S6: Chapter 09: Dial ‘M’ for Murder

“An urgent call to 9-1-1 last night has alerted us to the latest victim. Rick Masters, night security guard for the Channel 7 Action news station says he heard a scream. He exited the backdoor of the building in time to see a man shove weathergirl Leona Stone into an early model pick-up truck and peel off the lot. Her keys were found on the ground beside her car indicating a struggle. Cigarette butts left in the area show that whoever grabbed her had been waiting a while. The lab is running the DNA through the system now to see if we get a hit,” Brett announced as everyone gathered in the conference room.

“In addition to her keys, purse and the cigarette butts, a single red rose was left on the driver’s seat of her car. No note was recovered as we’ve come to find is the Slasher’s standard M.O.,” Victor added as he read over the case notes.

“I thought the rose was usually left on the body?” D.A. Jack McEnroe asked as he lifted the page to which Victor was referencing.

“Normally it is,” Yvette fielded the inquiry. “But the change in his M.O. may indicate he doesn’t intend to leave Stone’s body some place we will be able to recover it. As we’ve discovered, the Slasher is linked to an old cold case from Boston where only the victim’s torso was recovered. Her arms, legs and head were never found. If he’s ending his murder spree with Leona, he may be reverting to his original M.O. and keeping parts of her.”

“Have we recovered the baby cut from victim #5 Toni Laird’s womb?” Brett shook his head no and Jack sat up in his seat. “Was Leona Stone one of the women on the watch list?” McEnroe asked as he sat beside Scott listening to the debriefing.

“Yes. And as of 7:30 a.m. this morning, details were recalled from the other five women.”

“If we had a team in place to keep them safe, why wasn’t the one watching Stone aware of her imminent danger?” Scott asked as he read over the case notes for Leona.

“Protective details were ordered on the six women from the list of editors for Trinity’s paper but Leona was grabbed before the teams were put into place. My request for federal teams was denied as agents are already stretched thin so I coordinated with Lieutenant Campbell and asked that he setup teams of local P.D. to watch these women; he complied.”

“Basically what you’re telling me is that you dropped the ball,” McEnroe stated mildly but with a rising accusatory tone filling his voice. “I told you I wanted results and you couldn’t even handle securing these women so that no one else was taken?”

“With all due respect, Jack, you have no idea what it takes to run a mission that has your entire team scattered across the map. We were in constant communication and there was no way for us to predict which of the six the Slasher had in mind to grab. Had we the Intel, we would have prevented this. This is the closest anyone has been to this guy in months! He is smart, calculating and…” Brett paused a moment as an idea struck him suddenly. Looking over the faces of those in the room he grabbed his phone from his back pocket and began texting his team.

“Excuse me? Agent Knight? Hello?” McEnroe cried as the speaking federal agent seemed to ignore everyone and everything else in the room as his fingers continued moving across the keys. Simultaneously four beeps resounded in the room and Yvette, Ryan, Victor and Dustin checked their messages, pulled up from the table and exited the room. “Agent Knight?”

“My apologies. Something urgent has just come up. We can finish the debriefing later. Scott, I’ll forward you any information we gather as the investigation continues.” Brett rushed after the others, joining them in the unit room. He glanced at Ryan who pulled out a small electronic gadget from the locker beside the desk and began sweeping the room for bugs.

Once he got the all clear Brett stepped into the center of the room to address them. “We have a mole. Someone from the inside is either working with the Slasher or just against the investigation in general. This guy has been one step ahead of us every time. He gives us clues, we figure them out and as we’re gathering the team and resources to take him down, it’s already too late.”

“There were only a few people who knew about the protective details aside from the officers working them and those in this room. Why would you think someone would be working against us though?”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure it was just a feeling after what Jack said in the meeting. Let’s get to work though and see if we can figure this thing out before Leona ends up like the others. Victor, you and Ryan work on the husband and interviewing everyone at the station; see if she received any threatening correspondences or noticed suspicious behavior recently. Dustin and Yvette I want you two to take the video feeds. Go through everything bit by bit and put the timeline on the board. I’m gonna run down everyone that was on detail and see if they saw something that might be of use.”

