Knights v Hunters: The Choice

Lena wearily rubbed her eyes. She had barely slept the last few weeks after she and Sawyer were placed on a task team to investigate the mysterious deaths of several people whose bodies had been dumped all around New York City. The task team, currently being led by Captain Marquez, had at least three other detectives on it, although Sawyer and Lena were the only two who were assigned full time. The mayor was all over the case, trying to quell fears of a serial killer on the prowl in his city. Unfortunately, it was weeks into the case and there were still no viable leads.

Lena acknowledged that she was still trying to piece together the facts of her last case and apart from knowing with certainty that Harry Tyler had killed his entire family, she couldn’t understand how the man himself, had died. The autopsy report on Tyler had indicated that he had died of a massive heart attack, which was alarming considering that he was only thirty-five years old. One minute he had been in the midst of ending the life of his lawyer and the next, he himself had died! The events had unfolded so quickly, that Marquez couldn’t even account for the whereabouts of the injured lawyer and the brothers who had been assisting them. The cameras at the police station didn’t show them leaving either. Lena had tirelessly worked on her own time for weeks trying to locate those two young men, Rafe and Caleb, to no avail. Sawyer thought she was nuts, but she knew that she had to find them to understand what had happened that night. Lena would never have found the Tyler children without them, which Sawyer acknowledged, but their disappearance was suspicious. She didn’t think that the brothers had been involved in anything related to the crime but she had to tie up loose ends. She and Sawyer were also trying to piece together evidence which would support a motive for the murders of Tyler’s wife and children, but Tyler’s parents and his work colleagues were still too shocked to even fathom that the ‘caring, loving, son, husband and father’ could even have the capacity to harm his family.

Sawyer sat across from Lena, his desk littered with files that he had read and re-read a hundred times. He knew that his partner was still troubled about those boys, but she had also been working tirelessly on their current case. They had spent a lot of time together these last few weeks combing every detail of these cases. She was as frustrated as him at the lack of leads, except she didn’t show it as much. Maybe they needed a distraction.

“Peck,” he said, “I was thinking that maybe we should spend this morning searching for those brothers you’re obsessed with.” Lena looked shocked for a second but quickly recovered.

“Why now?” she asked suspiciously.

“We need to take our minds off these murders for a minute. That could help. C’mon Red, don’t be so suspicious,” he joked, noticing Lena’s expression.

Lena swallowed her comment. Yeah, he would notice her red hair, she thought, since it was so different from all the blondes that he constantly dated!

“Okay, this is what I have so far,” she said, filling him in on her research of the boys.

“We have their photos. We could try showing them around?”

“Done,” she said. “Not a single person recognised them. They’ve probably not from here.”

“Or, they could just be a couple of rich kids playing detective,” he countered, recalling the images of the well-dressed brothers.

“I don’t think so,” Lena said. “They were too mature for their age. I believed them immediately when Caleb mentioned that his brother was psychic. Although that in itself is weird!”

“I have to admit I didn’t have the same faith in them that you did, but I also didn’t pick up any crazy vibes from them,” Sawyer said. In fact, the boys had been well-mannered, calm and very assured, more so than any barely- out- of-their- teens kids he had ever met. “Do you think that they might have just been passing through here? Maybe they’ve from out of state as you initially thought.”

“I don’t know. I just want to understand what happened to them,” Lena admitted.

“We could use some psychic help on our current case,” Sawyer joked, which brought a smile to Lena’s face. She’s beautiful, he thought. Whoa, where did that come from? he wondered. Too many long hours at work together.

“Okay, back to reality partner,” Lena said, moving away and picking up the files from Sawyer’s desk. “What do we know so far?”

“We know that we have eight victims, both male and female. Their ages range from eighteen to fifty-five years; the M.O. for the murders are so different which kind of makes it suspicious and is currently the only link we have.”

“Yes,” Lena continued. “And most of the victims were lower to middle-class, with no recorded criminal activities, save for the odd parking tickets.” Suddenly, Lena sat up straighter. “Channing, what if the eighteen-year-old is an outlier?”

“What do you mean?” Sawyer asked, now equally curious.

“Well, if we take out the eighteen-year-old victim Missy Adams, then the age range of the victims is forty to fifty-five years which is much closer and less random than what it currently appears to be.”

