The Key Jangler

Murder Bait

The fall semester was ending tomorrow. In between trying to catch a killer and planning her first big concert, Morgan for the first time felt challenged but in a good way. She quit drinking and mostly hung out with cops, and her bandmates. Her dad would be proud she thought. She still found time to spend with Peyton who was taking all of this chaos in stride.

"Ok so, we now have an idea of who the serial killer is. He is male, has an obsession with keys, and never uses a gun to kill people, only with sharp objects."' Morgan said to James, as they were in his car eating fast food breakfast. Taylor was in the backseat and chimed in: "He only attacks when a girl is alone." "Yup that too," said James.

"It kinda reminds me of a shark, maybe we need to go fishing" Added Taylor.

"Huh? I don't get it."

"What Taylor is getting at Morgan, is that we need bait to lure out the killer and catch him before he hurts anyone ever again," James clarified.

"Who's gonna be the bait? Nose goes!" They all three got their fingers on their noses at the same time.

"Well there's always a second option," said James as he pulled out of the parking lot onto the street.

"There's no way in hell I'm letting her do that!" Morgan said as the four of them walked the noisy halls of the technical studies wing of the college.

"Under the law she's an adult, she can make her own decisions." Detective James said.
"You heard the man!" Quipped Peyton.

"What if something bad happens to you? I can't stand the thought of putting you in danger." Morgan said to Peyton. James interrupted, "Look don't worry, we have a whole police department working for us, they're going to be there every step of the way. It's the only way we're going to catch the killer."

"Please I'm begging you!" Morgan pleaded.

"Look, this town doesn't deserve another semester of murders. I've called the station and Chief Brown has already approved this plan. Besides your sister is completely ok with going through with it and so am I." 

Morgan let out a deeply frustrated grunt "Fine!" "But if she so much as loses a finger -" "Not going to happen," James said firmly.

The next day was the end of the Fall semester, and by 4:00 PM classes had just ended and school was out of session. The concert was fully prepared, fully staffed, and ready to go.

As the sun was beginning to set, a lone SWAT truck made its way to the college's east side. The concert was just getting underway on the west side in the forest.

The SWAT team got out of the armored truck along with Detective James Brown and Peyton. They entered the empty college campus.