Working

Headquarters.
It wasn’t exactly fancy or large, but it was secret. Not a single soul outside of the investigation team knows where it is.
You want to know? Don’t think I would give it away that easily.
Devon made him way of the narrow staircase. The sound of everyone’s voices came through the walls. He’ll need to do something about that. He knocked twice, paused, and then knocked once. The door immediately opened. “Look who decided to show up everybody!” Andrew wrapped his arm around Devon’s neck and slammed the door shut with his foot. “Missed you buddy!” Andrew messed up Devon’s hair and began to laugh.
“Aw, geez! Andy!”
“What’d you call me?” Devon laughed as him and Andrew wrestled. They fell to the floor with a bang and the legs on the large table in the center of the room shook.
“Come on, guys! Seriously? How old are you?” Andrew and Devon both looked up to find a young looking girl standing over them, her arms crossed.
Andrew stood. “Oh, lighten up, Demi. Drake’s not even here yet. It’s not like we were in the middle of a briefing.” She stuck her tongue out at him. Devon watched from the floor as Andrew and Demi walked over to the table. Her hands spread out on the table as if to be reading something when her eyes shifted.
“Don’t you think you should get up?”
“Right… sorry.”
Devon stood and joined them at the table. The sound of flushing came from behind them. Andrew turned around while Demi and Devon stared intently at the papers on the table. Suddenly, the bathroom door swung open banging against the paint-faded wall. “Trust me, no one wants to go in there for awhile!” Andrew cackled and went to go slap Chris on the back.
“I taught you well!” The two obnoxious boys only proceeded to get louder once there was a noisy rapping on the door. Devon tensed.
“Knock, knock!” Drake announced as he walked in.
“Whoa there, did somebody order an aftershave?” Chris teased pointing out the cuts scattered around Drake’s chin.
“Shut up! I was running late this morning!”
“Well you are late.” The three of them turned and looked at Demi glaring and Devon staring hard at the papers. “Let’s get a little serious here – ”
“There!” Devon’s suddenness startled Demi. She spun around so fast, her hair whipped Devon in the back of the head.
“What? What is it?”
“Look here at this picture.” Devon held up a newspaper article with a far away shot of someone wearing a long coat, hat, and gloves. At first, Demi didn’t understand what he was talking about. She looked at the picture trying to see whatever it was Devon was seeing. “Now look at this.” He quickly slid over another picture that was on the table. It was a picture of the same person. Chris, Andrew, and Drake gathered around them and began looking at the two pictures.
“So it’s the same guy. Maybe that’s why the headline is Mass Murder Strikes Again,” Drake said sarcastically. Andrew nudged him with his elbow as Demi rolled her eyes.
“No look,” Devon suddenly catching on. “The cab on the corner.” Devon pointed to one of the pictures. “The cab here, it’s the same as the one here,” he said pulling another picture closer to him.
“All cabs look the same,” