Breaking The Code

Prologue

December 20, 1968, Lake Herman Road, San Fransisco

"What do we got?" Detective Liam Payne from the San Francisco Police Department asked as he walked up to the crime scene. It had been almost midnight when he got the call.

"Two teenagers. Shot and killed. Probably a mugger." One of the Policemen answered.

Liam twirled his mustache between his thumb and pointy.
"Let me be the judge of that."

He walked around the scene making sure not to step on any potential evidence on the ground. He looked over at the car nearby. It had bullet holes.
"They must have been shot at a close range. Do we have an ID on the victims?"

"Not yet." The same policeman replied.

"Alright, I'll head back to the station to see if anyone filed a report on missing teens. Collect the evidence and send the bodies to the coroner." Liam said and walked back to his car, totally missing the policeman rolling his eyes at him.

With his 25 years of age, he was the youngest police officer getting promoted to detective in a decade but he was good at his job. His colleagues didn't like him much. Maybe it was his age or his English accent? He hadn't exactly asked them.

He had moved to The States with his family as a teenager and kept his accent. He would feel really silly if he would fake an American accent just to fit in.

Anyway, it was getting late. He couldn't find a filed report of missing teens so he better just head home and get some sleep. He was sure that the victims would be identified by the morning.

He has been right. As he walked into the station after a couple of hours of sleep a report was waiting for him on his desk. He went and grabbed a cup of coffee before he took a seat.

He opened the folder. The victims' names were Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and David Arthur Faraday, 17. Liam sighed. Informing parents about the death of a child was horrible.

The girl had five bullet holes in her back. The boy was shot in the head. Apparently, he had still been breathing when the first officer arrived at the scene but died shortly thereafter, unable to speak.

Liam continues to read the report. According to the ballistic shell casings recovered at the crime scene was identified as Winchester Western Super X copper-coated. Ballistic evidence indicated that the killer used a .22-caliber, possibly a J. C. Higgins Model 80 semiautomatic pistol.

Nothing seemed to have been stolen. The boy still had his wallet on him, containing cash. The girl had her jewelry still on her. It didn't make sense. Liam touched his musty mustache (that he secretly was very proud of). It seemed like this was just a random act of violence, but of course, he would investigate the case, making sure there wasn't a deeper motive behind it.

He couldn't find any witnesses and as the weeks passed the case turned cold. Liam wrote a report suggesting that the teenagers were likely random targets for a mugging gone wrong. It was highly plausible the killer panicked and fled the scene without retrieving their valuables. Since it was a homicide the case stayed open but Liam moved on to other cases.

July 4, 1969, Blue Rock Springs Park, San Fransisco

Liam was working late at the police station when his phone rang. He glanced at the clock on the wall before he picked up. It was almost one o'clock.
"Detective Payne speaking."

A man on the other end of the line started to talk in a very monotone voice.
"I want to report a murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway, you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9-millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye."

He hung up before Liam couldn't even think about tracing the call. He furrowed his eyebrows. It could be a prank call but he had to look it up anyway.

He grabbed his car keys and drove to the parking lot. He saw the car as soon as he arrived. He grabbed his weapon and a flashlight and got out of the car. The parking lot was deserted except for the brown car.

He walked over and turned his flashlight to the window. Inside the car were a young man and a woman. They had been shot. He opened the door and checked their pulse. When he realized that they were both still alive he ran back to his car and ordered assistance over the radio.

The girl, 22-year-old Darlene Ferrin died on the way to the hospital but the boy survived. Liam went to question him the next day. Michael Mageau told him that a car had pulled up beside them. The driver got out of the car, shined a bright light, and fired into the Corvair with a 9mm handgun. He couldn't describe the man.

Liam returned to the police station to look at his old case again. He feared that he had a killer who killed over and over again to deal with and so far he didn't have a shred of evidence.

The call he received from the murderer was traced back to a pay phone at a gas station.

July, 31, 1969, San Fransisco

Niall Horan was an editor at the San Fransisco Chronicle and he had just arrived at work when the receptionist handed him an envelope. He opened it and started to read the letter. The handwriting was messy.

Dear Editor

This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass

He immediately dropped the letter and called the police. Detective Liam Payne showed up with a couple of colleagues. He put some gloves on and read the whole letter. It contained details of the murders that only the perpetrator could know. There was a second layer as well. A homemade cipher and a demand that the paper would publish it or else he would kill random people.

In the meantime three other letters saying the same thing reached three other newspapers. Two of them included ciphers.

Liam went back to the station and called the FBI. He needed help solving the ciphers.