CHAPTER 10

Thank God I have my muse back! I managed to write two chapters today… Granted, they're not very long but they are important to introduce the bigger picture of the story; a bigger picture that will begin next chapter (I promise!)

For now, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

Chin stared at the notepad resting on his desk trying to decide if his theory was really as crazy as it looked like.

He had been going through every bit of information, not matter how small or inconspicuous it was, and he had managed to make a connection between the victims. At least, that's what he hoped for.

He reviewed the information once more, made the calculations, searched for other possibilities but, the more he did, the more he convinced himself that he had actually cracked the case so, with as much confidence as his handwritten notes could give him, he gathered all the facts into a pen drive and walked out of his office. He knocked on one of the windows of Kono's office and then signaled to Steve to join them. Once they were gathered around the smart table, he plugged in the pen and proceeded to explain.

- I think I found something but I'm not sure if it's actually possible.

- What is it cuz? – asked Kono.

- For now it's just conjectures held together by a thin line, but I think we might be into something – he opened a series of files – here, let me explain. So I went with Lori's suggestion about finding out if anything like this has ever happened before. I went back five years and some reports came back with cases of death of students by accidents, drunk driving or overdoses. Nothing came back red flagged because none of those deaths were as violent as the ones happening now. But one case actually stood out because of one name – Chin picked an incident report that showed the image of a car crash and two young faces on the side of the text – last year Angelica Brown and Kevin Foster died in a car accident while driving out of Honolulu. Look at the date stamp on the report.

- That's the same week of our first murder. Charlie Robins – Steve said out loud.

- Okay, but the timing might be a coincidence – Kono added – you said that the report red flagged because of a name?

- Yes – he then proceeded to bring out the girl's personal file – look who was Angelica's boyfriend at the time – a name was highlighted on the screen and both Steve and Kono stared at it in concentration: Keoki Aikasu.

- Now, that, is too much of a coincidence. That's the guy Annabeth's been trying to use as a source of information on the second victim's murder – said Steve while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

- Exactly. Since he was cleared by HPD as a suspect, we've focused on treating him as a source of information. But if we actually think of him as a suspect, there are some interesting connections between the victims – Chin explained.

- But we investigated him, cross-referencing him with the other two victims and there was no relation between them. Did you manage to find something new? – asked Kono, still not sure how everything fell into place.

- You could say that... – Chin replied, dubiously – I noticed that the first coincidence, apart from Keoki's name, was the time of the first murder. Charlie was killed roughly around the same time that this accident took place. So it got me thinking, what if the connections we're looking for are between our murder victims and the car crash victims and not between each other? That's when the strange similarities began to pop out. For example: victim number one was originally from Chicago, he moved here when he was 12 so he spent half his life there. The boy from the car crash, Kevin Foster, was also from Chicago. Now, our second victim, Leia, she studied biology, just like Keoki but, also, just like Angelica. And, finally, the third murder victim played tennis on a regular basis in one of the island's clubs. Guess who else had a history of playing tennis? – Chin asked.

- Kevin Foster – Kono supplied the answer.

- Correct. I know these connections aren't much; that they could all be circumstantial, but I think there are way too many coincidences. If we look at it like this, each one of our murder victims had something in common with the car crash victims and that right there is the connection between them and Keoki Aikasu – Chin finished explaining his crazy theory and waited for either his boss or his cousin to agree or disagree with him.

- Makes sense – Steve replied thoughfully.

- It does? – Chin asked, still not entirely convinced with his own theory.

- Yeah, I mean, the first murder took place right on the anniversary of the death of Keoki's girlfriend so that could be the thing that set him off into the killing spree. Lori said that the date of the first murder would be meaningful for the unsub somehow and that's why. Keoki must have had a chance encounter with Charlie and found out that he came from Chicago as well. Maybe he saw the guy reflected in the victim, maybe Kevin Foster had been his friend. After the first murder, he realized he needed more and so he found someone with a connection to his head girlfriend instead. And, just as the first two, the same happened with the third. Also, he fits the profile Lori gave us: male, young, charismatic. Annabeth said the guy was really helpful and nice.

- Do you think we should bring him in? – Chin asked.

- I believe this guy, for whatever misguided reason, is finding people remotely related to his girlfriend and that other boy and is killing them off to relief I don't even know what... Grieve? Pain? The timeframe between murders is almost up, I say we act now and dive into him with everything we've got.

- So what do we do now? – Kono asked, having noticed something on the screen that caught her attention.

- We'll bring him in – Steve stated and both he and Chin started making their way to their offices to get their stuff ready.

- Emmm guys? – Kono called from the smart table where she had remained looking into the piece of information that had caught her attention. Chin noticed how her cousin's expression had turned serious.

- What is it Kono? – he asked by the time both men made it back to the table.

- Since all the connections between the victims and the car crash kids are so superficial and considering the week time frame is almost upon us... Should we be worried about this? – she asked, highlighting the part of Angelica's personal file that read she was originally from the United Kingdom – Keoki might connect Annabeth with his dead girlfriend and choose her as his next victim – Steve stared at the screen for the total amount of two heart beats before fishing out his phone from his pocket.

- I'm calling Danny. Let him know who the perp is and that we're on our way. Annabeth was supposed to meet with this guy this afternoon.

With that, everyone sprung into action, running to their offices and picking up their gear. When Danny answered his call, Steve brought him up to speed.

- Want me to break cover and get the guy now? – Danny asked through the open line.

- Negative. Wait for us to arrive. Contact Annabeth and find out their exact location. Ask her to coax him into leaving the facilities with her and we'll get him then. I don't want this to go down inside college grounds in case we're wrong and we spook the real killer – Steve answered.

- Babe, with everything Chin discovered, this has to be the real killer.

- Yeah, but I want to play it safe. I don't want to risk any more kids.

- Alright – Danny conceded, actually pleased that maybe for the first time in his life, his partner was doing things quietly and without the usual spray of bullets that seemed to constantly follow him around - I'll let Annabeth in on the plan – and, with that, everyone was off to do their tasks and, luckily, end this madness once and for all.

There you have it! Did you like it? I hope you did! I can't wait to hear your opinions and I definitely can't wait to start writing the next chapter. I PROMISE: things will get interesting on the next chapter… so you should prepare for some overdue action!

Until next chapter then!