Chapter 23: To catch a Killer

The next week went by quickly. The shuttle made nightly flights to the ship, depositing the belongings into the prepared quarters, or into a storage container in the hold.

On Friday night, the gang finally arrived at the house. A cargo/lifter shuttle arrived, and all five of the kid's cars were loaded up, along with the U-haul carrying their belongings. Amy took the new crewmembers into medical and began their training until Molly could return.

Molly had returned to Las Vegas to look for a friend of hers who had disappeared on the way home. The only thing found was her car parked along side of the road.

The next week, they got busy as they kept track of the Brander. Amy had finally located Tina and her family, on vacation, in Orlando, Florida. They had flown out eight days before, to enjoy a vacation paid for by their father.

On Friday the 13^th, hurricane Charlie turned towards the Florida coast, and the evacuations began. That morning, Tina, her mom and her friends arrived in Reno having left Orlando the night before. Arriving at 7 am, they got the Van out of long-term parking and headed for home. On the way home, they stopped at the store for some fresh groceries.

Danielle dropped the two girls off at their home, and then they headed for home themselves. They came around the corner and pulled into their driveway. Tina reached up and slapped the button for the automatic garage door opener and the door slowly rose to the roof of the garage.

Driving in, Danielle stopped the car and shut it down. They climbed out of the vehicle and stretched.

"It's good to be home, I had a lot of fun," said Tina.

She pulled the back door of the van open. She started removing the suitcases, as her mom shut the alarm off. Grabbing her suitcase, she took it into the house.

"I will be back in a second to help you mom."

"Ok, sweetie. I shut the alarm off. I'll get the groceries and put them on the counter."

"Ok, Mom."

Tina lugged her suitcase through the kitchen and into the living room. As she turned to go down the hallway, a hand came around her mouth and she was literally picked up off of the floor. She tried to scream, but the hand prevented it. She saw a young woman grab her suitcase and then vanish before her eyes. Her eyes got as big as saucers and she started squirming in the arms that were holding her.

"Hold still, we don't want to hurt you, we're here to save your life."

Tina froze as the voice whispered softly into her ear.

Danielle came into the kitchen, set the groceries down and headed back out to the van. Grabbing her suitcases, she went back into house. As she went through the hall, she was grabbed from behind.

A hand clamped down on her mouth and a voice said, "Don't scream! We are not going to hurt you. We are here to save your daughter's life. A very evil man wants to kill your little girl. Do you want that? Do you want your daughter dead? You may shake your headed yes or no."

Danielle tried to scream and fight free, but the hands that held her were very strong. She went stiff at the man's voice. Her mind raced as she heard the voice asking if she wanted her baby to be dead. Shaking her headed no, the voice spoke again.

"Now to prove what we are saying, I want you to watch this closely. Tam, Jen please become visible."

Danielle watched as two young women became visible. One was holding her daughter's suitcase and she moved to set it down. Danielle felt herself turned a little and a man appeared holding her daughter off of the ground.

"I know you don't understand, but all we want to do is help. Have you heard of the man they call 'The Brander'?"

Danielle thought for a second. She had heard the name before. Suddenly her face went white, as she remembered the name from the newspaper. He was a serial killer who prayed on young woman and girls.

"I see by how white you have gone that you know who he is. Well, in a few days, he would have kidnapped Tina and three days later her body would have been found out by Pyramid Lake. We have come from the future to stop him. Do you want to help, or do we erase your memory and go away. I am going to let you go. Ted, let Tina go, too."

Ken released the young mother. She ran to her daughter and held her.

"Are you ok, Tina?"

"I am not sure what is going on, but I have a feeling we should believe them. I have heard of this person. He has killed seven women, and horribly, from what I read in the paper. Some of them were my friends."

She turned to the man who had been holding her mom, as he seemed to be the leader.

"What do we have to do? What do I have to do?"

"Why don't we all sit down, and I will explain?"

Ken guided the two women to the couch where they sat down. Ted went into the kitchen and brought out a pair of chairs.

"I said I would explain what is going on and I will. On the 17^th, Tina would be coming home from her friend Kathleen's house, when the Brander grabs her. From what we have seen in the historical documents it is truly brutal what she goes through."

On the couch, Danielle grabbed Tina's hand.

"Jen, take Tina into her room. I want to show her mom what her daughter was going to go through."

Pulling a DVD out of his pocket, he walked over to the DVD player and turned it on.

"I copied this from the records that were recovered when he was captured."

Jen and Tammy grabbed Tina's hands and pulled her down the hallway while she said, "I want to see it."

Jen held the girl's shoulders and forced Tina to look her in the eyes.

"Tina! No you don't! Please believe me Tina, you really don't want to see this, it made me and Tammy throws up."

