I'm adding a second chapter today because I have time, and tomorrow, I won't!
Only 3 more chapters after this one, I think. OOPS! Sorry for the bold text, just fixed it! I'm still new at this stuff...
QUOTE:
"But the problem is that when I go around and speak on campuses, I still don't get young men standing up and saying, 'How can I combine career and family?'"
- Gertrude Stein
Another singer had just finished and there was still no sign of the handsome stranger. Yukie was getting worried. She had hoped to go and meet him, but he had not made any public appearance since his song. She was holding a small book, playing with it anxiously while her brother was giving it the evil eye.
"Why don't you go talk to girls instead of just sitting here, judging me?" she suggested, bitterly.
"I liked you better when you were too shy to go talk to men," replied Tak.
Yukie shook her head. She did not understand her brother. He was negative, mean at times, but probably because he was too lonely. The death of their parents had not helped, either. Since he had moved to Princeton, he had become angrier and more controlling, although she did not let him direct her life. Maybe he was getting worse because he had not worked for more than two weeks at a time; he did not seem able to keep a job for long. She empathized with his situation, but she was starting to wonder if supporting him financially was helping him, or hurting him more.
Then she saw him, the tall stranger, near the bar, drinking a beer and talking to some girls. He seemed easy to talk to, but he was surrounded by all these younger girls... Too young for him, really, she felt. She did not like competing for attention, she always lost. She preferred waiting, and her chances were good, usually, with older men: the young girls were too high-strung, especially in a group; some older men did not like that. At least, that was how she had met the few men she had had the chance to talk to during the past year. She held her book intently, patiently; the book had helped her break the ice when she was meeting people, karaoke singers mostly. She had found this way to break through her shyness all these months ago, but had not been able to move pass the book, yet.
She waited until the girls thinned out around the man. They had moved to the next sensation: a young blond athlete who had joined them after singing a favourite of the crowd; he knew how to please his fans. Yukie could now see the dark man engaged in conversation with a Japanese girl. He seemed interested in her for a while, but then she, too, left. Now was her chance.
"Wish me luck," she told Tak as she left him to his brooding. She patted his arm on her way, to say goodbye, but she would have been petrified if she had turned around at that moment and seen her brother's face. With his head low, his hunched shoulders hid his face, but after a moment, he sent a hateful look beyond her to the man she was going toward. He then shifted his eyes to the pretty brunette, who was still standing alone against the wall, still watching the crowd, still looking for him, and he grabbed his mug to drink and look casual.
He wanted this new prey, badly, even before he knew whether his sister was going to get involved with him or not, but he needed to be cautious. The brunette was not working alone, he was sure of that. He spotted a couple of police officers at a table nearby. Just like last week.
He needed to disappear; he could not afford to wait or stay any longer, it was too dangerous. The answer was simple: he would wait for them in his truck past the bus stop, like he had done the previous times. He was sure his sister would get the man to escort her to the bus, like she had before. The man looked like a gentleman, he would not refuse her. His last good deed...
He checked, first, to see if the undercover cop was looking in his direction. He saw the brunette watch the man who was talking to his sister and misunderstood what was going on. Good! She`s still hung up on him! And Takumi left the bar, quietly, without anyone noticing him.
Hotch knew they were all watching this new Japanese woman who had approached him with a book of autographs. She was small, hair straight, shoulder-length, thirties... She was asking him timidly to sign her book. She was so nervous that she dropped it before he could grab it. Hotch quickly picked it up and flipped through the book to find a blank page. As he did, he read the names on the pages and recognized at least two of the victims` names. He spoke to her, loudly, trying to catch everyone`s attention in the process.
"To what name should I make this?" he asked the woman, approaching her so her voice could be heard on the wire. She could only mutter a few words and got flustered, no one could hear her over the noise, not even Hotch. He grabbed her by the elbow and took her aside, away from the crowd. She was so pleased that he would single her out this way that she regained her speech:
"It's not necessary, just put your name down, please," she asked.
Looking at the last page with a signature, he read John Sears and below it, Ebb Tide. "But I see, here, that you also want the title of the song... You have 'John Sears' and then 'Ebb Tide'," he commented with a smile, trying to appear very casual and accommodating, while feeding information to his team.
"I can do that, or you can, it doesn't matter..." the petite woman replied.
Hotch signed an assumed name and added the name of the song. Over the wire, Garcia, Prentiss, and Seaver had heard the name of the last victim and Garcia was quickly dialling Morgan's cell while the others signalled Reid and Rossi that they finally had a potential lead. Garcia provided a connection to Morgan so that he could follow the conversation over the phone. Rossi moved out of the room and put on his earpiece. Seaver leaned toward Reid, so she could repeat in his ear what she was hearing and make it look like they were whispering tender words to each other. Reid found the whole situation interesting, quite pleasant, and very distracting, but knew better than to voice any comment.
"Adam Hunt," they heard the woman read his signature.
"Call me Adam," Hotch said, extending his hand to her. "What's your name?" He gently shook hands with her, trying to not scare her away, but definitely hoping to feed Garcia with new information.
"Yukie," she answered too quietly for Hotch to understand the name. He got closer to her.
"I'm sorry?"
She was used to this, Americans did not know her Japanese name, and with her soft voice and the ambient noise, it was not easy to hear her. She started to draw letters in the air as she repeated her name, slowly:
"Yu-" and she drew the letter "U" in the air, "ki-" and she made as if she was turning a key in a lock, "-e" she ended by drawing the letter "A" and Hotch nodded his understanding.
