Knights v Hunters: The Choice

It was a weary Rafe who eventually joined the rest of the Hunters and Knights at the diner. For years, his abilities had made him privy to the minds of the condemned, but the effect on him had not lessened over time. Each murder, each crime, continued to stay with him, long after arrows were dispensed to eliminate the condemned. The sight of Eden, sitting amongst her brothers and sister, went some way to removing some of the darkness from his mind.

After quick introductions, they got on with business, both sides obviously receiving the necessary permissions for full disclosure. Rafe let Caleb lead the discussion, which was conducted in good spirit. Pity the Knights and Hunters haven’t worked together for a long time, Rafe thought and watched Caleb raise his eyebrows. “There’s a reason for that,” Caleb responded, “how can we trust their information when they’re obviously being duped time and time again?” Rafe had no answer to that.

“Well, we have a list of the abilities that these victims had when they were Knights,” Josh said. Josh was a darker blonde who shared many facial features and mannerisms with his sister Kyra, Rafe noted, whilst Eden and Matthew seemed more alike in temperament.

“Are you okay”? Eden reached out to Rafe.

“Yes,” he responded. “I have never been so glad that you can’t read my mind. You have no idea how good it is to sit here with you in the open, even under these circumstances,” he added.

“The victims you know as Thomas Marshall, Joe Ringer and Michael Cage were Trackers. Phoebe Winters was a Seer, Evelyn Almaida was a Sensor, May Crossweather was a Cleaner and apparently an exceptional one at that. Dean Calloway, was a Sensor and a Guardian,” Josh informed them.

“Which would explain why Calloway’s murder was more brutal than the others,” Matthew stated. “Guardians are just physically stronger than most Knights and Calloway obviously continued keeping fit since he owned a gym. And he would have done that either through instinct or because his memories were never cleaned. We suspect the latter.”

“Phoebe and Dean were also brother and sister. My father says that they were very close growing up, so he can’t understand why they didn’t stay that way when they came to live with the Normals, because their relationship wouldn’t have been cleaned,” Kyra added.

“It looks like they were still close. Their estrangement was just a cover,” Caleb offered.

“Why?” Eden asked.

“Well, Phoebe was a Seer, right? She probably kept her brother aware of what was coming their way and realised that it wasn’t safe for them to stay together. If they still had their abilities when they left Knight town, then they knew that other former Knights and possibly some of the Untouchables had retained theirs as well. They would have been easier to track if they were together,” Caleb reasoned.

“By the way, Roan Gentry was a Sensor and Gage McCall was a Tracker,” Josh continued.

“Why were they banished?” Becca asked. Caleb noticed the awareness that passed between Becca and Josh and felt a sense of unease overcome him. Not another Knight and Hunter forbidden romance, he lamented.

“Well, Gentry and McCall were close, even in Knight town it seems. On one of his missions, Gentry killed two innocent Normals and injured a Knight, severely compromising the mission. Apparently this was preceded by a series of episodes where he behaved very dangerously on missions. No Knight felt comfortable working with him. The killings were the final straw and he was immediately banished. This was fifteen years ago. McCall on the other hand, was banished six months after Gentry. He had a habit of taking things that didn’t belong to him. The Council tried to rehabilitate him, but he was banished when he stole the Sacred Book, which is a document that has confidential information on all the Knights. It’s kind of a database of current and former Knights, the Untouchables, our missions, etc. They eventually recovered it, but that secured his ride out of Knight town.”

“So McCall had access to all the Knight records, missions accomplished, list of former Knights, list of Untouchables? He would have known where to find Gentry then and other former Knights and Untouchables,” Rafe said. Josh and Matthew nodded.

Caleb was ominously silent. Rafe didn’t like where Caleb’s thoughts were going and he shook his head in warning, which Caleb didn’t heed.

“I don’t understand. The Knights are supposed to protect the Normals, so why would you deposit your candidates for Boys Town right into their midst as punishment?” he asked.

“Now, wait a minute!” Josh protested, but was silenced by Becca.

“Caleb’s right. You send dangerous Untouchables, who you don’t want living in Knight town, to go and live amongst those you are meant to protect!” Becca argued.

“You’re right,” Matthew said in an effort to diffuse the situation. “I can’t justify centuries worth of practices, but when the Untouchables are banished, they usually leave with no memories of their wrongdoing, only possibilities for good. It’s meant to be their second chance. Hundreds of Untouchables have made successes of their second chances and are upstanding members of their communities.”

“Do you know who were the Cleaners assigned to these former Knights?” Rafe asked Matthew, in an attempt to bring them back on track.

“At that time, the Council used a system to assign Cleaners anonymously where even the Council itself didn’t know who eventually got selected. The assigned Cleaners were forbidden from revealing their assignments,” Matthew said.

“So no one has a record of the Cleaners?” Caleb asked.

“At this minute, no,” Matthew conceded. “But my parents should get the names before end of day.”

“Okay, so we’ll probably find out who’s responsible for this mess and their reasons behind it. That’s obviously linked to whatever crazy mission Gentry and McCall plan on executing,” Becca said.

Rafe filled them in on his visit to Gentry and his suspicion that Gentry and McCall would now more than likely make their next move quicker than anticipated.

“How’s the tracking going?” Rafe addressed both the Hunters and Knights.

“McCall has been making deliveries this whole morning. He has this really vicious dog riding shotgun,” Caleb informed them.

“We can obviously track them, but can’t get too close because McCall would have the ability to track us. Besides, we can’t read the Untouchables who still have their abilities because they are able to block us within Normal society,” Josh said. “But you can,” he conceded.

“Yeah,” Caleb said, “which is why I suggest that we pair up. The Untouchables won’t be able to sense you if you’re with one of us. They can’t track Hunters.”

“Agreed,” Matthew and Eden both said. Kyra seemed a bit hesitant, but Caleb ignored her.

“Becca and I tracked Gentry to his home. He has a home about fifty miles out of the city. The area is not as isolated as we thought it would be. It seems as if McCall lives right next door. Their homes are meticulously clean, everything in its place. I saw them offer friendly greetings to their neighbours. By sight only, nothing seems out of place. However, when we were reading them, we realised that they are expecting you,” Caleb said, looking at both Matthew and Eden.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but they were celebrating the fact that they would soon literally get away with murder. What you should know is that they are looking forward to meeting the children of Gabe. And they specifically knew that it would be Matthew and Eden,” Becca concluded.

“Someone inside our town is helping these Untouchables!” Kyra said angrily.

“Undoubtedly,” Caleb said. “What you should also know is that part of their end game is to eliminate both Matthew and Eden.” Caleb heard gasps around the table, felt his brother’s discomfort. “They consider you both to be the strongest of Gabe’s children. No offense,” he said to Kyra and Josh who simply waved off his apology.

“They could just been drawing you two out, since they can’t get past the Guardians in Knight town,” Rafe realised.

“That would weaken my father and leave him open to a takeover,” Eden said.

“Yes,” Caleb confirmed. “Which is why I think that at least two of you need to go back home before morning.”

Josh looked like he wanted to protest, but he would abide by his brother’s decision.

“I agree. Kyra and Josh will return by sunrise, but first we need to pair up and track these Untouchables and see whether we can put an end to this madness today,” Matthew said.

Caleb looked at Rafe and nodded. “We’ll take Eden with us, Becca will go with you. Keep an eye on her, she’s very fast and hard to keep up with!” Caleb warned, a note of affection in his voice.

Rafe was grateful to his brother for selecting Eden, whilst knowing that it would still be all business until this mission was wrapped up. Then, he and Eden would need to have a serious talk. Given what was happening in Knight town, he was worried about leaving things unsaid between them.

“We’ll take good care of her,” Josh promised, doing little to reduce Caleb’s unease. “We trust you with our sister.”

“By the way, how are we going to involve the police in this?” Matthew asked.

Rafe revealed his plan to the Hunters and Knights around the table. They agreed, but recognised the danger of it and the possibility that the Untouchables could escape the trap.

Rafe, Caleb and Becca checked in with Ethan before they paired up with the Knights. He supported their plans, but also advised that they stay on high alert.

“Our information tells us that Harry Tyler linked up with Gentry and McCall years ago but that he started to distance himself over the last few months before his death. I think that there might be more Untouchables who are part of this mission, whatever it is. Just remember, that they know the Knights’ strengths and weaknesses and are more prone to attack if they sense any Knights around. You’re stronger and faster than them. Don’t hesitate to use your arrows if you feel it’s justified,” Ethan advised.

“Will do, Uncle Ethan,” Caleb said, signing off. The three of them agreed about when to meet and the process for communication.

Nearby, the Knights also checked in with their father. Gabe said that Grace was busy searching their records for the names of the Cleaners. Gabe cautioned his children, wary of the strengths of the Untouchables but relieved that the stronger Hunters on this mission would support them.

“I’m sad to say that Seth’s name has come up a few times,” Gabe said. “Your mother is convinced that it’s a mistake.”

“What do you think, Father?” Eden asked, knowing how it must be eating away at her father to believe that someone he loved and respected as much as Seth, would conspire to destroy everything the Knights had built up over centuries.

“I think that we both want to believe that Seth is incapable of such duplicity, but you can only ignore the evidence for so long,” he conceded. “By the way, your missions are not usually as drawn out as this, so you’re not used to being out in the world with the Normals for too long. It just means that you need to be extra vigilant.”

Matthew sensed his father’s concern. Gabe felt that his children were vulnerable and he itched to join them, but knew that he faced the more important task of gathering reliable, trustworthy data that would aid them.

They provided their parents with the necessary assurances before leaving to join the Hunters.

When Matthew’s team left, Rafe had little time to wonder what it would be like to work with Eden. However, he did allow himself a few seconds of holding Eden’s hand while Caleb walked ahead of them. They were on their way to check out McCall and Gentry’s homes whilst the Untouchables were at work. There had to be something there that would connect them to the murders!

They entered Gentry’s home first. It was as neat as Caleb had first seen it. Gentry seemed to have become more disciplined over the years, his rash behaviour as a teenager being replaced by measured ruthlessness. “This is how he chose to use his second chance,” Caleb told Rafe.

They could not see anything out of the ordinary in Gentry’s home. Eden had carefully gone through his closets. His shirts were neatly lined up, similar colours paired, meticulously. There were no dirty dishes in the sink, no dust on the furniture. All in all, it was the home of a man who could hide himself very well. Even his garage, traditionally a storage facility for unused items in most homes, was neat and tidy.

McCall’s home was furnished with mostly antique furniture, indicating a departure in taste from Gentry’s more modern choices. However, there was also an absence of any signs of disarray in his home.

“Who lives this neatly?” Eden asked.

Caleb piped up, “Rafe does!” Rafe shook his head in disagreement. These guys made him look like a slob.

“Let’s check if your theory is correct,” Caleb said, looking at his brother. “I suspect it is, but we just need to find the evidence to support it.” They searched McCall’s kitchen cupboards, his closets and even his pantry. Nothing.

“Garage?” Caleb suggested and the three of them walked into the equally meticulous garage. McCall had cupboards along one side and when Eden opened the cupboard closest to her, she found a long wall safe. She immediately beckoned Rafe.

The boys stood staring at the safe. It had a mechanism that required a six-digit code. “Can you feel that?” Rafe asked Caleb.

“Yeah. You want to try it?” Eden had no idea what they were talking about, but her admiration for these Hunters’ abilities grew by the second.

Rafe carefully punched in a code. The first try didn’t work. “Oh, I’ve mixed the last two digits,” he explained. The next try was successful and with bated breath, he opened the safe.

There, neatly laid out on three different shelves, were items McCall had taken from each victim. He hadn’t been cured of his kleptomania over the years after all! Now, it had escalated into collecting trophies from his victims- an engraved pen from Thomas Marshall, Missy Adams’ journal, a class photo of Phoebe Winters with her young students, a key chain with Joe Ringer’s initials, miniature cars from car fanatic Michael Cage, earrings which Rafe knew belonged to Evelyn Almaida, spectacles belonging to May Crossweather and a pair of Dean Calloway’s training shoes. The final item was a class ring, probably belonging to the last victim, yet unfound by the police. Rafe thought it was about time that he directed the police to the body.

