was at the park when someone discovered a dead body. He could have heard the commotion when someone called out to call 911. I was there at the park that day with my family. I rushed to the scene and announced that I was a cop and he could have noticed I was taking pictures of everything and anything that day.” Sebastian shrugged. “Maybe he couldn’t take the chance that I didn’t take his picture that day. I didn’t exactly hide the fact I was a cop and it looked like the skies were going to dump rain on us at any minute. I took those pictures just before it rained. Rain has a way of washing away any evidence that may or may not be there.”