In another cabin about 4 miles away, Granny Williams was sitting on the edge of a small twin bed with a pink floral quilt over it reading to her granddaughter, Emily Black. Her granddaughter was all the family she had left and she was all Emily had left too. Esme, better known as Granny to most of the locals, had lost her husband Charlie about 15 years ago and then lost her daughter and son-in-law in a car crash two years ago. Since then, Esme had been running the bakery and raising Emily on her own. She should have been retired and enjoying her golden years but life hadn't quite turned out the way she and Charlie planned.
Emily was the joy of her life though. The little girl had jet black hair and bright unusually light blue eyes and the cutest freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. She was smart as a whip too, or at least Esme thought so. She was only 4-years-old but Emily could read books on a third-grade level, much like her mother in fact. Jilly had been a smart girl too and loved to read. She grew up to be an English teacher herself. For the girl with her love of books, Esme's daughter had been in the perfect career.
Her son-in-law Robert had been a good man. Bobby Black as he'd been known as was an average guy, handsome but fairly average in every other way. He adored both Jilly and Emily and he would have done anything for either of his girls. He worked hard and had been given a promotion at the factory he worked at just before the accident. Jilly had just turned 29 a few days before the accident happened and it was just by chance that little Emily hadn't been in the car with them.
The child had been cranky with a cold all that day and so instead of having her go home with her daughter and son-in-law, Esme had asked to keep Emily until that Sunday evening. She'd hoped to give the couple a few days of alone time that every couple needed occasionally. She claimed it was a belated birthday gift but she was really doing it to hopefully keep Jilly or Bobby from catching Emily's cold. She knew they had a hard time making ends meet sometimes and didn't want them to have to miss work or go to work sick if she could help.
Unfortunately, on their way back to Los Angeles they'd been involved in a horrible pile up on the freeway. Ten people had died that day in all because a trucker had fallen asleep at the wheel. Emily wasn't the only child orphaned either from what Esme had sadly learned after the accident investigation wrapped up.
Tonight, she and Emily were up a little later than normal. Esme had been late closing the bakery because of a wedding cake she was finishing up and she'd made sure she took Sarah, her other baker home since there had been some really bad things happening lately around the mountain.
Just a few miles from town four women had been killed over the summer and fall months and it had every woman in the area sticking close to their husbands, boyfriends, or just other women. It was almost comical watching the women of the area travel in packs. Women around town were also carrying handguns, tasers, mace and even those ultra-peace-loving hippie gals in the area were carrying loud whistles and mace themselves.
One of Esme's customers and dear friend she'd known since he was boy had asked after her just that day. He'd been worried about her and Emily in the cabin alone at night but she assured Stringfellow Hawke that if she had to be alone or just with Emily, she kept all the doors and windows locked, had her German Shepherd Sally and Charlie's shotgun near in the house. She wasn't about to become someone's victim if she could help it. He'd relented but told her that at any moment if she didn't feel safe to call him and he'd come pick them up and take them to his cabin. He might not have much room but he'd make sure they were safe. She loved the boy, well…man now but she'd known him since he was younger than Emily and loved him like a son. The Hawke's were all good people and they too had seen too much tragedy in their lives.
From what had been told around town, the killings had been gruesome. The first one in fact had been listed as a possible animal attack until a second and then third victim turned up. The people around the mountain were on edge, the tiny local police force was antsy, never having a murder let alone four to investigate. Recently, the FBI had sent a team to their little mountain town as well trying to figure out who was terrorizing the area and hoping to catch them before anyone else had to die. So far, the killer had only been attacking tourists, not anyone that actually lived in the area so that made some of the women in the little town feel safer.
Esme pushed the worries away as much as she could to not scare Emily but sometimes she felt her little granddaughter understood more than what anyone said directly to her.
As she finished up the story, Emily's eyes were sliding shut and Esme gave her a kiss on the forehead before tucking the covers in around the little girl.
It wasn't an hour after Esme had fallen asleep in her room that she was awakened by Sally growling and pacing in the hallway. Esme got up, silent as she could and grabbed Charlie's old shot gun. Sally could just be growling about a raccoon out in the garbage but with what had been going on lately, Esme certainly wasn't going to ignore the dog's instincts.
She stepped into the hallway and went to Emily's door. The child was still sleeping peacefully but Esme was alarmed that the hackles on Sally were standing and she was growling more now, low in her throat. Esme picked up the phone in the hall and silence greeted her. She swallowed hard and stepped back down the hall, pulling Sally with her into Emily's room.