It was almost surreal finding these items. Eden was struck with sadness when looking at McCall’s trophies. How had McCall and Gentry ever lived amongst them? Were the Knights raising this kind of evil in their own backyard? And why hadn’t the Council and her father rooted out this evil earlier? She felt ashamed standing there, knowing that Caleb’s outburst earlier had held nothing but the truth.

“I’ll let Becca inform the others,” Caleb offered, knowing that Eden was in a very contemplative mood and that she probably needed a minute with Rafe.

As Caleb went back into the kitchen, Rafe placed his hands on Eden’s shoulders and felt her tense. He knew that she was embarrassed. Maybe until that moment, she might have still doubted whether the Untouchables could have executed something so foul.

“Caleb is right,” she whispered. “We are supposed to protect the Normals from harm and offer second chances to those who deserve it. You help to root out evil from Normal society, whilst we seem to just plant it here!”

“Look, whatever is going on has been going on for years, probably before your father became the leader of the Knights. When you go back home, you’re going to spend quite a bit of time unravelling the complex web of deceit that has been carefully spun over the years. Your family is going to need strength to undertake this challenge. You can help them, Eden,” Rafe said, knowing in his heart that he would see less of Eden when their mission was over, but all for a good cause. Even the Untouchables had recognised her strength and had known that her death would weaken the leader of the Knights!

Eden turned into Rafe’s arms and allowed his strength, energy and positivity to seep into her. She loved this man, would she ever get the chance to tell him?

“Thank you. You’re right. We still have a lot of work to do. Now, we have to put a stop to Gentry and McCall. The Knights will step aside when you confront them. We won’t do anything to stave off your arrows,” she confided to Rafe. This was a direct order from her father. Their original mission had been cancelled. Their new mission was to aid the Hunters in the capture of the condemned Untouchables and to allow the Hunters to execute their mission. Eden wasn’t sure if that had ever happened in her lifetime. Her parents had certainly never discussed that with them.

Caleb returned, confirming that he had spoken to Becca who had informed the other Knights. “Seems as if the Untouchables are returning home early. We need to lock everything up and leave,” he ordered. “You know,” he added as he locked the safe, “I have a feeling that Gentry has no idea of McCall’s treasure chest.”

“Which means that McCall will try to get rid of it if he is spooked enough,” Rafe guessed.

“Exactly,” Caleb said. “I think you need to go back to Detective Peck and tell her you had one of your ‘visions’. We need to lock this down tonight!”

When Rafe returned to the station, Lena informed him that Gentry and McCall were definitely on the move. When McCall had returned to the bakery after the police had been there, he had spent a few hours indoors, as if all was normal. Now, they had packed up early and were leaving.

“That’s not so unusual, though,” Sawyer said. “My aunt is a baker. She wakes the roosters, but she goes to bed pretty early at night. Maybe this is just their schedule?”

“I don’t think that they are running away, but they are leaving earlier than normal. Look, I think I should let you know that I think they killed someone else a few days ago. It’s a lady, probably around forty years old. She was stabbed several times,” Rafe said.

“What? Do you know where they dumped her body?” Sawyer asked.

Rafe provided Sawyer with the address and in a flash he was on the phone to Marquez who promised to send other members of the task team to the crime scene.

“What else?” Lena asked, aware that Rafe was holding something back.

Rafe hesitated for a second. “Remember I told you earlier that Missy Adams kept a journal? Well, McCall has it. He likes to keep little souvenirs of his work.”

“How do you know that?” Sawyer asked suspiciously. “You only met Gentry. How do you know so much about McCall?” Even Lena frowned.

Sawyer was right. Given his cover, he shouldn’t have been able to know that about McCall.

“True, but I can’t control my visions. And it’s never based on whether I’ve met the people or not.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that, although I want you to know I’m not totally convinced,” Sawyer warned. “But in the interests of time, I’ll let you continue, provided that nothing you say is going to get thrown out of court by a judge.”

“I can guarantee that no judge will have that opportunity. McCall has a token from every one of the victims you’ve identified, including the one you will find shortly. He keeps it in a safe in one of his cabinets in his garage. I don’t think that Gentry is aware that his partner has a potentially career-ending habit,” Rafe said, as close to the truth as possible.

