"Name of deceased is William David Michaels. Cause of death is most likely strangulation, although he was badly beaten just like the others. No signs of forced entry." Agent David Sinclair ran through the particulars with precision, anticipating the questions his supervising agent would ask. "There are indications that some kind of struggle took place but there's no indication of robbery. We don't have a definite from the ME but she's thinking time of death to be between 7:00 pm and 8:30 pm when he was found by the janitor."
Don could only listen with half an ear as Sinclair ran down the particulars, most of his attention was taken up by the body on the floor. The face had been beaten almost beyond recognition but recognize it he did. Not in the way you recognize someone famous you see in the papers or on TV, but recognized as someone you knew. Someone you played softball with at a picnic or poker on a Saturday night.
"Don?"
It took him a moment to realize that someone was talking to him. He shook himself out of his thoughts and looked up at Terry Lake. "Sorry, Terry. What?"
"I asked you if you were okay. You seem to be distracted."
Don nodded slightly. Distracted would work. "I know him."
Terry's eyes widened just a bit in surprise. Whatever she expected to hear, it wasn't that. "William Michaels?" she clarified, just to make certain they were talking about the same 'him'.
"Yeah."
"Don. I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"Yeah. We don't exactly run in the same circles, do we?" He walked away from the body, giving the ME's team the go ahead to close up the body bag. " Damn. Is there any way we can keep this under wraps?"
"The press had a hold of it as soon as the family was notified." Don could tell Terry wasn't happy about the information being leaked so quickly. He wasn't thrilled about it either. It didn't give him much time.
"I have to call Charlie. I have to tell him."
Terry was puzzled. "We won't have any information for him to work with until tomorrow at the earliest. Why call him now?"
"Because other than Larry Fleinhardt, Bill Michaels was Charlie's closest friend."
January 128:12 am
"I have the connection." Charlie blurted out as soon as Don walked into view. "I know why these men have been," he choked for a second on the word, "murdered."
Don Eppes stared at his brother for a moment, not so much because of what he said but because he was actually able to speak coherently. Charlie sat one of the living room chairs. His face was pale and the dark stubble of morning beard against his skin made him look even paler. His breathing was controlled, too controlled to be normal. His hands were clutched into fists in his lap and Don could tell that every muscle in his body was taut with anxiety. His father stood behind him, like a guardian angel, though Don wasn't sure yet who he was guarding against. Clearly the news of his friend's violent death had affected him deeply. Hell, it would unnerve anyone.
"Charlie, I'm sorry I didn't call you myself about this. Things were …"
Charlie cut him off, not so much rudely but as if he had to say what was on his mind before he exploded with it. "All of them belonged to a fraternity. An obscure fraternity that no one would have known about unless they knew exactly what they were looking for."
"Okay, Charlie. Go on." Don spoke calmly and sat down across from his brother, trying to convey to the younger man that he could take his time. But time was apparently something Charlie didn't feel he had to spare and he rushed into an explanation.
"In 1971 a UCLA professor named Albert Blaylock began a fraternity. He called it Omega Tau and, while he didn't submit any charters for the fraternity it became fairly well known in California. It wasn't a social group or active in any events, it was simply the prestige of membership that drew applicants. The original members met maybe once or twice in it's early stages and after a time they didn't meet at all unless it was by accident or if one happened to mention it to another."
Charlie surged to his feet and began to pace as he recited the information he'd acquired.
"Through the 70's and 80's it didn't grow much, the qualifications for membership were too high for most people to achieve and like … like nineteen out of twenty applicants were turned down. By 1990 there were only fifteen members and Blaylock realized his experiment had failed and Omega Tau ceased to exist."
Don halted his brother's frantic movement with a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Slow down, Charlie. It's okay. So all the victims belonged to this fraternity? This Omega Tau?" Charlie nodded, but Don wanted to be certain. "You're sure, Charlie?"
"Yeah," Charlie swallowed. "I'm sure."
The agent turned to Terry Lake. "We went through all those backgrounds. This never showed up."
Charlie interrupted a second time. "It wouldn't have. Like I said, if you didn't know you were looking for it, you would never know it was there to be found."
"How did you figure it out?" Don was well known for being extremely clearheaded under pressure, and his intuition was telling him that there was something he was missing. Something wasn't adding up right and Charlie knew what it was. Don suspected his father did as well. And it terrified them. He could feel the fear radiating off them in waves. Still, this wasn't just a family matter. It was an ongoing FBI investigation and he'd quell the uneasiness, ask the right questions and let Charlie get to it in his own good time. "What made the connection?"