She silently went to her granddaughter and woke her quietly.
"Granny?"
"Shhh, child. I need you to get up now."
"But it's still dark."
"I know. Come on. Put on your little boots here. There ya go," Esme said helping the child pull on her rain boots, they wouldn't be much protection in the snow but she didn't have time to look for anything else and didn't want to risk turning on any lights other than the nightlight burning in Emily's room already. "Here, put on your robe and your coat."
Emily thankfully didn't argue, she was still half asleep and didn't understand what was going on or why Sally was growling at her bedroom door.
Just as Emily got her jacket on, Esme heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Her mouth was as dry as parchment and she felt a chill run down her spine. She turned and unlocked the window, she picked up Sally and pushed her through first, the dog landed on top of the wood pile and thankfully nothing toppled over. Sally seemed to somehow know what was going on and stayed waiting, looking up at the window.
"Now, child. I need you to go out there with Sally and I need you to run. Run as fast as you can to Mr. Hawke's cabin. You know how to get there through the trail in the woods. No matter what you hear behind you, I want you to keep going. Emily, do you understand? Don't look back, just run. Just know that Granny loves you and I need you to get to Mr. Hawke's as fast as your little feet can go, okay?" Esme whispered to her.
"I don't want to go in the dark alone," Emily whispered back.
"Shhh, you'll be with Sally. Just go. Please, Emily, child please do what I say," Esme said in desperation, she could hear the footsteps still creeping around.
"I'll come to Mr. Hawke's as soon as I can."
With that, she picked her granddaughter up and dropped her out the window on top of the large woodpile. Emily slipped and skidded off the top from the snow and ice and fell hard on her little bottom, but thankfully the snow offered at least a little cushioning of her fall.
Unfortunately, it was enough noise to gain the attention of the intruder. He kicked in the door, Esme had hoped she'd be able to get out the window herself but it was too late. She swung the shotgun around and took the shot but it was a little wide in her fear and in the near darkness of the room. She did hear the man grunt though, at least some of the shot had hit him.
The man let out an animalistic growl as he rushed toward her.
Esme tried to get another shot off at the man but he managed to catch the end of the barrel and her shot just went into the wall beside the door.
The man was huge compared to her, he smelled horribly of unwashed human filth and Esme fought not to gag as he jerked her forward against his chest, yanking the gun from her hands. She fought him, bit his hand as hard as she could, as she tried to get away from him but all it took was one hard blow to her temple and Esme saw no more. It would be said later that it had been a Godsend that she had died from a sudden aneurism rather than being tortured to death as he had the others.
Emily had heard the two loud shotgun blasts but she did what her Granny had told her. Run. Don't look back. Run to Mr. Hawke's. It was a long way to his house, and the snow was over the top of her boots. Her little feet were soaked and freezing from the snow falling inside them but she kept on running. She fell more times than she could count but each time Sally came back to her and nuzzled her and licked her face. She'd get back up and run again, Sally knew the way to Mr. Hawke's too and seemed to just know where they were going.
Emily's throat and chest hurt from the cold wind and her little fingers were numb and the snow was blowing everywhere. She could barely see at all but she just focused on Sally's dark coat and followed her. She knew the way.
Usually when she walked with Granny when there wasn't any snow they could get to Mr. Hawke's by lunch time if they left right after breakfast. But they always took breaks and looked at the flowers or caught butterflies or watched any animals they came across. Tonight, there were no flowers, no butterflies, no animals except Sally, tonight she couldn't take a break. She knew something really bad had happened tonight. Granny would never throw her and Sally out the window without a good reason. Had there been a fire? Did Granny stay to fight the fire? What were the firecrackers for? Where was Granny? She said she'd come too?
It wasn't long before Emily started to get tired. She fell again, face first into the snow and she wasn't sure she could get back up. She was crying and just wanted to go back home and crawl into Granny's bed with her. She tried to push herself up but her little arms shook with the effort. Sally came back, whining at her but she just was too tired.
Sally grabbed the back of Emily's jacket in her mouth and started pulling the child through the snow toward the nice man's cabin and her friend Tet. He'd know what to do.
It wasn't long before Sally too was stumbling in the snow trying to pull the child, but she had to, her instincts told her she had to. The human pup couldn't survive outside like her, she didn't have fur and the fake furs they used weren't nearly good enough. Sally stopped for a few moments, licked the child's face, tasting the salt of her tears and whined at her.
