This is the last chapter for this story and for One Shot Month. Tomorrow begins One Shot Week and then it's back to your regularly scheduled programming.
This chapter is fairly intense in the beginning.
Ch. 5 When Someone's Blinding Your Senses
(CLARE)
"You look vexed," Miles comments as we drive back from Bennington, Vermont where they believe the first victim was taken. We met with Missy's husband and I did a quick victimology interview then left Miles to finish and be support while looking around the house.
"My theory was correct, Missy played music as a child and I've spoken to all the other victim's families and they all said the same. Each victim played music as a child, some gave up when they were as young as twelve and others are still playing but not at the level they're capable of. Rather than playing in an orchestra or something they're playing bar music or something like that. I can figure out nearly everything about this guy but how he's finding them."
"Almost everything? Are you going to update the profile?"
"Yeah I'll write it up and deliver it but the working profile still stands. I want to look over the files again; there must be something I missed. When we get back to the office I'll check in with the technical analyst and see if he's found anything that can help us figure out he's finding these women. I know he must have money and the ability to travel, he must either own property or know where there's abandoned property. It's doubtful that he's been transporting these women across state lines let alone country borders to keep them together. We haven't found any other bodies and it makes more sense that he's holding them to fulfill his fantasy and when they fail to fulfill his fantasy or pass his test then he kills them and dumps the body on his travels. I know that he's targeting the women because they are musically gifted but they give up on music or don't live up to their ability. The victim pool is extremely specific and he's meticulous about finding these women I just don't understand how."
"You've really been able to get into this guy's head," Miles comments.
"It's part of the job. Think like the unsub to catch him. Maybe the key is to look at his travel patterns. They've mapped the victim's abduction times I'll talk to the technical analyst about his travel patterns when we get back."
Miles nods but doesn't reply and we drive the rest of the way in silence. I send a text to Owen that I'll be home late and not to wait for me for dinner. We park and go up to the task force HQ office and check-in. After debriefing Agent McHale I leave to use the washroom because we've been in the car for the last three hours.
"I have to go home; I'll be away for the next couple of days working on another case. I'll schedule the last of the family interviews when I return," Miles tells me when I get out of the washroom.
"Okay sounds good I'll be busy the next couple of days. I'm going to go talk to the technical analyst," I reply waving to Miles.
I'm at the office for another couple of hours working on the case and talking with the technical analyst as well as Agent McHale. I go home with more files and all the stuff I got from the technical analyst. When I get home I see the van but not Owen's SUV so he must have gone out. I grab my purse and a box from the car, I unlock the door but find the alarm disabled, I shake my head making a note to scold Owen for not setting the alarm. I set the box on the kitchen table and go to the fridge to make something to eat. I'm looking at what we have to eat when I hear a noise in the house.
"Owen?" I call into the house but get no response.
I go back to looking through what there is to eat thinking it was just the house settling or something. I pull out a frozen pizza crust to make myself a pizza but I hear another noise and this time I know it wasn't the house. I stop making food and walk to the stairs. I turn on the lights before walking up to the second story.
With every step I take an uneasy feeling washes over me and my heart begins to beat a little faster. I reach the top of the stairs and look down the hall in each direction but hear nothing and see nothing. I try to turn on the light but nothing happens. Instinct tells me something is wrong and since this isn't a horror movie and I'm not an idiot I don't continue on into the darkness. I turn and start running down the stairs again. I only get down a few steps before hearing footsteps running behind me. I turn my head to look, instinct tells me not to but curiosity wins out. When I see that it's Miles I'm so shocked that I lose my footing and fall down the rest of the stairs.
THUD the sound of me hitting the marble floor echoes in the entry. I struggle to catch my breath and turn around before Miles gets down the stairs. If I can turn around to my back I can fight but on my stomach I'm virtually helpless. I try to move but I hit the floor pretty hard and I'm having trouble getting my body to do what I want it to. I barely manage to get my hands under me to push myself up when Miles jumps down the stairs. He doesn't land on top of me he lands with his feet straddled over me before sitting down on me and pinning me to the floor. He grabs my hair and I shriek, he holds it tight in his hand and I can hear his growling breaths.
"I hate to do this Clare, I really do. I have nothing against you, I like you in fact but you're too damn smart. You're just too close so I have to get rid of you before you become a problem," Miles says and then I feel something sharp and cold penetrating my flesh. I'm hit by a flash of pain, I feel the object that I presume to be a knife go between my ribs and, more pain and then it becomes slightly hard to breathe. "Everything you were saying in the car you were right about everything, it was like you knew everything I was thinking. And I realized it was probably only a matter of days, maybe less, before you fit the pieces together and knew it was me. You were already becoming suspicious," Miles comments in a menacing voice as he slowly withdraws the knife and then slowly thrusts it in again, this time on my side.
