Case #1: Romeo

Chapter 10: "Always and Forever"

written by, Toni Walker

Abandoned Warehouse

Atlanta, Georgia

12:38 AM

"Hope. Where are you?" Jason Arquette whispered to himself. She was an outsider but had slowly become a true member of the team. Her sudden disappearance yesterday afternoon proved that to them all.

Logan North had broken down in the only way he knew how -- he brought the investigation to another level involving an intuitive Sleuth from their paranormal bureau. Toni McIver hadn't been too keen on seeing her sister, Sam, but Toni knew her sister would be able to use her ability to find Hope.

"Are you sensing anything?" Toni whispered as they snooped around the abandoned warehouse Sam had led them to.

"It's scattered," Sam told them.

Her red hair was concerning Toni who only saw it as a beacon exposing them to prying eyes... especially Romeo's. But then again, Toni always did have a problem with Samantha. They had a pension for not getting along.

"On one hand I'm completely sensing Hope, but now and then, it's like her essence doubles," Sami said.

"Have you ever had a similar experience to this before?" Jason asked trying to ignore Toni's constant bantering with her sister. He listened as he cased their target.

"Once, but that was when someone identified so completely with another person that I actually sensed them as the one they identified with." Sam opened her eyes and pointed to the north end of the compound. "Over there. Both essences I'm sensing are just on the other side of that wall."

Jason, Toni and Sam used the cover of night to mask their approach. Jason radioed Logan and Chris with their coordinates. The two teams converged on the target area with extreme caution. Hope was in there somewhere, and she was in dire need of saving.

Logan glanced over at Chris. He couldn't believe he had been so completely wrong about the man. Hope would have never forgiven him if he had killed Chris.

"I've got the location," Logan said, listening via his headset. "Let's go."

Chris was visibly startled but quickly masked his sudden emotions. Logan figured  'the look' was due to concern for Hope's safety. Chris followed after Logan staying a measured distance behind him.

"You take that end. I'll enter here," Logan whispered. "Be careful out there," he said before venturing forward.

Chris nodded. It was the moment of truth. The moment he had been working toward for months.

Logan entered the dark and musty warehouse from the east end of the building. Cardboard boxes lined the walls creating maze-like tunnels from one end of the large cavernous room to another. Raised voices traveled the length of the building drawing Logan closer.

He came to an open area and instinctively raised his weapon. He discovered his instincts were uncanny. Jason, Toni and Sam were already taking position behind boxes nearby.

"You're not going to believe this," Jason told Logan.

"Is it Romeo?" Logan asked.

"If it is, then this is damn freaky," Sam said pursing her lips.

Logan looked past the three of them taking in the person who had captured Hope.

"No... No... It's not possible."

"Right there with you," Toni muttered.

Hope's head snapped backward as the woman standing in front of her pelted her with a frenzy of pummeling blows. The woman standing in front of her was hidden to them, but Logan knew that form, that hair, that body type.

"Faith?"

Sam gasped in amazement. "No wonder. Twins. That's why I was feeling so..."

"Not now," Toni snapped.

Sam stopped talking, and glared at her sister. "Whatever sister wants."

"Can we make this not about us and instead focus on Hope?"

"Both of you shut up," Logan barked. "I'm trying to listen."

"You don't understand, do you, Hope?" Faith said. "I'm going to kill you the same way you killed our father."

Faith's flamboyant hand gestures flung her arms wildly from side to side. "Romeo helped me to understand what an evil person you are. That's why you have to die. And why I have to do it for him."

"Romeo is a sick bastard," Hope managed to whisper through bloody lips. "Don't listen to him."

Faith faced her sporting a maniacal grin and a grim determination.

"Sick? Maybe, but he's a genius. It's no wonder you still haven't discovered his true identity."

Faith paced back and forth growing more agitated by the minute.

"You go that way and come up on the other side of her," Logan said to Jason and Sam. "Toni, you're with me. Remember, shoot to wound, not kill. And for God sakes, watch out for Chris, he's still in the building somewhere. Make sure you don't shoot him by mistake."

Jason and Sam slipped off to the left and Toni followed behind Logan.

"How in the hell is she still alive," Logan whispered.

"There are many drugs that mask death-like symptoms. Maybe Romeo has been using Faith all along to get closer, more intimate knowledge on Hope."

"We don't know who in the hell he is, but if we bring Faith in alive, Romeo is as good as caught.

"What about Romeo?" Hope asked.

"What about him? He's still out there hovering just behind the stage lights. So close, but so hidden from your view."

Faith leaned in and caressed her sister's cheek with a knife.

"What's his plan for me, Faith?"

"You don't understand, do you? It's my plan. I'm going to become you. You're going to die and no one will even know you're gone."

Hope couldn't believe what her sister was saying. She had definitely gone mad.

Logan and Jason stepped out from behind cardboard boxes and secured the knife taking it out of Faith's grasp.

"It has to be this way," Faith rambled as Jason handcuffed her. "Romeo wants me to take over Hope's life."

"You're sick," Sam mumbled under her breath. She didn't finish the criticism when a mental image flooded her mind.

"He's here," Sam screamed. "Romeo is in the building!"

A gunshot flew past Sam's face. Quickly, she ducked behind an iron table inches away.

Logan drug Faith kicking and screaming to safety, but he wouldn't make it there fast enough. A bullet ripped through her chest as the second shot sounded.

Hope screamed.

Faith gasped, then gurgled, spitting up blood. "It had to be this way." Her head slumped along with the rest of her body.  She was dead.

No one saw the man in the shadows, the man with the gun. They searched for him for hours afterward. One minute he was there, the next he was gone like a ghost....or a friend.

Only Faith knew the true identity of Romeo, but the Sleuths did have one ace up their sleeve, Samantha McIver could sense the maniacal killer. Maybe with her help they could bring the psycho killer to justice.

Agent Christopher Grant put away the gun he had discovered in the warehouse office and ran over to Hope. He fawned over her like any true boyfriend would the woman he loved. While he stroked her hair he reveled in the fact that his true identity was still safe.  With Faith dead no one would ever know that he was Romeo.

"I'll be here for you, Hope." Chris whispered. "Always and forever."

The End.