Chapter 2

The next day found them at Frank's office working with Frank, who knew the details from last night's crime scene.

Frank was relating the last findings on the case "He died in a pretty similar way than the case you just said Victor, stabbed in the leg, and I think in the same place and all, the knife was twisted to produce pain and also to make a bigger wound and then, it was taken off so he would bleed to death. The coroner said it took him about an hour to die. From the file you handed me, Victor, it's hard to find a connection between the two victims, other than this of course. From what I knew last night talking with his wife at their house, there wasn't any unusual behaviour in him, nothing new or different."

"Maybe there's no connection at all" commented Jack

"You mean, this is just a random pick, so nobody can link them to the killer?" asked Victor "that would make things pretty bad to us"

"Maybe we could relate the places where he left the victims to be found"

"That's a good one Frank" recognized Jack, he'd always admired his partner, he'd learned a lot from him. He never treated him like the rookie he was, and always took in account his ideas, he knew he could share his thoughts with Frank without fearing he'd laugh at him. Frank was a good man and the two years he'd shared with him as a detective had been a continued learning path to him. Frank had veru good instincts and he was teaching him how to find little things where it seemed to be nothing. And Frank was also a good friend, he knew Frank had his back all the time.

"So we'll start there" said Victor

They went through the files, over and over and had gone into the streets following every lead possible, it was like nothing was there. Jackson's body had been found in an alley behind a restaurant and Myers was also in another alley, inside a box but beside a fast food, but the only link was that both places weren't so far, just four blocks from each other; that was, for now, the only thing they had as a link between the cases.

Five days after they had started to work together, there was another possible case, a kidnapping again. Steven Rowlands, also two kids, married, the wife was desperate, they didn't have money to pay a ransom in case the kidnappers asked for one. Apparently he'd been taken while walking from the bus stop to his home.

Frank, Jack and Victor had shared some nights working together since they'd started the investigation, and they had also visited Victor's home for dinner, they were getting along very well.

Tonight, they were going again to Victor's for dinner.. Frank wasn't going because one of his daughters was with a bad flu and he wanted to help his wife with their other little girl while she tended the sick one. Jack had asked Victor to have the kids sharing the dinner with them, since it was friday and he liked very much having Martin around. The girls were different and always were together playing or talking. Martin seemed to be very lonely all the time. He rang the doorbell and Victor opened the door and let him in.

"I brought some wine" said Jack and gave the bottle to Victor

"Thanks, you didn't have to" he took the bottle and made his way to the kitchen

"Uncle Jack!" Martin came running downstairs and was about to jump over him, but stopped the movement when he saw Victor walking in the room coming back from the kitchen "S…sorry, sir, didn't mean to yell like that" and he lowered his face not wanting to face the dissaprobing look in his father's eyes.

Jack didn't mind about that look in Victor's face and he just held the boy up and playfully ruffled his hair with the usual gesture and a grin in his face. Martin hugged and kissed him and then he let him down. "How are you doing little buddy?"

"Great Jack! Can I borrow your badge while you're here? I want to arrest my sisters for being bad to me!"

"Yes, sure. Here you are" and he gave Martin his badge.

Martin took it and touched to gold sign on it with his fingers, and with a face full of admiration he looked at Jack and said "Thanks, now I'm a cop, just like you"

Jack couldn't fit in his own body, this was too much, then he looked to the kitchen's door and saw Victor's sad eyes looking at Martin. He felt bad for Victor, he sure was making what he thought was better for his boy, but he could see there was something Victor had been avoiding or maybe he didn't know how to show his true feelings to Martin. Jack rised his eyebrows and made a small smile back to Victor, something that intended to be an apology, although he knew it wasn't his fault.

"You can arrest them being an FBI agent too" maybe this would work, he thought.

"No, my father doesn't want me to play with his badge" he said and turned back upstairs to "arrest" his sisters. What did he planned to use as the jail?

When they were finnaly alone, Jack thaought it was better to say that apology so he joined Victor at the sofa and said "Sorry, I didn't know you didn't like him to use your badge"

"It's Ok, don't worry Jack" replied Victor, and then, to Jack's surprise he started to talk "I don't know, I try to make thing the best for him, but I always seem to be so distant, far from him, I'm not doing it on purpose, I just… my father was just like me, he raised me the same way. I hated that he never talked to me as a friend, noe I guess I'm doing the same to Martin. I thought I would be different from my old man"

"Yeah, probably I'd do the same than you as a father, mine is exactly like you pictured yours. But being an uncle is different, you know"

"Yes, I guess being an uncle is different" answered Victor, but he had that lost sight, like he was looking back to his own childhood and regretting everything he'd been doing with Martin. "I love him, you know, more than anything in the world"

"Yes, I can see how much you love him, you can start over again with him, it won't take so much time. Maybe we could go for a picnic with Frank's family, play some baseball together. That would help."

"Yeah, that would help I think, thanks Jack… I didn't mean to…"

"That's OK Victor"

Then they kept in a silent companion for a while until screams from upstairs brought them to the present. "What the…?" said Victor, climbing the stairs two steps at a time with Jack following him very close.

What they saw froze them in place, Jack trying hard to not laugh but failing in his intent. Both girls were tied together with a rope and Martin was staring at them with a guilt painted face.

Victor was mad at him for sure, because he treated the girls like little jewels and never allowed them for those boy's games so he yelled "What do you think you're doing Martin?"

