Project Equality

Vacation (3 of 7)

Lynn

"There are more bodies. He's killed more people. I knew this was too easy." Agent Tracie Simon was a scary ass woman. When she was pissed, though? That was just downright terrifying.

"How do you know that?" May asked, her voice barely audible. It was hard enough to have a dad who killed her mom, harder that he killed her ex boyfriend, Shreyas, and hardest that he was a serial killer who had killed 25 people. To hear there were more? I couldn't even imagine her pain.

Viktor turned his attention from me to his best friend to comfort her, and I respected the hell out of him for that.

"The pattern of a father who's a killer. He never stopped showering you with gifts, he never stopped killing. He just didn't have a point to make, only an addiction to feed," Tracie explained.

My head was buzzing with new information. Not two minutes ago had I kissed Viktor, easily to most perfect guy on the planet, and now this? The mind of Lynn Jacobs was vast and full of intellect, but all that just wasn't sitting. I thought the drama of murder was over.

"What do you want us to do?" Hazel asked. Hazel was the one who had figured Mr. Cane out in the first place, so she usually felt obligated to help at any opportunity with the case.

"Nothing," Tracie said. "You are not FBI. Chrissy is, so baby I'm going to need your help. Everyone else, head to the Jacobs', okay? We'll be there in a bit."

If I didn't call Jenna things like "babe" or "baby" or "gorgeous", I might have found it weird that this extremely beautiful, extremely gay woman was calling my aunt that. But they were best friends, and as a moderately gay girl who called my attractive sometimes girl best friends pet names like that, I thought nothing of it.

Tracie was always around after I'd found out Aunt Chris was a sketch artist, forensic photographer, and forensic computer scientist with the FBI. I didn't even know she had so many degrees. Chrissy was Tracie's new go-to forensic scientist, which led to a pretty strong friendship. They caught a serial killer together; you don't get much closer than that.

Having her around was like a second mom in the house, even though I didn't have the one to begin with. Tracie was the responsible parent who told me my skirts were too short and no I couldn't get a tattoo yet, a nice contrast to Chris letting me do basically whatever. Sure, Jenna's moms took care of me, but they weren't always there. Chris and Tracie were.

Anyways, the group of us - me, Jen, Hazel, May, Viktor, Lisa, Andrea, Ely, Lauren, and Amilia - headed to my house, awaiting instruction.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Should we talk about that?" I asked Viktor, pulling him away for a second.

"Do we need to?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "I don't want any misconceptions here."

"Fair enough," he agreed. "I like you a lot, Lynn."

"I like you a lot too. I'm not used to being rendered speechless by the simple awesomeness of another person. If I hadn't been, I would have hit on you right then and there on the night we met a year ago," I assured him.

"I remember thinking you were quiet," he laughed.

"But now I'm able to look you in the eyes. We just kissed. We're great friends - thanks to May - and are overall a nice pair. So do we do this thing or don't we?"

"Are you asking me out?"

"Yes."

"Okay," he said.

"Is that an okay like yes?"

"Yes," he chuckled. "Let's do it."

"Cool," I squeaked, suddenly not sure of myself. I liked Viktor for so long that I didn't know how to process that we were actually together. How could that even be real?

"We're having an emergency meeting, right now," Jen said, poking her head around the corner.

"Yeah, of course, be right there," I said, following her into my living room.

"Whatever happens next," May was saying, "we must react with more calm and  maturity than we did the first time around. There is no need for a panic. We are not in danger."

"True," Ely said. "He's already put away, this is only about closure now."

"I just want to do something about it, you know?" Hazel sighed. "I want to do something about all of the criminals! All of those families needing closure . . ."

"Why not go into law enforcement?" Ami suggested. "You're pretty good at figuring things out, I think you would do great."

"No!" Hazel cried, eyes bright with a panic that I didn't quite understand. "I am going to research cancer. Biochem. Science."

"Both are noble professions," I pointed out.

"It's not that simple."

Then it clicked. Hazel was getting the IB diploma, which is pretty much pointless unless you intend to go to a college out of country. She wanted to go back to England.

"I've known what I wanted to do with my life since I was a little girl. Why would I change that now?"

Her girlfriend Andrea put a hand on her shoulder. "You've still got time to decide."

"I love you Hazel, but I need to get back on topic," my moirail interrupted. "We do need a plan so that it's easier to keep calm."

"I can agree with that," May said, "but we do not have a safe house anymore, exactly. What will our plan be without that?"

"You always have a safehouse, as long as I'm around," came Tracie's voice as she entered the room. "The safest house - mine."

"It won't reach that point though," Aunt Chris agreed us, shortly behind Tracie.

"We do have some bad news that, unfortunately, I'm going to have to be okay with sharing with you,"Tracie continued. "Diggory has confessed to there being more bodies, and promises to give us information on where they are, under certain conditions. He wants to see his daughter, and he will only tell the information to 'the English one who turned him in'."

May and Hazel looked at each other, and while I couldn't see May's eyes, it was no secret that they were equally horrified.