Case Files of Detective Kenneth Cohl

Case File Seven: The Past Unveiled

 Kenneth spent the next week as instructed inside the hospital. Carmen came to visit him every day to make sure he was behaving himself. Finally on the seventh day he was ready to leave as Inspector Salvo walked into his room holding a box.

"Kenneth, I see you are doing well."

"Yea, a bit banged up still. I need this leg cast for at least another five weeks, but I get to leave today since for the good behavior I have shown." Kenneth said with a laugh

"Right, Carmen, can you please leave the room for a few moments, I need to talk Kenneth privately."

Kenneth remained seated on the bed as Carmen left the room and Inspector Salvo sat next to him. When he sat down he opened the box which contained many different documents and handed it over to Kenneth who took a closer look and noticed they were all on Alister Crowley.

"Inspector, what is all this, I thought Crowley didn't exist?"

"Technically he doesn't exist, anywhere, but I knew that name seemed too familiar. Turns out he has been involved in a few cases, caught a couple of times, here and there, but always manages to escape. Then any data on the computer about him gets erased."

"How does he always escape?"

"Apparently there have just been too many different ways to bother keeping track of."

"So why bring this to me now?"

"The last time he was caught was seven years ago, he was led right into the FBI's hands."

"Then why don't we know what he looks like?"

"Any photos that were taken off him mysteriously burned up and any officer that saw him died shortly after."

"But what does this all have to do with me?"

"Seven years ago, the man that led Alister Crowley into the FBI's hand, was also killed by him just seconds prior, that man was your father, Anthony."

"That can't be true inspector."

"I'm afraid it is; but it gets worse, remember Sarah your mother was murdered with your father, it means Crowley killed her as well."

Kenneth dropped the box on the floor as a look of disbelief fell upon his face. The inspector reached down and handed him the documents covering the last case his father took from seven years ago.

Turns out at the start of the day, Anthony who was a tall man with a strong sense of justice, short hair, clean face, and a black suit was approached by members of the FBI with a letter sent to them, but addressed in his name. He opened it up and inside was a letter stating.

"I have your wife, let's play some games. My team is me; your team is you and however many FBI agents are with you as you read this. If you win, then you get your wife, if you lose, you lose her and we will have to restart the game. Your first clue is hidden in a place where people go to seek knowledge. Let the games begin. ~Alister Crowley

P.S. Be sure to tell your son, that mommy says hi."

Angered, Anthony made a call to his friend, the then Officer Salvo to watch over Kenneth and not leave his side. Once that was done, he got in a car and went off with the two agents to the library; he figured that must have been the location the clue was hinting towards. Once there they eventually found another riddle. This led him on a hunt all over the city, many different locations, each having a different riddle. Finally they ran across a clue that read.

"To make it this far, you are just as intelligent as I expected, one final game, come to 1321 6th avenue, Sarah and I will be waiting for you on the sixth floor. No agents inside the building please. See you then. ~Alister Crowley"

They arrived at the address to find it was a rundown building. As per Alister's request, the agents stayed outside near their car as Anthony walked in. He made his way up past every floor until finally reaching the sixth, than from the shadows came a voice.

"Good of you to finally make it, I am Alister Crowley."

"Where is my wife? Show her to me now!"

"My, my, so quick to rush, but as you wish."

A light appeared to Anthony's left; in the light was his wife, tied down to a chair. He started to run to her, but then he was surrounded by glowing "10"s and a red button to his right, and a figure appeared before him stepping out of the shadows and in front of a window.

"Here is the game, to find if you are truly worthy. I'm going to press this button and start the timer. You will have ten seconds to make a choice. Choice A, you go untie your wife and hope both of you can escape with the remaining seconds. Choice B, you press that button over there and the bombs will power down, but pushing it will result in a poisonous gas coming out of that vent your wife's head is leaning against, so you will certainly save yourself, at the cost of your precious wife's life. The game starts now."

Anthony began running for his wife, as Alister turned towards the window and opened a glider.

9...8...7

As Alister jumped, Anthony tossed a knife he kept in a holster on his leg and tore a hole in the glider.

6...5...4

He made it to his wife and began untying her and broke off one of the chair's legs.

3...2...

They began running for the window.

1...0...

As the explosion began to engulf the building, Anthony with his last second, threw the leg from the chair and hit Alister in the head, he then gripped his wife tightly as they were caught in the blast. Alister who was knocked out from the hit to the back of his head began to spiral downwards and back towards the building. The flames caught onto his glider and sent him crashing down to the awaiting FBI agents, they put out the fire and him in cuffs. Once the fire was put out, they found the remains of Anthony and Sarah.

"Why, why wasn't I told this before?"

"You were seventeen; they didn't want you to know what happened."

"Where did you find this? I thought everything having to do with Alister was gone."

"Everything at the station or in any office yes, but these I kept myself, me and your father would good friends, I wanted to keep these so you would be able to one day read them, it's just over the years, I forgot."

"So now, we find ourselves seven years later."

"He is challenging the son of the person that with their last act, made sure he got caught."

"Well, doesn't seem like he has missed a step, if it wasn't for that Enigma guy, I would have been a goner in that explosion."

"Consider yourself lucky, you have to be more careful dealing with this guy any further, you should do your best to stay away from him at all costs."

"I understand inspector, thanks for showing me this. Can you tell Carmen I'll call her later when I am ready to leave? I need a little time alone right now."

"Sure thing Kenneth, be safe."

Kenneth laid in bed thinking about his parents and everything that happened. Finding out that the man that killed both of his parents was just seconds away from killing him recently; things looked bleak for the future if Alister decided to pop his head out again, he stood up and walked towards a window and just stared out to the sky. Carmen stood outside the room watching him, with almost a smile on her face.