Of Broken Things

Chapter 3 - Scene 4.

Aiden dialed Richard's number as soon as he left the hospital.

"We have a problem," he said when his friend picked up.

"Judging by your grim face, the search for the other professors didn't go well?"

"That's putting it mildly. Three of them are dead, including Fortworth. One died this morning under rather suspicious circumstances. The remaining two are missing and might also be dead."

"Well shit..."

"I need a favor."

"Name it. I pushed this investigation on you, so the least I can do is help."

"According to his son, Andrew Howie was mauled by a bear. Can you get your hands on the police file and the autopsy report?"

"You think that it was a murder staged to look like an accident?"

"Either that, or a it's a very big coincidence. After everything I found today, I stopped believing in coincidences."

Ricky scratched his head and said, "I'll see what I can do, but Howie lived way out of my jurisdiction. It will all come down to the other precinct's willingness to cooperate. When do you need the data?"

Yesterday.

Aiden sighed and tried to calm down. There was no rush anymore, Howie had been dead for over a month.

"Just come by tomorrow morning. I still owe you a breakfast, don't I? I'll buy if you fly. You should still have the number of my expenses account."

"That's more like it!" Ricky grinned. "I'll turn Heaven and Earth upside down for a free breakfast. See you tomorrow bright and early, partner."

"Thanks, Ricky."

"Don't mention it."

Aiden didn't tell Ricky about the hair found on Garcia's body and the sinister implications it had for the case. He figured that Ricky would be more inclined to believe him about the genetically modified killer if he told it to him face to face and showed him the results of Dr. Landis' DNA analysis.

Ed had grumbled about procedure and that Aiden was overstepping his rights, but made him a copy of the tests done on the mysterious hair anyway. Aiden had advised him to keep the findings out of the official report, because he had a bad feeling that whomever was behind those murders wouldn't want the existence of a genetically modified hit man known and might go after anyone who knew about him. Ed had looked unconvinced but had agreed to wait for Aiden to conclude his investigation before he transmitted that information further up the chain.

Aiden had also refrained from telling his partner that he felt like he was being followed the moment he stepped out of the Hospital doors. He kept looking in the rear view mirror, but try as he may, he couldn't pick out his shadow. Yet the sensation of being watched was so strong that he had to fight the urge to fidget in his sit and look over his shoulder.

"Computer, track the VIN numbers of all vehicles moving around us."

"Range?"

"Half a mile radius. Highlight the cars that follow us for more than ten minutes."

He left the raised speedway and opted for the slower ground route that weaved through several sleepy little towns. It added an hour to his trip, but raised the chances to spot a tail. All the normal commuter would stay on the speedway if they were eager to get home. Any cars on this road would either belong to locals and thus leave the road as soon as they got to their destination, or they were following him. Plus it was much harder to stay unnoticed when the traffic was almost non-existent. 

But when he pulled into his driveway two hours later, the track log was devoid of any suspicious cars. Nobody had followed him for any significant amount of time. Either his tail had been very good, or it hadn't been there at all.

I'm losing it, Aiden thought bitterly. I finally got struck by a bad case of cop paranoia nearly ten years after I quit the damn job.