Tell My Dad (17 page)

T
heaker scanned the backyard
, which was basically a junkyard except for a rosebush in the far-right corner. Two chairs and one desk were in the middle of the garden. Tons of beer bottles had been thrown under the desk. The place was filthy except for the rosebush.

A rosebush.

The plant’s beauty was overshadowed by two amputated arms, which were neatly placed on the ground in a V-shape. Theaker walked closer to the plant and looked at the lifeless hands lying on the soil.

Jones joined Theaker. “Got something?”

Theaker shook his head. “I don’t know. Most of the body pieces were scattered there…” He pointed to the place where Marco’s head had been abandoned. “That’s where the killer pushed that guy through the window. However, the killer placed the dead guy’s hands
here
for a reason. See…the fingers are pointing to the plant.”

He sat on his knees. Jones knelt down across from Theaker and sifted through the soil with his left hand. “Something is buried underneath. Look at the heaped pattern here. There is more than just a rosebush here.” He stood up. “I think we should dig under this plant.”

* * *

W
alker looked
around when he heard a ringtone. “Shake Your Whammy Fanny.” He walked closer to the headless torso from where the ringtone originated. He removed the phone from the dead man’s pants pocket.

The caller ID flashed “Unknown.”

His gloved finger touched the answer button. “Hello?”

“Marco?” It was an older voice on the other side.

Marco?

“Marco is busy. He is all worked up and torn into pieces right now. Who are you?” Walker waited for the answer but heard only the sound of rapid, shallow breaths on the other side before the call was disconnected.

* * *

O
n the other
side of the call, Bob McFarlane looked at the man in the wheelchair. The man was bulky and wore blue jeans and a green-striped half-sleeve shirt. He wiped the sweat from the bridge of his nose, adjusted his eyeglasses, and asked, “What happened, Bob?”

Bob scratched his head and sighed. “I’m not sure, Thomas. Marco is not there. Someone else answered. Does not look good. Something is wrong.” He arched his brows. “Once I get ahold of this bastard, I am going to kill him.”

“I want my princess.” Thomas tightly gripped the arms of the wheelchair and stared at the blue sky through the window. “It’s supposed to be my birthday. I want my princess.”

* * *

I
t was
six o’clock in the evening. Samantha was exhausted after witnessing the unearthing of a human skull under the rosebush. Part of her wanted to cry. Part of her wanted to look tough.

Jones slowly walked toward her. “You are getting a hell of an experience during your internship.” He pointed to the fallen rosebush. “Looking at the skull, it looks like a small child was buried there.”

Her heart sank. “Maybe the cops should dig up the entire backyard?”

“Yeah, maybe. We don’t know how many children these monsters killed.” Jones sighed.

Samantha nodded with sadness. “Do you remember our discussion during my interview? I still think that whoever killed these monsters is a good guy. If not for him, these monsters would have killed even more children.”

Jones stared at Samantha for a moment. “The
killer
is a killer. Don’t praise him as some kind of Robin Hood. We can’t let people take the law into their own hands. It’s our job to catch the killer before he butchers even more people. You can’t let your emotions cloud your judgment. If you are going to work in FBI, having good judgment is very critical. It may very well save your life someday.”

Samantha crossed her arms, folded her lips and nodded.

L
aura read
what she wrote for the fourth time.

I am a single woman, 32, looking for a Valentine! Must be real and not looking just for a good time. I am real and waiting! I can’t host. Hope you can. Serious real people only. Send me your favorite flower in the subject line so I know you’re real!!

She felt clever for adding the requirement of a favorite flower in the subject line. She had gotten tons of spam the last time she posted the ad in the women-seeking-men section of the online classifieds website. She hoped it would be less spammy this time. As she clicked the post button on the screen, her blood pressure rose a little.

The computer time showed 10:00 p.m. when she heard the knock at the door. Angel peeked her head through the door.

“Mom, I feel sleepy. I will finish the homework tomorrow. Good night!”