"Bill," Charlie swallowed again. "Bill was a member. When I saw … when I … when I read what they wrote about him, about what he'd accomplished, I realized that there was something each victim had in common; something that, in this day and age, most people would overlook. Something that I overlooked which is unbelievable, I mean you'd think ... "
"What's that Charlie?" Terry asked, gently steering back on track. Charlie was extremely distressed and it didn't take her background in psychology to see it. He was also dangerously close to losing whatever control he had over himself so she pulled him back on topic.
"Success. They were all very successful. And they were all very successful at a very young age." He began to tick off the men who'd been killed, counting off each death on his fingers. "Martin Wilcox started a chemical engineering firm at age 21. Leroy Johnson was an independent consultant at 19. Mark Levinski began designing the Shasta Lake watershed at 20. Paul Bertrand made five million in advertising before turning 22. Alan Ivers …"
"… incorporated IverSmart before he was 22." Don picked up the recitation as Charlie got to the first victim in LA. "And then Bill."
Charlie nodded. "And then Bill."
"I still don't see how you figured out the Omega Tau thing, Charlie. What made you think these men had been involved?"
"Remember I said that Blaylock's experiment had failed? His goal was to recruit an organization of the exceptionally gifted. It wasn't like an honor society, like Phi Theta Kappa, it was more than that. It was the brightest young minds of his age."
Charlie could see that no one had any idea where he was going. He took a deep breath and tried to slow himself down, tried to make himself think past the panic at a more normal speed. "It wasn't a traditional fraternity for traditional college students. When I said 'young minds' I meant it literally. Omega Tau was only open to you if you were," Charlie hesitated, trying to find the words that would make them understand, "if you were like me, Donny. Like me."
Realization began to dawn on the other people in the room, in varying degrees of clarity.
"You mean," Don said slowly, "that this Blaylock created a fraternity for child prodigies? For kid geniuses?"
"Yes. And all these men were members. And, Don, the ones here, the ones still in California, they were all killed in chronological order, from the first members on."
"Wait a minute. You said there were how many members? Fifteen in all, right? He's killed six, that means there are nine more to go! We need to get a hold of them, we need to make sure they're protected! Terry, I want you to find out… " Terry had already anticipated the command and was reaching for her notebook but Charlie's voice cut her actions short.
"I don't think they're in danger."
"What? Of course, they're in danger, Charlie. Six other members have been murdered!"
"The only victims so far have been limited to California. And these others, they either live out of state or out of the country. If the pattern held true they would have already been eliminated, and according to what I've found online they're all still alive."
Charlie pulled a crumpled printout from his pocket and handed it to Don while he spoke.
"Vincent Radley is in New York, Tyson Wheelis is in Maine, Fred Baker is in Florida, James Nash is in New Zealand, Dennis Alvord is in Great Britain, DeVaugn Lange is in Japan, Oscar Knaack is in Austria, and Neil Billingsly is in France.
Don checked off the names as Charlie recited them. "That's great, Charlie, but there's only eight names here. That means we have one more member unaccounted for. Is it Blaylock himself?"
"Blaylock died in 1998."
"Well who is it? Is there any way you can find out who's missing?"
Charlie began to pace again, furiously, and Don was suddenly struck with the image of a caged lion who sensed danger and was unable to escape.
"I… uh … I know who it is. He was the last member to join."
"Do you know where he is?" Don didn't think it was possible but Charlie's face grew paler. The breathing that his brother had been trying so hard to control was now coming in short gulps. He began to move forward, afraid Charlie was about to pass out but from the corner of his eye, Don saw his father, who'd been standing completely still this whole time, move forward and pull Charlie's back close against his chest, pinning his arms in front of him in a firm, but gentle hold. It was a moment out of the past, when anxiety attacks had sometimes debilitated the twelve-year old college student.
For a second, Charlie struggled against the pressure, but then the fight went out of him and he sagged against his father.
Don asked again. "You know where he is, don't you Charlie?"
"He's here," was the barely audible reply.
In the silent seconds that ticked off after Charlie's last words, the icy cold sliver of dread that had been lodged in Don's gut since this case landed on his desk grew large enough to impale his spine. He felt his own breathing speed up as his mind went completely blank, like a computer rebooting after an overload. "You mean in he's in California."
Charlie's eyes never left those of his brother as he shook his head. He willed his brother to see the connection because now that the moment was at hand he couldn't put it into words, he couldn't articulate past his heart which was pounding somewhere in his throat. He watched the denial in Don's eyes come and go and come again. Then he saw the hard, cold reality hit him. Don didn't need to be told who the next victim was. He'd been looking at him since he'd walked through the door.