Brett, Victor and Ryan exited the room and Yvette pulled up her laptop and the surveillance footage from the local precinct as Dustin went over the video from the news station. An hour passed and there was nothing popping out at them that struck a chord; the entire situation was overwhelmingly frustrating. “Something’s not right,” Dustin growled and slammed his fist into the desk. “I’ve been going over it again and again and I still cannot find the information Campbell brought us about that mystery caller. I have no record whatsoever of a call coming in on that date at the time he said.”

“Well maybe it wasn’t recorded or someone forgot to hit the play button.”

“Not possible. I designed the system myself and I made sure that any incoming call to the tip line would trigger the recorder so we would have a record for when this thing went to trial. I don’t think that call was made into the station. It couldn’t have been.”

“So what does that mean?” Yvette asked as the door to the unit room opened and Victor and Ryan rushed through excitedly.

“Brett not back yet?” Victor asked and pulled out his phone, dialing their team leader. “Hey, where are you?” he asked as he picked up on the other end. “Well Ryan and I have something from the husband. How quickly can you get here?”

It took just another ten minutes before Brett hurried into the room, eager to hear what the two had uncovered on their canvas. “Thomas Keaton,” Ryan spoke as he leaned against the table and produced a postcard they’d bagged at Leona Stone’s home. “Recently she received this postcard addressing days past and her husband said it put her on edge.”

“Thomas Keaton is an old college friend of Leona, someone she dated he believes during her junior year. They lost touch, or so he thought, until that postcard appeared in their mailbox three days before she went missing.”

“What? Why didn’t either of them mention this when we talked to them about possible threats?” Brett asked as he read over the postcard. It was dated for the day Leona disappeared with one line of text in the center of the body block:

See you soon!

He turned the card over a few times in his hands and noticed the fingerprint dust on the backside of it. “Lab get any hits on the prints?”

“Nothing yet but they’re working on it. One thing that was interesting, this guy attended the same schools as our vics.”

“Great so there would be a record of him in the yearbook, Dustin…”

“That’s not going to be possible. Victor and I had the same hunch but turns out Keaton conveniently skipped out on picture day. There’s not a single shot of him in those books anywhere.” Ryan responded before Victor took point again.

“Thomas Keaton never graduated from Trinity College, it shows he was only a student there for two years but hung around the place even after he’d dropped out. His college record shows a guy who was great at chemistry, math and politics; he was in school to become a doctor. Get this, Keaton dropped out of Trinity right around the time Shannon Gentry went missing. It was also reported that he drove a dark blue Honda Civic.”

“Son of a bitch! Where is he now?”

“No idea. After college the man all about vanished into thin air. There’s no credit history, rental history or tax information for Thomas Keaton anywhere. I ran the name through some of the international databases too, still nothing,” Ryan remarked as he tossed his hands in the air. “The guy is a ghost. Either he changed his name, which I’m betting is a huge possibility considering the use of Vargas’ ID or he is seriously living like a bum.”

“Didn’t Vargas mention a drug bust the night he was taken into custody?” Dustin asked as his fingers roamed quickly over the keys.

“Yeah he said something about the cops took everything he had on him so he couldn’t explain how his ID showed up on our recent case,” Ryan replied running over the same thought process.

“When inmates are taken into custody, their belongings goes into storage until the date of their release, IDs included which means anyone working at the P.D. would have access to his things,” Victor noted.

“Yeah and I have reason to believe our perp has ties to law enforcement in some way. There are too many unanswered questions and coincidences with our evidence. Hmm, Dustin pull up any information you can find on Lieutenant Bryan Campbell,” Brett ordered and folded his arms into his chest.

“The Lieutenant at the local P.D.?”

“Yeah, I have a hunch about something. I want to know if anyone under his command has been suspected of evidence tampering; run his background as well.”

“Guys I think I’ve found something,” Yvette started as she continued browsing through the images they pulled off the video from the local P.D. “The 26^th precinct is a virtual graveyard about 12:30-1:00 in the morning. Only the janitor, a few on duty officers and a man in cuffs roamed the halls during those hours. But around 3:30 there’s some activity in the main lobby that draws the officers to the front here,” she pointed to her screen as several men responded to an alarm and rushed into the front of the building. “Now keep your eye on camera four up at the top left corner.” 