Laura got up, hugged Angel tightly, and kissed her on the forehead.

“Are you still searching for a job, Mom?”

“Yeah, sending ten résumés a day. Nothing’s happened so far.”

“Well, good night.” Angel closed the door behind her.

Laura waited for a few minutes and switched the browser tab to see if there had been any response to her online posting. Nothing. She sighed and browsed through the job ads.

Ten minutes later, when she checked the email program, an email was waiting to be opened. The email subject said, “Rose for you!”

Interesting.
She opened the email.

I loved the way you wrote. I am looking for someone to marry. I love kids. But due to an injury, I can’t have kids. If you have children, that would be awesome. If not, that’s okay too. But I want to tell you this beforehand. Check out my picture and let me know if you want to hook up tomorrow.

Laura opened the attachment to see the picture, a good-looking guy. Her heart started racing a little bit. She wondered how old he was.

“How old are you? I like your picture. Here is mine.” Laura composed the email and sent it away.

A reply popped up in a minute. “I’m thirty-two. Just your age, and just your type.”

“Nice! I would love to meet you tomorrow. Where do you live?”

“Awesome! I live in Fremont. But I can meet you in a Starbucks closer to you. Hey, are you okay with the kids’ stuff?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it. I have a daughter. I do not plan to have any more kids. So, trust me; it doesn’t bother me. I am okay.”

“Daughter?! Cool. I love daughters. Are you still married? I do not want an affair, you know what I mean?”

“LOL. No worries. I am single, divorced.”

“Single is good. I do not want your husband to shoot me, you know :-) How old is your daughter? Is she going to school?”

“She is eight. My ex moved to Australia. He won’t shoot you. No worries!!!”

Laura thought about adding multiple smileys at the end but left it with exclamation marks. She clicked the send button and waited.

“Australia?!! That’s nice. I have never been married. I was worried about commitment. Now, I am kind of settled in the business. It’s time for me to start a family.”

Starting a family.
Just what she wanted.

“I think I already like you very much. We have a good vibe. Let’s meet at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. Okay?”

“You got it, dear!”

* * *

L
aura felt
anxious as she gazed at the long line forming in Starbucks. She wondered how many of those women waiting in the line were single with children.
It’s not easy, girl.

She looked around and saw no one closely resembling the man she was expecting. She got the coffee, walked slowly looking for a place, and then found a table in the corner, near the window, with just two chairs.

As she looked through the window, she saw a guy emerging from a pickup truck parked closer to the side entrance of the coffee shop. Her heart started beating a little faster.
Is he the one?
He looked more charming than he looked in the picture. Laura put her head down and continued to sip the coffee. She did not want to look desperate.

“You must be Laura!”

Laura looked up and smiled at the young man pulling the chair out in front of her.

“Yep. I am the one. You Gilbert?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Laura looked around after shaking his hands. “So, how are you? You want coffee or something?”

“Nah. I am not a coffee drinker. I use Starbucks as a free meeting place. You see the people standing in the long line there? They take care of feeding Starbucks employees. I’m just a guy who takes advantage of them!”

Laura did not get the joke. But she liked the way he smiled.
Lovely.

He was a fast talker. He talked about his electrical wiring business, how he lost both his parents in a car accident, and his passion for mountain hiking—all within seven minutes.

“Have you tried mountain hiking, Laura?”

She slowly shook her head. “No, I am not much of an adventurous person. What if I slip down the hill or hurt my ankle? I feel much safer on a treadmill.”

“You know what? Mountain hiking is no different than putting some incline on your treadmill! I plan to hike this weekend in Sierra. Come with me; it will be fun. I will carry you on my shoulders if you are afraid.” He winked.

She blushed. “Hmm…that would be nice!”

* * *

“
T
he madman is
on a killing spree.” Theaker tapped the table with a pencil.

Samantha looked through the conference room window. “Super Bowl 50” was displayed on the billboard mounted above the building next to UN Plaza. Super bowl mania swept through the city.