“Makes sense,” Sawyer agreed. “Okay, let’s go through all the victims, starting with the first one found.” He sat back and listened with his eyes closed as Lena summarised each victim’s profile.

“Thomas Marshall, aged fifty-five and the oldest victim. He was married and had twin boys aged ten. He was a successful investment banker and lived on the Upper East Side. His wife reported him missing two days before he was eventually found strangled in the boot of his car, almost six blocks from where he lived. He was last seen leaving his office to meet a client. No other information on his whereabouts thereafter until his body was found.

Missy Adams, aged eighteen and the youngest victim. She attended New York University and was studying theology. Her family confirmed that she wasn’t seeing anyone and had mutually ended her relationship with her high school boyfriend when he left the state to attend college. Her roommate indicated that Missy was very responsible, extremely quiet and very studious. Her last known conversation was with her mother and she told Mrs Adams that she needed to go to the library to finish an important paper she was working on. A drunken student found her body in the bushes behind the library. She had been suffocated and been dead for at least six hours when her body was found.

Phoebe Winters, aged forty-two. She was an elementary school teacher who was recently engaged. Her fiancé was out of state on business and had called his brother to check on her when he hadn’t been able to reach her. His brother was unable to find her and called the police. Her body was found in a park close to her home. She was shot three times, once in the head and twice in the heart. She was last seen out jogging.

Joe Ringer, aged forty-five. Joe was a travelling salesman, single, with no family to speak of. He lived in a modest apartment, had few friends and seemed to live an unassuming life. He was beaten to death with a baseball bat and his body was found at the end of the block in which he lived. He was last seen at the local diner, but had left at least two hours before he was killed, which left a gap of over an hour and forty five minutes unaccounted for.

Michael Cage, aged fifty. He co-owned an auto shop and spent most of his time there. He was married, but was going through a trial separation at the time of his death. His wife had moved to Canada a few months back and is thus not a primary suspect. They have no children. His partner at the auto shop reported him missing to the police. Apparently, Michael was a creature of habit and when he failed to report to work and didn’t answer his phones, his partner had immediately known something was wrong. His body was found in an alley outside a bar. He was stabbed twenty five times. The coroner indicated that the first wound had been fatal.

Evelyn Almaida, aged forty-seven. She was married with three children and lived with her alcoholic husband in a heavily mortgaged home just outside the city. Evelyn was working two jobs, one as a receptionist at a travel agency and the other, at night, as a cleaner in an office block. Her employer of the night job found her body in the back of the cleaning van as he was parking it outside his office. She had been poisoned and had not been on the victim list initially as it was thought that maybe some of the chemicals used for cleaning the offices might have contributed to her death, except that she wasn’t on the work schedule for that night and had no reason to be near the office block. Both her husband and employer confirmed that.

May Crossweather, aged fifty-four. She was a writer and was widowed with two sons aged twenty and twenty-two years respectively. Her boys had gone finishing on the weekend that she was killed. She was found hanging from a tree on her property, with no suicide letter in place. However, suicide was ruled out when police discovered that May had been paralysed in the car accident that had taken her husband’s life. Somebody had helped her to die.

Dean Calloway, aged forty-one. He was a fitness instructor at a gym and ran several health boot camps around the city. His fiancée is an art lecturer at a local college. She said he never spoke about his family in the ten years she had known him. She had been worried when he missed dinner without any notice or explanation. They hadn’t moved in together yet. He was found in his bedroom, hands and feet bound, mouth gagged, beaten and then shot to death. He had several defensive wounds, indicating that he put up a brave fight.”

When Lena had finished, Sawyer opened his eyes and said, “Well, apart from May Crossweather and Dean Calloway, all the other victims were found away from their homes. We have literally tripled checked, but none of the victims’ lives intersected in any way. These people lived below the radar but were generally well-respected members of their communities. Not one shred of forensic evidence has been found at any of these crime scenes, which confirms our theory that our victims, save for the two found in their homes, were killed elsewhere and then dumped at various locations. Crossweather and Calloway’s homes were searched thoroughly and the techs didn’t find anything that could be of help. We have a killer or killers who are extremely good at what they do.”

“We have to look at the possibility that there is more than one killer involved. I can’t believe that one person murdered all these people without leaving behind a clue,” Lena ventured.

