I spy with my little eye. ||on hold||

Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

"Sister is probably the most competitive relationship in the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship."

-Margaret Mead

* * *

"I've got it!" shouted Jason triumphantly from the other side of the room.

He passed us the laptop and pointed to the screen. Amidst the coding and data was the IP address of the computer used to send us the email. It belonged to an internet cafe downtown. I started building the geographical profile around this information along with the dump sites of the other two victims.

"I tracked the email and it looks like it was sent by someone called Michael Johnson," called Hayden " he regularly visits the cafe and mainly uses social networking sites to track our victims movements. I put his name through ViCap but nothing came up, does it sound familiar to anyone?"

"He was in Jennifer's literature class, along with our first two victims Vanessa Archer and Jade Garrett," I remembered, grabbing his file from the pile in the corner. "Look here, Matthew Johnson aged 28. His parents died in a car crash when he was 13 leaving him to look after his six month old sister Maria. When Matthew went off to college he moved his sister into a small apartment just off campus. One night last year Maria snuck out and followed him to a friend's party. Allegedly our victims got her so drunk that she fell into the pool and almost drowned. She's been in a coma ever since." I read.

"Were the girls not prosecuted?" asked Jason.

"Vanessa Archer's father is a very influential lawyer and the girls got off on all charges."

"What about the victims? It can't be a coincidence that they're all red-heads, " asked Mark.

"Supposedly they belonged to an exclusive club for red-heads. I'm assuming that's where they met," said Jason.

"Do we have an address?" asked Francesca.

"I've sent it to your phones now." I replied.

We grabbed our bullet proof vests while Mark told the Chief what was going on. He briefed his men and told us he would meet us at Matthew's house. We climbed into the SUVs and sped off, sirens blaring.

* * *

Matthew lived ten minutes from the police station. By the time we got there the other officers had already arrived.

"Alright this is what's going to happen," Mark said addressing the entire group. "I want Jason, Hayden and five other officers to cover the back of the house. Francesca, Aurora and I will enter through the front and each take a section of the house, we clear?"

We all made various sounds of understanding then went to our allotted groups. Cautiously we approached the door with our guns raised. Mark gave the signal and two of the officers kicked down the door. The house was swarmed in seconds. To my dismay there were calls of "clear" from all over the house. I was about to throw in the towel and go back out to the front when a light, coming from underneath a bookcase, caught my attention.

Slowly I pulled back the bookcase and stuck my gun in. What I saw inside shocked me, one whole wall was covered in computer screens. Each showed videos of our first two victims being held captive. The opposite wall had pictures of our victims, both ante-mortem and post-mortem, and newspaper clippings about Maria's accident plastered across it like some sick wallpaper. Matthew sat in a rolling desk chair in the centre of the room, his eyes focused on the screen which showed Jennifer.

"Matthew Johnson put your hands up and turn around!" I ordered, pointing my gun at him. My hands were shaking with nervousness but I tried to keep them as steady as possible.

He spun around and I barely recognised him.. His school ID showed a smiling brown eyed, black haired boy but the man sitting before me had red rimmed eyes and looked like he had aged ten years. "They killed her!" he sobbed, pointing at the monitors.

"I know but you have to let Jennifer go," I said trying to calm him down. "With your testimony we can make sure she does the prison time she should have done."

He looked up at me with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I only want justice for my sister."

"I'll make sure Maria gets the justice she deserves, but right now I really need you to tell me where Jennifer is."

"No. You don't care about justice, you'll just throw me in prison the second you get a chance!"

"I promise," I replied reassuringly, "we won't put you in prison, not unless we have a reason too." I felt bad for lying to him but my priority was finding Jennifer safe, and hopefully, alive.

He rose slowly with his hands raised and made his way over to a door behind him. I kept my gun trained on him the whole time and didn't lower it until he turned his back on me. Watching him carefully I whispered into the radio in my watch strap.

"I need back-up in the office by the main door. I may have found Jennifer, proceed with caution."

He descended down a set of steps into what I assumed was a basement. I watched him on the monitor in front of me and saw him untie Jennifer and guide her up the stairs. He appeared moments later with Jennifer and I was glad to see that she was alive. She was dragging her feet behind her when she walked and she looked weak. Mark had just arrived and Matthew pushed her into his waiting arms. He picked her up bridal style and carried her outside where he was met by a team of EMTs.

I pulled out my handcuffs and walked towards Matthew. "I have to put these on you for both your, and my own protection, okay?" I whispered quietly.

He nodded and turned his back to me. I pulled his arms behind his back and slipped the cuffs onto one of his wrists.

"You're going to prison for a long time buddy," said one of the officers from the doorway.

Matthew turned to look at me, his face a cold mask of anger. "You lied to me!" he screamed.

Before I could react Matthew elbowed me into the face, in the same spot Jason had hit me this morning. At least I had an excuse for the bruise now. While I was disorientated he grabbed my gun, pointed it to his head and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed off the walls and his blood splattered the wall beside us. I wiped the blood from my eyes and stared in shock at the body of Matthew Johnson. I'm not sure how long I stood there, just staring, but suddenly time seemed to slow down and I had to be pulled away from the room by another officer.

If there are any typos please let me know!