No Rest for the Wicked

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jack sat silently with his elbows on his desk, his fists clenched tightly together as he rested his chin on his knuckles. It had been three days since Barns had kicked him to the curb and Jack felt like he was losing it. He could barely eat, barely sleep. Every waking moment was a moment that Jack lived in fear and paranoia. The devil was still out there, and it wouldn't be long until he took his next victim...

And one of those victims could very well be someone he loved.

The devil's motive was still unclear. Maybe it was power, maybe it was lust. Maybe it was both. But one thing was for certain; as long as he was free, he was going to keep committing these crimes. The devil had no intention of stopping his reign of terror and Jack knew it.

Jack sighed, shoving all of his case files into his desk and closing it. If he spent any more time thinking about this he'd go stir-crazy. He emerged from his office to find Cassidy in the kitchen, sitting at the kitchen table with a book in her left hand and a pencil in the right. She propped the book open with her thumb and pinkie fingers, occasionally pulling her eyes away from the text in order to write something down in her notebook. 

Ever since the rock and necklace incident she'd been avoiding her room like the plague, and Jack didn't blame her. A part of him was actually relieved; it was easier to keep an eye on her this way.

Jack approached her, putting an arm around her neck and kissing the top of her head gently. "Whatcha reading?"

Jack tried to sound casual but was failing miserably. His mind was still focused on the case no matter how hard he tried to push it away. If Cassidy had noticed, she didn't acknowledge it.

"Of Mice and Men." Cassidy responded, putting her book down to speak to him, "I have to read it for my lit class."

Jack winced. "Be careful with that one. The ending'll get you ."

"I already know how it ends." Cassidy chuckled out, "Issac spoiled it for me."

Jack laughed lightheartedly in return. "So things are going well with you and your new friends?"

"Yeah, they're a good distraction from everything that's been going on." Cassidy said softly, sighing deeply as she turned to face the kitchen window. 

Jack gave her a look of pity, placing his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "You don't have anything to worry about, Cas. Sheriff Barns has everything under control."

Truth was, Barns did not have everything under control. No one working this case had anything under control. Jack even more so now that he was out of the picture.

Cassidy was about to say something when Jack's phone began to ring, Jack reluctantly pulling his phone out of his pocket and flipping it open. It was... Barns? Jack excused himself, clicking the answer button and pressing it to his ear.

Barns was the last person he was expecting a call from, after all the two weren't exactly on the best terms at the moment. What could he possibly want?

"Hello?" Jack answered, not even bothering to ask the reasoning behind his call. After all, Jack was still slightly mad at him for dumping him from the case in the first place.

"Hey Jack," Barns said softly, his voice sounding faint and even confused. "Listen uh... I know I told you to take a break  but... there's something that just came up in the case that I think you need to see."

______________________________

Jack stood in the center of Mia Johnson's bedroom, staring up on the wall at the gruesome sight alongside Barns as he tried to wrap his head around the scene before him.

Usually Riggs would be on the scene, but he was visiting one of the town's residents to help fix his grandfather's watch. The man never went anywhere without it and insisted he needed to get it fixed asap, even prioritizing the watch over the case. Jack found it annoying that Riggs found something so small to be more important than catching the devil himself, but he kept that to himself.

Apparently Cassidy's friend had been doing some busy work relating to the devil herself. A massive board covered in documents and pictures of victims were pinned all along the surface, the board somehow managing to hang up on the wall. But there was one thing nailed to the board that had Jack and Barns completely fixated...

It was Mia herself.

Mia was nailed to the board in a cross formation, her arms spread out across most of it while her legs were stacked on top of each other. Nails stuck out of her hands and feet, her head drooping to her chest as she hung completely still with her long brown hair dangling loosely around her face. Blood leaked from her hands and feet, coating the board in a thick layer of dark crimson.

What was supposed to be a symbol of forgiveness and freedom from sin had been tainted by the devil, now being used to display a brutal and unforgivable crime.

The crime itself wasn't what had Jack so dumbfounded, though. It was the evidence she had. How the hell did a high school girl get her hands on this much concealed evidence? It didn't make any sense... no one had access to the documents except for Jack and Barns.

"So..." Barns started, a look of pity on his face as he gazed at the poor girl. "There's a lot to unpack here."

"How did she get this evidence..." Jack mumbled more to himself than Barns, stepping up to the board and searching for any kind of answers. 

"Motive is more important right now," Barns insisted softly. "The question is why he would kill her... she isn't exactly very active in the church or linked to the pastor like the other victims, so why would he do this?"

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

"She was investigating him, " Jack answered quietly, his eyes scanning the board closely. "She was getting a little too close for comfort."

Barn stared at the body in silence. "But how did he know? If her parents weren't aware of her search that means no one else was either, right?"

A sudden thought popped into his head. A terrible thought that he hoped wasn't true, in fact it couldn't be true.

"Not... not necessarily." Jack said in a hushed voice, his eyes widening as he stepped away from the board, the puzzle pieces beginning to fall into place as he made a horrible realization.

Barns stared at him in confusion, waiting for him to elaborate.

"Cassidy," Jack whispered. "Cassidy knew. In fact she more than knew. She was helping her."

Barns' eyes widened. "You mean to tell me that your daughter is behind all this? She was giving the girl evidence?"

Jack nodded slowly. "There's no other possible way she could have gotten it. Not to mention the devil has most likely been stalking my family this entire time. He could have easily witnessed the two talking about the case..."

Barns watched Jack for a moment, taking his words in.

Jack crouched to the ground, bending his knees as he looked up to the teenager's lifeless body. He stared up into her face, her lifeless corpse continuing to dangle from the board, the chilling sight of the devil's youngest victim becoming etched into his mind just like the other poor souls the devil had massacred. Would his daughter really betray his trust like that? Could his daughter really have indirectly caused this innocent girl's death?

A quiet rage began to build up inside of him as he stared up at the girl, unable to tear his eyes away from the child that had been taken too soon. Could Cassidy's carelessness and recklessness really have done something this drastic? 

Jack slowly rose to his feet, a feeling of pure malice that had begun to become all too familiar to him beginning to spread all throughout his psyche. Without a word he stepped away from the body and headed for the bedroom door, his head hung low as he took small steps towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" Barns asked, tilting his head as he watched the detective beginning to abandon the scene.

Jack didn't even look back as he spoke his next words, his voice laced with venom.

"I need to have a talk with my daughter."