"U-key-A", he said. "How do you spell it?" trying to sound like he was making conversation.
"Y-U-K-I-E"
"Thank you, that was very helpful," Garcia commented quietly, even though she knew Hotch and the girl could not hear her.
"Are you going to Princeton?"
"Yes," she said, grateful for his interest. "I am doing my Master's degree."
"Really? In what?"
"Chemistry. I started late..." she obviously felt self-conscious about her age.
Garcia's fingers were typing madly on her keyboard as she was searching Princeton's databases for their prime suspect's identity.
"I found three women called Yukie doing their Master of Science in Chemistry at Princeton, all in their thirties or late twenties, and they all look similar to one another... I need more," Garcia announced to the team.
Hotch was listening to Yukie, but noticed Prentiss approaching the bar and signalling him to get more information by spinning her hand in a couple of circles.
"What do you do?" Yukie asked him, unaware of what was going on behind her.
"I'm an insurance salesman, life insurance," he said, in an official tone, to discourage her from asking him more questions about it.
"You have a nice voice, I enjoyed your song very much," she quickly switched topics.
"Thank you. Do you sing?"
"No, I only listen. Both my parents were excellent singers, but I did not inherit their gift," she replied somewhat sadly.
"Were? Are your parents gone?"
"Yes, they passed away last year, in a car accident. That's why I'm here, continuing my studies. They did not encourage me to pursue graduate studies, they wanted me to marry..."
"I'm sorry to hear about your loss. It must have been difficult for you," Hotch continued.
She smiled and did not say anything. "Are you from around here?" she asked him.
"I'm just passing through," he answered dismissively. "And you? Where did you grow up?" he drank a sip from his glass.
"Aurora, Illinois, but I wasn't happy there. I always wanted to come here. I finally made it," she said.
"Are you all by yourself? Any family with you?"
She looked behind her, suddenly showing concern, but she only shook her head and said nothing.
Hotch perceived she did not want to talk about her family, but felt they should know more. He continued on another topic for a while, to let her become used to him. Meanwhile, Garcia had researched the databases and found out which Yukie had come from Illinois. She gave the information she found to Morgan and the others.
"Yukie Nakamura is 33 years old, born in Aurora, Illinois. Yes, her parents both died 14 months ago in an MVA, a collision with a semi-trailer with defective brakes... Ouch! The pictures are devastating... Anyway, I'm not finding any record of any kind on that girl, other than school, piano recitals, employment record... She did her bachelor in chemistry, then nothing, just worked as a lab technician at the big Medical Center for 10 years... Her medical records are also pretty much unhelpful... I can dig deeper..."
"Please do, Garcia," Morgan replied. "You're missing what she's saying right now?" He asked with concern.
"I'm recording everything, so I'll be able to catch up, don't worry."
That comment made him wince, but he said nothing. Instead, he continued his list of requests:
"Check if she has any family, she was not forthcoming on that, we should..."
"Actually," interrupted Garcia, "she has a brother, Takumi, 26. He looks like a little kid! He's a... Well, he's had more jobs in his short life than were created in this country over the past year! Mostly manual jobs, courier, taxi driver... all in Aurora. Then, he... got a job in Princeton Junction, last October. And lost it two weeks later. Then another, as a tree pruner, and that lasted less than a month..."
"Garcia, what does he drive?" Rossi asked, talking into his bracelet.
"A black pick-up truck, a Ford, 1995 model. Licence plate ZZZZZZ."
"Could be our unsub," Morgan said. "Do you have any police record for him?"
"Takumi Nakamura has a record in Illinois that runs from disturbing the peace, to vandalism, to issuing threats... but no assault or shooting... and nothing since he moved to New Jersey...
"Oh, I found something: there was a complaint against him, for cruelty towards dogs, when he was twelve. That's it."
They could hear Hotch and Yukie voices behind Garcia's, and it was a bit confusing with all the noise around them, but they picked up enough to know this man was a good fit.
"Does he own a weapon?" Rossi pushed on.
"No, he doesn't, but let me check something... Yes! His father owned a long-rifle, a Browning A Bolt 22LR... "
Once Seaver repeated the information to Reid, he nodded: "Probably a model made in the Japan plant..."
"Garcia, can you send us Nakamura's picture?" Morgan requested.
"Already done, check your cell!" she replied, curtly, but very pleased with herself.
Prentiss cringed when she saw the picture. She had seen the boy, but he looked too young to fit the profile.
"He was here, I saw him earlier! I guess his sister picks the targets and he takes them out... That would explain the age discrepancy in our profile."
"Okay, Reid and I are going to check the parking lot and nearby streets to see if we can find the pick-up truck," instructed Rossi. "He's probably hiding the long gun in the cab. Everyone else, stay on Hotch and try to find our guy in the crowd. Detective Sorrell, you should let your officers know what's going on, they should also be looking for Nakamura and guard all the exits."
Once Seaver repeated Rossi's words to Reid, he gave her a little nod, got up, went by Hotch and signalled him to stretch his conversation with the girl. He then joined Rossi at the exit door and put on his earpiece as they left the bar. Meanwhile, the two officers received a call from Sorrell, and they left their table to join Jenner and gave him their new assignments. They shared Nakamura's picture which Sorrell had forwarded to his officers. All felt the adrenaline rush of the hunt grab them. There was no need to hide their identities anymore, but they still knew to look inconspicuous, to not alarm the patrons. They positioned themselves at all the exits to the bar.