Emily felt something warm on her face and struggled to open her eyes. "Sally…" she whispered and rolled over, struggling to get on her knees. "Still a long way," she murmured.
The dog stood up and looked down the trail toward where she could smell the smoke from the nice man's cabin where Tet lived. She looked back at her human pup and took her jacket in her teeth again, pulling on her arm this time.
"Okay, Sally…I'll try," Emily whispered as she struggled to stand. She almost fell right back down, she was so cold it hurt but she began following the dog again. Just before they made it to the tree line not far from Mr. Hawke's cabin, Emily fell again and this time, she couldn't get back up. Sally again, grabbed her jacket and started pulling, then she got a whiff of the fire smoke again and knew they'd arrived. She turned and ran as fast as she could, skidding on the icy steps where she fell and slid into the door of the cabin.
Sally barked and scratched at the door with all the energy she had left.
Hawke was startled out of his sleep by a thump against his door and then heard whining and barking and scratching. Tet too was barking and scratching at the door.
"Jesus," he murmured getting up and tugging his shirt on, buttoning it quickly and cramming his feet into his boots.
"Hawke, what's goin' on?" Caitlin called from the top of the stairs.
"I dunno, Cait you stay up there. Get my pistol out of the nightstand just in case!" he yelled up to her.
"Oh, Jesus," she murmured as she rushed over to the nightstand to search for the gun. By the time she was back at the top of the stairs, Hawke had his other gun in his hand and looked out the window.
He blinked as he looked at the dog on his porch. "Sally?" he questioned incredulously. Granny Williams would never let Sally out on a night like this. Hawke opened the door and Tet rushed out with Sally and Hawke stood there in confusion until Sally grabbed his pantleg in her mouth and started pulling.
"Hey…hey…" he said trying to pull away but then Tet did the same thing.
"What the hell…okay…okay I'm coming," he said as he went down the steps with the dogs. Sally broke away from him then and ran and skidded to a stop next to something dark in the snow, as Hawke got closer he could see it was…pink?
"Oh my, God!" he yelled out as he put away his gun. It was little Emily Black, what in the hell was she doing out here? In this snow? Had she really come four miles in the snow?
"Caitlin! Cait! Get the door," he yelled as he scooped the little girl into his arms and ran with her back to the house. He nearly busted his ass on the steps as he skidded across the ground but managed to keep his balance.
"Oh my, God. Hawke, what…."
"I dunno, Cait but we gotta get her warmed up," he said as he ran over to the fire and set the little girl on the rug as close to the hearth as he could.
Caitlin ran to the door and brought both the dogs in, and closed it tight behind her, putting the locks in place. She put the gun she had up on the mantle and stepped over little Emily.
"Is that…oh, that's Emily!"
"Yeah, I don't know what is going on but we gotta get her warm," he admitted.
"Okay, uh, you know better where things are. I want you to go upstairs and get the hot water bottle, towels, blankets, grab one of my sweaters out of my suitcase, it'll fit her better than one of yours and grab a pair of my socks too," Caitlin explained as she set to work pulling the snow damp clothing off the little girl.
Hawke didn't question a single thing Caitlin asked for, he just ran upstairs. He put his gun in the nightstand drawer and grabbed everything she listed.
When he got downstairs, Caitlin had the girl stripped down to her little pink Barbie doll panties and Hawke gasped. "God she's nearly blue," he said as Caitlin tossed away a soaked sock.
"We gotta get her warm, you come here and sit down facing the fire," Caitlin said, directing Hawke into position. "Take off your shirt."
He gave her a blank look for just a moment before his brain kicked in. Direct body heat. Yep.
Instead of wasting time with buttons, Hawke just yanked the shirt up over his head and threw it to the side. Caitlin picked up the little girl and laid her back against Hawke's chest. He hissed from the cold. "God, she's like ice," he whispered worriedly and Caitlin nodded. Her eyes were misted with tears and he felt about the same.
Caitlin wrapped several blankets around them and stood up with the hot water bottle. "Rub her arms and try to get some circulation going in them. I'm gona get some hot water." She filled the hot water bottle with hot tap water, she'd rather have had it a little hotter but this would have to do. It was certainly better than nothing.
She rushed back over, coughing a few times before she settled down and slid the hot water bottle between the covers and onto the little girl's stomach. "Hold this against her, I'll work on her legs and feet," Caitlin explained.
