“My two Detectives and myself.”
“Shane Maguire and Nora Riley.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Thirty minutes? Yeah, that’s fine. We will be waiting for you,” he responds before hanging up the phone and looking at us.
“We may as well rip this band-aid off now. He will be here in thirty minutes, I suggest you pull all your files together and meet us in the conference room,” he tells us as the phone rings again, and we are dismissed.
Nora and I walk out of his office and straight to our desks to gather up the files, pictures, and reports needed to discuss this with the FBI Agent. Once we have everything, we make our way into the conference room to wait for the Agent and the Commander, while we lay everything out that we currently have.
I still need to look up the next of kin for our latest victim and make the notifications that their loved ones are no longer with us, while also finding out everything I can about why they were on that train or if they have any enemies that would want to harm them?
I get pulled from my thoughts when I hear the Commander say, "They are waiting for us in here.”
Commander Doyle waves his hand to allow the Agent to step into the conference room first. Looking at him, he looks to be maybe in his forties, with dark hair and gray at the temples. His eyes are dark brown with an intense seriousness in them. He is currently wearing a black suit, a white shirt, and a black tie. I would equate his attire to what they wear in the Men In Black movies.
“Agent Anderson, this is Detective Maguire and Detective Riley,” Commander Doyle introduces us before they take a seat in the chairs at the table.
“Why am I here?” Agent Anderson asks.
I look at Commander Doyle, and he nods, so I begin. “Sir, in six weeks, we have had six deaths on the Amtrak train coming in from Maine.”
“Wait, are you telling me there has been a murder a week ago, and you are just now informing us?” Agent Anderson interrupts me.
I take a deep breath to control my emotions before continuing, “No, Sir. What we have is three couples, one male and one female killed on a train. This morning was the third couple. The last two were found to be a male boss and his assistant. We are pretty sure the couple found this morning will be the same type.”
I pass him over the first two files, and Nora passes him the pictures that were taken at the crime scene.
“Where did this train come from?” he asks.
“It originated in Maine, Sir,” I tell him.
“I see. Do you believe this is the work of a serial killer?” he inquires, looking at me.
“Unfortunately, I don’t see how it is not,” I reply.
“What about you, Detective Riley? Are you able to work this case, given the circumstances so similar to your own experience?” he asks her.
I shouldn’t be surprised that he pulled our background.
“Sir, with all due respect, these murders are nothing like my husband’s death or my best friend missing.”
“Hmmm,” he hums before saying, “I know just a team who specialize in these situations. I will give Agent Chandler a call. I will need a copy of these files to send to him.”
“Let me go make you a copy,” Nora says, leaving the room.
Five minutes later, she comes back with a thumb drive and hands it over to Agent Anderson. “Here you go, Sir.”
Agent Anderson stands, taking the thumb drive, and says, “Thank you. The team will be in touch with you shortly.”
He walks out of the room, and I look over at Commander Doyle. He looks back and shrugs without saying a word, before walking out of the conference room.
Nora looks at me and says, “Well this should be fun.”
“Agree, but first, we need to find next of kin for our two victims and make notifications,” I tell her as we both walk out of the conference room.
Chapter Three
MYA
I click end on my last phone call to the train station, crossing it off my list. There are no tickets anywhere that were purchased in Kim’s name. I’m still waiting on Uber and Lyft data, but so far, everywhere else points to her not leaving on her own. I check my phone and see it’s just after one am. It’s been seven hours since Kim was last seen. I can’t help but rub my tired burning eyes.
Frankie is chasing the burner phone, but I don’t know if he is going to have any luck with the amount of time that has passed. Declan and Heath are currently going through the files of all our cases over the years, and they look exhausted.
Eric walks into the conference room looking over at me, and I can only shake my head. I watch his subtle nod as he looks down the table at Heath and Declan. Michelle comes to stand next to him looking tired and defeated.
“I want everyone to go home and get some rest, we will meet back here at seven am,” Eric says, and before anyone can protest, he adds, “I know you all want to find Kim, I do too, but we are no good to her if we work ourselves to exhaustion and miss something crucial that could save her sooner. Go home, get a couple of hours of sleep, and come back ready to dive into finding her. Maybe once we all have some sleep, someone might think of something we haven’t already thought about.”
He looks down at Michelle, pulling her into his side, and wraps his arm around her. “Let’s go,” he says, walking out of the conference room.
We all begrudgingly get up and follow him out of the conference room, knowing he is right. We won’t be any good to Kim if we don’t take care of ourselves. We need to treat her like any other case we work.
We all make our way out of the office and watch as Eric closes and locks the door. Heath pushes the elevator button, and when the doors open, we all pile in, making our way down to the lobby.
Once in the parking lot, everyone makes their way to their respective vehicles.
