Cool!!!

   I arrived at Patty Danes apartment promptly at 6:45am as we agreed. Patty made it to the car promptly at 7:10am as I expected. I of course had her coffee waiting. Patty and I are equals, partners and maybe even friends. I think having her coffee ready before we get to work may be in my job description somewhere but I have not bothered to look.

  We took a 10;00 am flight to Birmingham and immediately drove the rental car to Motel 6 where the double homicide of Ness and Mbtumbe took place. Patty reviewed and read out loud the local polices findings regarding the case. There was not much to go on and the locals had already put us in a hole. It seems Mr. Mbtumbe had an air tight alibi. Mrs. Ness however was caught on video surveilliance at the scene at the time the deceased stopped breathing. The problem was she stood outside the room, was noted to be crying and there was no evidence of Meta Human power usage. The other problem was she had a pretty darn good lawyer who was able to get a restraining order against the police who had no clue how to investigate her.

  As time would tell the local police were in the same boat Patty and I were in.

  We were able to interview Maria Martinez at the motel. Maria was the one who found the bodies the next morning. Both Mbtumbe and Ness were in bed, on their backs, naked and with eyes wide open. The coroner had already confirmed the died of lack of oxygen or Carbon Dioxide poisoning. What a horror that must have been. Waking up not breathing and in moments knowing there was nothing you could do about it. Kind of like drowning without the water.

  I was able to review the room but it had already been a month since their deaths. There was nothing and I know I went through that place with a fine toothed comb. Next up was the Motel Manager. This one had a face like a weasel and I could tell he disliked me immediately. It may have been because I interrupted his conversation with one of the local strippers who stayed there also. Luckily Patty stepped in and took charge of that interview. Unfortunately it was another zero. All we got out of it was a review of the video showing Mrs. Ness outside the room but we had already seen that in Virginia. Three minutes outside the room. Three minutes.

  The two of us sauntered up to the Ness home and I knocked. Mrs. Ness answered with a cool demeanor. She was attractive I must say. When I introduced myself as Special Agent Powers of the F.B.I she advised me she had nothing to say, I could speak to her Lawyer and politely slammed the door in my face. I could see the children in the back round right before she nearly took my nose off.

  Dead end. It seemed it was now time for some real F.B.I work. Another series of exciting stake outs. We watched the home from the blue rental car I had. Nothing the rest of the day and night. The next morning we chose to watch Mrs. Ness from her new job. She was a cash register clerk at the local food shop. We were able to park far enough away and still get a good view of her since the entire front was glass. Patty noticed her talking up and flirting with every man she rung up. I noticed her cleavage and derriere every time she bent down and over. From our past interviews this was clearly not the look or actions of The Mrs. Ness of the past. This did not appear to be a grieving if indeed jilted wife. This appeared to be the look of a hunter, a new woman.

  Sadly both nature and coffee called. The first for me and the second for Patty. We decided to end the day and regroup tomorrow again. Maybe a new day of exciting surveillance work would yield something new.

  We waited in the new rental car and about 7:30pm a Jaguar convertible pulled up into the Ness home driveway. Seems it was Mrs. Ness lawyer come to call and would you look at that. He brought Chinese food. Looked like he was planning to stay a while. As it turned out "a while" was over night and he got back into the car and left about 8:00 am the following morning. I have to say he was a darn handsome man. At a guess I would say early to mid fifties. Salt and pepper hair and as Patty stated, " A nice set of Buns." Fabulous.

  We followed him back to his place but there was nothing going on there. I think we did it just to break up some of the monotony.

  It was mid afternoon when we returned to the Ness home. We were planning to interview the neighbors when one neighbor cam out from her home just east of the Ness home. Mrs. Ness came out also. She was dressed in what now appeared to be her standard Yoga pants and button down shirt pulled up and tied just below her breasts. I would have bed happy to see her but it seems she made us. She turned abruptly and returned inside the home. Her Lawyers Jag pulled up a little over an hour later and he approached the car. I dislike him immediately. He was pleasant enough in the beginning but he knew what he was doing. After I refused to reveal our reasons for being there at the time he handed us a restraining order and called the police. I handed him my card. Jeez, this guy must have them pre printed for the judges to just line up and sign. The guy had pull in this town.

  The police showed up within twenty minutes. He was a nice enough sort and obviously  not one of the officers named in the previous suit. He just wanted us out of there. The local police were already frustrated with the whole situation on multiple levels. 



 

  We got back to the Motel 6 around 10pm Saturday night. I took the room where the murders had taken place and Patty was right next door. We had both agreed on the drive back that Sunday we would try and interview the neighbors. It seemed best to interview them at the local police station. Patty had made some calls from the Brewton office and we had one interview lined up for tomorrow morning.

