The Bodies One By One

Chapter 41

When Storm returned home, the first thing he did was turn the kettle on. He didn't even want to have beer. 
His house was quiet, too quiet, so he grabbed the television remote and turned the TV on. 

Maybe watch a movie.

He almost jumped when his phone went off and he didn't even check so see who was calling. He was surprised to hear Stacey's voice, 'Stacey, hey what's up?'

'Hey, I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time'.

'No, not at all, I just boiled the kettle, just relaxing, is everything okay?'

She was having a little trouble speaking, 'I uh... I was wondering if you were free to check out some files, but I guess you need some rest -'.

'You can come over if you want, have a drink with me'.

'Oh! Of course!'.

This was out of the blue as he was so focused on the case to realize that he had a life. Stacey hung up and Storm was left lying on the couch, taking everything in. A few more moments and Storm realized what Baloc was saying the last time he spoke to him about dating. He suddenly felt his cheeks grow hot. 

It's not everyday you get a girl asking if you're free.

When Stacey arrived, she was holding the box of files, 'hey! I've go the goods', she smiled up at him. He opened the door wider to let her in, 'the water's boiled, you want a drink? I've got tea, coffee and I just recently got myself some herbals as well'.

'Jasmine?'

'Yep'. He goes to the cupboards to grab two cups, 'so what's the files on?' Stacey pulled some out and placed them neatly on the table, 'it's about the Scarecrow Project'.
Storm frowned as he placed some herbs in one of the cups and put tea in the other, 'Stacey, thank you for helping me out, but this stuff is really for me and Baloc to sort -', he looked up to see the confidence drain away from her face, 'okay, tell me more', he quickly re-routed himself, he wanted someone to be here with him and he was effectively pushing her away. 
When he finished making the drink he sat down with her, 'so, look here, this project was created ten years ago', Stacey said as she took a small sip of her jasmine tea and she winced a little, 'it's hot by the way', Storm chuckled and she rolled her eyes, 'thanks for the drink'.

'My pleasure'. 

She then pushed another piece of paper towards him, 'this man, I don't know who he is, but I'm guessing that he's part of the whole thing, and can you see the faces? Who can you see?' Storm was loving the excitement that was radiating off of Stacey. He pulled the picture closer and examined the four men standing side by side, and down on the bottom of the picture were three names, only three, the man in the middle was nameless, although Storm was only assuming that he was the nameless one. 

'That's Foils... That could be Humphrey's... Is that Graves?'

He frowned as he looked closer to make sure that he was seeing right. Stacey nodded, 'yes! It's Charleston Graves, he was with them in this project, all three of them are closely connected to this man in the middle!'

Well I'll be fucking damned!

'Something must have happened, something bad enough to cause Graves to want to kill them'.

'But they're still alive, and what about our three victims?'.

Storm peered at the other sheets, 'the others were still connected, but I'm taking a guess and say they weren't as close to Graves as Humphrey and Foils were, which makes those two men special in a way'. 

He felt a flood of happiness, but it was soon gone when he realized that he had to find Foils and Humphrey fast, because Graves was still out there with his daughter, and he was after them.