1 Dark Minds

"It was late in the middle of the night, and we decided to go for some fresh air, so we decided to take a walk around the woods," I recounted. Pausing, I looked around, my eyes darting, wary of unseen threats. "What's wrong?" my interlocutor asked. His reassuring tone prodded me to continue. "We were safe, weren't we?" he assured me.

Taking a deep breath, I resumed, "We were six in number, and we walked for about half an hour before deciding to camp out at Alex's favorite spot." I stopped again, my unease growing palpable. "Just how secure is this place, sir?" I queried. He replied, "Very secure. Anyone attempting to enter this place must have the key, which is in my possession, so you are safe." Despite his assurances, I couldn't shake off the feeling of vulnerability.

As Joe ordered the remaining team members to leave the questioning room, I was left alone with the suspect. But then, the unimaginable happened. In an instant, her head was violently severed from her neck, blood spurting in a gruesome fountain. Joe, shocked and bewildered, found himself at a loss for words. The commander entered the room to find Joe in a state of shock. Sensing his distress, the commander asked, "Joe, are you able to continue working on this case, or should Detective Williams take over?"

It took a few minutes for Joe to regain his composure. During his brief lapse, the commander made arrangements for Williams to assume control of the case. However, once Joe had gathered himself, he walked over to where they stood. "It's still my case," he declared, resolute. "Tell Detective Williams to put those boxes away and stop reading them." The commander was taken aback by Joe's insistence on continuing the case. "You two will have to learn to work together to solve this," the commander stated, passing the news to Joe's team. Some accepted this arrangement more willingly than others, as they headed towards the unknown future of working with Detective Williams.

After this unsettling encounter, Joe and his team made their way to a secure house in Alisontona town. It was an isolated location that no one outside their circle knew about, ensuring their safety as they delved into the case. They gathered around a table and began to sift through the evidence they had collected. As Kate listened to the audio recording made by the most recent victim, she noticed a mention of someone named Alex. However, Alex was known to be out of town at the time. She brought this observation to the attention of the team. Detective Williams dismissed it as a waste of time, but Joe, although skeptical, saw potential in the lead.

As evening descended, the team concluded their meeting, and each member returned to their respective homes. Joe, however, had other plans. He assigned someone to keep an eye on Alex and his parents in Los Angeles, determined to leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice. On his way home, he passed by a shopping mall bearing his late wife's namesake. The sight reminded him of the reason he had become a detective in the first place: to find his wife's murderer and bring them to justice.

The next day, upon entering the station, Joe was startled by the presence of a security eye. It had been installed to prevent unauthorized access and record the number of people entering the station. Joe rushed to the security head office, requesting access to the records for the period he had been in the questioning room. The data revealed an astonishing number of entries – well over a hundred.

As Joe and his team examined the records, Detective Williams arrived, finding them engrossed in their task. Growing agitated that they had undertaken this endeavor without him, he scoured the building in search of them. When he couldn't locate them, his frustration mounted. Back in the room, Joe's team discovered that Detective Williams had entered the questioning room both before and after the interrogation. Their attempt to delve further was interrupted by a sudden cyber attack that erased most of the files.

Undeterred, Joe sought to recover the remaining files, but his efforts proved futile. The team reluctantly returned to the station, and as they approached, they encountered Detective Williams. "Where are you all coming from?" he inquired of Joe. "We were on a break, weren't we? So, why the questions?" Detective Williams merely stared at Joe before walking away.

Later that day, Detective Williams requested Joe's presence in his office. He offered tea and biscuits, a gesture that diverged from Williams' usual demeanor. Williams had often been at odds with Joe, even attempting to have him removed from the station. Their working relationship had its ups and downs. The last time Williams had been this congenial was when they had worked together to capture a serial killer, Danny. He had murdered every member of Joe's family, fulfilling a promise he had made to them when he was six years old, vowing to kill them all. Joe's life had been forever marked by this tragedy, and it was the driving force behind his pursuit of justice.