Fertile Imagination

Day 2 1000 Zenya's room
-----------------------

<> Things were not going well with AOL. Firstly, they transferred Jim from one department to another. And when he finally found a department which was willing, and able to help him, the news was bad. Mr Ted's emailing account was linked to a post box.

"Well, at least he is smart enough not to registered it to his real home. That man was just a little bit too smug for my liking. " Vanessa commented.

" I still can track the post box. Don't you worry. " Jim told the two ladies who were seated on the bed as he flipped through the phone directory for yet another number to dial.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

"Is anyone inside?" a unfamiliar male voice asked.

The agents looked at one another, their hands automatically reaching for their guns.

Zenya was the first to make her way to the door.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Joe Gantry. "

Zenya recognised the name, and quickly opened the door.

"Mr Gantry. Come in."

Joe Gantry looked at Zenya. "You are the lady who was with SA Stern that day at the funeral aren't you?"

"You got a good memory, sir."

"Never forget a pretty face," he said, and Zenya smiled in spite of herself. She introduced him to the other two agents.

"How may I help you?"

"Well," Gantry paused for a while. " I think that I should have told SA Stern about something...."

"About what?"

"I read the newspapers today." He held up the same newspapers that Jordan had read a few hours ago for Zenya to read. It was folded at page A5.

"Homeless found dead." Zenya read the headline.

"The one I found," Vanessa reminded Zenya.

"We found," Jim corrected her.

"Well, I don;t know if I should mention it, but.... "

"What?" Zenya prompted the old man.

Jim poured Gantry a glass of water, which he took gratefully.

"I know this sounded like an accusation of sorts. But I saw..... Does anyone of you think that her death is linked to Mary Ritchey's death?"

"We cannot make any conclusion yet, Mr Gantry. " Vanessa told him. "But if there are anything you know that can help us in finding a conclusion, it would be appreciated. So what did you see yesterday?"

"Yesterday I was looking for a place to eat with my wife Kate, and drove past 9th Street. And I saw someone with her. " He pointed at the newspaper article, indicating the dead woman.

"Who?" The 3 of them asked at the same time.

"That Ericsson girl." He said softly, as if ashamed of himself for talking bad behind someone's back.

"Ericsson? Who is that? What is her full name?" Zenya asked.

"She was at the funeral too. I am not sure if you saw her. Rebecca Ericsson. "

Zenya's eyes grew wide. "Rebecca? You mean, Rebecca Cross."

Gantry shook his head slowly. "Rebecca Ericsson. That is always how I would think of her. Afterall, I knew her before she got married. Ericsson is her maiden name. "

"Then who is her husband?" Jim asked.

Gantry shook his head again. "I had no idea. One day, she just disappeared. And when she appeared a few months ago, she told everybody that she is married, and that she wanted to be called Rebecca Cross, which is her husband's name. She never mention anything about her husband, except that his name is Cross, and that he belonged to a very influential family. Some people don't even believe that he exist."

<>

Jim couldn't believe what he was hearing. That bitch was luring women to their deaths. It was then that Jim began to have an idea.

"Zenya, what reasons could the woman have for being a party to this?"

"Perhaps she is under his control?" she ventured.

"No, I think she was too composed under your questioning for someone so easily terrorised. She is doing this willingly."

"But why?" Vanessa asked. "Why would she do this?"

"I think it's got something to do with the pregnancy angle. Rebecca __thought__ Mary Ritchie was pregnant and now she's dead. I don't think she had even told Mr. Ted Cross. We should check with the doctor, find out if Rebecca Cross has some sort of infertility illness."

Zenya seemed to agree, with the possibility at least.

"It could be that Ted needs victims, and Rebecca needs to have some sort of revenge on fertile women. The revenge would be all the more sweet if the woman had been with her husband. We still need to do a lot of checking to fit this together and I'm still not sure how that brings Kali into play."

Vanessa said "Kali was a female god, right? A goddess who gave life then took it away. Perhaps that's what Rebecca feels she is doing with these women. She gives them a life, and takes it away. Also, there is no bigger symbol of life than a beating heart."

Jim looked a little despondent. "I suppose I have to keep tracing this post box in case I can find a location for them. You two had better divide up the exciting stuff, " he said with a grin.

So, he got back on the machine and started to root around the BBS system. They were never very secure. No point really. The sort of person posting to a BBS like this would just break it like a dry stick if it tried to be too picky about where you could look. Plus, it was a public access system. Still, when Jim saw the list of routes which Ted had used to post, he knew he had a long day ahead of him. He decided to knock up a quick VB program to rank the numbers called from. Meanwhile

Vanessa and Zenya had decided what to do and were ready to leave.

"If I get anything, I'll be straight on the cellphone, OK? You too?"

Vanessa smiled at his eagerness. "Don't worry, Jim. We'll give you a call if we need you," she said with a mischievous smile. Joe Gantry walked out with them, with Jim already immersed in his work.

NRPG:

I hope this is bringing us around to a fertility ritual. I did my best ...

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.
Ar'Aman Bowright and Darar, Daere Warren, DragonLands.

aka Peter Shillan.