“True, what do we know about our killer or killers?” Sawyer asked.

“Well, they’re extremely meticulous in the killings, very violent, so I’m going to guess assume that they knew their victims and this could have been personal. Once again, Missy Adams doesn’t seem to fit into this profile,” Lena sighed. “If there are at least two killers, then they are very organised. There is no pattern to these killings in terms of timelines, but the fact that most of these victims were essentially dumped, worries me. My gut tells me these killings are not random.”

“Mine, too,” Sawyer conceded. “Unfortunately, our guts don’t count as evidence!” He stood up, twirling his pencil as was customary when he was thinking.

“If the killings weren’t random, then our victims should have something in common, which would link them to the killers, but we haven’t been able to find anything. The killers would also have been watching them for a while, checking out their movements, their patterns, knowing where it would be safe to dump them. There’s nothing symbolic about the places in which we found most of our victims,” Lena continued.

“I know- alleyway, back of a van, park, bushes. Seems to me to be more sites of convenience than sites for some symbolic gesture” Sawyer remarked.

Lena pondered over that for a while, then went back to some of the information that she had read. “Channing, what can you tell me about your family?” she asked.

Sawyer turned around, a curious look on his face at the change in conversation, but he went with it. “Well, my parents are still happily married. My mom is a lecturer and my dad is a high school principal. I have two brothers, Carter and Mackenzie, one older, one younger, both of whom also live in New York. One is an investment banker and the other a photojournalist. Why do you ask?”

“I know most of that already. And you know things about my family, right?” Lena asked, looking to Sawyer for confirmation, which he offered by nodding. “So, I was thinking that apart from Missy Adams, who could be the outlier in this case, none of the other victims had family!”

“Most of them actually did. May Crossweather had kids, so did…”

Lena interrupted Sawyer mid-sentence. “No, sorry, I meant, there’s no record of primary biological relatives of the other victims, no parents, brothers, sisters, cousins. No one has turned up in our searches.”

Sawyer took that in for a moment before he responded. “That’s odd. We didn’t do intensive checks on that though. Maybe we should start with that?” he suggested.

“Good idea. Give me half of the pile,” Lena said as she rounded her desk.

Almost three hours later and over a sandwich and coffee, Lena and Sawyer shared the information that they had found on the victims. Apart from Missy Adams, there was no information on parentage of the other victims. Thomas Marshall’s wife had told Lena that her in-laws had died before she had married and that her husband had been an only child. She had never met any of his relatives, only his friends. Phoebe Winters’ fiancé mentioned that he had met Phoebe’s brother once, years ago, but Phoebe had indicated that they were not very close. No, he had no idea where the brother now lived. Evelyn Almaida’s husband had not been very coherent. Lena managed to however gather from their conversation that he had never met Evelyn’s family and that her parents had died when Evelyn was very young. He had no photos of them. Sawyer had elicited a similar story from Michael Cage’s wife and May Crossweather’s sons. Dean Calloway’s fiancée had already mentioned that he never spoke of his family and there were no photos in his home of them either. So the one other fact that tied most of the victims together was that the only family they had, was the one they had created. Further checks from Lena and Sawyer didn’t shed further light on the victims. They all paid their taxes, lived almost a crime-free life and didn’t seem to do anything that would result on a spotlight being placed on them.

“Do you realise that most of our victim’s histories seem to only start from age twenty-one? There’s nothing that pre-dates that,” Lena remarked, flicking through a few of the case reports.

“Yeah, like they were part of some witness protection programme or something,” Sawyer joked and then immediately stilled as Lena looked at him.

“It would make sense then,” Lena said, sitting upright in her chair. “It would be the one thing that connected them to each other and it would explain why they were being targeted. Maybe the programme has been compromised!”

“Maybe, but what’s so significant about age twenty one? An old friend of mine is a US Marshall and I can’t recall him ever mentioning an age limit at which back stories would start.”

Captain Marquez welcomed any theory that could provide a reason for the unsolved murders and contacted an old friend who was a US Marshall. Twenty minutes later, Marquez walked out of his office, looking disappointed.

“Did your friend not want to share, Captain?” Sawyer asked.

“No, he was actually very co-operative. Unfortunately, none of our victims were in the programme,” Marquez responded. “Looks like we’re back to square one. Sorry guys!”