Hawke did as he was told, shivering a bit himself from how cold the child in his arms was.
Caitlin began to massage the little girl's legs and feet, warming her as much as she could. She reached down and pulled her own socks off and shoved them onto the little feet.
Hawke gave her an odd look. "They are already warm from my body heat, hoping they'll help more than just a fresh pair of socks would."
She reached over on the couch and grabbed the fresh socks Hawke had brought down and shoved them on her own feet. She held a blanket up near the fire getting it nice and warm and wrapped it around Hawke and the girl then grabbed a towel and set to drying the girl's dark hair.
"Come on, sweetheart, come on, wake up," Caitlin whispered to her. Hawke did the same in her ear, talking to her.
"Emily, come on, bug, wake up sweetie," he whispered and he felt the little girl shivering in his arms.
"She's starting to shiver," he murmured to Caitlin and she smiled.
"Oh, that's good news," she answered. "Very good news." Caitlin felt relieved knowing that if she was shivering that she was coming back from possible hypothermia. "I'm going to make her some tea, so we can get something warm in her."
While Caitlin was in the kitchen, Hawke continued rubbing the little girl's arm with one hand while one held the hot water bottle in place, then he'd switch. They still had no idea what was going on but at least Emily was warming up.
Emily woke with a cough and a cry and Hawke snuggled her closer.
"I got you, bug," he whispered.
"Mr. Hawke?"
"Yeah, Emily…just trying to get you warm, hon," he explained as she looked up at him with heavy lidded eyes. "You must be exhausted…did you come here from Granny's?"
"Yes, she told me to. She woke me up and dropped Sally out my bedroom window then me. She said she'd come too but she didn't. She told me to run to your house and not look back. So, I did as she said," the little girl explained in hitching and slurred words between shivers.
Caitlin came and sat down next to the pair and offered her the tea, it wasn't too hot for the child but at least warm enough to help soothe her and warm her from the inside. "Here you go, sweetie. You sure scared, String and me."
"I'm scared too," Emily admitted as she took a sip of the tea and then a larger one, it felt so good but she was so tired.
Caitlin's eyes met Hawke's and they both were terrified that Granny Esme Williams was the latest victim of the killer who'd been terrorizing the area around the lake for the last several months.
"Do you remember anything else?" Caitlin coaxed.
"Firecrackers. I heard firecrackers and ran. I just kept running. I fell a lot, the snow was hard to run in. Sally helped me though, she even pulled me in the snow with my jacket. I think she ripped it," Emily said looking around and seeing Sally and Tet sitting side by side on the rug across the room from the humans.
Caitlin reached over and picked up the pink jacket and saw where Sally had torn the fabric on the back, near her neck area and on the right sleeve. She held it up so Hawke could see above Emily's head.
"Good, Lord," he mouthed to Caitlin and she just sat the coat down and scooted over to Sally.
"Hey, you sweet, girl. I'll make sure you get a nice big steak for this," she whispered to the dog as she rubbed her head and chest.
Hawke smiled at Caitlin thanking the dog for helping to save Emily's life and he knew he'd be glad to chip in on a steak for her rescue job tonight.
"Cait, we are going to need to call the sheriff," he said in a low voice.
"Yeah, hang on," Caitlin picked up her sweater and held it out. "Let's get this on, Emily. Sweetie, are you warm enough now?"
"I think so, you have a hard chest, Mr. Hawke, not like Granny," the little girl complained and Hawke laughed. Well he was glad he didn't have the chest of a 70-year-old grandma but he decided not to say anything.
Caitlin had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the look on Hawke's face.
"Well come here, we'll get you in this and you can curl up on the couch with the blankets," Caitlin said, helping to unwrap the child from all the blankets and then pulled the sweater over her.
Hawke got up then and tugged on his shirt and walked over to the radio. He called the sheriff's office and explained what they knew.
Caitlin had taken to coughing again and went back to the kitchen to get herself a cup of tea too. She then settled down on the couch with Emily's feet in her lap where she rubbed them and then took off the socks to check for frostbite just in case.
"Whatcha' doin'?" Emily asked sleepily.
"Checking your little tootsie's here for something called frostbite. It can happen if your skin gets too cold," Caitlin explained. "But these little tootsies are all pink, just as they are supposed to be!"
Emily giggled and Caitlin pulled the overly large socks back onto her feet nearly to her knees.
