Knights v Hunters: The Choice

An hour later, Rafe arrived with half of the task team to the Adams’ home after being summoned by Sara Adams. There, Detectives Peck and Channing were confronted with the bleak realisation that their colleagues had been killed in the line of duty. The fact that one of the killers had himself been killed, brought little relief, since they still had no idea why John and Sara Adams were being targeted. By this time, John Adams had returned home and realised that he had a lot of explaining to do to his wife. Would Sara understand? Would she even believe him? He got his answer when Detective Channing was questioning his wife.

“Mrs Adams, how many men were in the house?”

“One. He came through an open window upstairs. He had expected John to also be at home and was surprised when he didn’t find him here,” Sara Adams said, totally eliminating Anthony Jennings from the scene. Had she heard Caleb speak to Anthony outside? Rafe wondered.

“Did he say anything to indicate what he wanted? Did he make any threats? Any demands?” Sawyer asked.

Sara hesitated. “No demands, but he mentioned that his boss wanted John. I have no idea for what, but he said that if John didn’t go quietly this time, I would go the same way as Missy!” Sara’s voice wobbled as she said the final words, prompting her husband to tighten his arm around her shoulder. She turned her head into his chest for a minute. “Detective, these are the same people who killed our daughter and now they want John. I don’t understand what is going on. The man became extremely angry after a while and he tied me to this chair. He heard a noise outside and he took one of the chairs and threw it through the patio doors, shattering it. He terrified me, he was so strong.”

Sawyer looked at Lena over Mrs Adams head. He suspected that Mrs Adams was keeping something from them. “How did the man die, Mrs Adams?”

Sara’s throat convulsed. “I don’t know. One minute he was breaking my glass doors, the next he was lying on the ground. I waited to make sure that he didn’t move before I tried to cut the rope that bound my hands. I called you and then my husband.”

Sawyer knew that they weren’t getting anything more out of Mrs Adams and went to join Lena in examining the scene.

“Well, she’s definitely hiding something from us. But what?” Lena didn’t want to voice the other thought in her head… that this unknown killer at the Adams’ home died in a manner which mirrored Harry Tyler’s death!

“Let’s go back to the station and review what we have. The rest of the guys can finish processing here. We need to discuss next steps with Marquez and consider moving the Adams into a safe house,” Sawyer said.

“Okay, I’ll grab Rafe.”

At the station, Marquez supported the suggestion that the Adams couple be moved immediately into the safe house. He also needed to go and inform the families of the two detectives killed that their sons and husbands wouldn’t be coming home tonight. It was not a good day at the station, with a flurry of activity accompanied by anger and extreme sadness at the loss of two good men.

Rafe took the visitor’s chair by Lena. Both she and Sawyer looked a bit rattled. He wondered what he could say without revealing too much information about the Hunters or Knights.

“Did McCall say anything since last night?” he asked instead.

“No, and he looks supremely confident that he will get off. He hasn’t even asked for a lawyer yet. Gentry is also going on with his business as if this means nothing to him,” Sawyer said angrily.

“Well, it does mean something to him. Except that he knows he is being watched and can’t make a move. So, he sends in his henchman. If you get an ID on the dead man in the Adams’ house, you will find that he worked at the bakery as well,” Rafe confided.

“How do you know that?” Lena asked and then quickly quieted down. This young man already knew more than he should in any case.

“Okay, so how do we prove that? How do we prove that Gentry’s involved in any of this?” Sawyer asked.

“Look, we know that apart from two of the murders, the bodies were all dumped in places which were not where the crimes actually took place. If we can try to figure out where the victims where when they were attacked, maybe we can get more insight?” Rafe suggested.

Lena considered that while Sawyer brought out all the files they had on each of the victims. “Let’s start with Thomas Marshall, the first victim. They always make more mistakes with their first.”

“Thomas Marshall was on his way to meet a client. His secretary says Marshall chose to walk because the client was only a few blocks away. The client says Marshall never pitched. Now we know that he was found in the boot of his car not too far from where he lived,” Sawyer said.

“Which means that he was followed from the office and intercepted before he reached the client and that someone had to have gone into the garage at his place of work to retrieve his car. Did we check the traffic cameras on his path?” Lena asked, glad to have her mind distracted from another failed operation.