Lena and Sawyer conferred. This was the evidence they were asking for, yet there still wasn’t an obvious motive for the killing. Furthermore, if Rafe had read Gentry and Gentry didn’t know about McCall’s trophies, then how did Rafe know? Were they right to trust these boys? Just then, Captain Marquez came into the office, looking very pale.

“Well young man,” he said, “seems as if your information was accurate. We just found the body of Sharon Conner. Her husband reported her missing when she didn’t pitch to pick their daughter from school. Mrs Conner was a psychologist, seemingly well-respected in her community and a very responsible parent. Her husband even hired a private detective to find her, to no avail. We’ve just informed him. He’ll come through to identify the body. He refuses to believe it though. Are you sure that her killer is the same person responsible for the other eight murders?” he asked Rafe.

“Absolutely!” Rafe confirmed.

Lena quickly told the captain about Rafe’s latest information.

“Well, let’s get a search warrant. I’ll find a judge. We have probable cause. John Adams identified these men and we consider them possible suspects. I don’t think we’ll have a problem with getting a warrant, even if I have to wake up some judge myself!” Marquez ranted.

As Sawyer drove to McCall’s residence, he still couldn’t believe that they had managed to get a judge to sign off on the warrant so quickly, especially with the miniscule viable information they could legally share! He doubted what they deemed to be ‘probable cause’ to actually be adequate, but who was he to argue with a judge? Lena sat beside him in the car, quietly chatting to Rafe who sat behind him. Sawyer knew that Lena believed wholeheartedly in the kid, but he suspected that even she was surprised with the depth of information Rafe had shared this evening. If Rafe was correct, and in all probability he was, then they could get the evidence they needed tonight to pin those murders on McCall. But what about Gentry? Except for Rafe’s ‘visions’, they had no tangible evidence to suggest that he was complicit in any of these murders. If the tokens of their killings were still at McCall’s home, would he implicate his good friend Gentry?

The lights were on in McCall’s home as they pulled up to the curb. Gentry’s house was still in darkness. The rest of the task team had also joined Sawyer and Lena on this search. Gage McCall answered the door after the first ring. He seemed to be expecting them.

“Can I help you?” he asked. McCall had short, strawberry blonde hair with light green eyes. He was a few inches taller than Gentry and much leaner. He eyed them suspiciously, his eyes flitting from Sawyer to Lena and finally resting on Rafe.

Lena introduced the team, their reason for being there and handed McCall the search warrant, asking him to move aside. Rafe noticed that McCall didn’t follow them back into the house as the detectives spread out, but that instead, he chose to remain on the porch. His demeanour was calm and there were no outward signs of fear. Either he was supremely confident, Rafe thought, or he was a darn good actor! Rafe moved into the house, knowing that Caleb, Becca and the Knights were close by outside to prevent any sudden escape by McCall. Detective Channing was standing next to the cabinet with the safe. Rafe pointed to it and Sawyer immediately opened the door, noticing that the safe was still secure. In a few moments, the safe was open and both Sawyer and Lena gasped when they saw what Rafe had seen a few hours before. Mementoes from the murders – most of them with the victims’ names or initials on it. Sawyer could hardly believe it. It seemed too good to be true.

McCall was brought into the house by one of the other detectives. He looked a bit shaken when he came across Detectives Peck and Channing, who were both standing next to the cabinet in his garage.

“Mr McCall, are these your possessions?” Lena asked, holding up those mementoes, all of which were now neatly bagged and tagged.

For a moment, McCall looked stunned, but he quickly recovered. “No mam, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that in my life. Where did you find that?”

Rafe could hear the thoughts whirring in McCall’s head. How did they know the code to my safe? How should I play this out? Roan is not going to be happy about this; he doesn’t know I took those items.

“We found this in your garage, sir. In a safe, to be more precise and we have recorded this entire search just in case you might have any questions,” Lena responded and nodded to Sawyer.

“Gage McCall, you are under arrest for the murders of…” Sawyer read out the list of names of the victims and completed the Miranda. McCall continued to look totally stunned, not even outraged.

Lena went ahead to the station with McCall, whilst Sawyer supervised the rest of the search. He turned to Rafe and asked, “Do you think it’s weird that he didn’t even protest his innocence?”

