Chapter XV: Loose Ends
Aiden is jolted awake by the ear-piercing ringing of his cell phone going off on his nightstand. He is surprised to find himself back in his bed, the birds chirping outside, the bright luminescence of sunshine radiating through his window blinds. The agent wipes the stray beads of sweat from his face as he lays back slightly in relief.
The ringing continues for a few more moments before he finally decides to answer it "Aiden…" he says in a groggy tone.
"Rough night Agent Aiden?" asks Parkes on the other end.
"Jordy?" he asks exhaling deeply "Jesus, I didn't have that much last night did I?"
Parkes giggles "You tell me hon." she says with another laugh "But listen, if your feeling up to it, I got a hot lead on Jeffries. Seems he had a secret lover's getaway out in the middle of bum fuck nowhere…hello?"
"Uh yea I'm here, sorry, just a little hung over I guess. I had Dave over last night. Anyway, where'd you get this lead?"
"I got my little sources, but hey I'm headed out there right now. Think you can drag your ass outta bed and gimme a hand with this?"
"Sure partner."
"Great, I'm working off a shitty hand drawn map right now. As soon as I find the place, I'll have dispatch forward you the address."
"When you do find it, wait for backup ok. We don't know who…" he pauses and looks towards a mirror in the room "…or what we might be dealing with."
"You know me." Parkes says mischievously.
"That's exactly what I'm talking about." responds Aiden with concern.
"Alright, I should be pulling up to the cabin in a few minutes according to this. See you in a few." she says hanging up.
Aiden places his phone down on the bed and hops off. His instincts immediately tell him to check his firearm as he ejects the magazine to find it full. He sighs in reassurance, as he re-holsters the weapon. Only temporarily calmed, Aiden travels out to the hallway, then downstairs. As he meticulously inspects his apartment, a small green scrap on the floor in the living room catches his gaze. He rushes over to pick up the scrap and discovers that it appears to be a rotting piece of seaweed.
"I'm losing my fucking mind." he says raising to his feet trying to contemplate just what exactly he experienced the night before.
F.B.I. field office headquarters buzzed with all the milling about that Benito Garcia was all to accustomed too. He rifles through some files as he makes his way to his back office with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. Just before entering the door to his office, he glances over to find that the desks of both Agents Aiden and Parkes are unoccupied. He narrows his eyes slightly as he slams the files onto his desk, he retrieves his cell phone and dials in a number.
"I'm sorry, but the cellular customer you are trying to reach is not available. Please try again later." rattls the pre-recorded generic voicemail.
In frustration Garcia storms out of his office and encounters a young female agent with short cropped red hair "Agent White, you happen to know where Agents Parkes and Aiden got off to?" he asks impatiently.
"Uh yes sir, Parkes came in early this morning, said she was gonna follow up on some kind of lead on that Jeffries guy." says White somewhat confused.
"Did she say what kinda lead?" asks Garcia more forcefully.
"Something to do with a contact Jeffries had at the university, but she didn't go into details. Is everything alright sir?"
"Thank you Agent." says Garcia as he almost runs across the busy field office on his way towards the exit.
In no time at all, Garcia is power walking through the parking garage and reaches his car within seconds. He dials in another number and places the phone to his ear.
The ring tone sounds off exactly three times before Joshua Aiden picks up "Aiden…"
"What part of letting me handle the Jeffries angle did you and Agent Parkes not understand?" asks Garcia, his voice dripping with malice.
"Assistant Director?" asks Aiden sheepishly.
"That's right Agent and I'm still waiting on an answer to my question."
"I'm sorry sir, I don't know the full story myself. Agent Parkes phoned me just a little while ago and said she had a hot lead on Jeffries. I just assumed she had filled you in on it."
"No Agent Aiden, she hasn't! There's a chain of command for a reason here Aiden! I expect to be kept abreast of every detail of an ongoing investigation. Now I'm gonna tell you exactly what your gonna do next. Your going to find Agent Parkes, your going to sit tight and wait for my call, do I make myself abundantly clear?!"
"Yes sir, very clear. I don't know what else to say about all this. But I'm enroute to meet Agent Parkes right now and I got the address to some cabin. Would you like me to text it to you?" asks Aiden, his voice a little shaken up.
"I know exactly where it is." says Garcia as he coldly hangs up and gets into his car.
Marsha Hess, a bright and energetic young black woman rushes out of her room as she hurries to answer the insistent doorbell that had been going off for almost a full minute. As she had just gotten out of the shower not a moment before, Marsha quickly wraps a towel around herself and dons some slippers.
"Just a minute, coming." she says looking out the peep hole "What the hell?" she mutters, partially opening the door but only with the security chain still fastened.
"Hey Miss Hess, remember me? I'm Agent Garcia, I spoke with you just the other day about Professor Jeffries." says Garcia is an overly friendly tone.
