Part 46 (1/2)
Michael lowered the volume and studied his sister's reaction. Their grandmother looked over at Michael and asked what was wrong.
He shook his head and asked Jessica, ”How much longer do we all have?”
She only gave him a perplexed look and asked what he meant.
”Never mind,” he sighed.
Their grandmother shrugged and returned to her games while Michael turned the news back up. Jessica however ran a new search on REFOIA for information related to the a.s.sa.s.sination of Tony Winchester. The article was brief and only mentioned the a.s.sumption all officials held that Drake Winchester killed his own father, though the idea had since been rebuked. It also had the security feed of the incident, which Jessica reluctantly watched, though she retreated back into her bedroom before she played the video. She ran a search for Regenesis through the site once she finished the video, but only a one sentence blip existed, stating the drug was in process at Winchester Enterprises, though it had since been abandoned nearly a decade ago.
11:59 PM.
Baltimore, Maryland Mia sat alone on a bench in the Capitol Hill Park, just as she was instructed to by the unknown caller who claimed he could help her with the investigation. She had her hesitations and didn't consider the offer until the message was repainted on the phone booth outside her home. The park was pitch black, solely illuminated by a few lamps throughout the park. One stood nearby and didn't help her see through the shadows for the caller. Every sound set her on edge, from a squirrel rustling through the branches of a nearby tree, to a sudden crow that flew overhead. At that moment Mia wished she had told Bryce about the meeting and brought him as backup.
The lamp nearby went out suddenly and a stranger emerged from the dark behind her and in a fluid motion took a seat beside her and told her to remain calm. The man beside her wore rags, which included a stained and well-worn halfway zipped hoodie over an equally soiled tee-s.h.i.+rt. He also wore dark cargo pants, tattered leather gloves on his hands, a pair of shabby black combat boots, and he kept a frayed and torn blanket wrapped around his shoulders. The figure kept his hood up and hid his unkempt face.
”Who are you?”
The man didn't answer. ”Have you heard about the grave robberies?”
”Yes. Was it Cladis who”
”He removed the bodies at some point yes, but he wasn't behind unearthing and desecrating the gravesites.”
”What do you mean?”
”What I mean is that Cladis didn't dig those coffins out of the earth,” he told her. ”I did.”
”You? Why the h.e.l.l would you”
”I had to be sure your hunch was right.”
She looked and him and asked how he knew about her theory.
”I may or may not break into your apartment on a regular basis to check up on your progress in the case,” he admitted.
Mia swore and asked who he was.
The man didn't answer her. He remained silent, as if he wasn't even there, but miles away. After a single crow flew past he relaxed slightly and continued, though he ignored her query, ”Who were the last two victims?”
”Who are you?”
”Not now.”
”No, who are you?”
”Just trust me. Who were the last two victims in the investigation?”
Mia let out a breath and told him, ”Joaquin Hernandez and Danielle McMinn.”
”What else?”
”What are you talking about?”
”What else do you know about them?”
”Nothing.”
”How do you expect to solve this mystery on names alone?” The stranger retrieved a folded pile of papers and tossed it on her lap. ”Joaquin Hernandez, male, aged forty-five, A negative blood, and widowed at the age of thirty-three; his wife killed herself and left him with three little ones. Hernandez worked at that department store he died in since he was fifteen. I never found anything that would have led me to know what his ability could have been, which means there's a chance he never found it out himself.”
The stranger tapped the sheets he'd given Mia and told her to read on. She opened the pages and found a detailed list of the victims, in order, with everything written down from age to their weight claimed on their driver's license (a.s.suming they had one). Mia found the entry for Danielle McMinn and read aloud, ”Danielle McMinn, female, eighteen, B negative blood, and single. McMinn was a new hire at the department store Hernandez worked at and was killed in, though the two worked in different areas of the store and most likely never met, as she was hired a day before Hernandez was killed. Also, as McMinn only had less than twenty-four hours to discover her ability, she most likely failed to recognize what it was.”
The stranger told her, ”That's the level of detail you're going to need to have, at the very least, if you really do want to solve this case. And to be honest, even that's a poor excuse for information on a case this complex.”
”Why are you telling me all of this?”
The man suddenly shot a glare behind them into the darkness.
Mia looked back but didn't see anything. ”What is it?”
He didn't answer her. ”We have a slight window of opportunity right now,” he said. ”There was only a twenty-four hour window of time for the fifteenth victim to meet the sixteenth. Couple that with the remaining seven days we have to find whoever the sixteenth casualty will be before it's too late, and it's actually a bit of a break when you consider the average length between deaths is five days.”
”That isn't very much time though,” Mia reminded him. ”It's actually impossible, considering where she worked she probably had contact with dozens, if not hundreds of people.”
The ragged man said it wasn't impossible at all. ”There's something else I needed to tell you.” He stole the list back and turned to the first page again and showed her a series of letters written in red pen. ”This is the blood pattern Cladis is following.”
Mia looked at it and asked what he meant.
”I mean that each and every one of Cladis' targets follow one after the other in a pattern that is also driven by the type of blood each person has. It begins with O positive, then continues through A positive, B positive, AB positive, and all the way down as I've written it to AB negative. Mind you, it starts from the most common blood group and ends with the rarest group based on the worldwide average.”
She crosschecked his claim with the list of victims and discovered he was right. ”How did you figure this out?” she asked him. ”No one else has, how is it that someone from the streets managed to stumble across this?”
”I'm not an informant if that's what you think I am,” the ragged man told her, (although he stopped and realized that he was informing her about the investigation, but disregarded his comment). ”I'm on your side Mia, through all of this.”
”Who are you though?”
He apologized and told her that they needed to leave. ”I'll contact you in a few”
The man stopped midsentence when a single crow landed on the walkway in front of them. He didn't say a word, but looked intently at the bird until it flew away.
”We need to leave Mia.”
”What are”
”I didn't expect to encounter anyone else here, but I was wrong.”
”Who is it?”
”The Delta,” he hissed.