The Curse Of Eden

"He was found in plain sight. People thought he was just sleeping until the garbage man shook him to find that he was actually dead." Ken informed as soon as Adam approached.

They were both walking towards the corpse as Ken filled him in.

The man sat on the wooden bench and had his body bent forward so it rested on the table, his head buried inside his folded arms.

"Doc said that he was killed around the same time as the other one."

"At the same time? E never doubled." Adam gaped in confusion.

"I'm not sure what happened that made him do a double takeout but we know for a fact that he hid the first one to give himself the chance to place the second. Detective Adam, I introduce you to Donald Pires."

Adam looked at Ken in a stunned expression. He felt the urge to scream from the tip of his lungs and he felt a headache grow at the back of his skill, marching its way around the rest of his head.

"That's why we found nothing recent on him like the others." Ken continued.

"Your in-cult rebellion theory has been discarded in a matter of minutes." Ken sighed as he placed his hands on his hips.

"What else-"

Adam's sentence was cut short when a running boy crashed through him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry sir. Sorry." The teenage boy apologised with wide eyes.

"It's okay. Just go." Adam sent him away, not having any time to waste on distractions.

He looked around and saw people running everywhere. A lot were trying to leave the crime scene and a load others where overly curious, trying to get the best front line view of the murder.

"Adam!" Elliot called as he ran towards the two. He held out his tablet in front of them.

"I pulled this out from surveillance." Elliot informed as they watched the video tape. All three looked down as they watched someone fully covered in black, supporting the victim's body against his as they reached the benched table before placing him in his current sleeping position.

"That's him. That's our guy." Ken spoke.

"Guys, this was taken fifteen minutes ago."

Both Adam and Ken looked up at each other, sharing the same thoughts.

"Then he wouldn't have gone far." Adam's voice got a pitch higher. "Search the premises quick and you Elliot, go up and trace his route from the surveillance videos. See where he went." Adam ordered, feeling the adrenaline pump wildly through his body and he was sure his team felt the same.

Maybe this was it. Maybe today will be the day where they'll get somewhere.

And suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.

Collette!

She was sleeping in his car, unaware of what's going on. E might take this as an opportunity.

She was laying comfortable against the passenger chair, covered with Adam's leather jacket, her soft snors filling the car.

She stirred a little in her sleep and with a drowsy eye, she looked out the front window.

The parking area that was once crowded with cars was only half full now.

She tried to wake herself up more and git herself to a sitting position.

She scrunched up her eyebrows at the thought of Adam taking all this time on the case.

Her eyes switched to the front mirror so that she could fix her appearance but a loud gasp escaped her throat and she turnes around almoat instantly. But the dark sillouhette that was once accompanying her reflection in the mirror was nowhere to be found.

Thinking that maybe it was just a fragment of her imagination as she had yet to wake up fully, she tried to calm her frantically beating heart as she slowly turned back around in her seat.

Yet she never got the chance to calm down, when a knock on the widow erupted another loud gasp from her.

She looked to her side and let out a calming breath when she saw Adam looking at her with furrowed eyebrows.

He had taken the route from the crime scene to the car in a full sprint, praying to God that he'd get to the car and find his Collette still safely sleeping in it.

Her form inside the car from a distance made him breath out in relief as he slowed his pace a little and once he approached, he furrowed his eyebrows in utter confusion when he saw his car keys on the ground next to the car. He bent down to pick it up, making sure that it indeed was his.

Collette was having her body turned around as she looked at the back of the car. He knocked on her window just as she was turning around, startling her in the process.

He unlocked the car with the key he just found, further proving that it was his.

But he remembers very vividly that he placed it in his pocket after locking the car when he got the call about the second murder. He knew for a fact that he had it in with him.

Collette opened the door for some fresh air to calm her down.

Adam immediately pulled her to him, basking into her scent. It was his haven to help him calm down.

"Are you okay?" He asked out of reflex.

Collette nodded her head as she took in a deep breath. "Yeah, just a dream."

"You've been having nightmares for quite some time now pumpkin."

Collette sighed. "That's fine. It's not much of a problem really."

"Listen to me sugar, it appears that E is somewhere close to here right now. I need you to get back him where it's safe. I'll be sending someone with you till I come home to you okay?" He spoke to her like he would to a child and no matter how frustrated that got Collette, she refrained from saying a word.

"Yeah whatever." She looked away.

Adam cupped her face and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'll be back soon."

They pulled apart and Adam turned around so he'd signal for the police officer that had tagged along to come closer.

Collette noticed a small, yellow paper on the ground below their feet and thinking it might've fallen from Adam, she crouched down to pick it up.

Unfolding it, her eyes widened in shock.

"Adam-" she called out breathless.

Turning around, he took the semi folded paper from her.

Stay out of it Collette or people dear to you will get hurt. - E

His eyebrows got stuck together from how deep his frown was.

"How did this-" And almost immediately his mind pulled him down his memory archives to thirty minutes back when a teenage boy crashed into him.

And just like that he connected all the dots. He was sure that the paper wasn't there when he was picking up his car keys. And now he knew how the car keys got here and why did they even get here.

He felt himself crumble the paper in his hand in anger. E was again, a step ahead.

He pulled Collette closer to him absent-mindedly, feeling her jittering nerves.

The mere thought of E, or one of his associates if there is, being that close to her, made her stomach drop.

Adam pulled out his phone and called Ken.

"Send me someone from the forensics to meet me at the parking lot." He spoke once Ken picked up.

"What happened?"

"That asshole was here. He even left a note for Collette, and I think I know how he looks." Adam was grinding his teeth in frustration.

"There's already a search party on the move. I'll get someone from forensic and come to you."

The place that was once the source of laughter and fun, turned into complete chaos.

A search team was wiping the whole area out while Elliot and several other technicians filtered every possible video footage they could get in and around the place, trying to trace E's movements. Adam was busy talking with Chief Leone West when his phone started ringing in his pocket.

"Woods." He answered.

"Boss, Kristen ran facial recognition for the boy's picture we took from the footage and we came back with something. His name's Tyler Polard, an IT student majoring at NYC."

"Get me everything you can on him and where he lives. I want them now!"

"You actually think that a college kid is behind all this?" Chief West asked once Adam hung up the phone.

Adam sighed. "He didn't look the part. His physique was far from capable. But he knows something." He ticked his tongue feeling like a fool.

He had his car keys pick-pocketed from him unprofessionally easy for a high ranked detective. The kid played him like a magician does his audience, making him concentrate on the right hand while he did his magic with the left. Adam tsked again at the reminder. It agitated him to no end.

He was once again played by a ghost.