One of the FBI agents stuck his head in the door. “Detective Jennings? I think you should see this.”
Jaxon stood, let her hand go and followed the young agent toward the wreckage. The fires had all been put out and the gas line that had shot flames into the night sky had been closed off making the area reasonably safe. The house had pretty much disintegrated leaving the rooms and layout of the structure indistinguishable from the rest of the refuse and scraps strewn throughout the area. A large rectangular box was the only thing left standing mostly intact, and the agent was guiding Jaxon toward it. As he got closer he could see there was a door into the box, which stood eight feet square and was built of some kind of thin aluminum sheeting. A few agents were coming in and out of the box carrying various items wrapped in plastic. Jaxon realized it was a freezer.
The inside of the freezer must be thawing because the items the men were carrying from the box dripped water. He stopped one of the agents and asked what was in the plastic.
“Parts,” he said.
Jaxon must have had a funny look on his face because the man explained. “This is a dog’s head. That’s another dog’s head, and Sheila there has a cat’s head.”
“How many?” Jaxon asked.
“At least thirty animals.”
“Anything else?”
The man nodded. “Are you Jaxon?”
“Yes.” Jaxon felt like his voice was coming from somewhere else.
“There’s something in there for you.” The agent turned and carried his package to a waiting evidence van and Jaxon approached the entrance of the freezer and stepped in.
On the right were five shelves stacked up from floor to ceiling. A man and a woman were going through the various ‘packages’ and they looked up when he stepped in. Neither one said a word. On the back wall was a small table with a single plastic baggy laying on it. Jaxon moved through the cold air as if in slow motion. He couldn’t feel his feet touching the surface of the freezer but he knew his legs were moving him forward because the table was growing larger. A hand came into his view and he realized it was his own. He didn’t want that hand anywhere near the bag, but it seemed to be operating on its own. He watched as if from some far off place as the fingers gripped the bag and picked it up, bringing it closer to his face. There was a piece of freezer tape across the plastic with black lettering spelling some words that Jaxon’s brain could not decipher at first. Snapping himself out of his fog, he concentrated on the lettering. As he read, his body seemed to throb from the force of the words. They were like a physical thing and he couldn’t wrench his eyes away from the small package.
His hands still took on a life of their own as they worked the Ziploc on the baggy, though his mind screamed from some distant place for him to stop. His fingers spread the plastic open and inside were two perfectly preserved ears. A right and a left. Small ears, like that of a child. He heard a gasp behind him and turned to find Victoria with her hand over her mouth and her eyes boring into what he held in his hand.
She whispered, “Michael,” and sank to the floor.
Chapter 32
Luke sat with Jimmy and Ellie on the curb sipping a Gatorade and watching as the police and rescue personnel moved about the area. John and his mom were standing next to them. She looked to be in worse shape than any of the kids. A cop named Stansfield was in charge and he was currently on the phone talking to someone. The conversation looked strained and Luke could hear Stansfield cursing into the cell phone.
“I don’t give a shit! You get Jaxon on the phone,” Stansfield yelled. “I know he’s in Indiana, but he has a cell phone, right? Just do it!” He closed the phone and stared at Luke and his group.
Mr. Lolly was talking to another officer but Luke couldn’t make out anything being said. Stansfield walked over and paced in front of the group. “So, let me get this straight,” he said. “You kids tracked this William Smith guy here using his cell phone GPS position and then called us? That about right?”
Luke nodded.
“How do you know it’s the killer?”
“It’s a long story,” Luke said.
“I have all night,” Stansfield said, but the way he was pacing made Luke feel that was not the case.
Luke explained the best he could and twenty minutes later Stansfield knew all they knew. He had a few questions.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone this?”
“He said he would kill us,” Ellie said.
Stansfield nodded. “How did you get his cell phone number?”
Luke paused. “I’d rather not say.”
“Well, I’d rather you did say. This is important.”
“I don’t want my friend in trouble. You can use the software he gave me, but I’m not telling who gave it to me.” Luke looked at Ellie and Jimmy and he could see they agreed with him.
Stansfield ran his hands through his hair exasperated and then his phone rang. He held up his finger to them and answered the phone.
Luke turned to Ellie and said, “I don’t want Q in on this. If the killer finds out, he’ll be after him.”
“I know,” she said. “I won’t say anything. They can torture me and I won’t talk.”
He smiled at her and she grabbed his hand. “We saved that boy.”
“We almost got killed,” he said.
“But you rescued me from him.”
“Only because I wasn’t thinking.”
“Are you guys gonna kiss and stuff,” Jimmy said. “Because I’m gonna puke if you do.”
Ellie leaned over and kissed Jimmy on the cheek. He stared at her for a second and then grinned from ear to ear.
“Alright, you can love on him if you want,” Jimmy said.
She leaned up against Luke and he stroked her soft hair, thinking how close he had been to losing her. He didn’t like thinking about that.
Stansfield hung up and said, “Alright, Officer Hinton’s gonna drive all of you to your houses. I want you to stay in them. Do not leave for any reason unless you are accompanied by your parents or a police officer. Detective Jennings will be over to see you when he gets back tomorrow.” He pointed at Luke. “I’m coming to your house and you’re going to show me this software. If we can get him tonight, I’ll feel much better about everything.”
Luke was in his room with Stansfield and the computer program was up and running, but Smith’s cell phone must have been off, because nothing was showing on the map. Luke was worried the killer may have figured things out.
“I need a copy of this program,” Stansfield said. “I bet the FBI doesn’t have anything this good. You sure you don’t want to tell me who gave you this?”
Luke shook his head. “The best I can say is I’ll talk to him and see if he wants to talk to you guys.”
“And he has another program that let you decode the cell number the perp was calling you from?”
“Yep.”
“That would be worth a million bucks to us. You need to convince your buddy to cough it up. Might save some lives.”
“I’ll see what he says.”
Stansfield nodded and turned to go. “Remember, stay inside until we nab this guy. He’s gotta’ be pretty pissed at all of you right now. Squad car will be parked out front to watch the house. You’ll be safe here.”
Luke wasn’t so sure about that, but he didn’t say anything. Stansfield went downstairs and he could hear murmurs through the floor as the cop talked to his parents. Luke wondered how Ellie was doing.
