The end of the day

[MD1, 0000hrs, Buena Vista Motel]

Jim's Tai Chi had been just what he needed; a nice gentle rhythmic exercise to get the case out of his head for a while. He went for a shower, with the water running hot. He thought he heard a knock at the door, but when in the shower, Jim always made people knock three times before getting out. Since they only knocked twice, he stayed where he was. He washed his hair with shower gel, not shampoo, and scrubbed his body thoroughly. The case was coming back into his mind and it made him feel dirty.

Stepping out of the shower, he allowed himself to dry naturally - as he always did when possible. He put on a pot of herbal tea (no coffee at this hour!), and thought about the case while the tea brewed. The woman who died by the canal was obviously bogus; she was not a homeless old woman. The only people Jim could think of who would go to such lengths were undercover cops/agents or journalists. He made a mental note to check that out first thing in the morning.

He knew he would not sleep tonight and that he had slept poorly the night before. While still in the Corp, one of the survival courses he went on before going into intelligence made him stay awake for a week. He had been made to avoid capture, live off the land and always be on guard. Being awake for two days would be easy by comparison.

He heard the others come back, or at least, Leo and Zenya. He could here Zenya's shower turn on. As he lay on the quilt, which he placed on the floor to sleep on, he began to think about how long it had been since he had been with a woman. A very long time. Yet he could not regret that. There was no room in his life for a woman. He could be killed, or away for indefinite periods. Zenya and Vanessa were both attractive and he got on very well with Vanessa, but there was no room in the unit for romance. While in the Division, love was definitely on the back burner.

He thought about going over to see Zenya, to ask what they had found out, but he did not know if she would be asleep. He decided to stay where he was. He booted up the laptop he had brought with them and hooked it into the 'phone line. He looked on the BBSs and the newsgroups for any signs of interesting UFO activity. He was absent mindedly scrolling down the list, when it struck him. There were several BBS posting with the nick "Mr. Ted". It was quite common for criminals to use the BBSs. In fact, most were anti-social and many used the BBS as there communication medium. Still, he shouldn't get his hopes up. It would probably not be the same guy.

He sorted the list by nick and started to look through the messages. It was him. Although he wasn't building up the profile, he knew that these messages could provide a valuable insight into the guy's motives. He began to read the first.

<>
Hello again,

Mr. Ted's back. Hello especially to all you bitches online. I have been thinking about you. I have been thinking about you teasing men and about you moaning when they screw you. I am going to pluck your fucking hearts out... <>

That seemed to confirm that this was the guy. 'Probably very polite in real life,' Jim thought. 'Most of these cursers are. Could it be that our boy had a chip on his shoulder? Well, obviously.'

He decided to save the messages to disk, and thought he'd peek into the hall to see if Zenya's light was on. It was so he put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and went over with the disconnected laptop and knocked. Zenya came to the door, a little surprised at his dress.

"What can I do for you, Jim?" She looked at the laptop and said "Come to play computer games?" with a smile.

"I thought you'd better have a look at these, since you're doing the profile. I think they're bulletin board messages posted by our guy."

NRPG:

A little post to add something else to the profile. Sorry it's short, but since everyone went clubbing and housebreaking without me , I don't have much to say :-))

Respectfully submitted,
FCO Ensign Olivier Patru, USS ORION NCC-1997, Starfleet.
Private Eoin McDonald, Ranger, TEAM LEO, Ragnarok.
Special Agent-1 Jim Reaper, X-Files Division, FBI.
aka Peter Shillan.