"You still look awful tired, why don't you go to sleep, I promise I will be right here," Caitlin said softly as she brushed a few tendrils of jet black hair from the child's face.
"Tet and Sally too?"
Caitlin laughed. "Yeah, Tet and Sally too."
Hawke found himself having a hard time taking his eyes off the scene on his couch. 'Dom wanted grandkids, huh? Maybe one day. Caitlin sure would make a wonderful mother and…and I really do think I want her to be that wonderful mother to MY children. Child? No…children, more than one. I'm as bad as Dom, haven't asked her on a proper date yet and I'm already thinking about kids with her? Hell…marriage, she'd want that before kids. Caitlin Hawke does have a nice ring to it.' He really needed to talk to her. Hawke had finally after more than two years come to the realization that Caitlin was it for him. He'd been terrified like so many others she'd die on him but even through Airwolf missions, kidnappings, attacks and even deadly disease, she had come through it all. His trip with Michael had finally made him realize that, he already loved her and even if something were to happen, God forbid, at least he should make the most of the time he had with her instead of pushing her away.
He was startled out of his thoughts by the squawk of his radio. "Hawke, this is sheriff Mason…I uh…you…you might want to come down here to uh…to the Williams' house. You got anyone to watch the girl, she uh, she don't need to be here."
"Yeah, I have a friend here with her. I'll be there shortly." Hawke went to the couch and looked down at Emily asleep and then at a worried Caitlin.
"I need…"
"I heard. You go, but…hand me that gun I put on the mantle…just in case," Cait said looking up at him.
"That's my, Caitlin, always thinking ahead," he smiled and dropped a kiss on her upturned forehead. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He laid the Colt on the table next to her.
"I know. Just be careful and if you can, get some of Emily's things to make her comfortable, at least some clothes and a toy or two," Caitlin said softly, feeling warmth to her toes from his kiss and the words 'my' Caitlin.
"Yeah. I'll do that, you need anything?"
"Nope. I'm good, you just be safe."
Hawke squeezed her shoulder and grabbed his jacket and gloves as he headed out the door. He went around back and got the snowmobile, it would be faster than walking even if the snowmobile path was the longer way to get to Granny Williams house. He was dreading what he'd find out when he got there.
There were few that had their cabins as high up as Hawke's grandparents had built theirs. The Williams family had been the only locals to build that high.
Hawke had known the family growing up around the cabin. Jillian or Jilly was younger than him by about 6 years so he and Sinjin didn't know her well but she'd been a pretty girl, very smart and sweet too. Emily was a lot like her mother.
There weren't many kids up there, at least that weren't tourist kids. Most were in the town where the Williams' had their bakery, it was just a tiny little tourist trap of a town where folks coming to the lake would stop in for food, bait and things. It only had one hotel and a bed and breakfast, a few small shops and the bakery along with the tiny sheriff's office, a medical clinic and a post office and two churches. Being a reservoir, they didn't allow swimming or any water sports so the lake was mostly for folks to fish or birdwatch or just camp with the kids to get away from the city for a little while. Hawke never socialized much with the folks in town but he did love the bakery and the Williams' had been great folks.
Shortly after Hawke returned from the war, Charlie Williams had passed away. Esme had been heartbroken but she'd kept the bakery going, her and Jilly and Sarah Denton. Jilly went to college then when she came home from college after graduation she brought Bobby with her. He was quiet but obviously adored Jilly. They moved to Los Angeles for work and Hawke hadn't even met their daughter until he learned of their deaths two years ago.
Ever since then, Esme had taken care of Emily and he'd gotten to know them a little more. They were neighbors if you considered a 4-mile distance to be a neighbor. He loved little Emily though, she was a sweet girl and he was always happy to see her and Esme on one of their adventures as they called them. The times the pair had shown up at his cabin on one of their walks, he'd always treated them to lunch and drank coffee with Esme on the porch as they watched Emily run around with Tet and Sally. Dom and Caitlin had gotten to know the woman and her granddaughter too and both adored Emily.
Hawke really liked Esme, in fact he almost had a notion of fixing her up with Dom at one time but wasn't sure he was the match making type. He sure couldn't get his own love life in order; how could he try and match make someone else? So, he'd let the idea drop, a part of him wondered if maybe that had been the wrong choice. If she'd not been what the killer thought of as a woman alone, maybe she'd have been safe?
Home invasion of a local was new for this freak though, Hawke thought sourly just as he arrived at the Williams' cabin. No smoke coming from the chimney suddenly made him feel even colder as he parked the snowmobile and walked up to sheriff Mason who had heard him and came out the back door.