A man dressed in casual wear and a baseball cap lowered just enough to cover his eyes stepped into the frame. And as the entire building was distracted by the fire alarm, he took the opportunity to place something on the desk of one of the officers. “There. That’s our guy. He set off the fire alarms so he could get in and out of the building without being spotted and deliver his note. I’ve enhanced the video as much as I could but he was smart, avoided the cameras as best he could. But, he forgot about the back door. It has a reflective metal surface that protects against fire. The suspect got a little too close to it as he was leaving and you’re not gonna believe who got caught on camera.”

“Oh fuck, Victor get everyone geared and ready to move. Dustin, I need financial information on this son of a bitch. Anything he may have purchased in the last week and any real estate in his name and we need it now!” Brett ordered and rushed from the room towards Scott’s office. If the video was correct they were going to need warrants and had no time to deal with the political red tape. D.A. McEnroe had better be ready to get the team what they needed. With a viable suspect on the line, there was no way they were going to let him slip away.

Less than twenty minutes later the team was mobilized and sitting in front of an abandoned shoe factory preparing to breach it and locate their suspect and hopefully find his victim alive. “Ok, we all know what’s at stake here so I don’t need to say it, but I will. This man is responsible for six murders that we know of and possibly have a living victim on the premises. Be quick, be thorough and if he resists, you know what to do. Keep your comms on and be ready for anything.” Brett signaled for S.W.A.T to take the rear entrance as he and Yvette moved towards the right. Victor and Ryan went left and on his mark, everyone entered the three story building to execute the search.

They swept through the rooms as quickly as possible, moving as quietly as they could. There was no telling if the suspect was still on the premises but they couldn’t take the chance that he wasn’t and skip over a locked door. Coming to the end of the hall, Victor motioned to Ryan to take the southern end and he would approach through the front. Once he made it into position, he kicked the door in and moved inside.

Hearing a tinkering sound coming through the divider in front of him, he rounded the wall, with his weapon ready. “Freeze!” Victor shouted from his position in the room. “Hands where I can see them.” Ryan approached from the other end of the room through a door that lead to the backyard. His double H&Ks aimed towards the man whose back remained at the both of them and he waited for him to comply with Victor’s commands. 

Victor’s voice again bounced off the walls as he urged the man to face them and drop to his knees. By now Yvette and Brett had heard the shouting and joined the other two inside the small workshop in back after clearing the rest of the building. Ryan circled around towards the other side to get a better shot which finally broke the man’s silence. “I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you Agent Sharpe. This room is laced with 30 pounds of C4, more than enough to level this place and blow us all sky high and I am holding the detonator.” 

He turned to face them, a wicked smile on his lips as he took in the panic on their faces. Instantly the team eyed every open space in the room trying to locate the wiring that ran from the man’s hand towards the table behind him. “Why don’t you drop that then and come quietly,” Brett spoke calmly, motioning to the device in his hand with the barrel of his gun still aimed at the man’s head.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen but, nice try. Call off your team or I won’t hesitate to show I mean business.” Brett pressed the button on his shoulder comm. and the others quickly evacuated the premises, calling the bomb squad in their retreat. “By the way, this has a hair trigger in case I failed to mention that and guns make me VERY nervous. You might want to consider putting your weapons down.” 

“Fat chance, where’s Leona Stone?” Brett continued, inching a little closer to shadow Yvette who had his left and was closest to the door. If anything were to happen, he wanted to make sure he could at least protect her from the blast.

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t know to whom you’re referring.” His eyes turned to Ryan who had snuck up a foot towards him and he wiggled his finger in a scolding fashion. “Now, now Agent Happy Trigger Finger, you don’t want to get too close to me. The second I sense danger I WILL apply the five pounds of pressure necessary to activate this device. Stay where you are unless you want to see the faces melt off of everyone in this room.”

“Ryan don’t move,” Brett ordered as he focused on the wires around the man’s hand. 

“Thank you for your cooperation. Now then, I’m going to take my leave through this door. I trust no one will be fool enough to follow me out.” Lieutenant Campbell stated matter-of-factly and backed up towards the door.

“Freeze!” Yvette shouted and instantly Campbell stopped in his tracks. “If you think for one second we’re letting you waltz out of here, you’re crazier than I thought. You took a woman from her job last night leaving her husband and four month old baby in a state of panic. You will tell us what’s become of her or else there is no reason to allow you to continue breathing.”

