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Marcel
Sunday, 24 January, 8:00 a.m.
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A strange sensation wormed itself into my being. Not dread, nor nausea, or fear. Perhaps a mixture of isolation, anticipation, and a growing uneasiness, all of which collided inside me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't recall a single word which describes it. With Aidan next to me, I couldn't feel alone, yet knowing my daughter would be thousands of kilometres away broke my heart. My in-laws would take care of Ainsley, lavish her with love and attention while Aidan and I hunted. Our precious, babbling one-year-old hadn't even given us a second glance when we kissed her goodbye. Her focus on her grandfather, as Ryan had made aeroplane noises while feeding her cereal. Aeroplane equals flying. Could what I felt be because of my fear of flying?
"We're ready for takeoff," Rowan said. "Fin, you've never flown with me, I promise to make this the best experience of your life and get you over this silly phobia of yours once and for all." He placed a big hand on my shoulder.
"I'm not afraid of flying." Petrified would be a better word, but I needed to downplay it and remind my brother-in-law that I'm a badass. Even more so as this was my first official operation with the family business. To phrase it like that makes us sound like an organised crime syndicate, when in fact, we hunt criminals. After all this time, I was finally in the field with them. At the cost of leaving my daughter behind.
"Sure, you're not. Maybe once we reach cruising altitude, you can come inside the cockpit. You know, have a look around, touch a few things. See the world the way I do, from up front."
"I would love to, but where will you and your co-pilot be?"
Rowan frowned; Aidan laughed. "Don't worry about my wife, Ro. She has enough work to keep her busy for the duration of the flight. You just focus on getting us to Vienna and I'll worry about Finley."
"Okay." Rowan shrugged and headed for the cockpit.
"I can't figure him out. All innuendoes, but when I bat one back at him, he misses it." I fastened my seatbelt and glanced around the interior of the Boeing 787 9 Dreamliner VIP. From the outside it looked like any other, but the interior reminded me of the command centre, which is Aidan's home office.
"If it gets too much for you, we can always renew our mile high club membership." Aidan pressed his lips to my neck.
"Didn't you say I have too much work?"
"That you do. Eli found more unsolved homicide cases. Once we're airborne, we can run through it together."
I turned to Aidan and placed my hand in his as the Dreamliner started to taxi towards the runway. "I will review the case files on my own, and once you've slept a couple of hours, we can discuss it."
"I don't need sleep." The red veins in Aidan's eyes had been there since he brought me my morning coffee. For the first time not wearing a towel wrapped around his waist. To be honest, the SIGs holstered at his thighs might be even sexier.
I ran my hand up his thigh, over the black cargo pants he now wore daily instead of the suit pants he had worn when he brought new life into this world. The thigh holsters were a recent addition, which I hoped would turn into an everyday thing. Aidan lifted my hand to his mouth. He smiled, the same emotion I felt flashed in his eyes. Still, I couldn't put it into words.
"I love you, Aidan Walker. Thank you for allowing me to work again."
"You didn't give me much of a choice. You're rather persuasive when you want to be."
"I'm sorry, my love." I wiped the wetness from my face with the back of my hand, not releasing his. "This isn't easy for you, but it's time."
Aidan leaned his head back and stared at nothing, memory played on his face. "I need to apologise; for everything I've put you through since the day Ainsley was born."
I understood more than any other person ever could. I told him so.
"That's why I love you, Finley D. Williams-Walker. You understand me like no other person ever has, or ever will. You sense my emotions, as I do yours."
"I think it's part of being married, more so when there are no secrets. We can't go back and undo what happened. I'm here, Ainsley survived. We've been through so much since we met, I think we both forgot we're only human. Despite everything that has happened, bad stuff can still happen to us."
If the accident had been any further from the hospital, we would've lost Ainsley that day. Neither of us would've survived losing another child. Least of all Aidan, when he had already lost one child because of a car crash. It was a miracle Ainsley survived when my placenta had ruptured from the impact of the head on collision. Going against protocol, Aidan delivered her, as Dr Brown had been busy with another patient. The paramedics had called him en route to the hospital, despite me begging them not to. They knew Dr Walker from the years he had worked in the ER. Part respect, part fear of his wrath, had made them go against my wishes. They saved my daughter's life by ignoring my pleas to first find out if she was okay before we called Aidan.
On his fortieth birthday, Aidan held his daughter for the first time.
"Why are you crying?" Aidan wiped my cheeks with the back of his fingers.
I shook my head, but kept my eyes on his. "We've been through so much. I'm beginning to think things will never be easy for us. There will always be some sort of enemy around every corner, and me going into the field puts our life in even more danger."
Aidan smiled, the sweetest smile I've ever seen on his face. "I will do everything, and anything within my power, to keep both my girls safe."
