Chapter Twenty-Nine

A Favour

"What influenced you to exit the building? You were meeting with a... friend, you said. Why would you leave?"

"Well, we all just had a feeling." Jay replied with Josie to his side.

"A feeling?" The officer talking to them with a notebook looked up. Like most people, a grim expression had covered his face. A whole hospital was destroyed, along with many of the patients, visitors and staff. Even the hospital director was killed. Also like others, he didn't want to think about the situation. A freak weather tornado, a freak storm, that's all it could have been. What else could it have been?

The tornado has disappeared around twenty minutes after appearing. When the police had arrived, all that was left was ruined foundations and more bodies than anybody should have to see. So far, only fourteen survivors had been confirmed.

Sighing, the officer resisted the urge to look back in his notebook. An urge... that's what they all said. And five of the survivors had said something else. Wondering if these two would say the same thing, the officer expanded his question. "The feeling caused you to move the patient out as well?"

"His name is Alex." Josie said slightly angry. "But no. Usually, we would just cast it off as just that, a feeling. But when it comes from a guy who did the same thing that he did back at the bridge, well, we were going to listen."

"Jason Stark?"

"Well, if that's his name. He came into our room; he said stuff about a tornado, a collapse, some kind of nonsense. He left quickly." Josie shrugged. "So we all made the feeling to leave. The bridge had collapsed last time, so what was to stop this from happening? And, well, it did."

"I see."

"Can we see Alex now?" Jay asked.

"Yes, you'll find him at the police station." The officer said. The police station was one of the only free places with enough space for the current patients. It was one hell of an emergency. All available police, off duty and on duty were called to help search for bodies. Off-duty doctors and nurses were called in case of any more survivors. So far, only Alex, Jeremy, Chloe and Officer Casey had been taken to the station to check on their former injuries. A few cuts and scrapes had formed on the others, but nothing serious.

Dismissing Josie and Jay, the officer closed his notebook. That was all the survivors. So far, no-one else had been confirmed. So many bodies... so many grieving families, not to mention the loss of healthcare, all the equipment in the hospital was completely destroyed. It was easily one of the worst disasters in Willingboro, a usual quiet town. What was worrying was the fact that even more people would likely die because they couldn't get the healthcare they needed. The freak occurrence that surrounded the town couldn't let anyone out so only the few private doctors could perform an emergency situation, but it wasn't as easy as that. This not only had short term implications, but long term ramifications.

XXX

"So... you can do this for me?" Wayne asked, rubbing his tired and worn face.

"I suppose. I do owe you a favour." Private Detective Richard Johnson replied, looking at the officer. "I guess since you're low down on the pole that you can't?"

"Not just that. I... I need to help with this whole hospital situation. File away all the deceased, find all the relatives..." Wayne sighed. "It's a helluva job, I'll tell you."

"How many confirmed dead?" Richard asked as Wayne placed a thick briefcase on his desk.

"Way too many. So far, three hundred. More in counting." Wayne groaned. "It's bad. It's one of the worst."

"Man. I wish I could do something, but they would never let me get into the thick of things. Unlike most detectives I haven't had any experience as a police officer." Richard sighed.

"You can do this, though." Wayne asked. "I mean, I was helping out with the bridge case, but was pulled back for this. I got experience, so they figured I knew something, could help. Now with this hospital incident, the bridge is all but forgotten." Sighing once more, Wayne nodded towards Richard. "I need to go. Everything you need to know is there, in those files. Consider me a contractor. You'll find money in there, and depending on the results I'll pay more. I feel this is important, that this bridge can't just be filed away. See you later, Richard."

Nodding, Richard let Wayne leave. They knew each other a long time. Often Wayne came in if he needed advice. For being an officer, he was smart. Could've made detective, easily. With Wayne gone, Richard leaned down and opened the briefcase with four separate files inside as well as an envelope which no doubt contained the money. Knowing he owed Wayne a favor, and knowing that the bridge incident was a big one, he got to work and started reading.

3 Hours later

It took two hours to read the files. Another hour was taken to sort everything out. Now, Richard had pretty much got the gist of what the police knew.

The first file had been information and pictures of parts of a bomb found in the water, washed up onto one of the near grassy edges.