"Wish I could mean it when I say good morning, Hawke," Mason said taking his hat off and shaking his hand.
"Yeah, it's not been a great morning. I suspect why you asked me here," Hawke said sadly.
The sheriff sighed heavily as he put his hat back on. "You're probably right with that suspicion too. Now I know you're a real private man and all but I also know that you do some work for the government. I don't know what kind and I don't want to know. But, we've got FBI crawling all over this place and they ain't sayin' much to me to be honest. Nothin' that makes any sense anyway."
"Behavioral Science folks?" Hawke asked, knowing that would be the unit sent in when it came to serial killers.
"Yeah…that's them," Mason said. "Personally, I don't care if this guy was a bed wetter or abused or has a screw loose, I just want him caught and put to justice for what he's done. Granny and those other ladies didn't deserve this and poor little Emily…she's gona have to go into foster care since she doesn't have any family."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll see what I can do about Emily but…I really do need to get a few of her things. She'll stay with myself and my um, my friend Caitlin until something is worked out," Hawke said stumbling a bit on how he should describe Caitlin.
"I'm…I'm not so sure…uh, it happened IN little Emily's room, Hawke," Mason said looking a bit green.
"Oh, God," Hawke ran his hand across the back of his neck as he looked down. "Damn."
"Granny got off a couple shots with Charlie's old shotgun and the FBI folks said it looked like she might of winged the guy. Not enough to kill him or I guess slow him down much but enough they got some blood they might be able to use as evidence," Mason explained.
"Good for her. Granny wasn't the type to go down without a fight at least. I uh, I really do need to get some things for Emily. You think the FBI folks will let me?"
"You could talk to that guy over there. His name is Jason Gideon, the other guy is Dave Rossi," Mason explained.
Hawke nodded and patted Mason on the shoulder as he walked past him.
"Gentlemen?" Hawke asked as the pair turned. Both men were dark haired but that was where the similarities ended. One looked FBI, the other looked like he'd just stepped out of a college lecture hall. "My name is Stringfellow Hawke, Esme's granddaughter Emily Black is at my cabin with a friend right now. She ran there last night in the storm, her and her dog, four miles in the snow, she was nearly frozen to death when I found her passed out in the woods. Her dog came to my door going nuts, got my dog going nuts and pulled me out in the yard. We had to heat her up and get some warm liquids in her before she was out of the woods so to speak. Really good thing my girlfriend is studying to be an EMT," Hawke didn't even realize he'd called Caitlin his girlfriend.
"Hello, Mr. Hawke, unique name," Rossi said as he jotted something in a notepad.
"Yeah…just Hawke is fine. Fellas' I um," he paused and reached for his wallet, opening it to show them his FIRM credentials that he rarely if ever used but Michael had insisted he have. "We're somewhat on the same team."
Rossi's eyebrows rose and he looked at Gideon. "The FIRM huh? That's like spies who spy on spies isn't it?"
Hawke laughed. "I'm not a spy. I'm a pilot and I do security work for them sometimes."
"Security?" Gideon asked but wasn't entirely surprised the man ignored the question.
"Anyway, Esme was a friend and…I hope you catch this bastard. Actually. I have to be honest, I hope you are forced to kill the monster but…I've got a scared little girl at my house who needs some clothes and maybe some familiar toys. Mason said it happened in her room…I don't want to contaminate your crime scene but would it be possible to get some things for her?" Hawke had sidestepped Gideon's wish for clarification and he hoped he wouldn't press it.
Rossi looked up from his notes and frowned. "You sure you want to go in there? It…it was hard for us to see and we deal with this sort of thing every day."
Hawke closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. "I've seen some pretty bad stuff, most of it in the war but yeah…I don't think that will be the issue. My wanting to go hunting for this freak would probably be the more powerful issue."
"You aren't alone in that sentiment. All the local police feel the same and I'm not sure I don't agree with your hope about us being forced to kill this guy. Sometimes, we want to put these people in a little room and study them and then there are some, we just want justice served quickly. We are human too," Gideon admitted.
Rossi realized that Hawke was a fellow Vietnam veteran and jotted something down on his notepad. He'd said he was a pilot so he jotted down Air Cavalry with a question mark.
"Walking the fine line of doing your job to the letter and being human at the same time isn't easy. And explains why I'm not a spy," Hawke said with a grin. "I can't forsake my personal morals for the greater good."