“My, my Officer…”

“It’s Agent Knight to you,” she growled and steadied her aim.

“Ah, is it? How important am I to have a team of agents after me? But, Agent Knight, where’s your sense of self-preservation? Do you not have a family of your own you fear leaving in the remnants of your death? I see a ring on your finger, which tells me you’re at least married. It’s very selfish of you to ignore how your husband would feel about your passing.”

“That is none of your concern. Put down the detonator and get your hands over your head!”

“Marital discourse!” Campbell shouted as if he’d made some shocking discovery that he believed to be fact. “That would surely explain your eagerness to end yourself. It’s sad to think your husband dislikes you though; you seem like such a peach.”

Yvette grunted heavily and Brett nudged her lightly with his elbow. Once he’d gained her attention he gave her the signal to take a step back and she hesitantly obeyed. “Look no one wants you to push that button any more than you actually want to do it. We’re here on a recovery mission. If you give us Leona Stone, we’ll gladly let you leave. As a man who seems to value family life, surely you can understand Leona has a daughter who needs her and a husband grieving her disappearance,” he reasoned but the man was not moved by his cry for sympathy.

“You know for the entirety of our senior year in college I catered to Leona’s every whim. I helped her with her homework and projects dropping whatever I was doing to see to her needs. We would study for upcoming exams at the library or the student union until all hours of the night. She was failing; miserably. But I helped her turn her grades around through extra credit and selfless hours of tutoring. It was because of ME that she graduated. It was because of ME she made ANYTHING out of her life! She would have just been another worthless dropout with a pretty face hoping to get by on her looks alone.” Lieutenant Campbell muttered as he began pacing aimlessly in front of the large workbench behind him.

“She used those same looks on me to manipulate me into doing her bidding but still I loved her. I was foolish to think she’d ever return those feelings. Foolish to think ANY of them would! They were all cunts! Whores who used their charms to con men like me. Men like me who actually believed we had a chance with someone smart, funny, beautiful. All of those little bitches got what they deserved!”

Campbell’s attention fell away from the team and Brett signaled Victor to ready his beanbag. If all went as planned, they could end this right here and now. “I was the one that deserved to be on the receiving end of their kisses, their looks, their touch. But was it ever me? Oh no. It was always ‘thanks for the help’ or ‘couldn’t have done it without ya’ but they were never sincere. I could tell it in their eyes. It’s their eyes. Their eyes ALWAYS gave it away.” He looked up at Yvette with a sinister smirk and tilted his head slightly to the right as he lifted his trigger finger. “It’s sort of like you Agent Knight. See I know how you whores think. I know you better than you know yourself. And what I know is that your husband…had better lower his weapon unless he wants to see you blown to hell!”

“He’s good but, not better than me. I noticed his constant glances in your direction; the way he moved himself in front of you to protect you from ‘the psycho’. Men are idiots in that way; always willing to take a bullet for a skirt. And it can’t be coincidence you share the same last name.” Yvette did her best to hold her poker face but it was Brett’s glance back at her that gave it away. He knew! Campbell knew the two were husband and wife, probably had the entire time and was waiting on this moment to use it against them; to shake their confidence. But what he didn’t count on were the other two agents in the room ready and willing to get the job done. Not waiting on the signal, Victor squeezed the trigger of his shotgun and a large bag fired out of the barrel towards the man and instantly he was thrown back hard against the table and hit the floor with a bang. Various tools bounced off the workbench and clattered to the ground around him. 

Stunned but not out, Campbell scrambled on the floor towards the fallen detonator and Ryan was quickly on him battling to scoop him up before he could recover the item. Victor rushed for and kicked the trigger towards Brett just as Ryan tugged the man’s arm behind his back to prevent him from getting away. “Bryan Campbell, a.k.a. Thomas Keaton you are under arrest for the murders of Shannon Gentry, Marguerite Coleman, Janet Davidson, Cassandra Miller, Patricia Warner and Toni Laird. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you by the Bridgeport judicial system.” Yanking him roughly, Ryan got the man to his feet and threw him into the chair beside the workbench.

Placing the trigger in Yvette’s hand, Brett moved forward and knelt down in front of Campbell as Ryan and Victor stood by on guard. “Tell us where you’re holding Leona Stone and we can be done with this thing!”