Sawyer rifled through the file. “Nope,” he said. “No traffic camera information. I’ll get that and ask the security from Marshall’s office building for their recordings as well. I hope they still have it.”

An hour later, Sawyer informed Lena and Rafe who had already checked out similar information for Phoebe Winters and Joe Ringer, that the traffic camera information was a no go, but that the security at Marshall’s office did send the recording from the day he disappeared.

He placed the disk in his computer and flashed it up onto the screen. “Okay, here we go. Wait a minute, they seemed to have sent recordings from the entrance of their building as well. Here you can see Marshall leaving, he’s crossing the street. Wait, look how he just stops when he reaches the other side. He turns around. He seems to be looking for something,” Sawyer said.

“Or someone,” Rafe said. He knew that Thomas Marshall had been a Tracker in his former life. Maybe he had spotted something across the street.

“Yeah, more likely someone,” Lena said. “He looks like he’s scanning the street. Whatever or whomever he saw, makes him nervous. Look, he’s walking faster than he did before, see how quickly he disappears around that corner.”

Rafe wondered what Marshall had seen when he turned around. There were no cameras facing his office building, which would have provided them with that information.

“This is the footage from the garage. Looks a bit grainy, but you can see Marshall’s car,” Sawyer said. He fast-forwarded the recording until he saw movement. “Busted,” he said. “If I’m not mistaken, this is our old pal McCall, getting into Marshall’s car and happily driving off!”

“Which means that Gentry must have been the one following Marshall,” Lena realised. “Let’s check if there are any other office blocks on the way to the client and whether they had cameras facing the street.”

“You’re in luck, Red. The head of security also sent me the tapes for their sister company which is in between Marshall’s company and the client. Let’s see if there’s anything helpful there.” Sawyer inserted the second disk into his computer. “Okay, Marshall is still on the street, but he is walking very fast, which isn’t strange in the city.”

“He’s looking over his shoulder a lot. There’s a guy almost running after him!” Lena said.

“Bingo,” Sawyer cried, as he saw Gentry turn once, directly facing the camera. Gentry then literally ran after Marshall. “Marshall was fast for his age,” Sawyer noted. That’s because he was a Tracker, Rafe thought.

“That’s not enough evidence to tie Gentry with Marshall though,” Lena thought out loud. “He could just say he was innocently walking on the street. Anything else could just be co-incidence.”

“True,” Sawyer agreed. “But now we know for sure that he is involved which means that we just need to check the last known movements of the other victims. There is bound to be some evidence.”

“I need to go,” Rafe interjected. “Let me know if you find anything else, or if you need anything and I’ll do the same.” The detectives waved him off, both of them busy chasing up new scenarios.

Matthew picked Rafe up from outside the station. “How are the injured Knights doing?” Rafe asked as he climbed into the passenger seat.

“They’re doing much better, but they will have to stay put for a few days. Josh will collect them when it is safe for them to travel. Dr Adams is a brilliant Healer. Pity we don’t have someone with his skill back in Knight town,” Matthew confided.

“Where are the others?” Rafe asked.

“They are grabbing something to eat and trying to figure out where to find Anthony Jennings’ family. Caleb thinks that Gentry and McCall have been using the bakery as a cover for whatever they are planning, so there might be a few more people at the bakery who are part of their team. The Untouchable that was eliminated at the Adams’ house today definitely worked with them.”

“Yeah, makes sense. So one of their pals from the bakery could be holding the Jennings family?”

“Exactly. Becca managed to get a list of all their employees, so we’ve been checking them out. We’ve identified two more Untouchables and we think that one of them may have the Jennings family. We’re going to check them out after lunch.”

At the diner that had now become the meeting place of the Hunters and Knights, they caught each other up on the events of the day. Eden could see the strain on Rafe’s face and she mentally sent him a hug which brought a slight smile to his face. After quickly grabbing a bite to eat, they decided to split up and go to the homes of the newly identified Untouchables from the bakery. Caleb confirmed that they were both at work in the bakery today. One of the Untouchables, named Francis, was married to a Normal, who was currently at home with their six-month-old son. The other, James, lived alone in a quiet suburb not too far from the bakery. Eden and Rafe would go to James’ place and the other three would go to Francis’s home, which was further away. They had indicated to Anthony Jennings that he should not return to his house in the meantime.

