Just when their patience was wearing thin, a sleepy eyed guy that didn't look a lot older than Brian and Rob walked in, wearing Georgia Tech sweats.
"Hi. I'm Detective Jones," he said.
Mike was not happy with this Detective. "How old are you?" he asked.
"23. How old are you?" Detective Jones asked back.
"29. But I'm a Doctor. What does how old I am have to do with anything?" Mike asked.
"I have a Masters Degree in Criminal Psychology. If I get a cut on any of the broken glass, I'll ask for your help, OK?" Detective Jones said, dismissing Mike. "You haven't touched the package yet?"
"No, we haven't touched what was thrown through my fucking window," Mike yelled.
"Look, Mr. Brown, I want to help you. I got up in the middle of the night so I could see what I could do for you. I think we'll get a lot more done if we work together. What do you say?" Detective Jones said.
"This might not have happened if someone had come out when I called earlier," Mike answered angrily.
"We'll never know. But if I had come out when you called, I wouldn't have still been here now. So it probably would have happened anyway. Now, can we talk about how this started?" Detective Jones asked.
Mike looked at Brian, who blushed, but shook his head yes. "Why don't we go into the den," Mike said.
"Excuse me, Detective. We've checked the package for explosives and it came back negative. Do you want to cut it open?" one of the policemen asked.
"Yeah, there might be some kind of message in it," Detective Jones answered.
The first policeman took out a pocket knife and cut through the layers of duct tape holding it together. Duct tape surrounded all four sides, not allowing them to see anything inside it.
The policeman used gloves so that he wouldn't leave his fingerprints on anything. It took several minutes, but he finally folded one side over and displayed the contents. There were two folded car tags wrapped around a brick, a small section of shattered glass barely still holding together, and an envelope.
The policeman carefully unfolded one of the car tags and they saw immediately that it was from North Carolina. "That's one of the tags from Bill's car," Rob said excitedly.
"Bill is who you think did this?" Detective Jones asked.
"We're positive he is," Mike answered.
"Are you positive this is the tag?" Detective Jones asked.
"I can prove it," Rob answered, as he quickly ran upstairs. He returned in under thirty seconds. He was carrying his insurance card for his car. "Here," he said to Detective Jones, handing him the card. On the back was the same tag number as the tag they all were staring at. "I wrote it down right before Mike accelerated up the ramp."
"I want to see what's in the envelope and then we all need to have a long talk," Detective Jones said. He also slipped on a set of thin plastic gloves and opened the envelope. There was a single sheet of computer paper inside. The other three crowded behind him so that they could read too.
Nice Mustang. Piss yellow wouldn't have been my choice of colors, but I have to admit, it is fast. Actually, I like piss yellow. It should be easy to find. And when I do, I'm going to do the same thing to it that I did to the old Mustang that BRIAN'S LITTLE SLUT BOYFRIEND USED TO DRIVE!! AND WHEN I FIND YOU, BRIAN, YOU'RE GOING TO LOOK A LOT WORSE THAN EITHER OF THE CARS!! I'M GOING TO TAKE MY TIME KILLING YOU!!! YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER CHEATED ON ME IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! I LOVED YOU!!! AND YOU TREATED ME LIKE SHIT BEHIND MY BACK!! THIS ISN'T OVER!!! NOT BY A LONG SHOT!!! I'LL SEE YOU SOON!! ALL OF YOU!!
"Oh no, not my car," Rob yelled.
I think we need to have that talk right now," Detective Jones said.
"I put on a pot of coffee. Do you want a cup?" Mike asked, finally calming down.
"You think I'm old enough to drink coffee?" Detective Jones asked. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I can now see what kind of pressure you must be under. Yes, I would love a cup."
Mike stared at him for a second and almost made a reply, but thought better of it. If they were going to catch Bill, he knew they needed Detective Jones. Mike turned around without saying a word and went to get two cups of coffee.
When he returned, he wordlessly handed one to Detective Jones and sat down in his recliner.
"Thanks," Detective Jones said. "Look, I'm sorry about how I acted to start with. Most of the time, cases like this turns out to be a prank or a lover's quarrel. I can see that this isn't like that at all. Start from the beginning and tell me everything. Don't leave anything out."
Brian and Mike took turns telling Detective Jones about everything that had taken place. Mike gave him the disk that contained everything Brian had saved that Bill had sent him. Brian even went upstairs and gave him the ring Bill had sent. He didn't to ever see it again.
Detective Jones asked to go upstairs and have Brian sign on to his e-mail account so he could write down Bill's ISP number.
"Try signing into AIM so we can see if Bill is on line," Detective Jones said.
"I really don't want to talk to him any more," Brian answered.
"I understand. I'll do the typing. I just want to see what he'll say," Detective Jones answered.
Brian signed on and then moved out of the way. And Bill was on. Brian couldn't believe it.
Bill: Hello. Anything new happening in your life?
Detective Jones answered.