The ability to breathe is becoming even more difficult and I'm certain he punctured my lung. He gets off me and turns me over, holding my wrists but I'm too weak to fight. I'm getting dizzy and can't get much oxygen between the struggling wheezing breaths I'm able to take.
"I'm not finished yet, I was slowly making my way to my real target but you managed to find a connection so quickly. It looks like I'll have to take a trip to California a little sooner than expected," Miles tells me stabbing me again, in the stomach this time.
"Maya," I choke out knowing who his real target has been this whole time.
"That's right. Now I do apologize for the painfulness of this but I want it to look frenzied so no one has any idea I was here," Miles says. His voice is cold and detached and just begins stabbing me.
I have no idea how many times he does stab me but I only feel two more knife penetrations. After that I go numb, then my eyes close and then the world becomes a black void. My very last thought is that I'll never get to hold Owen or our kids again and then I'm beyond thought, beyond sensation it's just black.
Beep bip ptshaw beep I become aware of faint noises, odd noises. I feel heavy and a little cold, my eyes struggle to open but I feel Owen with me. I feel his hand holding mine and I attempt to squeeze it. I'm not sure I actually manage though, I attempt to speak but there's a plastic tube in my mouth. I remember what happened and realize that I must be in the hospital. My eyes flutter and I manage to open them, I'm definitely in the hospital and it's dark in the room so it must be night time. I see Owen sitting by my bed, his head down on it and he's grasping my hand. I concentrate and manage to move my fingers enough that Owen feels it and his eyes open.
"Thank heavens," he grins with great relief. He kisses my hand and then stands to kiss my forehead. I'm regaining more strength minute by minute and I lift my other hand tugging at the tube in my mouth. "I'll go get the doctor. Thank God you're awake when I came home and found you barely alive in a pool of blood I thought I'd lost you. I'll be right back I'm going to get the doctor."
Owen leaves my hospital room returning a few seconds later with a doctor and a nurse. The female doctor comes over to me while the male nurse begins looking at my monitors.
"You are a very lucky woman Clare, and very strong not everyone could have survived what you did. We had to re-inflate your lung and intubate you to keep you breathing but you are strong enough to breathe on your own now so we'll take out the tube. Hold still and take a breath I'll count to three and take the tube out"
The doctor counts to three and takes out the tube. I cough a couple of times and take a deep breath. After looking at my monitors, IV and at me the doctor says she'll give me and Owen some time and she leaves the room.
"Miles," I choke out.
Owen kisses my hand and brushes a strand of hair from my face, "I know he's already been arrested. He was able to turn off the alarms but didn't know about the cameras around the outside of the house. After I came home and found you near death I called 911 and kept you alive until the ambulance came. They said I got there just in time, if I'd come a minute later you would have been dead. While you were in surgery for six stab wounds including one that punctured your lung I was interviewed by the cops and told them about the cameras. They showed me the footage and I ID'd Miles, he was arrested at the airport trying to board a plane to California."
"He was going after Maya," I choke out in a strained voice as talking at this moment is difficult.
"He won't get her now. He confessed to killing two of the women and told them where to find the others he had abducted. You've been in a medically induced coma for a week now; they began waking you up hours ago."
"The kids?" I question.
"Still at my parents, they know you were attacked but I thought it was better if they stayed there. I've been calling them every day. Adam and Grace have been here every day; Tris and Tony have been by every day to check on us both. Agent McHale has been here a lot too I think you impressed him," Owen grins. I smile but my eyes are already starting to close again. "You should rest, I'm not going anywhere," Owen assures me.
"Hold me," I request as I begin to fall asleep again.
Owen gets on the bed carefully and holds me as much as he can with all the tubes and wires and I'm asleep again within minutes. For the next couple of weeks I'm in the hospital recovering. Adam and Grace come to the hospital every day to see me and Owen, Tris and Tony come at least every other day but of course with little Kira it's hard and they don't want to bring her to the hospital. I completely understand and tell them it's not necessary for them to come at all. Even Drew and Bianca come all the way from Toronto to see me. We decide it's best if the kids don't see me, ours or anyone else's, while I'm recovering in the hospital but I do call them every day.
Agent McHale comes to see me several times as well, he thinks I'm a hero and is impressed with the work I did. He tells me he'll definitely call on my services again because it would have taken them much longer to find the connection between victims without me. I ask Agent McHale to do one thing for me when I get released from the hospital and he agrees.
Finally they release me from the hospital after a total of three weeks. I'm still healing some from the surgery but for the most part I'm healed and strong. I get released the day after Owen was supposed to report to the training camp but of course he stays with me. He insists they understand and can do without him for a few days. I get released on a Wednesday and my request of Agent McHale is granted that Friday.
"You could report to the camp I'm sure Adam would be happy to take me," I tell my husband as we walk down to the car.