It was late afternoon when Caleb, Becca and Matthew reached Francis’s home. None of them picked up any movement in the house, which provided them an opportunity to check it out, unhindered. Francis’s home was simply furnished, with toys liberally scattered in the living room. The kitchen was neat and tidy, the morning’s dishes neatly packed into the dishwasher. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the house. The garage also did not reveal any signs which would indicate that the Jennings family were being held there. “I don’t think this Untouchable has the family,” Matthew conceded. Becca and Caleb agreed and as they got back into the car with the intention of meeting Rafe and Eden, Caleb informed Rafe about their findings, only to hear that he and Eden were inside James’ home.

An exasperated Rafe told him that James’ home also did not immediately reveal anything incriminating, but they needed more time to search.

“You know, James was twenty-two years old when he became part of the Untouchables,” Eden revealed. “My father says that it seems as if James fell in love with a Normal while he was still a Knight, but his year of the Choice had passed and he wanted to come and live among the Normals, which he couldn’t do because he didn’t have the choice anymore. My mom thinks that he broke our rules with the intention of being banished so that he could be with his Normal love. Apparently, the rules he broke were not major, but the Council took the decision to expel him because Seth lobbied for it.”

“I wonder what happened to the relationship, because he obviously lives alone now, ten years later.”

“I don’t know, but a Knight who makes that sacrifice for love surely can’t be involved in something so heartless? I refuse to believe that,” Eden said.

“Do you think that he is innocent?” Rafe asked, continuing to check James’ bedroom closets.

“Maybe not, but I can’t imagine that he is a willing accomplice!”

“What do we have here?” Rafe asked, as he fingered two flash disks in one of James” suit pockets.

“I’m sure it should work on this TV,” Eden said. Rafe tried and a directory of videos popped up on screen. “Let’s check this one,” Eden said, opening up a file titled “Salesman”.

Both Rafe and Eden watched in shock as the video showed Gentry and McCall with Joe Ringer in one of the community gardens, which was in between the diner and Ringer’s apartment building. There was no sound to the video but it clearly showed the three men engaging in a very expressive conversation. There seemed to be lots of finger pointing and Joe Ringer had angrily turned away, ignoring the two men who stood staring at his back. Gentry had then calmly walked to his truck parked at the curb and withdrew something from the back. It looked like a baseball bat! Rafe knew that Ringer had been beaten to death with a baseball bat.

Eden watched in horror as Gentry went up to Ringer and swung his bat, knocking the man to his knees. The video image shook for a few seconds, as Gentry continued to beat Ringer until Ringer lay still on the ground. McCall then bent over Ringer and touched his jacket. Must have been when he stole his key ring, Rafe realised. The two men then carried an unmoving Ringer to their truck and carefully laid him in the back, covering his body with what seemed like a tarp, before driving off. The road was deserted, as was the community park. How had James recorded this undetected? Why had he recorded this?

The other files revealed the same horror movies. Missy Adams being suffocated, Phoebe Winters being accosted first by McCall and Gentry and then shot and Michael Cage attempting to run away before being stabbed. James seemed to have recorded all these murders.

“I don’t get it,” Eden said confused. “How did James, if it was him that did this, follow these two killers and record their prime moments, seemingly undetected?”

“I don’t know,” Rafe said, perplexed. “We need to find out what other abilities James could possibly have. Since he knows Gentry and McCall though, he’s probably being forced to join their mission, whatever it is and he is trying to stay out of it. The recordings could be his bargaining chip, his insurance policy if you may.”

“Well, he took those videos and watched those people being killed without doing anything about it. He didn’t try to help them! He was only thinking about himself. What’s noble about that?” Eden asked in disgust.

“Nothing much. You’re right. If he had turned over these recordings after the first murder, he might have saved the lives of those other former Knights,” Rafe realised.

“Yes, and I don’t believe he is trying to stay out of it. He is still working at the bakery, isn’t he? And how did McCall and Gentry not notice him at any of these murders?”

“He’s a Tracker, right?” Eden nodded. “Who knows better how to blend in than a Tracker, which means that he is another Untouchable who retained his abilities. The Knights really need to do something about the Cleaners,” Rafe commented.

Eden still looked angry. “We released them into Normal society with extraordinary abilities, placing the Normals at great risk! Caleb is right. We messed up, over and over again.”