That same evening, Rafe and Eden met once again at the abandoned wishing well. Rafe had managed to secure a few blankets and a picnic basket for an impromptu dinner. Rafe thought that Eden looked beautiful as he served them both chicken mayonnaise sandwiches. She seemed happy to see him.

“Hope you like chicken,” Rafe said as he laid the plates on the blanket.

“Love it,” Eden grinned. Love this, love you. What? Eden suddenly sat up, almost spilling her glass of lemonade.

“You okay?” Rafe asked, concerned. Eden had literally looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Yes, I’m fine. I just remembered something I had meant to do.”

Rafe knew that that was not true, but he paid her the courtesy of not reading her mind. He knew that she couldn’t read his and was very thankful for that because the thoughts that currently ran through his mind might have made her flee!

“So, what have you been up to recently?” he asked instead, trying to take her mind off whatever had startled her.

Eden struggled to come back into the conversation. Did she love Rafe? She’d never been in love before, so how would she know if this were it? Maybe the nervous, but joyful anticipation of seeing someone, of hearing their voice, seeing their smile reach their eyes, of feeling comfortable yet so special when you were with them, of feeling an interconnectedness you have never felt with anyone before, of having their kiss touch not only your heart, but reach the depths of your soul. Maybe it was knowing that you wanted to spend not just this life, but many lifetimes with them. I am in so much trouble, Eden thought.

“Well, uh, we’ve been busy these last few days. I only run into my brothers at mealtimes and Kyra and I have been in intensive training as well. My parents were on a few missions and my father has been busy with the Council looking at future missions. And you?” Eden was aware that she was rambling and if Rafe noticed it, he said nothing, although he presented her with one of his intense, soul-reaching gazes.

“Are you reading my mind now?” she eventually asked.

Rafe laughed. “Nope,” he said earnestly. “Our family rule is to not read the minds of other Hunters or each other, unless we are out on a mission. I’m applying the same rule to you. It would provide me with an unfair and unwarranted advantage in this case.” Eden didn’t know why, but she believed him. In fact, she believed everything he told her and had no reason to doubt him. Which is ironic, she thought, since I am walking around Knight town being suspicious of just about everybody!

“Okay, so have you been on any interesting missions recently?” Eden asked.

“We’re actually at the beginning of something very interesting. I can’t say too much about it, but it might result in my not being able to see you for a while,” Rafe confessed.

“You’re going out into the world of the Normals!” Eden guessed correctly.

“Are you sure you can’t read my mind?” Rafe asked, drawing Eden closer into his arms.

“Pretty sure. Although I do sense that you might just want to kiss me now,” she said impishly. Rafe murmured something as his lips closed over Eden’s. It was minutes later, when he confirmed that he’d said that he would miss her.

“Well, we can still communicate, can’t we?” she asked.

“Yes, we can, but I have to be alert and focused so don’t be alarmed if I block you out. Look, I will definitely be in touch, but I will be spending quite a bit of time with Caleb in close quarters and I have to be careful. He is already suspicious and not too happy with me right now,” Rafe said, detailing to Eden the conversation he’d recently had with his brother.

“It really sucks that we have to sneak around like this,” Eden eventually said. “If we all lived in the world of the Normals, I think that our families would have been friends. I really like your parents and you would feel the same about mine and my brothers and sister. Matthew and Caleb would be best pals, I suspect!”

“We can’t sneak around forever, Eden. I would like to spend more time with you. In the open, with our families, but we would have to break a centuries’ old code which I don’t even think that our own parents fully understand. Damn right this sucks!” Rafe said angrily. “I finally find a girl and I can’t even take her home!”

Eden smiled. “So, I’m your girl, then?

“Yes, you’re my girl!” Rafe said forcefully.

Eden smiled and hugged him. After a few minutes, she asked, “Rafe, can I ask you something about the Hunters?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you do what you do? I mean, why is it easier to terminate a condemned Normal than to help redeem them? We’ve offered second chances to so many condemned Normals and they now live such good, happy, fulfilling lives.”

Rafe sighed. He had been expecting this question for weeks now. How could he answer that? “The condemned Normals that we eradicate cannot add any value to the world. We’re sure of that. However, there have been many that we haven’t used the arrow on and just track because there was still something good left in them.”

