Yara Hughes: All-Seeing Detective

Chapter Seven: Endgame

Cameron showed me a lunch place in the lobby. I had to admit, American food is different; but good, nonetheless. An hour later we were back at the roundtable. The meeting restarted as soon as Agent Wood returned to the table.

"Alex," He called out. "What've you got for us on our suspect?"

Agent Jackson stood up and pointed the remote at the screen. "Our suspect is Bruce McCarthy; he's a 45-year-old widower from New Haven, Connecticut. And as of two months ago he has been completely inactive; no posts on any of his social medias, no credit card payments, and his cell phone can't be tracked because someone disabled the location feature in such a way that even we can't turn it back on remotely. Before that, however, he was incredibly active on his socials; posting nearly every single day about his kid, his wife, and her love of playgrounds."

"That," I said, pointing at the screen now clogged with pictures of the family. "Is a lot of pictures. Don't people know that oversharing online is how creeps find and hurt them?"

"They don't care," Agent Jackson answered.

"At any rate," Agent Yates stepped in. "This man is likely near the end of his reign of terror. His kills show that he's coming back towards the East Coast and, therefore, Connecticut. We need to find him before he can do any more harm."

"But Agent Jackson just said that we can't track him," Agent Gray protested.

"So we lure him out," I said.

"What?"

"We lure him out. We announce that the Senator will be giving a speech about the success of Connecticut's Department of Parks and Recreation. We publicize the event everywhere. It will be held out in public in front of the city hall in Hartford. The suspect will go nuts because unlike the media, he knows what the Senator has really done for that department. That, he decides, is when he'll attack. We beef up the security detail at the event. We'll be there, looking out for him. When we spot him or when he attacks, whichever happens first we'll catch him."

"That's... actually brilliant," Cameron said. "Can we do that?"

"Sounds like a plan," Agent Wood replied. "I'll notify the Senator's office."

Agent Gray stood up. "I'll call the plane."

"Everyone else run home and get your go-bags," Agent Wood continued. "We'll meet on the tarmac in two hours."

Everyone stood up and began to pack their notes. Cameron turned to me.

"Want me to drive you?"

I accepted his offer and he dropped me off 45 minutes later with a promise to be back in 30. I made my way upstairs and entered my room; immediately taking out the small duffel bag I'd brought with me, quickly filling it with the necessary items for this mission. Cameron and I arrived back at the door to the hotel at the exact same time. I jumped back into his car and we drove to the tarmac. When we arrived, a private jet was waiting for us.

"You guys have a private jet?" I asked, stunned.

"Yep," said Agent Jackson, coming up from behind us. "We gotta get places fast, y'know?"

I stood open-mouthed. At first the jet seemed unnecessary, spending so much money when you could just fly commercial; but then I realized that these agents were tackling cases all across their enormous country, and in some cases they needed to be places very quickly.

The inside of the plane was exquisitely furnished; the only way it could've been any fancier, I thought, was if there had been a chandelier hanging in the middle. The seats were covered in leather. There was a literal couch on the plane. A couch!

Once everyone was seated, the plane took off. Agent Wood stood up to address us.

"The speech will take place tomorrow at noon," he began. "We'll split up the team as such: Cameron, you and Ms. Hughes will be near the podium with Senator Lerner and her protective detail. Agents Gray and Yates, you two will be in the crowd and in normal clothes. Warner and Locke, you'll be in a car at one of the police barricades; Jackson and I will be in another car at the other barricade. We'll need to be in position by 11:30. Sound good?"

The rest of us nodded.

"Wonderful. We've got a short flight ahead of us and cars will be picking us up at the airport. Get some rest tonight and be ready to meet downstairs tomorrow morning at 10:45."

The remainder of the flight was spent in blissful silence. We landed at the Bradley International Airport less than an hour later and took two black SUVs to our hotel near City Hall. I spent the rest of the night in my room, preparing myself for the day ahead. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.