“Hey, come here,” Rafe said, pulling Eden into his arms. She was shaking with anger. “Don’t doubt everything you stand for because of these few Untouchables. We still have a lot to do here but we finally have tangible evidence to link Gentry to the murders. We just have to meet with James and find out what he’s involved in or trying to get out of.”

“I would like a shot at James!” Eden said, pulling away.

“You’ll have your chance, but you know you can’t confront him. He’ll spot you or Matthew a mile away. It has to be either Caleb or Becca, since I’ve already visited the bakery and they think I’m a cop. I’m more inclined to send Becca in. She doesn’t look intimidating.”

Eden reluctantly agreed and they exited James’ house, clearing away any traces of their presence, but with the flash disks in hand. When they met up with Caleb, Matthew and Becca, they shared their evidence and the strategy.

Caleb did not seem happy at the strategy. “Rafe, I don’t understand why we just don’t take these guys out instead of prolonging this. We’ve had plenty of opportunity.”

Rafe looked at his brother. It was not like Caleb to take the easy way out and not think things through. Ah, he’s worried about Becca!

“Our mission is not to just eliminate this time, but to eradicate. We need to know who else is involved and what is the mission of these Untouchables, otherwise, this will never end. Besides, the police also need some closure on these cases. I propose we hand over these recordings to the good detectives once we’re done talking to James. Once we have a clue of what’s going on, we can use our arrows and end this.” Caleb reluctantly nodded.

“Okay, so how do we draw out James?” Caleb asked.

“Well, it seems as if he has taken over deliveries today at the bakery. He should be back at the bakery in twenty minutes, so Becca can catch him before he goes inside. We’ll be waiting outside as well, just out of sight.”

Just as expected, the Ginello’s delivery van pulled into the parking lot as Caleb took the parking slot three rows away. Becca quickly exited the car, making her way to James, who was unlocking the side doors. James turned as he heard the approaching footsteps.

“James?” Becca asked hesitantly.

“Yes, can I help you?” James asked surprised, his hand stilling on the door handle.

“I’m hoping that you can,” Becca added more confidently. “I know what McCall and Gentry have done and I know that you don’t want to be a part of it, but you see, unfortunately you are.”

James recoiled. “Who the hell are you?” he asked angrily.

“My name’s Becca. Who I am, is not important, but we found your insurance policy.” James didn’t even pretend to look confused.

“I had nothing to do with any of that,” he whispered.

“Really? And yet you went around following them and recording them murder your own kind, without stepping in to help!” Becca stated calmly.

James turned red, either in anger or embarrassment. “Are you the police?”

“Do I look like a cop?” Becca asked and a flash of recognition, coupled with fear, passed over James’ handsome face.

“Why haven’t you used your arrow on me yet?” he asked quietly.

“Because we believe that you can still redeem yourself, that you can help us put these crazy comrades of yours into the hands of the police,” Becca confessed.

“How?” James asked. “Who is going to believe the stories about Knights and the Untouchables? The cops will laugh me out of the precinct.”

“You can say a lot without saying much, James. There’s no need to tell the cops who you are. All they know, is that they are hunting for a couple of crazed serial killers.”

James ran his shaky hands through his dark blonde hair. He looked troubled.

“Look, while you consider your options, do you know where your comrades are hiding the Jennings’ family?”

James looked confused. “Who are they?”

“Collateral. Anthony Jennings didn’t want to join their crew, so your colleagues thought it a good idea to kidnap his family. We would like to find out where they are being kept.”

“Where have you searched already?” James asked, looking eager to help.

“Your house obviously,” Becca responded, noticing James flinch. “We also searched Francis’s house. They’re not there or at McCall’s or Gentry’s homes. Who else could be helping them?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. If Francis is in on this, it would only be because they were threatening his family too. He isn’t like them. Look, if I was McCall or Gentry, I’d want to keep the family in a place which would be close enough for me to check up on them.”

“We were thinking that as well. Are there any secret rooms in the bakery?”

“No,” James said. “Wait, there’s a basement here. I’ve never been down there because it is always locked. McCall has a key, as I’m sure does Gentry.”

“Caleb, there’s a basement in the bakery. I’m going to check it out with James.”