“How do you know who should be eradicated?”

“We have vast access to information that most people haven’t even heard of. You have no idea how intensive our research is. Hunter intelligence doesn’t leave any opportunity for mistakes. We track the condemned Normals first to ensure that our facts are correct and that we have a right to use our arrows. You can say that we destroy the destroyers of this world.” Rafe justified.

“Why don’t you try to prevent the destruction in the first place?” Eden asked Rafe the same question she had asked her father.

“Like the Knights, we can’t interfere with free will. Our role in this world is to ensure that those that abuse that free will to harm Normals are removed from this earth. The fewer condemned Normals that walk amongst us, the safer the world, for us and the Normals.”

“I’m sorry for the inquiry,” Eden said. “I’ve asked my father the same questions. I guess this is the period of my questioning.”

“Well, question away!”

“Have you ever wondered whether the information you were fed on your missions was ever incorrect?” Eden continued.

“No. I trust the information completely because I trust the Hunters who provide it.”

“So did we. And then we ended up with Harry Tyler!” Eden was still fuming over that lapse.

“True, but we don’t have Harry Tylers,” Rafe said.

“What do you mean?”

“The Knights have the period of the Choice and if they so choose, they can become and live as Normals, bad Knights get “banished” to live as the Untouchables in the world of the Normals. No Hunter has ever permanently lived amongst the Normals, willingly or not. Every Hunter has embraced his or her place in this world, without question, without doubt and we’ve never had any “Untouchable” Hunters,” Rafe said proudly.

“Never?” Eden asked in disbelief.

Rafe shook his head. “You must understand. There is complete belief in what we stand for. Yes, we fight and argue amongst ourselves, but our sense of purpose, of family, has never been questioned for centuries. Besides, the arrows are in our blood, so we couldn’t stop being Hunters even if we wanted to.”

“I wish we had that level of trust right now,” Eden confessed. “Our family is so mistrusting of the Elders in the Council and of a few other Knights. My father checks and double-checks every piece of information now, before he sends any Knight out on a mission. He said he is not willing to risk our lives after what happened to me.”

“Did you find out anything more, about possible leaks within Knight town?” Rafe asked.

“No, we haven’t, but we are continuing with our search. My brothers have been engaging with some of the Normals outside the town, but so far, nothing interesting has sprung up.”

Eden paused before asking a question that had been intriguing her for years. “How do these arrows work? Do you just raise your arms and aim?”

Rafe tried not to laugh, very unsuccessfully and Eden swatted his arm. “Sorry, that was funny. The Hunters have always been the chosen protectors of the Normals and our weapons are the arrows which flow in our blood. Firing the arrows requires a mind-body connection. It’s like your mind has to provide a release order before you can use an arrow. It doesn’t just happen automatically; you have to be very conscious of what you are doing at that moment. That’s why we train so intensely so that we can shorten the time it takes to make that connection. Besides, the Hunter leadership keeps track of every arrow released, so we can’t ever be irresponsible and get away with it.”

“How are they able to do that?” Eden asked, whilst at the same time, marvelling at the way in which the Hunters operated.

“Our arrows are like genetic markers, so we’re easily identifiable, since samples of our blood are stored in a database when we’re born. You know how there are different frequencies of sound? Well, when we release an arrow, we give off different frequencies and since we are constantly tracked, our leaders know exactly who has released an arrow and where. Let’s just say, we’re not allowed to make mistakes in the world of the Normals because it could cost the life of an innocent.”

Eden took a moment to absorb the information. It was fascinating and she had so many more questions, which she realised, had nothing to with her year of the Choice. However, given the lateness of the hour, Eden and Rafe bid farewell, knowing that they probably wouldn’t see each other face to face for a few weeks.

Goodbye my love, Eden whispered as she walked away. Yes, she loved Rafe the Hunter! Would he ever feel the same about her?

A few days later, with another body being dumped by the killers and with no more fresh leads, Jude and Ethan agreed to activate the Young Hunters. Armed with their cover stories and the key to the apartment they would be leasing in Lena Peck’s building, the boys left home on their most complicated mission yet. They knew that Ethan and Jude would be tracking them constantly and that their mom would not have a good night’s sleep until they returned home safe.