"Of course Agent Garcia, what can I do for you?" asks Marsha through the door, being sure to keep the chain fastened.
"We may have turned up some leads on his whereabouts and I just needed to clear some things up about your last statement if that's ok."
"Um, right now? I just got out of the shower and I'm late for a class." says Marsha.
"It'll just take a second I promise." says Garcia insistently.
Marsha pauses and doesn't answer, almost as if she's contemplating what to do when Garcia speaks up again "Marsha the F.B.I. may have reason to believe that Calvin might be in danger. If you could answer just a few questions we could get to him before anything happens."
At this the young woman unlatches the chain and swings the door open "What kind of danger, is Calvin ok?"
Not a moment after she opens the door, Garcia impatiently steps right through "Before we get into any of that, did you happen to speak to another agent recently? Anyone else come around asking questions besides me?"
"Sure, an Agent Parkes I think she said her name was. She said she found me through some people she knew at the university. Is Calvin ok?"
"…and what exactly did you tell Agent Parkes if you don't mind me asking."
Marsha blinks in confusion when Garcia didn't answer her but continues "Just what I told you I guess. That Cal and I had been kinda involved when I was his teaching assistant."
"…and the cabin, you told her about the cabin?" asks Garcia trying to probe further.
Marsha nods "Yea I told her about his cabin and drew a map just like the one I gave you."
Garcia intakes a deep breath, barely able to hold in his anger as he looks at Marsha "That may complicate things."
"What is going on, what's happened to Cal? I wanna know if he's hurt."
Garcia looks over and takes special interest in the small staircase in the apartment before he glances back at Marsha "Tell you what, go upstairs, get dressed, put on your face or whatever and I fill you in on everything in the car."
"Oh My God, something did happen." says Marsha, the panic flooding her voice.
"Just go get ready and we'll talk about it after. I promise everything's gonna be alright." says Garcia, his voice suddenly taking on a much calmer demeanor.
"Ok, I'll be two minutes." says Marsha as she rushes back upstairs.
"Take your time." Garcia says with a creepy grin.
True to her word, Marsha is dressed and ready to go in under five minutes flat. She opens her door but stops in her tracks when she finds Garcia only feet away at the top the stairs, crouching down staring at the banister as if he were intently studying something.
"Is something wrong?" asks Marsha with a bit of suspicion in her voice.
"No, not at all, just kind of running some things through my head." Garcia answers with a curious smirk.
"Ok well I'm ready. You said you were gonna fill me in on Cal?" the young lady says walking just a little past the F.B.I. agent and onto the first step.
"You know it's funny how some things seem to work out. I've been with the F.B.I. for about thirteen years now and you'd be amazed what you pick up about how certain crimes are committed. Hell, if you really wanted to, you could plan a crime scene yourself and almost make it look like an accident." says Garcia.
"I'm not following. What does any of this have to do with Calvin?"
"Well, do me a favor, come stand right here and I'll tell you exactly how this relates to Calvin" says Garcia motioning with his fingers on where he wants Marsha to stand.
The teaching assistant wrinkles her face in a mix of annoyance and puzzlement but nevertheless complies and moves over on the first step to where Garcia is pointing "Ok are you gonna tell me what this is all about, cuz it's kinda weird."
Garcia glances over her shoulder as he peers at the steps below with one eye squinting "That's perfect, thank you." he says before unexpectedly lunging forward and brutally pushing Marsha off the first step, sending her tumbling down the stairs. The young woman barely has enough time to let out a scream as her body ricochets off the banister rails, breaking several of them before ultimately ending up at the bottom of the steps, her body contorted and splayed out. Garcia calmly makes his way down the stairs and casually crouches over the woman's lifeless body. He grins taking stock that her neck is now bent in an unnatural position, her eyes wide open "I couldn't have planned that any better." he says looking back up the steps "You see Marsha, what happened is that you tripped at the side of the first step there which caused you to lose balance, your body bouncing off the fifth and sixth steps, your head than careened into the railing struts, breaking them in the process. You bounced back due to the force of the impact until you landed right in this position here, tragically breaking your neck just below the second vertebrae. Falling down the steps is a hazard that just happens all to often. It's a shame really." he callously says before getting back up and walking over to the door "I'll be sure to give Calvin your regards though. It was a pleasure, Miss Hess." he says before nonchalantly walking out the front door.
The small cabin is overrun by squad cars and federal agents. Crime scene tape rims the perimeter around the surrounding woods as suits swarmed in and out carrying out several pieces of evidence. Inside the back room which served as Jeffries' shrine to the Old Ones, Parkes and Aiden stand observantly as forensic photographers take pictures of the scene.
Aiden looks at his watch "He should be in any minute."
"Look, Garcia can tear into me all he wants, but when he sees all this, he'll thank me." says Parkes in a huff.
"All I know is, that man was pissed with a capitol P when he called me. Why wouldn't you bring him in on this Jordy?" asks Aiden.