“Not really. I believe he is mostly in shock. He didn’t think that anyone would find his treasures. And he is really scared of what Roan Gentry will do if he finds out that his partner kept all those items which could effectively sink them both!”

“What worries me, is that we still have nothing tangible that connects Gentry to these crimes. I suspect that he is the meticulous one in this partnership, the one who plans the crimes, knows where to dump the bodies and actually has sight of the bigger picture, because surely there has to be a bigger picture? These two crazies didn’t just decide to kill random people one day. And we have to figure out why there isn’t any information on our victims or suspects before the age of twenty-one. Could they have been part of a cult? “ Sawyer asked.

Rafe didn’t know how to answer that, so he remained quiet, hoping that Sawyer had just been thinking out loud instead of asking him a direct question. He knew that Sawyer wouldn’t give up on finding out about the victims’ missing information. He wasn’t that sort of guy. As he was busy attempting to evade Sawyer, Caleb communicated with him to let him know that lights were coming on at Gentry’s home. Let Channing know, Caleb prompted.

“Maybe McCall will turn on his partner,” Rafe offered. “By the way, it looks like Gentry is back.” He pointed to the house next door, which was now all lit up.

“Well, let’s give him the news on McCall. See whether that rattles him any,” Sawyer said, eager for a confrontation with Gentry, fuelled primarily by the lack of evidence to implicate the man. Rafe and two of the detectives followed Sawyer to Gentry’s place.

Gentry took a few minutes to answer the door. He was in his pyjamas, socked feet and looked slightly dishevelled. “Detective Channing, right? What’s going on?” he asked, with enough annoyance in his voice.

“Can we come in for a few minutes?” Sawyer asked and moved inside before Gentry could answer. When Gentry reluctantly closed the front door, he turned around and said, “Not to be rude Detective, but I have to go to work in a few hours and I have a lady friend upstairs,” he explained.

“We won’t keep you long, Mr Gentry,” Sawyer said amiably. “Your neighbour … and I understand it, your colleague, Gage McCall was arrested earlier tonight for murder.”

Roan Gentry paled at that. “There must be some mistake, Detective. Gage is one of the gentlest people I know. He’d never harm anyone!”

“Well, the evidence is indisputable. We suspect that he has killed at least nine people. And we have sufficient evidence to tie him to all the murders.” Rafe noticed Gentry’s pallor. The man was a cocky, cold-blooded killer who never thought that he’d be caught. Now, he was quickly trying to figure out how to get his partner out of this mess. He cares about McCall, Rafe realised. They are more than partners in crime. They’re like brothers.

“What evidence?” Gentry asked outraged.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t share that with you at this moment. What I can share is that your neighbour is also suspected of killing Missy Adams, the young lady I spoke to you about,” Sawyer confirmed. Gentry just shook his head in disbelief. “Mr Gentry, did McCall keep unusual evening hours?”

“What? No, I mean I don’t keep track of his evenings. We hang out sometimes, you know. We’ve been friends for a long time. Gage never does anything wrong. He toes the line you know, doesn’t even like to go a mile over the speed limit. I can’t believe he had anything to do with these murders. There has to be a mistake.”

Sawyer looked earnestly at Gentry, all the while thinking, we’re coming after you next, you smug bastard! Rafe smiled at that thought. “No, I can assure you there’s been no mistake Mr Gentry,” Sawyer said gravely. Gentry continued to protest, citing his friend’s good deeds.

Caleb spoke to his brother. “The Knights have the names of two Cleaners who might have helped the Untouchables. Seth and Noah,” he said. Rafe remembered that Eden had been very distressed at the thought that this Seth could be involved in any of this, even though he had been Harry Tyler’s father. Eden’s parents had also expressed doubt and sorrow at any possible involvement. “Thank you,” Rafe said to his brother. “I’ll figure out how to use this information as leverage.”

“Mr Gentry, if you can think of anything to help our investigation or even help your friend, please call me,” Sawyer said, handing Gentry his card. “Call me anytime.” Sawyer moved towards the door, with the two detectives behind him.

As he stepped outside, Rafe turned towards Gentry and said very, very quietly and out of earshot of Detective Channing, “Noah says hello.” He turned away from the door, but not before he saw Gentry’s jaw drop, followed by an expression of extreme shock.