Chapter 6

Mike was at his desk completing paperwork when the phone rang. He briefly considered allowing the call to go to voicemail. Then decided he would only have to deal with it later, so he answered it.

“Detective Hammond’s desk”, he answered.

“I have some information you may be interested in.” A disguised and toneless voice told him.

“What kind of information, what does it pertain too.” he answered evenly, while getting a pen and a notepad ready.

“The kind that involves your daughter’s safety.”

“What are you talking about, what do you know about Christie.” Mike demanded.

The connection was cut off the caller hung up. And Mike was visibly shaken. Mike sat down and stared at the phone and then looked at the caller ID, but the call had been blocked. There was no way to find out where it came from. yanked his chain, and brushed him off.

Mike decided that his boss was probably right after all he had been under a lot of stress and he was simply over reacting to the situation. So he went back to work, later in the day he wished he had taken the situation more seriously. The mail arrived and in it was a picture of his daughter, she was tied up and gagged, with the morning edition of the Houston Tribune in front of her. The headline read “ Who’s Next?” there was an arrow, that had been drawn that pointed to Christie. This time the threat was not a dream. His worst nightmares had materialized and he would now have to save her before she ended up the next victim of this crazed murderer. Mike immediately called Andrea and faxed a copy of the picture to her office and he also told her about the phone call in the morning. They were treating this as a kidnapping, and we’re throwing the full force of the bureau to the task of finding her.

Andrea was privately distressed about Christie, she had talked her into becoming bait, when they were still so sure that Mr. Drake was their man, and Christie had agreed to the plan. Andrea never told Mike what she had done. She was sure that the three agents she had assigned to keeping Christie safe were up to the task. Now they had proven they were not. When she called the men that were in charge of her protection, there was no answer, from any of them. She sent another unit to the last reported location, Christie’s apartment. The unit arrived and saw that the van was still parked across the street from Ms. Hammond’s door. They opened the back door of the van and immediately shut again and called for a crime scene unit and then reported to Andrea that the men had all been shot and killed.

Andrea had no choice she had to come clean with Mike, she was with him at his place trying to keep him company, with the call came in about the agents deaths. She quietly hung up the phone, and told Mike the entire story.

“Mike I am so sorry, she sobbed. I thought I could protect her.” she began. “I asked Christie too become bait for our trap, we needed someone within the same category as those girls who had been murdered, when she told you that she had started to strip for a living as a means to pay for college, well that’s when I got the idea.”

“You never consulted me, never even included my thoughts on using my daughter as live bait for a maniac murderer on the loose. How dare you? Then you have the nerve to play me like a fool and try to make me think you in love with me?”

“Mike I did fall in love with you. I mean I am in love with you.” I really love Christie too. Don’t you see this is tearing me up. I messed it up I tried a gamble and I am sorry, but I know if you would look at this objectively, You would have made the same decision I made, admit it if you knew the killer would go for the bait you would be doing the same thing.”

she was sobbing now rears running down her face her mascara was streaks down her cheeks. All she wanted to do was be held in his arms and for him to tell her he still loved her.

Mike answered her “ NO I would never use someone’s daughter as bait without telling the persons involved the total story the whole picture, I would give them a choice to make with all facts in place. I would not hide what I was doing and I would certainly not play with other people’s emotions.” Mike grabbed his jacket and put it on and then slammed the door behind him as he left her alone in his house.

He no sooner then slammed the door, when he realized he was at his place. Well he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of seeing him walk back in. so he simply got into his car. He started driving, and wasn’t really going towards any specific place. He was mad. Mad at Christie for doing a job he told her he disapproved of, Mad at Andrea, for using his daughter as bait, and Mad that bait had been somehow taken. He was Mad at himself, for being mad at everyone else.

Deep down he knew that he could not dictate to Christie what she could or could not do, she was an adult and beyond his control, she made a choice, and he wasn’t consulted. She had grown up without his permission. He only wanted her safety, that what he started with, he was not a praying man, the last time he stepped foot inside a church, well it was a really long time ago. He started to bargain with God, but it felt wrong, somehow. How could he ask for his daughter’s safety, when 5 other fathers did not have their own daughter’s safety. He tried to rationalize his daughter was still alive, she could be saved. The others, well they should have been saved as well, but they weren’t, they had died as well. The tears were making driving very difficult he finally stopped and pulled of to the side of the road. He’d come to the conclusion that this would be his last case as a police officer. He was going to find this killer, save his daughter and retire from the force.

Just then his cell phone rang. He quickly answered it.

“Hello, Mike Hammond speaking.”

“Daddy it’s me...” the voice was interrupted. “Listen to me very carefully detective. Follow my instructions and your daughter won’t be harmed. This is a one time offer, you blow it and she is dead. You understand me? Dead. No second chances.”

“I get the picture, what do you want from me?” “I don’t have much money, but I can probably scrounge up...” he was interrupted.

“I don’t want you money, I want everyone to know that the last murder, that was committed by the Murder by Numbers Killer, was four not five, I had nothing to do with five, not that I am sure she deserved it, in fact it appears my lesson was well received, but I am the teacher and I say when class is dismissed. I want the tv stations the newspapers they all have to know the score. I am the one who is handing out the lessons.”

Mike was shocked, this person was admitting to the killings. “Who should I tell them is giving these lessons?” Mike asked.

“Just tell them what I say and don’t try to be a hero, I will be waiting for the reports on the evening news.”

The caller hung up. Mike saved the telephone number to his cell phone. Then he called his boss, and told him what the caller had said for him to do.

Mike drove back to his house, Andrea was still there, it was obvious she had been crying and she was afraid of what he might say, but she needed to stay and hear it, if it was over then she would accept that. she would not allow him to wimp out and email her, or leave a voicemail, he was going to have to say it to her face.\