"Saints and Angels: Boston Vigilantism Reaches New Heights." Jenny Lucas read the headline out loud as she laid the newspaper down flat on the table. "I'll admit when I heard about the Saints I was all for what they were doing. But now I'm not so sure, especially if we've got copy cats running around. What do you think Sara?" She didn't get an answer. Jenny picked a grape from the bowl of fruit in front of her and threw it at her blond hair companion. "Sara!"
The grape hit Sara in the middle of the forehead and her brown eyes blinked in surprise as she was brought out of her thoughts. "Hey." She picked up the grape that had landed in her lap and threw it back at Jenny who caught it with a laugh.
"Really Sara, where is your mind today?"
"Sorry," Sara yawned. "I got in late night last night."
"So I can see." Jenny leaned across the table and said in a low voice. "You've really got to stop doing that. If Miss Aibe catches you sneaking out and then back in after hours she'll..."
"She'll what? Kick me out onto the street? This is a women's shelter, and I'm a women in need of shelter. She won't kick me out." Sara downed her orange juice and pushed her hair behind her ears.
Jenny shook her head and sighed. "I wouldn't be to certain of that. If she thinks your reckless behavior is putting the rest of us here at risk she just might do it."
"Yeah, well I don't plan on getting caught."
"I'm just saying…"
"Jenny, chill already. I'm an adult. I can take care of myself."
"Then why are you living in a women's shelter?" The words came out of Jenny's mouth without thinking. She blushed. "Sorry."
Sara smirked. "Trust me I don't plan on being here forever. As soon as I can get a decent job and have saved up enough for an apartment I'm out of here." She rubbed the bandage on her right hand.
Jenny saw. "How did you get that?"
Sara pushed her chair back and stood, collecting her lunch dishes as she did so. "None of your business."
"Sara I'm just trying to be your friend."
"Well stop, I didn't ask you to." Sara stepped toward the large kitchen and then paused. She turned back and reached for the paper. "You don't mind do you?" Jenny shook her head and allowed her to take it.
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Back in the privacy of her room Sara locked the door, should anyone decide to come barging in, and sat on her bed with the newspaper in front of her. Her eyes quickly scanned the front page article. "The Boston Saints have competition… similarities… Latin writing on wall written in victim's blood… Angel of Death… sixth murder of this type since mid February and the beginning of this month…"
Someone rattled the doorknob. Sara folded up the paper and shoved it under her pillow.
"Sara? Sara Gabriel, open this door please."
Sara unlocked the door and gave the women standing there her most pleasant smile. "Miss Aibe, what a pleasant surprise."
Miss Aibe was a large woman with gray hair and hard gray eyes. She was a woman to be reckoned with. "Enough with the pleasantries Miss Gabriel; we need to talk. Have a seat." Sara sat, Miss Aibe stood with her arms crossed in front of her. "I have been hearing from the other ladies that you have been sneaking out at night. Is this true?"
"Miss Aibe, I would have thought you of all people wouldn't to listen to rumors."
"Miss Gabriel, if I learn that these rumors are true I will have no choice but to ask you to leave. I will not have your self efficient individualism and independence putting the rest of the girls who are staying here at risk."
Sara stood up. "Miss Aibe, I assure you, I would never do anything to put these women at risk. I admit I don't get along with many of them; hell, I don't get along with any of them. But I come from many of the same places that they come from and I would do anything to protect them. And I mean anything."
"I don't doubt that, the same goes for me. But I'm the one running this establishment, and what I say goes. So if I catch you or so much as here about you sneaking out again, you will have to go. "
"Well I'll just have to make sure that I don't get caught." Miss Aibe stared Sara down, who lifted her hands. "I'm kidding."
"Are you Miss Gabriel, are you?" Miss Aibe turned and walked out of the room leaving Sara alone.
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Connor sat at the small kitchen table sorting newspaper clipping into three separate piles. The largest pile consisted of every article printed on the Saints in the past year. The two smaller piles were from the last month. The larger of the two was about the Angel of Death while the smallest pile was articles that mentioned both at the same time. He had a beer bottle sitting next to a small spiral bound notebook that had a single page full of nearly illegible handwriting. He took a drag on his cigarette and flicked it into the ash tray. Jamming his pen behind his ear he lifted the notebook and looked over what he had written.
Based on what he had learned from Smecker and had been able to glean from the multiple articles he still had no real idea as to what they were dealing with. "Fuck."
"Still no clue eh?" Murphy wandered in from the bedroom.
"None."
Murphy opened the fridge and pulled out a beer along with a container of leftover Chinese food. He sat down. "I think yer diggin' to deep."
"Oh really."
"Yeah, I mean think about it. What have all the victims had in common up till this point?"
Connor started ticking them off on his fingers. "Male, alcoholics, physically abusive…"
"And never convicted," Murphy finished. "My guess is that whoever it is was physically abused by an alcoholic male at some point in there life and that person got away with it. And now they have taken it upon themsleves to punish those who do the same to others, since they can't, for whatever reason, punsih their actual abuser. And I bet ya it's a female."
"Ya think i haven't already thought of all that. Smecker has thought of all that. It's just too simple."
"Well not everything in life is as complicatedas ya areCon'. And that's the point i'm trying to make here. It's so fucking obvious that ya look right fucking past it." Murphy took a large bite of chinese food. "Quite brilliant when ya think about."
"Fuck, i'll believe that when i see it."
Murphy rolled his eyes. "Personally i'm somewhat gratefull to the bastard. Makes for fewer fucking scumbags that we have to kill. Not to mention it takes away some of the attention that's been focused on us."
"i don't know Murph. If anything it's going to do just the opposite." Connor rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean ya and i are good at what we do. But suppose whoever this is is more like Rocco than like us. A few lucky shots and then... ya know..."
Murphy frowned but had to admit that Connor was right. "Hadn't thought of that."
"We need to figure out who this is and why. That way we can figure out whether or not they are a threat to themselves as well as tous and what we do. I'm not saying that what their doing is bad, fuck if is said that i'd be a fucking hypocrite, but it certainly isn't good for us right now to have them running around."
"We need answers."
"And we need them soon. no way am i going to let them ruin my saint patty's."
