The Thunder Rolls
By: Jake Boney
Chapter 7: Square One
Pete and Myka had just given Claudia the name of their key suspect in the case of Ben Franklin's Key, and she was a little shocked. Myka was having her look into Jerry Thompson's family tree, to see if he was related to Randall Thompson. She was now going through several government databases, she was very thankful that the Warehouse computer system had high level clearances, it saved her a lot of time not having to hack into all of these systems. As it turned out, Randall happened to be Jerry's great grandfather. Apparently Randall no longer had the Key with him when the Warehouse agents caught up to him, and it had actually been passed down through the family. This made things even more dangerous, because the Key didn't even have to be present for it's effects to be deadly. They had just assumed that the Key had been lost in North Dakota in the 1920's. She contacted Pete and Myka, and told them about the relationship between the two Thompsons.
Myka was not really surprised, Claudia had just told them that Randall was Jerry's great grandfather, she didn't need Pete's vibes to make that connection. They were just rounding the corner onto Jerry's street, and Pete was not looking very happy. She asked him what the problem was, and he said that it was nothing serious, and not to worry about him. This made her worry more, Pete was normally pretty willing to talk to her about these things. She didn't have much time to dwell on it though, they were just pulling up in front of Thompson's house.
Pete was really beginning to worry, his vibes were never this frequent, he had a feeling that something really bad was going to happen, and soon. They had just pulled up in front of Jerry Thompson's house, and he got slapped in the face with one of the strongest vibes he ever had. Myka could tell that something wasn't right, and he tried to play it off as best he could, but he knew she wouldn't let that slide for long. When they got out of the car, he made sure that he took the lead when approaching the door. If anything bad happened, he preferred that it happen to him.
"Mr. Thompson," Pete called as he knocked on the door, "Mr. Thompson, are you in there?" His car was in the driveway, and the lights were on in the house. Pete turned to Myka, "What do you think Mykes? Something seems a little fishy, should we check it out?"
"I agree, something is definitely off here." said Myka. "Try knocking one more time, and if he doesn't answer, you can break the door down." Pete knocked and called out again, with no response. He drew his Tesla, and Myka drew her side-arm. Pete then proceeded to kick down the door, sending splinters flying everywhere. They flanked out, each searching a different area of the house. Pete was the first one to find him, with a perfectly round hole in the middle of his forehead. He called for Myka to come up to the master bathroom, where Thompson was laying in a pool of dried blood.
"Claudia, I don't think Jerry Thompson is our culprit." Myka said into the Farnsworth.
"What makes you so certain?" said Claudia, "Did you find new evidence?"
"How's this for evidence?" asked Pete, showing her the scene in the bathroom. Best they could tell, he had been dead for three days, from an execution style gunshot wound to the head. Apparently, he had mentioned the key to someone, and they came in the middle of the night, and tried to take it from him. When he put up a fight, they shot him. There were enough broken items in the master bedroom to suggest that Jerry put up one hell of a fight. The mess in the rest of the house showed that the intruder had searched quite vigorously for the Key. It was safe to assume that they had found it, considering recent events. They needed Claudia to find something in that video footage now more than ever. They were back at square one with no real suspects, and a whole lot of unanswered questions.