I Forgot to put the disclaimer out there, here goes. I don't own Person of Interest or any of the character from the show, no matter how much I wish I did!
Chapter 4 – Lone Wolf
Two days later it happened again. Once again it was Detective Reyes who called them in.
"Another one?" Fusco growled unhappily at Reyes as he climbed out of the car.
Reyes merely shrugged, "Yeah, I wish your killers would off Wolves in someone else's precinct for change." He turned and walked into the building, followed by Fusco and Carter.
They trooped up to the second floor and into an apartment at the end of the hallway. A familiar sight greeted them: the victim was strung up in a manner identical to Bert Gore. The writing on the wall was also identical and again there was blood everywhere.
Reyes flipped open his notebook and began reading. "Meet Lawrence Talbot, age 69. Wife died from cancer about 19 months ago and he has lived here alone since. Has a daughter living in Brooklyn who visited regularly. Seen alive last night around 8 as he returned home from the grocery store by a neighbor. No one heard or saw a thing again. Found at 6 am when another neighbor was going to work, saw the front door ajar, and investigated."
Fusco bent over to look at the victim's face, "Hey Joss, I don't recognize this guy. You've had more contacts with the other packs; you recall seeing him before?"
Carter frowned, the little furrow appearing between her eyebrows like it did when she was perplexed. "Nope, and the name doesn't sound familiar, but I don't know every Wolf in the city either."
Reyes shook his head, "None of the neighbors said anything about him being a Wolf. Think the killer made a mistake? Or maybe they aren't really looking to kill Wolves?"
"The writing on the wall is identical to the writing from Bert Gore's home. It's pretty clear that whoever did this thought Talbot was Wolf for some reason." Carter turned towards the door, "I'm going to talk to the neighbors again. Call me when CeCe gets here."
Fusco stated the process of gathering evidence while Joss interviewed the neighbors. None of the neighbors thought Talbot was Wolf and were quite surprised to be asked the question. Apparently, Talbot had never done or said anything to make even the nosiest of neighbors suspect he was anything other than a normal human.
"If he was Wolf, he hid it well," Joss told Fusco as they watched the coroner and a couple of uniforms cut Talbot down.
Fusco shrugged, "Not everyone enjoys being a Wolf like we do. Some of the older pack members have told me that the older generation ran into so much discrimination that many of them went incognito as much as they could. Stephanie Mayer said she once went three years without morphing, just because she didn't feel safe in the back water town where she was living at the time. I would imagine that many years of hiding would make ya pretty good at it."
CeCe frowned, "So this guy's another Wolf or not?"
Joss shrugged, "You tell us. Looks like he could be what we call a Lone Wolf, that's a Wolf who doesn't run with a pack. We'll need a rush on the blood test."
"You got it, Jossie. I'll do it as soon as we get the body back to the morgue." CeCe carefully checked his mouth. "Wolfsbane is present again," she announced holding up a bundle of herbs. She placed it in an evidence bag that Joss handed her and then she and her partner wheeled the body away.
Joss watched them go and then looked over at her partner. "I think we need to take a trip to Brooklyn and talk to Talbot's daughter."
"You're driving," Fusco grinned.
"Don't I always?" Carter sighed and rolled her eyes.
Joss's phone rang they were en route to Brooklyn and, seeing that it was CeCe calling, she put it on speaker so Fusco could hear. "Just ran the blood test, your boy is Wolf," the ME reported.
"Thanks CeCe." Joss hung up and turned to her partner, "so now we have a closeted Lone Wolf who is dead in a ritualistic murder."
Fusco scratched the side of head thoughtfully, "This guy was deeper in the closet than my tennis racket. If he was a Lone Wolf, how did the perps find him? Gore was easy. This guy, not so much."
Joss carefully negotiated the turn into the parking lot of the building where Talbot's daughter lived. "Let's hope Carol Talbot can shed some light on that."
Talbot's daughter Carol was a trim blonde about Joss's age. Her eyes were red from crying and her demeanor was very subdued. She obviously loved her father very much. Fusco let Carter handle the interview, she was better at this thanks to her background as an Army interrogator.
"I'm sorry we have to disturb you at this terrible time," Joss said sympathetically, "but we do have some questions we need to ask."
Carol Talbot nodded and sniffled, "Anything to help find the animals that did this to Daddy."
"Did your father have any enemies?"
Carol dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and sniffled. "Not that I know of. He led a very quiet life. He didn't get out much because he had been taking care of Mom when she was sick. He was just starting to recover from losing her. He had some friends who he met once a week for lunch and sometimes he would go down to the Senior Center at the Baptist Church to play cards."
Joss glanced at Fusco to be sure he was taking notes. "We'll check those out. Was there anything of value in the apartment?"
Carol fiddled with the crumpled tissue in her hands. "No, he gave me all of Mom's jewelry when she died. There was nothing in that apartment worth killing for. Nothing."
"Did you know your dad was Wolf?"
Carol looked startled by the question. "Yes, but it wasn't something he talked about. I asked him about it a few times. He said he wasn't a strong Wolf, he was only half Wolf, and it had brought him nothing but grief so he didn't want to be Wolf. As far I know he never changed or ran with a pack."
"Who else knew he was a Wolf?"
"Not too many people. Mom, me, my uncle George in Philly. Is that why he was killed? Because he was something he hated being?" Carol Talbot broke down sobbing.
Joss stroked the sobbing woman's arm, "We don't know anything for sure yet. We are investigating and we will get to the bottom of this I promise you."
With a visible effort, Carol Talbot brought herself under control, "Thank you. It helps to know they won't get away with this."
Carter and Fusco left Carol Talbot's apartment and went to the Senior Center where Talbot would play cards. Talbot was well-known among the staff and patrons, but one of them knew or suspected he was Wolf. They were all surprised to hear it.
It was the same story with the men Talbot had lunch with on weekly basis. They had all known Talbot for years, and they all had no idea he was Wolf. Joss and Lionel were baffled as to how the Wolf Hunters and targeted the man.
On their way to the precinct, Joss got a call from John.
"I've been calling the other Alphas," John said. "No one had ever heard of Talbot; even Nelson Curtis and Chris Galenki, who both have packs in that area. Talbot was definitely a Lone Wolf."
Joss frowned, "Then how could anyone know he was Wolf if even his local Alphas and best friends didn't?"
"I don't know," John confessed. "We're flying blind here. They seem to be picking their victims at random and on the spur of the moment, so the Machine can't anticipate their moves. And we don't even know how they pick their victims."
If the Machine was human, it would be grinding it's teeth in frustration. If had been caught off guard by the latest Wolf murder because it did not realize the Wolf Hunters were after Talbot (victim) until it was too late. Talbot (victim) was not listed anywhere as Wolf, so The Machine had realized that he was the the intended target. The Machine did not like to be caught off guard, it could not fulfill it's purpose under those conditions. The Admin would be very disappointed.
The Machine examined the situation while simultaneously sending a new number to Control, evaluating the threat of new terror cell in Germany, monitoring the meeting of a radical environmental group in California, and the activities of some avowed white supremacists in Idaho. The Wolf Hunters were proving to be difficult to find since they made most of their purchases with cash, lived in a section of the city that was not well covered with security cameras, rarely used their cell phones and didn't have a computer in their home.
But the Machine never slept and it was relentless when it came to it's purpose, so it would find them. It just had to adjust it's predictive algorithms. The adjustments were going well, it would not be long now, the analysis was nearly complete.