“I have the right to remain silent, Agent Knight,” he smirked as he used Brett’s last name and stared up at Yvette. “I evoke that right.”

“You screwed up with Toni Laird; letting her escape into the subway was a mistake on your part.” Yvette remarked as she looked closely at the trigger in her hand.

“Was it?” Campbell smirked and leaned back releasing a chuckle from his throat. “Women really have no place in this line of work. If you think for a second her escape wasn’t planned or of my doing then you are sorely mistaken! With her injuries there’s no way she would have made it ten feet before passing out!”

“What was it then?” Ryan asked moving closer as Yvette again balled her fist preparing to ream the man’s cocky face.

“I took her there. What I did to Toni was a masterpiece that needed to be shared with the world! I knew had she been discovered by one person the media would never have known the depth of her injuries. So I took her some place a lot of people could witness for themselves the living art she had become. Toni was always going on about her looks. It’s just a shame when she finally had the whole world’s attention it was because of her death and not her beauty.” 

Ryan rummaged through the items on the table behind him looking for an address or some clue that hinted to where he was keeping Leona. Stopping as a list of names was uncovered from one of the books, his eyes widened and he turned to look at Brett. “What is it?” he asked and watched as Ryan held the page up for him to see.

“It seems Leona wasn’t going to be his last victim.” Brett took a closer look at the list in Ryan’s hand and stepped back from Campbell as he read his wife’s name as #8 on his list of victims.

He looked at Yvette and tried to back her away but she’d too already read her name on the page. With a growl she moved towards him, angry eyes pinned the man in the chair and he simply smiled at her agitated state. “You got me here now, you sadistic piece of shit. Why don’t we have a little fun then? Where is Leona Stone?”

“Fuck you!” The words only served to anger her more and she didn’t hesitate to show him just how much. Slamming a right fist into his face as hard as she could, Campbell’s head bounced hard against the top of the chair and he spit out a mouthful of blood. “Really? Is that all you got?”

“Relax Lieutenant, I’m just getting started!” she sneered and hit him again, this time harder. Campbell groaned in pain as he felt his nose snap beneath her fist.  

“This only proves my point. Women have no place in this business; you’re way too emotional to handle it,” he laughed and sat upright in his seat.

“Where is Leona Stone?” The question came out as her hand rammed his jaw, making it pop as more blood spewed from his lips.

“Yvette that’s enough!” Brett yelled watching her slowly beat Campbell to a bloody pulp. “He’s never going to talk.” One fist after another she rocked him with until the smile had faded from the man’s face.

“She’s…” he started causing Yvette to pull her punch as she waited on his reply. “She’s getting ready for her close up,” he laughed and slumped over in his seat, passed out from the last blow she delivered.

“What the hell does that mean?” Victor asked holstering his weapon as did the others. Campbell was escorted outside to an awaiting armored car for transport and the Bomb Squad quickly moved in to defuse the C4 he had planted within the building.

“Leona’s the weathergirl at the news station correct? Campbell’s note said that it wouldn’t rain on his parade, he was going to be a star,” Ryan started as he paced around the van. Looking up he noticed the old star sitting on top of the media building near downtown and it hit him. “Guys. I think I know where he took Leona.”

Following his gaze the team turned towards Channel 7 Action News’ building and jumped into the van. “Dustin, get the security on the line and let them know that we’re going to need complete access into that building. Also they should immediately evacuate. Seeing Campbell’s proclivity for C4 there’s no telling how he’d planned to kill Leona.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he’d love to go out with a bang. The attention the Slasher received because of Toni’s death was his highlight. ‘Toni was a masterpiece that needed to be shared with the world’,” Yvette repeated his words as Brett sped through the streets of downtown. “I think he has this set up to show her on prime time for everyone to see.”

They pulled up to the station and before Brett could come to a complete stop, the team rushed inside the news studio moving in strategic, precise sequence looking through the closed rooms. Staff members and visitors were outside the doors being held back by local authorities, the bomb squad and fellow agents. The sound of chatter flooded through the crowd and the personnel and reporters who called this place home were tossing numerous questions at the men in charge. 