  In the meantime I kept myself busy in the room. I went through it again looking for anything I could but came up empty. It had been a month and others had stayed here and the room had been turned over numerous times. I laid on the bed and tried to put myself in the deceased position. I could hear Patty snoring through the walls and I tried to focus. I swear that girl must have Sleep Apnea but she refuses to go see a specialist. I felt bad for anyone sleeping on the other side of her walls.

  Since I was now acting as the deceased I tried lying in bed and holding my breath, sitting up and keeping it held. Anything to put me in the same frame of mind as the deceased. What would I do if I could not breath and woke up that way? How long could I hold my breath? I remember testing at the Academy. About a minute and a half under water. The average un trained person can go 30-40 seconds. Three minutes would have been enough to kill Mbtumbe and Ness.

  I was so engrossed in my thoughts that when I looked up at the clock I had been holding my breath for five minutes straight. I let out the breath and sucked in a new one. I was tired but my heart rate seemed fine. At first I thought I must have blanked out after holding it for too long but that was not the case. I could easily remember each minute pass on the digital clock. I did not miss a count while watching.

  It was then that I started focusing on existing Metas and anyone I could think of from the Comics I had read and still read. What power or being could cause the room to lose all oxygen? I was again taken back when I closed my eyes and it seemed thousands of pages of comics started running down my closed eye "Vision".

  It was like thumbing through copies of Marvel Universe comics but only seeing the parts I needed. Splashes of Bill Willinghams Elementals passed by with Vortex using his abilities. I opened my eyes. I had never before shown any signs of a Photographic Memory. I tried to remember if I had ever read anything about someone suddenly developing a Photographic Memory. Bam! It happened again. Any reference to Photographic Memory popped into my head but no reference of it ever appearing in an adult who never showed this ability previously.

  I took a moment, composed myself and set myself to sleep. She did it. I knew she did it. Tomorrow would be the interview and I knew the only way we were going to get the evidence we needed was to get Mrs. Ness to show her hand.

  I could not sleep that night. Try as we might we still had nothing. We needed Mrs. Ness  to play her hand. I left my room in the Motel 6 and took a walk. Patty was already asleep and already sawing wood at an alarming rate. It must have been thirty minutes of walking and praying to the God of comics for an idea before I finally turned back. I was stuck. I kept thinking we had missed something but it seemed more likely there was just no hard evidence and we needed to get it somehow.

  I returned to my room door and was about to use the key card when I heard something. Actually let me re phrase. It was not what I heard but what I did not hear. Patty was not snoring. I turned and went to shoulder her room door open and changed my mind. I kicked it instead. I forget I am not a Meta or a movie Star either.

  As soon as I entered the room I could not breathe. There was no oxygen and Patty was unconscious. I picker her up and pulled her outside the room to the parking lot. There was no air there either. I held my breathe and began CPR but all I was doing was moving around Carbon Dioxide rich blood. That was when I heard it. Footsteps on the low roof. I had to do something so I climbed the rail, grabbed the awning and hoped Patty would take a breath.

  She turned, Mrs Ness, dressed in her standard Yoga pants and button down shirt. She was angry. "You went to my children's School!!?? What right do you have!!??. Stay away from my children!!" Oops. Looks like we had inadvertantly woken the she Bear in Mrs. Ness. She hated her Husband. She loved her kids.

  I started to reach for my Taser but Mrs. Ness was in  humanly fast. She turned and a blast of air came froth from her hands. As soon as it hit me I felt and heard my first rib on my right side crack. I pointed and fired the Taser on instinct. Subdue first, deadly force only in extreme emergencies. I guess I should have realized this was pretty extreme. It was a waste of efforts. The pegs of the taser split off in different directions before they came within a foot of her. If I was it so nervous I would have shouted "Cool!! A wind defense!"

  Mrs. Ness must have been slightly taken back by the taser as her next blast of air missed me. I decided I preferred her missing me and started to bob and weave while reaching for my Glock.

  She was so fast and threw her hands at me again. She missed as I dove and I was able to get three shots from the Glock off. I was sure I hit her with each or at least should have. It was too fast for me to see but the first two shots missed. The third connected and she literally started spinning in the air somewhat out of control.

  She spin back my way as she regained some semblance of control. The blast of cold air hit be like a slugger swinging a baseball bat. Third rib left side cracked, I knew it. I also knew that one more hit like that and I would be dead and so would Patty. All I could hope for now is a confession in her anger and keep her mind off Patty. I reached into my inside blazer pocket and hit what I hoped was the On button on my recorder.

  "Why did you do it Mrs. Ness?" I stammered. " Because I can was her only reply" In hind sight I should have been more specific but I was scared to death.

  I was swinging my Glock around for my last desperate flurry when I heard shouts from behind and below me. Mrs Ness  rocked back and  she dropped out of the air. I can't believe I did not even notice her flying!

  Patty had regained consciousness, heard the commotion and fired. I ran to Mrs. Ness while Patty called for the Ambulance. We had our proof, two FBI witnesses. Now all we needed was to make sure the Murderer lived to stand trial.



 

Aw, Nuts.......