Generations's (Spin Off/ Book FOUR)

The Facade

Dean:

My brother man... My brother... "The Zodiac?"

"Seven victims." He told us, my wife having beaten him at rock paper scissors to get front seat, so she was happily sat with me, fixing her pale lipstick.

"Dahmer?"

"17."

She shook her head, looking completely freaked out. "That's some freaky stuff, man. It's a whole new side of you."

He took offence to this, because he was a little defensive bitch. "It's called true crime, guys. It's a hobby."

"No. Bass fishing, needlepoint ...that's a hobby, okay?" I told him, heading towards the prison entrance. "Collecting serial-killer stats ...that's ...that is an illness. Get your badges."

My wife pulled through her bag, getting it out. "Yeah."

Then the intercom started to speak to us. "Hello, ma'am, gentlemen. State the nature of your visit."

"From the office of the Inspector General. Got an appointment with the warden."

Which luckily my little hacker had made through legit channels. "Thank you. Parking is to the left. Look for visitor parking only."

Well, that was obvious. "All right, so what are the stats on this, uh, vanishing act here?"

"Tommy Tolliver was convicted of six murders back in '09, but those are just the ones that stuck." He told us as I pulled up into the lot. "According to the news, he escaped from a locked cell on death row, this inexplicable, Houdini-esque escape."

This place had armed guards on horseback, a load of towers, and dog patrols. How'd he manage that? "So what are we thinking? Some sort of a mass-murdering magician?"

Kali shrugged. "Yeah, Or a teleporting demon or a who knows what that can walk through Supermax walls. Could be in our wheelhouse."

"Yeah, your wheelhouse. "Hobby."" I sighed, before we managed to get to the Warden, who was still looking at the cell. "Warden Skeiff?"

"Uh, Inspectors Moore and Ranaldo, this is our CSI, Dr Conwy. You spoke on the phone with her."

He frowned at her, like he wasn't quite sure what to make of her face compared to her voice, before nodding. "Yeah. Welcome to death row. Have a look. But good luck finding anything out of TDJC compliance."

The Warden left the cell, and we signalled Sammy to follow him, while we did the EMF reading. Khalilah did up high, as she was short, and I did up, but nothing so far, so we went into the surveillance room with the Warden and a guard. "That's right before Tolliver vanished." And they flickered for a moment.

"Was that a brownout?" Khalilah asked softly, her American accent smooth as fuck. Then someone was walking down the cellblock, and I stared. "Is it one of the guards?"

"Nope. But I don't know who he is, how he got in, or how he and Tolliver got out."

Come on... "Can you zoom in on that?"

He shrugged. "Can and have. Too dark to make out much of anything. Do it. Freeze it. Blow it up."

And I stared at the image, holding my arm as I realised who it was.

Cain.

We left the prison not long after, pausing to get dinner from a food truck, Kali trying to get through to her brother and his girlfriend who had been on Cain duty, but there was no answer. "So?"