A Trail of Murders

Chapter XI

A loud bang startle everyone in the room as my hands unexpectedly hit the table. I was livid. Banks had murdered another person, a young woman, barely twenty one years of age. We still had no idea as to where he is. Malia and the rest of my team members looked at me, anger and worry written on their faces, mirroring my own emotions.

    "We have to get this sick bastard, and soon!" I said in a menacing tone.

    Everyone agreed. This was getting out of hand. His victims had grown to a gruesome twenty one. Everytime I thought we were getting close, another victim would turn up in the opposite direction. He was smart, and I had to be smarter, and the pressure is killing me. Everyone looks to me to capture him and to get the families answers. Not to mention the fact that someone had leaked to the press that Elouise Copeland had assisted in a murder, which had brought her family to our phones, screaming in denial, ordering us to check again.

    The entire situation is tiring. Between the case and my impending court battle against Liliana, I am exhausted. It's taking its toll on my mind and body, and everyone is noticing it. The press have nicknamed Banks "The Royal Butcher" on account for him being british and posh. I stared at the board of victims with regret. I could've saved some of them, if only I can focus. Shaking the negative thoughts away, I scanned over the paper holding his "biography". The phone next to me rang and I picked it up.

    "This is Special Agent Wilson Valdez, how may I help you?" I asked, not really paying attention.

    "I expected your voice to be deeper Agent Valdez, oh well." The caller stated with a strange accent.

    I barely registered the weirdness, too focused on reading. "I'm sorry sir but I'm terribly busy, perhaps if you could call back later?"

    "Well I could call back, but then you wouldn't know where to find the body."

    I stopped reading. I replayed his words in my head, eyes widening as I recognized his strange accent to be british. My hands tightened around the phone. The bloody bastard was talking to me!

    "Myles Banks!" I exclaimed, causing everyone to look at me with shock and horror.

    Immediately the room became ballistic as people tried to start a trace on his whereabouts. Malia mouthed the words 'keep him talking'. My foot began to tap as he started talking with an excited tone.

    "The one and only. Now, pay close attention. I have one man with me, and I'm going to kill him in one hour. You will find his body at the crossing of the Colorado River and Great Basin Highway along the border of Nevada/Arizona at 2:45 tomorrow morning. Don't be late, or he'll be gone." Myles chuckled, hanging up the phone.

    I looked at my teammates to see if they had gotten a location. Malia shook her head.

    "Dammit!" I cursed, hitting my hand on the table again.

Glancing at the clock, I saw it was 11:47 PM. When had he gotten so south of us? Last we heard, he was terrorizing this small town, Jensenstown. It was a three hour drive to that exact spot from here, depending on the amount of traffic. We can't be late. I spun on my heel and looked at two of the men on my team.

"Collins, Gerard. Pack the stuff and get it in your SUV. Meet us there." I ordered. "Connelly, Reece, you're both with me. Let's go."

We ran to my SUV and I hit the accelerator, flying down the road with the lights flashing and siren blaring. We have to catch this sick bastard. I will not lose to him. I can not lose to him. I pulled onto the highway, well, skidded onto the highway and took off at a high speed. The car was filled with chaos as my teammates called out to the police in Boulder City to get there A.S.A.P. Ambulances were called, coroner's were on standby, it was a disaster.

He wanted us to be in chaos, it puts him in control of the situation. I almost considered stopping the car and waiting out the time, just to shove it in his face, but if he was being serious, he had another victim that we need to identify. Shoving my hatred further down, I sped up my speed until the speedometer read 92 mph. I didn't care. This is a life or death situation. The victim could still be alive. I need a save. We all do. By the time we arrived at the scene, the local police were already there, running around. The sheriff came up to me as I stepped out of the car.

"Did you find one?" I asked with worry hidden beneath my steady voice.

"....No." The sheriff said, filling me with hope. "There is no body, victim, assailant, nothing."

This confused me. I didn't expect Myles to be the type of serial killer to send you on a wild goose chase. I checked my watch. 2:41 AM. Where was this victim? The minutes slowly ticked by, when suddenly voices yelled out, exclaiming that there was a body in the water. My team and I ran down to the edge of the river. There, slowly drifting down the river, was the body of a man wrapped in a plastic tarp. Gerard and I pulled the body out and I checked the pulse. Dead. I waved to the coroner to come down and collect the body, and for the forensics team to start searching for clues.

The coroner discovered a piece of paper wedged inside a ziploc bag within the man's throat. He pulled it out and gave it to me. I froze after looking at it, fear climbing through my body. It was a picture of Tiffany, dancing at her daycare center. Turning it over, I read the words. "Where's your precious Tiffany, Wilson?"

I immediately grabbed my phone and dialed Liliana's number, demanding to know where my daughter was. My princess's voice came onto the phone.

"Daddy? Are you okay?" She asked.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Yes baby, I just wanted to check in again. I love you pumpkin. Can I talk to your mother, please."

"Sure daddy. I love you too." Tiffany said before handing the phone over to my ex.

"What's your problem Wilson? I'll be telling the judge about your behaviour!" Liliana warned in a snotty voice.

"Shut up and listen to me. I'm having you two moved to an FBI safe house for a while. It's not safe at the moment. Don't even try to argue with me. You have no say in this. Go pack." I said, hanging up the phone before she could protest.

It was only when I moved to put my phone in my pocket, that I noticed the time. It was 2:45 AM, on the dot.