The Executioner

Hundred and Twelve

Night had already descended over LA by the time Garcia pulled up in front of James Reed’s house. The black Dodge Journey they saw parked in his driveway the day before was gone. From outside, the house looked deserted. The curtains were drawn shut and the lights were all off. They insistently rang the doorbell, knocked on the door and called his name, but after a few minutes they knew they’d be getting no reply.

‘He’s fled,’ Garcia said curtly.

‘We don’t know that yet. He might not be our guy and he’s really just off on a break to clear his head.’

‘Or the panic is already starting to set in. As you said, he knows we’re closing in on him.’

The neighbors confirmed Doctor Pate’s allegations that Reed was an introvert man who liked to keep himself to himself. The woman directly across the road from him said she was watering the flowers in her garden when she saw Reed loading his car with a backpack and what looked to be a few supplies before setting off in the middle of the afternoon.

From the car, on their way back to their office, Hunter called Hopkins and asked him to find out Reed’s license plate number and put a citywide sighting call out on the car. They had no grounds to detain him yet, but Hunter needed to know his location.

‘What if he’s left LA or crossed state lines?’ Garcia asked.

‘Then that’s a good sign,’ Hunter replied, returning his cell phone to his pocket.

‘What?’

‘Doctor Pate said he finished his last scheduled class yesterday afternoon. His neighbor said he set off today in the middle of the day. You know Los Angeles traffic. If you were setting off on an interstate trip this close to Christmas, would you leave in the middle of the afternoon?’

‘Are you kidding? If I had a choice I wouldn’t go from West Hollywood to Long Beach in the middle of the afternoon. You saw how long it took us to get here from Santa Monica. Grid-locked all the way.’

‘Reed is a computer science professor and a jigsaw puzzle aficionado. His brain is conditioned to think logically. If he had this trip planned beforehand, he would’ve been ready to leave last night or early this morning, when traffic wasn’t so busy.’

‘But he didn’t.’ Garcia smiled. ‘I’m telling you, he’s panicking.’

‘When we were in his house yesterday, did you see any signs of a person who was about to leave on a long car trip?’

Garcia shook his head. ‘And if he was, he also failed to mention it when we told him that we might need to talk to him again.’

‘Peter Elder also told me that the two remaining members of their gang, JayJay and Lipz, hated school as much as he did,’ Hunter explained. ‘They flunked out of it as well. Statistically, street kids without a high school diploma don’t move around much. I’m certain they’re still in LA. If James Reed is our man, he hasn’t left this city.’