He had. Our home, in the middle of the street, can withstand an aerial strike, even an explosion. Every room a panic room. Aidan had gone so far as to have my new G-Class reinforced with steel bars, the windows and tyres bullet resistant. I swear if it would've looked less conspicuous driving it around Marcel, he would've bought me a Gurkha, or a Humvee. At one time I suspected to see a tank drive through our gate. As with everything else, we overcame, together. Even seeing Dr James for therapy sessions, together. Here we were, husband and wife, parents to the only child we can ever have. The future leaders of an organisation I never even knew existed, as most of the world doesn't, including some presidents, and heads of state.
"Why didn't you sleep last night?" His cheek warm against my palm.
"Keeping my girls safe. You have a meeting with the detective assigned to the Vienna murders first thing tomorrow morning. We're at cruising altitude."
As always, Aidan kept my mind busy, and my focus off my irrational fear of flying. I wondered if this time, knowing the pilot helped a little. No, it was all down to the magnificent man I get to call my own.
"Why don't you sleep while I work through what Eli found since we spoke last night? If you don't want to leave me to go sleep on the bed, at least rest your head on my lap."
Aidan lowered the overhead screens and handed me the controls. He showed me how to use it, knowing I would wake him up by throwing it across the cabin when I failed to get it to do what I wanted.
His hair soft between my fingers, his breathing calmed, and I got to work. The first time I hunted a serial killer since the Sophia Blake case. Of course, Quinn and I hunted down the men who had raped the young women of Pepper Gorge. Quinn had all the fun taking them out, while I wasn't allowed to join in. Aidan refused his pregnant wife the privilege of taking the lives of monsters masquerading as upstanding citizens in their countries. Aidan Walker is a party pooper, but he loves me, and I him.
Eli had found twenty-five unsolved murder cases in different countries across the world. I read every file, memorised the crime scene photos, and made notes on my mobile phone as I didn't want to disturb Aidan by getting up to search for a pen and paper. I prefer old school ways to make sense of the depravity of those who indulge in their darkest fantasies.
––––––––
Twenty-five unsolved murder cases. Seventeen female faces tattooed on our unsub's back. Why did our unidentified subject not get the faces of his male victims inked into his skin?
Rowan took a seat next to me and stared at the crime scene photo displayed on the overhead screen. "What's the deal with the snakes and the leaves?" he whispered, in attempt not to wake Aidan.
Without opening his eyes, I knew Aidan was awake. I checked the time to destination at the bottom of the screen – Aidan had slept for five hours. Five hours I spent trying to understand the violence captured in the crime scene photos. Death is never pretty, even when the victims' bodies showed no visible signs of trauma. Not considering those who were burned.
I continued playing with Aidan's hair, but turned to Rowan. "I have a theory but need more time before I share it with the team."
"Do you think all the cases Eli found are the work of our unsub?" Aidan asked, his voice alert.
"No. Unless he hid any earlier victims better or didn't contact the local police. My professional opinion? The murder in Playa del Carmen was his first. Or perhaps he perfected his MO before he headed there and didn't bother with the calls. But I think our killer was born this cocky. He called the Policía Federal Ministerial because he thought he had a better chance of getting away with murder there. He travelled to Mexico with the sole purpose of ending a young woman's life. The dress was a size too big for her, but the detail he put into it is meticulous."
Aidan got to his feet and returned with two coffees and handed Rowan a bottle of water. "I scanned through the case files on the way to the airport. Phyllobates terribilis are endemic to the Pacific coast of Columbia; they aren't found in Mexico. In captivity they lose toxicity and are endangered."
"Did you research golden poison frogs during the short drive as well?" I smiled before taking a sip of the delicious caffeine.
Aidan stared down at me, rolling his shoulders without spilling a drop from his mug. "No. Learned about them when I was five."
With even ten percent of his eidetic memory, life would be much easier for me. Aidan Walker is a fountain of knowledge and I knew, staring up at a man more handsome than he is brilliant, that my thirst for him will never be quenched.
"The question is – how did our killer get the poison from Columbia to Mexico?"
I placed the mug down and started pacing around the cabin. "You're either a pilot, a flight attendant, or you work on a cruise ship. Although, the murders in Budapest and Vienna shoots that theory out of the water. Perhaps you're on vacation now."
"Why a cruise ship?" Rowan asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.
"Every murder I suspect he's responsible for has been in a port city, except Budapest and Vienna."
"Of the twenty-five Eli has found, how many do you think is his work?" Aidan watched as I moved around the cabin.
"Seventeen cases, make it eighteen if we include the Vienna murders. Eighteen cases, twenty-four victims. The other eight murders aren't his. The victims are older, and the crime scenes, or rather staging, don't have his touch. I can't call it a signature, not yet. Each murder is different, but it isn't. It's as if he cycles through them."
Rowan stood and stretched. "What do you mean he cycles through them?"
A rhythm, a flow. "To give you a definite answer, I need to go old school and write this down. Where on this futuristic aircraft might I find good old-fashioned pen and paper?"
Aidan reached into his backpack and handed me what I needed. He asked Rowan to join him in the onboard kitchen and left me to create an A4 sized murder board. Some call it a crazy wall, I prefer a more adequate description.