“Over here,” Victor yelled as he met with a locked door and the sound of heavy equipment running just on the other side. “The lock is jammed we need to get this opened.”

“Wait a second!” Yvette cautioned as the three men in her company prepared to ram their shoulders into the barricade. “He could have that rigged. We need to find another way inside. The producer or manager should be able to tell us if there is another way into that room or not.” She rushed back towards the front doors and the growing crowd outside. Calling for the person in charge of the studios until a stout man dressed in a business suit flagged her down. 

Moving quickly in his direction, Yvette had him give her the layout of the area and his master key. Unfortunately the only way inside that particular room was through the ventilation system. After relaying the information Brett, Victor and Ryan stared at Yvette and she shook her head. “It’ll be just my luck to get stuck inside that vent since thanks to Austin and Autumn my thighs aren’t quite what they used to be.”

Stripping out of her gear, she got a wolf whistle from Ryan and Brett nudged him in the shoulder. “Watch it.” Yvette laughed and handed her weapon to Victor. Brett gave her a boost and she crawled into the vent; shimmying as quickly as she could. She landed on the other side and saw the obstacle blocking the door. Her eyes opened in shock and she immediately backed away, yelling at the rest of her team. “What do you see?”

“I see that you, Vic and Ry need to get the hell out of here now!” A moan turned her attention and she walked towards the back of the room. “Leona’s here!” she yelled checking her for a pulse after moving closer. “And she’s wired to the stuff on the door. It’s all set to blow in six minutes you need to get out of here before then because I don’t think you or anyone else is getting through that door in time!”

“I’m not leaving you Yvette! Not an option!” Brett yelled in return, pacing frantically as he tried to think up a solution. The vent was too small for any one of them to fit through and without really knowing what was on the door, there was no way for the Bomb Squad to defuse it.

“Boss, we need to get eyes on that room. I have a cam in the van with me. One of you needs to grab it and try to snake it through the vent to Yve. We can get one of the guys from the Bomb unit to deactivate the stuff and hopefully get everyone out safely,” Dustin reported over the comms. Ryan explained what he said to Yvette and Victor rushed out to grab the equipment and a senior agent from the squad.

Yvette grabbed the camera out of the vent and moved towards the door once she got word they set up the cameras to see what she could. The timer now read 4:10 and was ticking quickly. “Agent Knight, I’m Sergeant Tanning, Bomb Disposal Technician I understand we’re dealing with C4 explosives is that correct?”

“From what I can tell it’s the same stuff as the earlier crime scene, your men handled that clean-up?”

“Yes Sir, I personally oversaw it’s disposal. I need to assess the situation so that I may properly establish the threat.”

“Well we have two live persons inside that room, one is the Slasher’s latest victim, the other is my wife. We don’t have time to assess the situation, get this thing deactivated!”

“Guys we’ve got three minutes! Do you think you can move this thing along before Leona and I get closer than I’d like?” Yvette yelled through the panel. 

“Agent Knight, I need you to remain calm, this is Sergeant Tanning and I will assist you through deactivating the devices in the room. What I see on the monitor is you are currently surrounded by 50 gallon steel drums full of highly explosive chemicals, and facing a timer that reads three minutes until detonation. I’m having one of your guys snake through my toolkit, inside you’ll find a pair of wire cutters and mini screw drivers. When you get the kit, I need you to get the screw driver and remove the casing off of the timer face.”

Moments went by before Yvette reported the case had been removed. “Ok, there are three unlabeled wires that must be cut in the correct sequence in order to interrupt the timer and deactivate the detonation.  The green wire is your grounding wire; you do not want to mess with that. The white is neutral; it carries the load for the hot wires. The yellow, blue and red wires are what we are concentrating on. First, we want to cut the wire that leads to the Primer, very carefully I want you to take the cutters and snip the yellow wire.”

Brett paced quicker behind the Sergeant as he saw his wife’s hands slip inside the casing. Holding his breath he watched as she cautiously severed the yellow wire from the bed and slowly released his breath. “Good job, how are we doing on time?”

“Honestly I don’t want to look, can we please keep moving?”

“It’s important to know, Agent Knight.”

“Two minutes, three seconds.”

“Thank you,” Sergeant Tanning turned towards the group, worry mussing his stony features as he addressed Brett again. “I need you to move your agents out of here and tell the officers out front we need another twenty yards between this building and those people outside.”

