December 16
The sun was coming up in Washington D.C. There were a couple of vehicles just sitting on 34th Street SW. One had Sue and Jack in it, and the other had Bobby and Myles. Each car had a person sleeping while the other was awake. Bobby pulled up to the window of Jack's car. They each rolled down the window and Bobby asked, "How long are we going to stay out here mate? Nothing has happened all night."
Jack was uncetain. "I don't know. I expected him to do something. I mean, maybe he noticed us and we scared him off, but I still thought he would do... well, something. Maybe we missed something."
Jack's cell phone rang. It was Tara. "Jack, we just got a call that a lady found her father dead down the street. An emergency response team is on the way."
Jack heard the sirens off in the distance. "What's the address?"
Tara told him and they drove to it. They found themselves at the opposite end of the street from their confirmed murders. The ambulance and the Metro PD pulled up almost simultaneously. FBI agents and Metro PD approached the house together. The woman in her forties was waiting at the door.
"He's right over there." she said pointing.
They looked, and there he lay about 10 feet away in the hallway. He was an older man, in his sixties or seventies Jack thought. There was a string of lights around his neck. Jack looked to the Metro officers. "We'll take it from here."
Jack stepped closer and found another note by his feet. "The third day of the nightmare on 34th St."
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Later at the bullpen, Jack pounded on his desk as he came in. Tara noticed. "That bad, huh."
Jack looked at her, obviously exasperated. "We were there all night! How'd he get past us?"
"I don't know. But the press wants to hear from you pretty badly. These murders are all over the TV, and there's a mob downstairs begging for another press meeting."
Jack was obviously feeling the pressure, but he hardened his face. "You can tell the press that I will brief them shortly." Tara walked away. He looked around for Sue and got her attention. "Sue, I know that you have amonumental task finding stuff that happened on or around Christmas. Focus your search for right now on things that happened on 34th St. or to people that live on 34th St. I have a feeling that we may be dealing with someone very familiar with the street." Sue nodded and went right to it.
Bobby heard, and he came over. "You really think he might live on the street?"
"Yeah. How else would he have gotten past us? It's like when the British army was fighting us in the Revolutionary War. We had an upper hand on them because we were more familiar with the terrain. In light of that, I want to search every house on the street. The thing is, I seriously doubt a judge would give us a warrant to do that much."
"You know, there may be a better way to go about this. What if we evacuated the whole street, and put everyone into protective custody. Then, if this guy really does live on the street, we'll already have him in custody somewhere. Then, he'll be unable to kill any more people, and we can have more time to figure out who he his, and build a case against him."
Jack couldn't believe his ears. A grin came across his face, and he grabbed Bobby, almost giving him a hug. "Bobby, you're a genius. There's no gaurantee of course, but it just might work."
Jack ran off to tell D what they were planning on doing, and then he went down to give the press conference while it was carried out by a massive number of FBI agents.
Jack stepped up tp the podium while cameras flashed and microphones were pushed in his direction. Reporters all over were asking questions out of turn. Jack raised his hands, and everyone quieted down.
"As you have all heard, there has been another murder on 34th St. SW. Before I tell you what we are going to do about it, let me first say that there is no reason to be alarmed. We are right on top of this case. We are pursuing whatever leads we have, and we are devoting all of our resources to finding this murderer."
Reporters started to ask questions out of turn causing quite a rucus. Jack raised his hands again until all were quieted back down. "Please, I am not going to take questions right now. As a precaution however, I want to let you know that we will be going out of our way to protect the people on 34th St. SW. Right now, there is a mass of FBI agents crawling all over that street doing what is necessary to protect the people that live there. Rest assured that the FBI is devoted to protecting the people of this great city. That will be all."
Jack turned and left while reporters once again tried their hardest to get answers for their questions.
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As the afternoon went on, the team was doing their best to pool their resources and find all the information they could. They were all together in the bullpen, answering phones, and clacking away on their computers. Jack's phone rang. He picked it up. "Jack Hudson." He paused. He waved to everybody and put the phone on speakerphone so they could all hear it. "It's him." he told them. "Put him through." Jack said to the receptionist. "Hello?"
"Is this the agent in charge of my case?"
"I don't know, are you the one killing people on 34th St.?"
"Oh come now, you know I am. I leave you a note everytime to let you know what I've done."
"Yeah, well, we've had enough of those."
"No you haven't. I have nine more of those, waiting to be used. There are twelve days in Christmas, so the song says, so we will have twelve days in the nightmare, whether you like it or not."
"We'll see about that."
The line clicked as he hung up. Jack hung up his phone as well. He looked at Bobby and asked, "Have we got everyone in protective custody yet?"
"Still working on it mate. It may be a short street, but there are still quite a few people to put in protective custody. Many are still at work as we are, and some children are just getting home from school."
"So there's no way of knowing yet if he's one of the people on that street." Myles chimed in.
"No, not yet. But we may still have the upper hand anyway. Everybody is being taken off of the street."
Tara suddenly piped up. "Yes, but not all of them will be alive."
Everybody looked at her with horror in their eyes. "He struck early today. The agents just found snother dead body in one of the houses. He has his own set of Christmas lights, and another note."
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Jack, Bobby, and Myles approached the house. Most of the houses on the street were already empty of people. This one was packed with FBI. When they came in, they found a woman in her thirties laying on the floor. By her feet, was the note boasting the fourth day of the nightmare.
One of the agents that found her said, "When we got here, the front door was ajar. We pushed it open, and there she was."
"That's odd." noted Myles. "Before this, all the points of entry were the back door. Why would he now use the front door?"
"Maybe he's trying to mis it up a bit, you know to try and knock us off balance. Make us believe that he could do anything." said Bobby.
"That's possible." agreed Jack. "It may also be a way of letting us know that he's no longer afraid of us. I mean, he went in the front door in broad daylight. It may even be possible that he knocked on the door to get her to come near, and then jumped her as soon as she opened the door. Either way, this all still seems to point to someone familiar with not only this street, but the people living on it. How else would he know that she would come to the door and answer it, and also that she was alone?"