“Bec, we’re right behind you,” Caleb said. There was no way he would let Becca go into the basement by herself. Who knew what was down there?

“Lead the way, sport,” Becca said and James complied, leading her to the windows of the basement.

“This is the only other way in, without us having to go into the bakery first,” he explained.

“Okay, I don’t see any alarms. Let’s break the windows. I know we can fit through that, but if we find the Jennings family in there, there’s no avoiding walking through the bakery!”

James used his feet to break the windows. It gave way easily, allowing him to slip inside. Becca followed him in and landed gently. It was dark in the basement and it smelt of damp. Probably had mice too, she thought, cringing. She also strongly smelt vanilla, which meant that the Untouchables had been down in the basement recently. Good, maybe James’ hunch was correct.

Becca had near perfect eyesight in the dark, and so it seemed, did James, who moved without faltering. She almost bumped into him though when he wordlessly came to a stop.

“What?” Becca whispered loudly. James pointed and Becca followed the direction of his finger. There, huddled in the corner, was presumably Mrs Jennings and her two little girls, all tied together, blindfolded, their mouths gagged, with a threadbare blanket barely covering their shaking bodies. Becca ran to them and knelt in front of them. James was close behind. They made quick work removing their blindfolds and gags. The girls looked ready to scream as they tried to focus their eyes.

“Shhh,” Becca warned. “Mrs Jennings?”

“Yes,” Mrs Jennings responded. “Who are you?”

“We’re here to help you, but you have to ensure that your girls are quiet, okay. We don’t want the people who took you to come down too quickly. Can you do that?” Mrs Jennings nodded and whispered to her girls. Their whimpering quickly stopped, replaced by looks of trust on their little faces.

“James, untie them. I’m going to ask my friends to help us get them out through the window. I think they will fit through safely.”

“Caleb, come to the window,” Becca said and then, not willing to take a chance that Caleb might not have read her, pulled out her cell phone to call him.

“I got you, Bec. We’re right outside,” he said before she could dial his number. “Just raise them to us when you’re ready.”

“Okay, James, please lift this little girl to the window. It’s okay,” she told the little girl who looked to her mother for assurance.

“It’s okay sweetheart, we’re right behind you,” Mrs Jennings told her daughter. James lifted her to the window and Caleb reached in and gently pulled her out. Her sister quickly followed, but Becca realised that they would have some difficulty with Mrs Jennings who could barely stand.

“What happened to your foot?” Becca asked, noticing that Mrs Jennings couldn’t seem to put any pressure on her left leg and was holding onto Becca for support.

“I think it’s broken or at least fractured,” she cried, explaining that when they were taken, she tried to put up a fight, but one of the men hit her with a baseball bat. Becca examined her foot. It was definitely broken, which meant that they would have to take extra care when pulling her out.

“Don’t worry about hurting me,” Mrs Jenning bravely declared. “I am almost numb from the pain. A little more will not make it worse.”

“We’ll be careful,” James said as he put his arms around her to help her closer to the window. As they neared the window, both Becca and James froze as they heard a sound.

“Someone’s coming,” Becca said. “Here, help Mrs Jennings and I’ll go check it out. Once she’s out, you go. If I’m not back by then, you just go, you hear me.” Although James nodded, he looked unsure, but he helped lift Mrs Jennings as high as he possibly could. Whoever was on the other side of the window, seemed reasonably strong.

“Careful, her leg may be broken,” James warned, as Rafe proceeded to pull out Mrs Jennings.

James turned around. Becca was nowhere in sight, but he heard her moving closer to the door of the basement. He couldn’t just leave her here, surely? He moved towards the sounds. The basement was bigger than he had ever imagined and as he moved to the basement door, he saw that there was light underneath. Someone was definitely coming down those stairs. He placed his hand on Becca’s shoulder. She whipped around, ready to strike him. “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered. She looked irritated but followed him to the window. They were both Trackers and therefore very fast. They could make it out in time.

As Caleb pulled James through the basement window, Becca turned back to him and told him to go back to the delivery van and then go inside. She waited until he went into the bakery. Rafe and Matthew had already bundled the traumatised Jennings family into their car, ready to take them to Anthony Jennings.

“Do you know if my husband is okay?” Mrs Jennings asked. Becca assured her that he was okay and waiting for them. “I don’t know what those men wanted. They were cruel and we were scared but I was even more scared for Anthony because I knew that he would look for us. Can you take us home please?”