Once they were out of the room, Ken looked at Danielle. "Now I am going to turn this on. It is very horrible. The bastard recorded it all."

On the screen, Tina was dragged into a room with hooks hanging from the walls and roof. The man hung Tina from the roof and stripped her down. She saw her daughter's birthmark on her left upper thigh. It was a mark that no one would know about.

"Wake up my little slave."

A hand came up and slapped Tina's face.

"I said wake up, cunt."

The hand descended to Tina's right breast and twisted the nipple very hard. On the screen, Tina screamed as she came to. She then started whimpering in pain.

"Good little slave, you woke up."

The man slid his hand down Tina's body and probed between her legs.

"Ahhh, a good little virgin, stayed pure for your master. That is good. Soon your virginity will be ripped away by me and then you will become a woman and my slave."

"Please don't hurt me," Tina whimpered, as she feels the man's finger enter her.

"I know you didn't just ask me something, slave."

The man grabbed a flogger and started flogging the young body. On the screen, Tina screamed, her body jerking in pain."

The assault went on for ten minutes before Danielle screamed out.

"Oh, God! Please turn it off. I can't watch anymore," moaned Danielle.

Ken flipped it off.

"I am sorry, Danielle. Even I couldn't watch very much of this. This man, no this monster must be stopped. My sister was his next target after Tina, so I have personal reasons to stop him, too."

"I don't understand how you could have this technology and yet your sister could be a target for him."

"That's easy to explain. You see, we are all from this time. It is our friend Amy who is from the future. Her ship was thrown back into time and it crashed. She sat undiscovered until we found her ... or she found us, and saved my life."

Ken removed the disk and put it back in its case.

"Now, what we want to do is have Jen replace Tina wearing a holographic emitter to look like Tina. When he grabs her, we will stop him, we just do not want Tina in any danger so we will replace her when she comes out of Kathleen's house. We will have Tina stand next to Tammy with her hand on her shoulder. This will make her invisible and then Jen will come forth and she will walk down the street for him to grab her. We will move in when he does."

"I understand, but can't I just take Tina away until after the 17^th?" Tina and the girls came out of Tina's room and sat back down.

"No, because he wants her. He swears in his journal that he will have her. He has tried three times so far to get her and failed. One time she was coming out of school. The second was that night, and your Sampson scared him. The last time was the day you left for Florida. Therefore, he will just wait until you come back for the chance to get her. As of right now, we know he will kidnap her on the 17^th, and that she will die three days later." Ken reached out, took Danielle's hand, and said. "Please let us help you and your daughter."

Danielle took her daughter's hand and continued. "Can't we just call the police?"

"And tell them what? That the Brander is going to kidnap your daughter on the 17^th? Even if you had his name, you wouldn't have any proof. This is the only way to do it."

"Ok, I understand. I am sorry I have not introduced myself even though you know my name. My name is Danielle Wayne and this is my daughter Tina."

"Hi, I am Ken, and this is my sister Jenny. These are my best friends Ted and Tammy. As you can tell, they are twins. We will leave you to finish unpacking and relax. Please do not tell anyone what you know, and do not try and change history. Tina, you need to go to your friends Kathleen's on the 17^th, and do whatever you two young women like to do. When you come out that night, we will switch with you and stop him. It's imperative that you do that. Otherwise, we may not get another chance to stop him. We will see you on Tuesday. You all have a good time and we will be back."

They walked out the door and disappeared into thin air.

"Mom I don't know what's going on, but I trust them. I don't know why, but I do."

"So do I, honey, so do I. Let us make some breakfast and then we will go get Sampson. I need to have the big lug around us for protection, and I miss him."

The next few days went by and Tuesday afternoon rolled around. Ken drove his SUV down the road towards Tina's house and pulled into the driveway. Looking around, they got out and headed for the front door. Ken pressed the doorbell button and a big dog started barking. They looked at each other at the sound of the dog, as the door started to open.

"That's a big dog, Ted."

"I know, and I didn't see any sign of one when we were here last time."

"They may have had him kenneled. They had just arrived, then."

Tina opened the door to the people who were going to save her life.

"Hi, Ken, Ted, Tammy and Jenny, I guess today is the day."

"Yes it is, are you ready?"

"Not really. I am scared to death. Come on in."

"We understand you are scared, but understand this ... nothing, will happen to you. I promise."

Walking in, they came into the living room where Danielle and a man were standing. The man raised his hand, and he was holding a 9 mm pistol in it. He leveled the weapon and pointed it right at Ken.

Ken looked over at Danielle sitting on the couch as he raised his hands and said. "What's going on Danielle? I thought we had a plan?"

"My husband Mike doesn't believe you. He thought that perhaps you had other plans for Tina."