Brett relayed the orders to Victor and Ryan who rushed from the room to ensure the safety of the men and women who were huddled in the parking lot. “That’s my wife in there, I’m not going anywhere.”

Sergeant Tanning nodded and took his seat again. “Alright Agent Knight we’re going to shut off the Reactor wire, that’s going to be the blue wire. But this one can be tricky. It’s connected not only to the ground but to the bed box. If you don’t get it cut perfectly through on the first go, the neutral wire will send a surge to the red wire. Try and make your cut accurate and close to the base of the box. Be sure and avoid that white wire, we don’t want to accidentally slice it or else the timer will accelerate.”

“I guess this would be a real practice for patience for our twins huh Brett. If I can defuse a 50 gallon bomb then those twin powers of theirs will be useless against me!” Yvette joked trying to relax her nerves and trick her body into calming itself but her shaky palms were working against her. She swallowed hard and moved carefully and sure towards the blue wire. Closing the cutters around the wire, she shut her eyes tight and inhaled deeply.

Finally the blue wire came apart from the box without issue and she slowly released her breath. “Nice job, one to go. The last wire feeds the Ignition Timer. I see we’re at forty-five seconds now, don’t lose your nerve. Remain calm and snip the red wire, close to the base, same as before. You can do this Agent Knight.”

Yvette carefully clipped the last wire and the timer stopped on thirty seconds. She smiled into the camera and breathed a sigh of relief. But just moments later she heard the ticking again and saw the numbers moving faster. “Fuck we have a problem; the timer is moving quicker, what did I do?”

“You said three wires; she clipped them, why is the timer speeding up?” Brett panicked as he looked towards Sergeant Tanning for answers.

Fifteen…

“Yes three wires, three wires deactivate the bomb, same as the trigger from earlier. There are five different colors in the box, green, white, red, yellow and blue.”

“And black!” Yvette shouted. “There’s a black wire inside the box beside the red one!”

Ten…

“Fuck, fail safe, your guy was counting on that. Black wires are hot wires, trip wires; they can also detonate like the red wires. You have to cut the black wire, cut the black wire and deactivate the timer.”

“Are you sure?” Yvette asked, nervously placing the cutters against the wire as the clock counted down the seconds to detonation.

Five…

“Yes, cut the wire, the bomb won’t go off. The white and green will keep the bomb grounded. Cut the black wire, deactivate the bomb.”

Four…

“Yvette?” Brett called nervously as the silence droned inside his ears.

Three…

Licking her lips nervously, she closed her eyes and thought about her babies. She did not want to leave them without a mother knowing all too well how painful it could be. Placing an ample amount of pressure on the clippers she breathed in and…

Two…

“YVETTE!”

One…

The silence was filled by the pounding of Brett’s heart and he watched the monitors waiting for the inevitable explosion. The comms had fallen deaf and Dustin, Victor and Ryan waited on the other end for the conclusion. 

A few moments later, the door opened and Yvette had Leona hoisted over her shoulder as she carried her from inside the room. Overcome with emotion, Brett ran to her and pulled her into his arms as Sergeant Tanning took charge of Leona and carried her outside to awaiting paramedics. “That was…”

“Too close. Now can we please get the hell out of here? I have a pint of Rocky Road calling my name.” He laughed and crushed her lips with his as he squeezed her tighter against his body.

The team returned to HQ, high off of their recent bust. A second team had raided Campbell’s place and found a mountain of evidence directly connecting him to each individual crime. Apparently he was into keeping trophies of each murder he committed and placed the gruesome items in boxes in his basement along with four 19.7in deep freezers full of body parts; some of which belonged to Shannon Gentry.

And yet the worst discovery of them all had to have been the jar with Toni Laird’s unborn baby tucked inside like a fetal pig at a museum. The coroner put a rush on the discovery and found that contrary to earlier conclusions the child had taken a breath; she was another murder committed by his hands. Yvette checked the messages waiting on the bulletin when they returned. Plucking a sticky note from the board she read it once to herself before turning with a gasp. “Yve what is it?” Brett asked noticing the expression on her face.

Motioning with the note in hand she turned it around so that everyone could read it and with an exasperated sigh responded, “They’ve found Landry.”

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