“Unfortunately, you can’t go back to your house right now,” Becca said. “Those men are liable to come back, so we’ve sent Anthony away somewhere safe.”

“Should we go to the police?” Mrs Jennings asked hesitantly. Rafe shrugged at the question.

“It’s up to you, but I suggest that you go and check your leg out first. I think that we have someone who can help you right now,” Rafe said, immediately thinking of John Adams who would ask no questions and who would treat her off the radar. Mrs Jennings readily agreed, the pain obviously superseding a need for justice.

Rafe had Matthew drop both him and Caleb at the police station as they needed to speak to Detectives Channing and Peck and hand over the flash disks.

“So, do we tell them about how we actually acquired this? It might not stand up in a court of law as legitimately acquired evidence?” Caleb joked.

“Well, we both know that McCall and Gentry and their little army will face a higher court than that of the Normals, but you’re right, we can’t just hand this over to the detectives,” Rafe replied. “I think we’ll need to hand it in anonymously, otherwise, it’s going to raise questions which we can’t answer.”

“I know, I mean, if I were those detectives, the both of us would be my prime suspects. How can they be so trusting? I don’t understand them. Normals generally have more sense to question stuff like this. I mean psychics? Two guys walking off the streets, knowing as much as we do…?” Caleb trailed off, perplexed. “I think I’m almost disappointed in them.”

As they walked into the station, the brothers ran into Captain Marquez, who in Caleb’s assessment was the least suspicious of the police they had encountered.

“Ah, you two again,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Good work so far. My team and I appreciate it. Anything else you managed to find out?”

“No sir, we just came in for an update,” Rafe replied. Caleb, find an envelope and drop off these disks at the front desk. You know where the cameras are located.

Lena and Sawyer were reviewing more security footage as the boys approached them, Marquez in tow.

“Detectives, the Hardy Boys are here,” Marquez joked, before walking back to his office.

Rafe smiled, as did Sawyer and Lena. “We actually wanted to find out if there is anything we can help with before we hit the books for our tests?” Caleb excused himself quickly after greeting the detectives.

“Well, we’ve been reviewing what we know of the case so far. I have to admit that the break-in at John and Sara Adams’ home still has me baffled,” Sawyer began.

“Both of us are baffled, actually,” Lena confessed. “My gut tells me that Sara Adams didn’t tell us the whole truth.”

Rafe knew that the detectives had picked up on this. Sara Adams was not a good liar. “You think she lied about being attacked?” he asked innocently.

“No, I think that her home was broken into and she was held hostage,” Lena corrected. “However, we lost two good people today and I don’t think their murders, the break-in and the hostage-taking was the act of a lone man. There had to have been at least one other person at the house.”

“Why would she hold that information back though? I would think that she would want to find out who killed her daughter. Obviously this event today was linked to Missy’s murder?” Sawyer reasoned.

“Maybe she knew the other person and feels the need to protect him for some reason?” Lena argued.

“Or maybe he threatened her and she is scared for her life and for that of her husband’s?” Rafe suggested.

“If that were true, don’t you think Sara Adams would know that the police are in the best position to protect her and her husband?” Lena asked frustrated.

Ah, Detective Peck, if you only knew how naïve that sounds, Rafe heard Caleb say as he walked into the room.

Caleb slumped into a chair by Lena’s desk. “Bro, did you tell the detectives we won’t be available for a while?” Rafe nodded. “We have to hit the books or our parents will have a mini-stroke if we don’t pass our battery of tests.”

Lena smiled. Caleb had a way with words that reminded her of some family members, whereas Rafe was generally so careful in the way he spoke. Polar opposites, but brothers nonetheless.

Before Lena could respond, Officer Cooper, who was manning the front desk, handed her an envelope. “Thanks Cooper,” Lena acknowledged as she opened the envelope.

“Well, once again, we wouldn’t have made headway on this case without you,” Sawyer said. “So thanks, and I hope that you study hard. We’ll call if anything major happens over the next few days.”

“Great, we’ll see you around,” Caleb said and made to get up as Lena slotted in a disk on her computer.

“Hold on a minute, what’s this?” Lena asked as she leaned in to read the disk’s directory. All three men moved closer to her computer as she clicked on and opened the first file on the disk.