Rossi started to laugh at that. "I believe you for some reason, Stringfellow Hawke."
"Come on, I'll take you up and um…you'll need gloves and covers for your shoes," Gideon said leading Hawke over to where he could grab the items Gideon mentioned.
"Last thing I want to do is screw up your crime scene," Hawke admitted as he headed into the house behind Gideon.
In the entryway, Hawke put on the gloves and shoe covers the same as Gideon did and then they walked upstairs to the door. It had been kicked off its hinges and Hawke saw the smattering of holes from Granny's shotgun blasts. Too bad she'd only had birdshot in that thing.
"Thata girl," he said as he looked at the marks on the doorframe and wall. "I knew she wouldn't go down without a fight."
Gideon smiled grimly. "She did fight at that and the coroner thinks she was already dead before he started his…ritual. He's thinking heart attack or maybe an aneurism by blunt force trauma to the temple. He won't know for sure until he does a full autopsy but those were his preliminary findings."
When they stepped into the room, it was a blood splattered mess. Hawke had seen some awful things in his life but nothing prepared him for this. It was as if a bomb had gone off.
"This guy must really be out of his fucking skull," Hawke murmured as he tried to cautiously make his way to the closet. A large bloody handprint caught his attention and he knew they'd have him on his prints alone. The man didn't care about evidence that was for sure. Outside he seemed calm and detached like any other agent might be, but inside his gut was roiling and he wanted to find this man and rip him apart the same way the monster had done to his victims.
He opened the closet and gathered a few of Emily's little dresses, shoes, her nice dress coat she wore to church and grabbed a Strawberry Shortcake suitcase out of the floor of the closet. He put the things inside and then went to her dresser and scooped out a handful of socks, little girl underthings and a few pairs of tights to go with her dresses. She had a little jewelry box on top of the dresser, he opened it and a ballerina started dancing to Fur Elise. There were some earrings and little bracelets and necklaces he'd seen the girl wear in the past. He shut the box and put it inside the suitcase as well. He turned around and looked at the room, one area didn't have much damage and no blood splatter. He found a few stuffed toys and a couple of dolls. He put what he could in the suitcase and then stuffed a few of the dolls and animals under his arm. "Maybe I can grab a grocery sack out of the kitchen or something for these."
Gideon noticed that the man didn't seem bothered by the gory scene but he also noticed how Hawke had kept his gaze mostly on what he was looking for. Closet, clothes, dresser, music box, toys. Efficient, no dawdling and no gawking but also, emotions so tightly clamped that Gideon could feel his own jaw aching from how tightly Hawke had his own clenched. Raw anger. Barely beneath the surface but held in check. He suspected this man had an explosive, even dangerous temper but Gideon realized that Hawke also knew it would do him no good here and now.
Gideon followed Hawke into the kitchen, the man had obviously spent time in the house before. He let him gather a grocery bag to put the toys in and followed him back out of the house into the crisp snowy early morning.
"Thank you for letting me get these things for Emily," Hawke said as calmly as he could. "Once the scene is cleared and everything we'll probably come back to take care of Esme's things and Emily's."
"Thank you for keeping your grief and temper in check and not wrecking my crime scene," Gideon said as he watched Hawke toss his gloves and shoe covers in the trashcan they had set up for specifically those things.
"Yeah, I might have to go punch something before I get back to the cabin with the girls but…I'll be fine. Just promise me, do your job, Gideon. Find this monster and either send him away forever or end him," Hawke said. "And I'm going to tell you now, if he tries to come around my girls at my cabin, you'll be taking him back in a body bag. I rarely miss and my Caitlin…she never misses."
Gideon had to chuckle at that. "As Dave said, I believe you."
Hawke walked back to his snowmobile and began to secure the suitcase and the bag and turned to see Gideon still standing there. "Something else?"
"Hmm, oh…I was wondering is this Caitlin your friend or girlfriend? You described her as both but you also called her 'yours' in a very possessive way."
"You can't help it, can you? Analyzing people?"
"Afraid not."
"It's a little complicated."
"Hmm, yeah, in our line of work I could see how it could be," Gideon answered.
"But I'm hoping to work on something permanent," Hawke said after a moment. It felt good to admit that to a stranger for some reason.
Gideon smiled and held his hand out to Hawke. "Then I wish you luck with that, Stringfellow Hawke."
