Esper

Esper Chapter 17: Brewing Storm

Part 1

"Alright everyone, let's put together the information we've got!" Tobias Bennet presented an evidence-rich whiteboard to a room of police officers. "Over the course of the last month, all hell has broken loose in Trenton. Two days ago, Maddison Falls hotel was 'bombed', and yes, I'm using every air quote implied. Yesterday, the theater house at the intersection of Washington and Hugh went up in flames, and at the same time, several 'abandoned' buildings south of it went boom! What do all of those have in common?" An officer closer to the rear of the room raised her hand.

"The 365!" Tobias cheered at that answer!

"Good job, rookie! Let's not forget this scumbag 'Noah', who's been on our radar since last year." Tobias used a ruler to point toward a police sketch. The details were fuzzy about his appearance, with arrows pointing out his almost unbelievable assumed appearance, being that of a man with more tattoo's than visible skin. "After we busted Rocks and Toro, Noah moved in and took their spots. If our leads are on point, he frequented those 'abandoned' buildings. Now, you may have caught my implied air quotes again when I mentioned those being abandoned, well they were drug labs. The DEA said it was one of the biggest inner city distribution spots they'd seen in two decades. Sadly, we also came across five dead bodies and seven people, badly injured. Good news, they were all 365 scumbags, and now we've got a lot of people to question..." Suddenly the door to his side cracked open and his partner Raquel Childs crept in. "...Uh...back to my point!" Raquel mouthed out an apology as she slid into a seat. "We came across Juan Sanchez and his gaudy pink dragster at the site, totaled of course."

"Sanchez was the top suspect in the kidnapping of Wilhelmina Trask, right?" Raquel spoke, raising her hand.

"Yes...and I bet you know where I'm going with this, Childs!" Crunching resounded from the old detective's spine while offering Raquel the stage. She obliged taking over from the clearly exhausted Tobias.

"I read your messages, I'm up to date. Don't worry." The younger cop whispered to her partner, receiving a confident thumbs-up in return. "Wilhelmina Trask was kidnapped and escaped yesterday. Via witness accounts, there's little doubt the kidnapper was Juan Sanchez, who currently is laying in the coroner's room being examined. Sanchez was a known member of the 365, and the online vigilante group Beset's sword are accusing the 365 of being at the heart of the recent string of kidnappings. Just outside of Trenton, in the neighboring township, Warren Prince's body was found, and we have a witness that stated Beset's sword was seen fleeing the scene. We can only assume that he...was a member or connected to the 365 in some way." A massive hush fell over the room. "Now, we all know the Prince family. Big benefactor for the community, but their boy was a known burnout. Wish he didn't have to go out like that, but catching the people who offed him is the best thing we can do for the family! These Beset's sword kids are a problem, but so are the 365; they're dragging our city into chaos! We're not letting that fly, are we?!"

"No!" All the cops shouted!

"You're damn straight! Some of our own have been getting caught in the crossfire! Paulie will live, but... Kevin and Niles...we'll work for our brothers and find out who killed them!" Another rousing of the troops, though Raquel's mind was elsewhere. "We're going to trace all this back to its source! Find out who's running this mess and save our city!"

With all the troops riled up, Raquel and Tobias withdrew to the breakroom. Tension eased and Tobias was finally able to ask what'd been on his mind. "So...late? That's new for the honor roll student."

"Lord..." A light jab from Tobias rolled off Raquel's back.

"It's just, you're normally the first person here and rarely the first to leave. Yesterday, I could hardly get in contact with you."