Martin was really frighten now and said almost in a whisper "Sir, I… I's just play… playing… cops and… a… arrest them… for… hinde… hindering a police officer… in duty…"

His voice wasn't audible anymore once he saw his father's face

The girls wanted to help him also and said "We were just playing dad, it's nothing…"

"It is something, girls don't play that kind of games!" and as he was saying so he started to loose the ropes bonding them. Apparently the knots were very good because it took him more than five minute to untie them. By the time he'd finished he was really pissed at the three kids and said "I want everyone of you in bed right now, no TV for a week for you Martin and we'll have a real men talk tomorrow morning at six sharp in my office!"

So there it was his so planned night sharing dinner with the kids, his smile faded the moment Victor yelled at Martin for the forst time, and now he was worry for he knew it was difficult they would ever make their father/son relationship the right way. Victor was too structured and rigid with his son. They had been just playing and it had ended real bad for all of them, specially for the boy.

They got out of the room, Victor guided the girls each one to her room, Martin handed him his badge and said "Sorry Jack" looking down and holding his tears.

"It's Ok Martin, you were just playing, don't worry won't be that difficult" he tried to confort Martin and cleaned the tears that had just rolled down his cheeks.

"I'm waiting Martin" they heard Victor's voice from his room.

"Bye Jack"

"Good night Martin"

The rest of the night passed slowly and silent, Jack tried to talk to Victor, but the man made clear it was a closed case. After the coffee he went home with a bittersweet feeling that would be in his mind for years, as he would remember later.

The next day, even as it was a saturday they still went to work, Rowlands was still missing after two days, they couldn't afford to loose time.

Victor unfold the city map over the table. "Assuming he's been kidnapping and is the next victim, I would like to guess where would be the next drop" he said sounding really cold.

"So you think he's already dead?" asked Jack

"Yes Jack" said Frank "I agree with Victor in this"

"But you're giving up on him!" he was mad at both of them for being such cold bastards

"No, it's a fact, understand this, it's been two days" Frank tried to convince him

Jack stood angry at both of them "No, I can't think like that!"

"Look Jack, we have to guess where is he dropping Rowlands, to try to get him so there won't be more bodies" reasoned Frank

Victor was all the time staring at the map guessing where would be the next place, while they discussed the facts.

"So, calm down and think straight and you'll jump to the same conclussion" said Frank to a reluctant Jack. Fnally, after a moment, he gave up and sat in front of the map.

"Ok, Jackson was here and Myers down here" Victor pointed with a pencil, "now we could draw a circle including both points, and we'd be lucky if we patrol the area every night since today and get him" he looked at the others waiting for the answer.

"All kidnappings were three to for days before the drop, so we'll got maybe one or two more nights" nodded Frank "we don't loose so much, just some hours of sleep, to the possibility of catching this son of a bitch, I'm with you Victor"

They looked at Jack expectantly "Ok, so I don't have anything better to do the next two nights, I'm going. How are we gonna do? This area is too big for the three of us"

Victor said "I borrowed two agents from the FBI"

And Frank added "And I asked Simmons for three more, so we're eight for the work"

"It's two blocks for each of us" said Victor

"Too tight" pointed Jack. He didn't like this.

"Yes but we've got the police cars patroling the area too, and if we count only the alleys…" explained Frank "lets see.. here and here…"

They traced the alleys all around the area in the map and got ready for the first night of work.

The next day found them all gathered at the coffee shop for the early breakfast, they planned everything for the night and went home to have some hours of sleep.

At 6:00 PM everyone was at his assigned block walking about the alleys and looking for any sign out of the ordinary.

Frank was walking by the sidewalk when he spotteda car getting in the alley just in front of him, it was one of Victor's but he must have been on the other side and if so, it would be difficult to him to see the car. He crossed the street and got behind the car looking at the figure wandering around inside the alley. He went the other way and saw the body already on the floor, then he saw the shadow approaching and shouted.

"Police! Get your arms up!" pointing the figure with his gun

But the shadow was fast and he suddenly felt the pain piercing in his leg, it was so intense he felt the grip of his gun lettin go and then he was slidding on the wall behind him.

Victor had heard Frank's voice warning somebody and was running towards the other end of the alley as fast as his legs let him do it.

He got there and saw Frank sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, he was pale and fighting to breath, but he pointed to the street and said "Hurry! That way, brown jacket, green eyes, dark hair, jeans, tall 6 feet 2… run Victor, get him!"

Victor didn't know what to do, so he fired his gun against a crate close to him, to alert the others and went the way Frank had said to him, looking frantically in the streets for the man Frank had described. He saw him running a hundred feet ahead of him, he pressed harder, he was close and he shouted "Stop there! FBI!"

The man turned around and looked at him, he filled Frank's description perfectly, so Victor said "Get on your knees! Now!"

The man did so but he made a sudden movement to his belt, he was trying to get something from there, the light in the street showered over the object making it bright, it was a knife. "Drop it!" warned him Victor, but as the man raised his hand, evil eyes looking into Victor's, he knew he had to fire, and he did. The man laid down in the sidewalk, cold dead. He looke at the knife in his hand, it was covered in blood, Frank's blood?. A police officer was beside him now, he told him what had happened and retraced his steps to look for Frank.

An ambulance was in front of the alley now, he went in and saw Jack very pale, he approached him asking "How is Frank?"

Jack lost his temper in a second and jumping over him he roared "You son of a bitch! You were here and left him to die! What kind of cold bastard are you?"