"Thanks. If you guys have any questions you can raise me on the radio, channel 12 or you can reach me at Santini Air in Van Nuys on Monday. I'll be glad to help in any way I can. I figure you'll want to interview Emily about what she remembers. Thank God, she didn't see anything but she may have heard something important for your case. I don't want her to have to go through it but both Caitlin and I know it has to be done. Caitlin is former Texas Highway Patrol, so she knows you'll have questions for Emily. I just ask that you give Emily today to rest. She was half dead when we found her this morning and that isn't an exaggeration."
"No, Hawke, I don't think you are the type to exaggerate, are you? Here is the number where we are staying if you need to talk to us before tomorrow. We'll be in touch and trust me, we'll be as sensitive as possible to Emily. She's only four I believe?" Gideon asked, impressed with Hawke.
"Yeah, she's a smart kid, very smart but she is only four and Esme was all she had." Hawke got on the snowmobile and offered a slight wave before starting it and heading back up the trail to his cabin.
Gideon watched as the other man drove away into the snow and shook his head. "Doesn't appear to me that Esme was all that little girl had, Hawke," he said shoving his hands in his pockets. Dave walked up beside him.
"That little girl is lucky to have a neighbor like that, he'll be one hell of a guard dog for her."
"Mmm, yeah. I'd like to know a little more about this Stringfellow Hawke," Gideon said after a moment of thought.
"I know you don't think he's a suspect," Rossi said incredulously.
"Not at all but he may be one hell of an ally on this case, especially since it's the Mayberry police department we're working with."
Dave couldn't help but laugh at Jason's description of the local sheriff's office. State Police were also working with them but the local sheriff was still given priority even though the worst they'd investigated before this summer was some minor drug smuggling in the area.
Halfway home, Hawke stopped and got off the machine to walk around for a few minutes trying to work out some of the repressed anger he had. He vented a bit kicking the crap out of a downed tree and once he calmed and took a few deep breaths, he felt only slightly better but his anger was under control now.
Jason Gideon was on the phone with Marie back in D.C. asking her to look into Stringfellow Hawke's background for him. It was only a short time before she reported back with what she could find, though she noted that there were several classified files that she could not access without hacking them. She did inform him that an FBI file was one of those classified with higher clearance than any she could use. Gideon told her to leave them be, he didn't need the man's government secrets he just wanted to know what sort of man they were dealing with. From his background, Hawke had been more than an exceptional pilot.
"Highly decorated Air Cavalry, I had assumed Air Cav but wasn't certain. Guys like him saved many, many men in Vietnam often under heavy fire. Those guys had to have nerves of steel to keep those birds in the air. That right there makes me want to respect him, it was a pilot like him that saved my life and those of my buddies more than once," David said as he listened to the information that Marie had gathered.
"NASA too, he'd worked with the early shuttle program and has a master's degree in applied physics, so he's no intellectual chump either," Jason answered. "If we need a pilot, which we could on this case I'd like to bring him in on it. I feel we can trust him and I know he was sincere with his offer of help."
"Yeah, how'd he react up there anyway?"
"He didn't. Oh, don't get me wrong, he was boiling with anger but he kept it in check. My jaw hurt watching him clenching his. It was interesting watching someone who could come into an environment like that, especially someone who knew the victim personally. He did what he could to ignore the horror of it and do what he'd come for. Get personal effects for that little girl. He didn't say much, just focused on getting in, getting what he needed and leaving again. He didn't try touching anything he didn't feel he needed to. I did notice him eye that big handprint. It was like watching a professionally trained FBI agent in a crime scene. He's more than just some pilot and security personnel for the FIRM, you noticed he didn't answer me on that and his record has enough holes filled with classified files that he is much more than meets the eye," Jason said as he sat down in the car and looked over at David.
"He did avoid that question but I believed him when he said he wasn't a spy," Dave said shrugging.
"I do too. He's not a spy but he works with them and I think he's the kind of man they use when a spy gets too far over their head," Jason said seriously. "He has done air search and rescue too so as I said, we could certainly use him."
"So, we go real easy with the little girl tomorrow? Not that we wouldn't have anyway but definitely try not to upset her as much as we can so that he will want to help?" Rossi said as he started the car.
"Exactly. I think if he knows this lake and mountain as well as I believe he does, he'll be an asset we can't afford not to utilize. I normally wouldn't want a witness, especially a child to wait a day because of memory and recall issues but in this case I'm willing to give him that."