A professional bomb. Not homemade, not amateur. Proper metal with a timer. Strapped to each support at different timed intervals. Simulating wind, simulating the weather.

The last four were of possible targets. Reasons that they would get killed. The victims of importance, not just normal citizens. If someone wanted a normal family man dead, they would have killed him somewhere else, alone or with his family. They wouldn't kill over twenty five.

The first was a politician with controversy abound. He wasn't popular with his views on both females and homosexuals. Some called him the 'Nazi away from Germany' although he had never outwardly expressed distaste for the Jewish population. The politician would have had many enemies. But not the sort for professional bombs. Any underground criminals wouldn't be offended by his remarks. You just don't have gangs of female criminals, or gangs of homosexual criminals. Richard had never come across any group like that or knew of anyone that did.

Second was a family man, but a rich one. His daughter was at the finest college America could get while his wife was killed in the accident as well. He was one of the richest people around the east side of America. Relatively unknown because he never gave money to charity. With a mansion that many could only dream off and a car collection of over fifty 'classic' cars, this man could be a victim of a 'Robin Hood' style of crime. But why would they attack everyone else on the bridge?

A known paedophile was third. Nasty work, arrested when he was thirty for sexually assaulting over ten girls over a series of six years. Only caught because he got over-confident. He took a risk and it didn't pay off. In jail for twenty years, he finally got out because he was bailed out. He was an easy target. No need to blow a bridge up for him.

Fourth and the final person of importance was one of the most infamous racketeers and counterfeiters in America. He always went off the radar whenever he was close to getting caught. Millions of fake money had been distributed around major cities. New York, Chicago, Las Vegas; all the big cities. This man was the most likely target. The people he worked with would most likely be the seediest of the seediest. People who would kill without a second thought.

Richard leaned back in his chair and sighed. A corrupt politician, a rich selfish family man, a serial paedophile and a counterfeiter. Four completely different people but who could all be targets. The counterfeiter was the only one who could make sense, but why blow up the whole bridge? Why bring civilians into it? Why not abduct him from wherever he was hiding?

Looking over the files again, Richard's mind started forming connections. Leaning forward with a spark in his eye, Richard started noting things down. They were hidden, but he found them. Links. Important links, forming a bigger picture, forming part of a big puzzle.

The counterfeiter was the easy link. He was photographed with the politician but the police thought nothing of it. A week later the politician got fifty thousand dollars richer. Richard could tell that was no coincidence. His gut told him so and if there was one thing he should listen to, it was his gut.

The politician himself was connected to the family man. Another easy connection, one the police almost certainly knew. The rich family man was revealed to be having an affair. With another man. On one of his speeches, the politician had spoke out personally against the family man. The family man had threatened to sue for 'invasion of privacy'. The newspapers, the politician, everyone who revealed he wasn't honest to his wife.

Three connections. The paedophile wasn't related, at least not that Richard could see. But perhaps this was the only time that those three were together by coincidence. The only time they were together for an easy kill. Perhaps they killed civilians to make it seem more like an accident. Richard quickly stood up. It was time to get some reports of his own. He wanted a connection with the paedophile, wanted to know if there was any connection to any of the three. Luckily, he had a living brother. As opposite as you could get. He was a school teacher, a pure one at that. He was popular and no evidence of foul-play had been reported. He was around children solely because that's what he enjoyed as a job.

Richard made a quick phone-call to the station. As an investigator, he could have certain privileges. When contracted, he could get certain amounts of information. Asking for the location of the brother, Richard soon found out that he was living none other than Willingboro. That was handy, considering whatever the hell was going on was making access and exit impossible. Reaching for his coat, Richard pulled it on and locked up the office.

A/N: Thanks to Gabe's-Girl-Forever, LocalTalent53, Silentking1, Meowth's Toon Dragon and Bookreader2010 for the reviews!

Hey look, I'm halfway to 100,000 words! Also, I'm over 100 reviews! Too milestones I've reached and I am way, way happy about that. Thank you all!

I'll be honest, I'm not sure about this chapter. Something about didn't... ring anything in me. But I couldn't figure it out (which is why this is a day later than recently usual). So, I'll submit it as it is. Perhaps you guys can figure it out!

Thank you all, and 'till next time!