She stood up, adjusted her blazer, and walked over to a whiteboard. She pointed at the red circles on the map that was pasted on the board.

“Thousand Oaks to Belmont. All the
stay away
murders happened only in California.”

Jones shook his head. “That’s a big assumption. This guy is a psycho. He might have murdered people in other states without writing graffiti on them.”

Samantha twisted her necklace.

“Let’s hear what she has to say,” Theaker said.

Samantha continued. “The killer is methodical. He had a chance to kill many others, but he didn’t. He targeted only pedophiles. The killer broke into the homes of the victims. He had opportunities to steal valuables, but he didn’t. He used a voice changer to call 911 after almost every murder. He wanted us to know that the abducted girls were alive... We don’t have any tangible leads so far. We have only one witness who had seen the killer. As per the witness, the killer is a monk. Why would a monk kill the pedophiles? What does he get out of it? What is the motivation of the killer? Let’s play a couple of what-if scenarios. What if the killer is someone who lost a child in the past few years? What if the killer is a lunatic disguised as a monk?”

Jones waved his hand. “This is not academia. We don’t have a lot of time to go through all these scenarios. We have to find this guy before he dismembers more bodies.”

“Okay. How about starting with the first scenario and narrow it down even further? The killer wants to send a message
stay away from little girls
. The message focuses on the girls. So, let’s assume that the killer lost his daughter to a pedophile. Now...we need to define a timeframe and a geographical region. What if the killer is the guy who lost his daughter to a pedophile in California in the past five years?”

“How did you come up with
five
years? Why not ten years?” Jones frowned.

“I think we should define a strategy with a reasonable number. Once the strategy is in place, we can tweak the number if we don’t find the suspect in the given timeframe.”

“Your selection criteria would give us at least one hundred suspects. That’s impossible to work with. We need to narrow that down.” Theaker continued to tap the table with his pencil.

“Hmm...How about a guy who has nothing to lose?”

Theaker stopped tapping. “What do you mean?”

“Someone who lost his only child. Maybe someone who lost everyone in his family.”

“
That
should bring down the number quite a bit.” Theaker nodded. Then, he looked at Jones. “Samantha does not have access to Sentinel,” referring to internal computer system, “Please work with Samantha and get the names of all possible suspects. Then, we should interview each guy on the list.”

Jones rolled his eyes. “I think we are wasting time. Samantha has no experience in the field. We should act on specific leads instead of—”

Theaker raised his hand. “She has a fresh, clear mind. I think she is onto something. Let’s try it.”

* * *

“
Y
ou have a date
, Mom?”

Laura looked up and saw the twinkle in Angel’s mischievous eyes. “No! We are just friends. We will hang out for a day, that’s all.”

“Who are you kidding, Mom? I haven’t seen you this excited for some time.” Angel cocked her head to the side and smiled.

Laura got up and gave Angel a tight hug. “I can’t hide anything from you! You are just too smart, aren’t you?”

“Yep. I am. So, tell me. You have a date, Mom?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Laura nodded her head. “It’s a date! Gilbert seems to be a nice guy. I hope he will stay that way, you know.”

Angel giggled. “Yeah, I hope so. I can’t let bad guys stay here. I will kick them out!”

Laura paused for a moment and realized her little girl had grown. “You are brave, Angel. I like that.”

“I know.” Angel hugged her.

* * *

L
aura waited
near the front door when Gilbert pulled up in his pickup truck in reverse. She walked closer to the driver-side door and waited for Gilbert to get out.

He gave her a big grin. “Ready for hiking, ma’am?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, I think we should start moving. Did you pack? Should I help?” he asked.

“I have just one bag. We are coming back tomorrow, right?”

“Yep. Is there anyone else living with you? Just you and your daughter, right?” He gently grabbed her hand as she opened the front door.

“Yes. It’s just me and Angel. My sister lives in Morgan Hill. She will be here by noon to take Angel to her home.”