Sitting in the cab on the way to their apartment, Caleb reflected on a conversation he had had with Becca the day before. They had been tracking both McCall and Gentry and had seen the latest gruesome murder being committed. They had both cringed and Becca had excused herself from the control centre, most probably to throw up, Caleb thought, since that

was uppermost on his mind. He had followed Becca after a few minutes to check that she was okay and had found her leaning against the side of the building. He had quietly offered her a tissue.

“Thank you,” Becca said after a few minutes. “I can’t believe they killed someone in that way. Did you feel their auras?”

Caleb nodded in acknowledgement. “I’ve seen some bad ass Normals before, but these guys just jumped to the top of my list.”

“You know that your dad will probably send you and Rafe out soon, don’t you?” she asked worriedly.

“Yes, we have to go. We’ve already established the link with those detectives. Now we just have to maintain our cover story and not seem overly enthusiastic to catch these killers,” Caleb said.

“And don’t be smart assed either,” Becca warned with a smile.

Caleb smiled. Maybe Bec was finally warming up to him after their “fight” during training camp. She had been very professional these last few days when they had been asked to work together, but he’d known that she was also very detached from him. Which was odd, because he, Rafe, Ella and Becca had always been close, family almost.

“So, you’re no longer mad at me then?” Caleb asked tentatively. Becca smiled, her first real smile in weeks.

“No, I can never be mad at you for too long. We’ve known each other since before we could talk. Besides, you taught me an important lesson,” she said.

“Oh, what’s that?” Caleb asked interestedly.

“That you’ve got to appreciate people for who they are and stop wanting them to be something else. What is that famous saying, “that you can only change yourself?” Well, you Caleb, will always be you. And how can that make me angry?” she asked mysteriously.

“Friends, then?” Caleb asked, sticking out his hand after first spitting on it, like they used to when they were kids.

Becca did the same and shook his hand. “The best of. Always. Now, I don’t need to tell you to be careful out there and listen to Rafe. Otherwise, you don’t want to see how mad I can get!” she warned.

Caleb smiled as he remembered Becca’s warning. The taxi pulled up to their apartment building. “This is it,” the driver called.

As they carted their luggage into the lobby, and simultaneously checked out their surroundings, they realised that Lena Peck lived in a pretty decent apartment building for a detective.

“It obviously paid well to be a model!” Caleb said.

“Yeah. I only hope that she believes that we can afford a place like this,” Rafe said worriedly.

“Don’t worry bro. If she doesn’t, we can just admit to being underwear models. I mean, we sure have the bodies for that!” Caleb joked.

Ethan’s cover story for the boys was simple and not far from the truth. Rafe and Caleb were the only children of parents who had become wealthy from their exclusive line of furniture, the Arrow line. They were currently studying at NYU and their parents had leased this apartment for them. The reason that they had left the police station after Harry Tyler had died, was that they didn’t want to get in the way of the police and there was nothing else that they could do to help. A day later, one of their family members had been taken ill and they had left for home, only to return a few weeks ago. Rafe wasn’t so certain that the last part of their story would go unchallenged, but they had to go with it as they saw fit.

They spent the rest of the evening unpacking and discussing their strategy. They knew that Detective Peck would still be at the station, but they also knew, based on their tracking of her the past few days, that she would return home by at least 8pm and would then go to the gym across the street from their apartment building. She normally spent an hour there, came back to shower, ate dinner and then usually spent a few more hours reviewing the crime scenes, the evidence and information on the victims. Rafe and Caleb planned to run into her when she came back from the gym, on the pretext of them going out to dinner.

It was just after 9pm when Caleb saw Detective Peck leaving the gym. The boys left their apartment just as she entered their building. She lived two floors above them and since she was taking the stairs, they would definitely run into her. As if on cue, Detective Peck emerged, from the floor below. The boys talked amongst themselves, trying not to notice her. It was only when they moved aside to make way for her that she looked at them, intending to murmur thanks, but instead being so shocked, she almost lost her footing.

“Whoa,” Caleb said, reaching to steady her. “You okay there?”

“Rafe and Caleb? What the hell are you doing here?” Lena asked in shock.

Caleb reeled, as if he had just remembered her. “Uh…Detective Peck, right? My brother and I live here. We’ve been living here for a year at least.” Rafe said nothing.