Brian: What do you want? Bill: To whom am I speaking? Brian: This is Brian Bill: How stupid do you think I am? I know I'm talking to a pig. I just wanted you to know that I know. This is the last time I'll be using this sign on, so don't waste your time looking to see if I'm on line. Brian: Don't go. I want to know what you want. Bill: What I want? WHAT I FUCKING WANT? I WANT BRIAN DEAD! I ALSO WANT HIS LITTLE SLUT BOYFRIEND DEAD!! I WANT TO SMASH THAT MUSTANG THAT OUTRAN ME INTO A MILLION PIECES!!! WHAT DO I WANT??? IS THAT ENOUGH?????
And Bill signed off.
"We have a real problem," Detective Jones said.
"At least you see what we're up against. He was crazier than that when Bri broke up with him," Mike answered.
"I'll put out a call to look for a green Jeep. Do you know what kind of Jeep it was?" Detective Jones asked.
"I don't," Mike said.
"I really don't keep up with types of Jeeps," Brian added.
"Me either," Rob also said.
"Well, that doesn't give us much to go on. I'll run the tag number and see what that turns up. I'll bring back some pictures of the fronts of different types of Jeeps later today and see if that helps you narrow it down. I hate to admit it, but we don't have much choice than to wait and see what he does next," Detective Jones said.
"But what if he tries to break in?" Brian asked, fear showing on his face.
"You have your burglar alarm system. I can make sure that if we get a call that someone is trying to break in, we'll have a car here within ten minutes. I can't assign a car to watch the house at this point, based on a package thrown through your window. I wish I could, but I can't," Detective Jones answered.
"Can you find out anything about my car?" Rob asked.
"Sure. I'll be right back," Detective Jones answered, as he walked into the next room.
"Mike, what're we going to do? He could be back at any time," Brian said. He was close to panicking.
"There isn't anything we can do. We know he's changed his tags. He could have Georgia tags by now. The police don't have much to go on. We'll just make sure and keep the house locked like we have it. I'm sure Bill isn't coming back today, since he knows the police are here," Mike answered.
"I wish I'd never talked to him in the first place," Brian said.
"So do I, buddy," Mike answered.
Detective Jones walked back into the room. "Rob, I have some bad news."
"What?" Rob answered.
"We patrol around the theater about every two hours. A patrolman noticed the car around 1 am and radioed it in. He just assumed it was broken down. The next time he drove by, all four tires were flat and someone had taken something and broken the glass all the way around and also had beaten the body up pretty badly. I'm afraid it might be totaled," Detective Jones answered.
"Oh no. Not my Mustang," Rob yelled.
"Rob, I'm sorry. It's all my fault," Brian said.
"No it isn't. You didn't do anything. It was that fucking madman that did it. I can't wait until you guys catch him," Rob answered, as he looked at Detective Jones.
"Me either, buddy. Try and get some sleep. I'm going to go back to the police station and see what I can find out about these tags. I also want to take a look at everything on this disk," Detective Jones said, as he picked it up on the coffee table. All three of them stood up, knowing he was about to leave.
He walked over to Brian and held out his hand. "We'll catch him Brian. I promise."
Brian shook his hand and then nervously said, "You won't let anyone else know what's on the disk, will you?"
Detective Jones smiled and shook his head. "I'll look at it in my office. No one will see anything unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Thanks," Brian answered.
"Rob, sorry about your car," Detective Jones said, as he offered his hand.
Rob shook it and said, "Thanks. I was getting tired of that car anyway."
"Mr. Brown. Again, sorry about how we started out. I'll promise you this. I'm going to give this case as much of my time as possible. I want to catch this guy as badly as all of you do," Detective Jones said, as he held out his hand to Mike.
"I'm sorry too. I didn't give you a chance. And call me Mike."
"Mike it is. All of you can call me Justyn. I really like the work I do, but getting called Detective Jones all of the time does get old. I'll come back later today and let you know what I've found out, OK?" Justyn asked.
"That'd be great. Thanks for all of your help," Mike answered.
All three walked him to the front door. The other policemen had already left. At least they had cleaned up the broken glass.
"Make sure and lock up," Justyn said as he walked down the steps.
"Don't worry about that," Mike answered.
"Guys, we can talk about this over and over again, but there isn't anything else we can do," Mike said.
Brian just stared at him, then lowered his head. "I know. I just feel totally helpless."
"Why don't we go to bed and see if we can sleep for a few more hours. I'm really tired, and I know both of you must be too," Mike answered.
"That's a good idea. I'm really sleepy," Rob answered.
They all agreed and walked up the stairs after Mike had turned out all the lights.
"Try to get some sleep, OK?" Mike asked as he went into his room.
Brian and Rob walked into Brian's room and started to get undressed again. Brian was much too keyed up and exhausted to think about being shy this time and undressed facing Rob like they used to do. They tiredly got into bed, said goodnight to each other and were both asleep within minutes.
To Be Continued
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