What Now

28. One Shot

"Let's get started," Caffrey stated as Michael, Lydia and I joined him in my office. Maria wasn't far behind us. Before I went out on the terrace to get Lydia and her brother, I went and woke up Maria. She needed to be here for this. When I first woke her up, she jumped from the couch. She was terrified and needed me to reassure her that Jonathon wasn't here in the apartment. She had been having a nightmare. This asshole wasn't even here in person and he was causing problems. I just wanted this over. For all of us. 

Lydia squeezed my hand as Caffrey continued, "We were able to pick Jonathon Preston up on surveillance in a few different places within the city." Multiple images of Jonathon Preston showed up on the screen. "Here, he was captured outside Lydia's dorm," Caffrey said as he pointed to the picture. "Then he was also seen on surveillance the night of the art show, as we are all aware." 

"Wait, he was in my dorm?" Lydia interrupted with a shaky voice. "In my actual dorm?" 

"No," Caffrey answered quickly. "Not that we can see. It appears he stayed outside of the building and never entered. We've also seen him outside the café where you work and some other places in the remote area." 

"This is bullshit," I mumbled. Caffrey turned towards me. "Did we even find out how the hell he got out of prison? What did he do, fucking escape? Did he dig a tunnel or watch too much Prison Break?" 

I felt Lydia tense up next to me. I knew she was freaking out enough already, having me freak out wasn't going to help. I inhaled and exhaled a deep breath. I needed to relax...so she could relax. 

Caffrey cleared his throat and grabbed some papers off of my desk. "Actually, he walked right out of the front door." We all looked at him with gaping expressions. How the fuck was that possible? "He was granted a compassionate release."

"A Compassionate Release? What the hell is that?" Lydia asked before I got the chance. I felt like I've heard of it before, but my mind was racing and I couldn't concentrate. 

"It's when someone who is serving a life sentence has a terminal illness. Sometimes, when they only have a few months to live, they are granted a compassionate release with special conditions."

"Who cares?" I sneered the question. "They know what that bastard did, and they still let him go? I don't care if he's dying or not. Just because he has cancer or whatever, all the horrible things he had done are just forgotten?"

Caffrey raised his hands defensively at the anger in my tone. "Look, I know everyone is a little--"

"How long?" Maria interrupted. We all looked in her direction and she asked again, "How long has he been free? When was he released?" 

"Roughly two weeks ago," Caffrey answered. "He was given strict orders not to leave the city. Clearly, he's violated his parole." 

Michael finally spoke up. "Wait, we need to figure out how to get him back in prison. We have no idea what he's doing here or what he's planning." Michael glanced to Lydia and Maria before he looked back to Caffrey. "Listen, I know that you and the NYPD are handling this, but you don't know our father. You don't know what he's capable of. He will stop at nothing." 

Caffrey ran his hand through his hair. "Listen guys, I know we are all a little on edge. You guys are right to be worried. Right now, this is all the information we got. We're trying to proceed slowly so we can do this right. We want to make sure that once this bastard is back behind bars, he's going to stay there." 

"What about the news?" I asked curiously. "You already sent out his picture to the NYPD and the FBI, right? If his face is on the news, he'll take off."