~~
Trinity
~~
For the rest of the day, we organized all of the victim information. We made a timeline, we categorized everything that we could, and we put it all into its rightful place. By the time that we were done, we had a pretty accurate guess on how many groups of killers that there were.
Based on my best guess, there were five groups of killers that were plaguing Europe and Asia. There had to be at least two or more people in each group. And they were definitely targeting nonhumans. Other than that, I couldn't tell you anything at all about who they were or why they were doing all of this.
“Rawlynne, Jackson, the two of you won't have any authority in another country, so I want the two of you to stay here and run information for us. Reece, Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, and David will come with me. We are going to the different murder scenes. We will investigate them all and make sure that we have as much information as possible. I want to stop these people before they kill again.”
“That seems unlikely.” Vincent looked at me somberly. “They've been killing every five days without fail. Their first kills seem to have been on July the tenth. If they stick to their current schedule, then their next kill will be on the nineteenth. And that also means that we will most likely be getting reports of more kills coming in soon. Last night was the fifth day since the previous kills.”
.....
“More were killed last night?” I felt the shock flooding through me as I processed his words.
“It's possible. I mean, it would fit the pattern.” He was looking at the timeline that we had prepared, and I could see that he was right. Every murder, aside from the vampires, had happened in five-day intervals. And last night was the day that they were due again.
I swear, at that very moment a phone rang somewhere in the room. I was filled with dread the moment that I heard it. I knew, I just knew that this was going to be a call about more murders. Someone, or multiple someones had just lost their lives in other parts of the world.
“This is Vincent.” The ringing stopped when he pulled the phone out of his pocket and pressed it to his ear. “Yeah. Mhmm. Are you sure? Any more than that? Send it as soon as you can.”
Before Vincent ended the call, I could tell that he was not very happy. His eyes were clouded over with anger and there was a set to his jaw and shoulders that told me just how much tension was in his body at the moment.
“How many?” I asked him. I just knew that it was someone to report something relevant to the case.
“An Alpha in Switzerland just reported that two of his pack members were murdered. They are a fox clan, really small and close knit. They know that someone from out of the area had to have done this.”
“How did they know to call?” Reece asked him with a surprised look in his eyes.
“I sent word earlier. I told them that there have been a few people missing lately. I explained to them that we are working on finding out just who they are and what happened. I didn't tell them that people were murdered or anything like that, I didn't want to cause panic just make them more alert.”
“Thank you, Vincent.” I nodded at him. He had done the right thing. And he had the authority to do it too. Next to Reece, he was the man that had the most authority to act on my behalf. He was my right hand man and knew better than most what I would want to have done.
“Not a problem. It's my job.”
Just then, there was another phone ringing. This one was coming from Rawlynne. She was close enough to me that I could pinpoint the location of the ringing easily enough.
“This is Agent Otsana.” She must have answered her work phone, the one that was used for official business with the FBI. “Yeah, I have been looking into them, why?” She paused for a moment while a male voice responded on the other end of the phone. “Shit!” She seemed angry at whatever she had heard. “Based on the data that I have seen about the murders, it appears that they are killing in a certain pattern.” The man on the other end seemed to be giving her some details pertaining to the case but he wasn't angry about it at all. “Can you send it all to me?” Another pause for the man to speak. “I am at the castle.” No need for them to ask which castle. If Rawlynne was going to be that open about it, this person had to be a shifter or magic user of some sort. And if they also knew Rawlynne and worked in the FBI then it could only be her former boss, Director Harris. “Thanks, I will relay the information.”
“Was that Harris?” Jackson asked him. He was close enough to her that he probably heard everything the man was saying. This meant that he already knew but was just confirming for the rest of us. Or for me specifically.
“Yeah. He knew that I would be looking into things, and he noticed that I had been pulling a lot of files lately. He just got wind of four murders that happened last night. Well, at varying times yesterday afternoon our time. Though every single one of the murders seem to have happened between midnight and three in the morning in the local time zones.”
“Dammit.” Reece swore as he heard what she had to say.
“We expected it though. And we already knew about two of them because of the call that Vincent got.”
“Let's hope that four is all that there were. There were more than enough killed, there doesn't need to be anymore.” Gabriel was looking heartbroken, like he took this loss of life personally.
“Let's just gather as much info as quickly as we can. I want to be on a plane to Europe within three days. I want you all working on this around the clock. If we can't stop them before they strike again, at least we will be able to visit fresh crime scenes.”
“Trinity!” Reece looked and sounded appalled. “You're just going to let them do it again?”
“If we can stop them sooner, we will. If not, at least we will have something more to go on. We can see the scenes when they are fresh. Personally, if I can manage it, I will take us to the crime scenes via magic doors, but I have a feeling I need to be a little more discreet than that. Despite what you may all be thinking, Reece, we still need to make sure we hide what we truly are from the humans. Murders or not, secrecy is important. This is a balancing act here. Review the information, catch the killers, and maintain secrecy and order. Those are the things that I need to do, and I will succeed. I promise you that. But don't look so angered by the fact that I can't do it all any faster than I have been trying to.”
I was angry. No, actually, I was fucking pissed off. I know that he was not trying to be mean. He wasn't trying to upset me. Yet he had. He had made me feel like I wasn't doing enough. He made me feel like it was my fault that the four people had died last night. He made me feel like I had failed those people, all of my people.
“It's OK, Trinity.” Vincent came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Reece didn't mean anything by that. We are all feeling tense and scared. None of this is your fault.”
“Whatever.” I moved my arm roughly in an attempt to make him move. “We've got work to do.”
I didn't look at Reece again for a while. I just looked at files and information that was given to me. I analyzed and processed. I made lists and charts. I took notes on it all. Everything would help me when it came time to leave. And all the while, I tried to make the anger I was feeling go away.
It subsided a little, but just a little. It was still there, boiling on a back burner until I was able to vent it on something or someone. I just hoped that I didn't take it out on someone that didn't deserve it. I didn't want to be seen as a bitch just because there was something bad going on around me. I needed to have better control than that.
I even did my best to apologize to Reece when I got the chance. He really hadn't tried to make me feel like I was doing something wrong. I knew that. I really did.
After the information was organized, I left the others to see what they could find while I went back to my family. I felt like a horrible person doing this. They all had families too. They all had kids that needed them and wanted them. And here I was going back to my family and making them work. I guess the guilt and anger just weren't going to be going away for a very long time.