"You know me Josh, sometimes I just work off of impulse. I stepped out of line and I know that."
"You goddamned right you did. Now look, I'm not Garcia's biggest fan, but he's right. The F.B.I. has protocols in place for a reason Jordy. He could reprimand us both for this."
Parkes doesn't respond, opting instead to give her partner an angered and telling stare. She walks over to one of the C.S.I. operatives taking pictures of the grotesque Cthulhu statue and altar "You ever seen anything like that?" she asks.
"All I can tell you is that whatever it is, it looks pretty old. Judging by the weathering it may have even been underwater. The statue shows signs of water current erosion." says the photographer.
"But what is it? Some kind of an ancient god or something? Egyptian or Babylonian, something like that?" asks Parkes.
"Couldn't tell you ma'am. Once we process the evidence, we'll run it through our data base. Should be able to come up with something."
Back in the distance, Aiden is beginning to experience the same head pains he was before. The monstrous statue of Cthulhu is making him increasingly on edge and he starts to feel a tightness in his chest. A subtle voice echoes in a soft but persistent resonance in his head.
"That is the enemy, Cthulhu is the enemy…" the voice rambles on in rapid succession.
Unaware of what is going on, Parkes turns around "You got any theories Josh?" she says before she notices her partner's distress "Hey are you ok?"
"Yea I'm fine. I guess I'm not exactly done with that hang over. I'm gonna go get some air for a second." says Aiden, quickly making a hasty exit out of the cabin.
While cooling himself off outside, Aiden notices a car slowly barreling down the dirt road approaching the cabin "Oh shit…" he whispers to himself.
Garcia wastes no time as he exits the car. Trying to run interference, Aiden walks up to him "Assistant Director Garcia, the Forensics team was already out here when I arrived sir. Agent Parkes…"
"You better choose your words very carefully Agent Aiden, because your future with The Bureau itself is on the line here!" shouts Garcia, cutting Aiden off.
"I understand your upset sir, but Agent Parkes and I…"
"You let me deal with Agent Parkes!" yells Garcia as he rams right past Aiden and into the cabin, followed closely by his subordinate.
Garcia makes a B-Line for the back room when he confronts Parkes directly "Well, well Agent Parkes, I'm so glad to see you hold protocol and the chain of command in such high esteem!"
"Assistant Director, let me explain. None of this is Agent Aiden's fault, I take full responsibility for this sir." says Parkes.
With his face turning red, Garcia almost gives Parkes a death stare "Ok Agent, go ahead. Explain yourself…this outta be good."
"Sir I gotta tip that Professor Jeffries might be out here. Agent Aiden and I had run the marina leads just like you asked, and we met a rental place owner that gave us a good description of what could have been Jeffries. On a hunch, I contacted the university and got in touch with a former T.A. that had a fling with Jeffries back in the day. She led me to this place. When I arrived…"
"Without backup and without informing me while you were under explicit orders to do so…" Garcia interrupts.
"…I discovered the cabin and this backroom, where as you can see, an apparent violent struggle took place." rebounds Parkes.
"Sir we found blood spatter on the far wall as well as on the floor and all around the altar. We think Jeffries might've used this place as some kind of sacrificial place of worship to a deity of some sort. This strongly suggests occult activity that may link to the disappearance of the three students." says Aiden.
"Sir, I understand I broke protocol, but I felt like I couldn't wait. We have three missing kids whose lives may at risk if they're not already dead. I couldn't sit on this." says Parkes.
Garcia clenches his fists and looks directly at the female agent "Get all the evidence bagged and shipped. Once it's back at H.Q. nothing, and I do mean nothing, gets processed without my direct sign off. Do you fucking understand me agents?"
"Yes sir." says Parkes looking down.
At that moment another agent bursts into the room "Excuse me Agent Parkes, but did you hear the news?"
"What news?" asks Parkes.
"It's all over the networks."
"What are you talking about Agent Ferris?" snaps Garcia.
"Sorry sir, but there was a bus crash this morning. Buncha prisoners were due to be transported from Deathridge Penitentiary to Whately Island. Bus must've veered off the road and got into a wreck…one of the inmates was Morales, he's dead. I just thought Agent Parkes and Aiden should know since they were the ones that…"
"Thank you Ferris, you should get back to processing the scene." says Parkes in slight shock.
"Holy shit, that's unreal." says Aiden as he notices his partner's reaction "Look Jordy, I know…"
Parkes immediately recoils "Just gimme a minute will ya." she says walking out of the room, the look on her face one of disbelief.
Aiden tries to follow but is stopped by Garcia "You've bigger things to worry about Agent Aiden. Now you and Parkes finish up out here and get your asses back to the field office A.S.A.P. We gotta a lot to talk about."
Aiden just nods obediently as Garcia exits the cabin, gets in his car and drives away.