There was a collective gasp in the room before Sawyer said, “I think we need to call Marquez.”

Caleb volunteered to bring over the captain who would surely be blown away by these images, just as he and Rafe had been earlier in the day.

“Son of a ….” Marquez muttered as he watched the killing of Phoebe Winters. There was complete silence as they watched three more videos.

“They were recording this?” Sawyer asked in disbelief, when they finished.

“Unbelievable! Why were they recording this? Obviously, someone else was behind the camera. Gentry and McCall didn’t seem to play to the camera though, almost as if they didn’t know they were being recorded,” Lena remarked.

Good observation, Rafe thought. Now follow that thread.

“How did someone get so close to Gentry and McCall without being seen? Our killers had to have known. This just confirms, together with the incident at the Adams’ home today, that there are an unknown number of people participating in some way or another, in these killings,” Marquez reasoned.

“And also that Gentry was the dominant player in most of these killings. Surely that’s enough evidence to bring him in?” Caleb asked.

Lena shook her head, trying to dislodge the images from a few moments before. “Yes, I think that we have more than enough. I would like to see how he squirms his way out of this one!”

Sawyer hesitated. “Yeah, but I’m also curious as to who left us this disk. If this was illegally obtained, we won’t be able to use it as evidence in our case,” he worried.

“We didn’t obtain it illegally, so I don’t think that it will be a problem,” Lena said.

“Maybe we should show this to McCall first. See whether this shakes him up enough to rat out his partner. Then we’ll have his statement as well as these videos to implicate Gentry,” Marquez recommended.

They all agreed that it was a good idea, but Caleb and Rafe decided to stay outside the interview room and watched through the two-way mirror. McCall was brought to the interview room in handcuffs. He looked calm and not at all like a man who was facing several serious charges. Let’s see whether he still has that smug look on his face when we’re finished with him, Sawyer thought.

Marquez started off by saying. “Mr McCall, we are recording this conversation. Are you sure that you don’t want an attorney?”

McCall looked at Marquez sideways, sensing something different in the captain’s demeanour. “I’m sure, Captain. I have nothing to hide.”

“Well, we never believed that from the moment we found the victim’s trophies in your garage, Mr McCall,” Sawyer spat out.

“And, as I’ve kept on insisting, that was planted.”

“We recorded the entire search. That was no plant and you know it. However, we have evidence which proves beyond a doubt, that you and your buddy Gentry are nothing but cold-blooded killers who are going to spend the rest of your sorry lives in jail,” Marquez responded.

Not a sliver of doubt showed on McCall’s face, even when Lena set up the TV. When the first video was played, McCall stilled. He stared at the screen, hardly believing what he was seeing. Rafe heard him ask several questions. What is this? Who recorded us? I didn’t pick up anything at any of these places. I thought we were alone. Roan’s going to kill me!

“Mr McCall, someone handed this in today. It shows you committing several murders together with your partner. Our team is bringing in Gentry as we speak. I’m sure he will be willing to cut a deal. You know how this system works, the person who talks first, walks first,” Lena said.

McCall didn’t look so sure anymore. There were beads of sweat on his forehead and upper lip. “I guess you’re right. Now might be a good time to ask for my lawyer,” he said, looking directly at Marquez. Sawyer muttered a curse, knowing that McCall had made the right call, but still holding out a hope that the lawyer would convince his client to talk.

In the hallway, Sawyer said to Lena, “Well, let’s see what Gentry has to say. I don’t think that he’ll fold. He’s been playing his cards very close to his chest. The recordings could unravel him though.”

Rafe listened to the detectives. Caleb had told him earlier that he didn’t think that Gentry would come in so easily. He would have already been thrown for a loop by the disappearance of the Jennings family and the death of one of his henchmen. Surely, he must now know that the Hunters were around and that the police were onto him? Rafe also wondered whether Gentry was the leader of these dangerous Untouchables or whether he was just a senior member of the team taking his orders from someone higher up. There was no doubt that a Knight or two from within Knight town was involved in whatever mess this was, but the Untouchables had to be co-ordinated by someone who had blended into Normal society. Gentry seemed to occupy a leadership role, but Rafe sensed that he was a deputy. Someone else was leading this group here and something big was in play.