BLINK 2: Circle of Ten

Chapter 3

'Please close the door, Sem.'

Semila shot him a "fuck you" look, but she walked to the door of his room, took it by the handle, and moved it closed carefully until a barely audible click sounded, all the while smirking at him.

'Okay, I get it. You think I'm being an idiot.'

'A fuckwad,' she amended.

John frowned at her for a brief moment, fiddled with the camera buttons until the thing finally switched off, then sighed as he stuffed it in its protective bag. 'You know why I want it closed. Charlie is sneaky, and she knows nothing about what we do. Can you imagine if she figured it out?'

'I doubt she'd spy on us John.' Semila had that look on her face, the amused one that made him feel like an idiot and embarrassed at the same time.

'Cause she thinks we're dating?' John huffed and avoided her eyes, then zipped the bag closed, placing it on his new desk. 'She would because she thinks we're dating.'

Semila shook her head while John spoke and gripped her belt to tug up her jeans.

'Call it teenage curiosity or whatever.' He glanced at the photo album open on the table top next to the camera. 'So where we at with Drew?'

Sem strolled closer and stared at the open page for a minute. John knew there were about twelve spreads dedicated to Drew with all the photos and news articles they could find on him and his victims. This was their third album already. The others had been filled with killers like the Jack the Rippers' 'find-the-killer' stuff. News articles, evidence Marty sometimes dug out of police archives, and of course all the photos they could find.

Even though he and Semila had seen a lot of shit this last year since God had appointed them the official killer catchers--or whatever they were now...time jumpers he liked to call them inwardly, or Blinkers...Sem would never go for that. Anyway, since God had appointed them, they had stopped a lot of serial killers, from one-pagers to the especially douche-ie ones like the one they hunted now. The Camden Cannibal.

'We nearly had him with this photo,' she said and tapped the picture of a woman who police speculated had been murdered by the Camden Cannibal, the last picture of her snapped in the same street where the Camden Cannibal lived. It was the photo they had entered when they'd found the Visceral.

'No, we were too late Sem. He's already killed two others. The cops must've missed something.'

'So how the fuck do we find him earlier then? We both know there aren't any earlier pictures of this street or even close by.'

'I think I have an idea,' John said, scratching at his mussed hair. 'It'll take some travel. We might even need a cover story. Tell the family we're taking a weekend away...' he trailed off at the big smile on Semila's face.

'What.'

She laughed. 'Somebody wants a weekend away with an angel.'

'Sem!' He slapped at her hand, but she moved too quick. 'This is serious.'

'So we Blink into a random photo and travel there?'

John smiled. 'I was more thinking we Blink in a few days early, pay a photographer for pictures of the street with some guise, then Blink back once we have the pictures.'

Sem looked stunned.

'Easy,' John said. 'And don't look so shocked, I do have brains that work.'

Sem was about to answer, finger pointed at John's chest, but her eyes went distant and she dropped her hand.

'Sem?' As if in a trance, she gently nudged John aside and sat herself down at the table. She lifted a pen and flipped the photo album to its last page, then started to write on the inner of the back cover of the album. The handwriting wasn't her own. What the hell!