Owen just gives me a look and uses his phone to lock the house, set the alarms. Since Miles was able to get into the house, we figured he saw me use my phone for the code and took my phone when I was in the washroom; Owen has increased security at the house. More cameras and the doors only unlock by access from a rolling code set out by our phones and authorized people. We can also see the cameras from our phones and let people in remotely if necessary.
"I'm going on Monday if you're strong enough, they know what happened and they understand. Besides I'm not letting anyone else take you today. Are you sure you want to do this? Miles tried to kill you," Owen comments as he begins driving.
"I asked Agent McHale to set up this meeting because I need some answers. I worked closer with Miles than anyone; I went to Canada with him for three days, did a lot of other interviews with him and didn't see it. Not soon enough anyway, I need to hear it from him myself. He'll be locked in handcuffs and he tried to kill me because I was too close to the truth. He's already confessed there's nothing for him to hide anymore," I point out to my husband.
He's still not happy about the idea but he continues driving to the jail where Miles is being held until his hearing. They're expecting me and as a profiler I have clearance to come in. I won't be walking past all the other jail cells just meeting Miles in an interview room. Owen won't be with me he has to wait outside but I don't need him there I've conducted jail interviews before, although none with perpetrators I've known personally or that have tried to kill me.
"I'll be right out here. I love you," Owen says kissing me sweetly before I go in.
"I love you too," I smile at my husband before going in. I'm escorted down a short hallway to the interview room where Miles is sitting handcuffed to a table.
"I guess you want to know how?" Miles asks as I sit down and I nod. "Well the how is connected to the why. Actually it started seven months ago. I've been with other girls, dated many girls but somehow Maya was always on my mind. We didn't date that long really but I guess she was my first love and I never got over her. So I looked her up, even went to California to see her. I went with a gift, an opportunity to try out for the New York Philharmonic. I imagined her grateful face, I imagined her falling in love with me and coming with me."
"She rejected you didn't she?"
"SHE REJECTED ME TO STAY WITH ZIG!" Miles yells pounding his fist on the table. "That moronic, former gang member who's so poor he couldn't find two nickels to rub together and she decided to stay with him! I was offering her the chance of the lifetime, the opportunity for everyone to hear the amazing music she was capable of and she turned me down to play bubblegum pop with that idiot. I came home seething; I couldn't understand why she would do that. Why she would choose him over me and how she could turn down the opportunity to play the music she should be playing. I began watching videos of her online, old ones from DeGrassi even before. Watching her go from playing incredible music with the skill of someone far beyond her years to playing with Whisper Hug and declining all together just made me angrier. Eventually I ran out of videos to watch of Maya but her videos led me to Missy Soun's videos, another gifted musician who gave up a brilliant career for a boy! Not that it was in her videos but she wasn't hard to track through social media. And then I knew, I knew I had to make her see her mistake so I took her and I kept finding new girls with the same story and I took them. I killed Missy and Adele because they failed; Adele refused to play at all I only held her for a couple of days. The others were still in process of their…auditions. Each was held separately but I made sure all had water and food and proper facilities, I'm not a monster."
I have no response to that but he's answered all my questions so I simply get up and leave. I go back out to waiting area and into my husband's arms.
"Let's go home, I got my answers."
(OWEN)
"You look gorgeous," I grin kissing my wife softly.
"Happy ten year anniversary," she grins.
It's only been a couple of weeks since she was released from the hospital but she's nearly completely healed. My parents brought the kids home on Friday, they were all very happy to see us. Today is our ten year anniversary, we're having a big catered party at our house and everyone is coming. My team and fellow coaches, Adam and his family, Drew and his family, Tris and Tony are coming with Kira. Even Maya and Zig are flying out for it, although I think mostly because they feel guilty for what Miles did. They got in touch with us after finding out.
"Mom, Dad the guests are starting to arrive," Zak tells us running upstairs.
"We're coming," Clare says.
We walk downstairs to greet people, most of the party is being held outside but we have the living room open as well. Within a couple of hours everyone is here and we're eating. I tap my wine glass and stand up.
"Welcome everyone and thank you for coming to celebrate this wonderful day. It's been ten amazing years and I am an incredibly lucky man. I have an amazing beautiful wife and four great kids. After ten years you are more beautiful and incredible. I love you Clare, so much there aren't words to accurately say it. I look forward to the next ten years, to watching our kids grow and to whatever adventures lie ahead of us. Here is to another ten years of bliss," I say raising my glass. Everyone cheers and echoes my sentiment. Clare and I clink our glasses together and take a sip before our lips join together.
"I love you Owen now and forever," Clare grins and kisses me lovingly again.
That brings us to the end of this story. Replacing this on Thursday, April 28th will be We Can't Be Seen Together; a Clare/Bianca story.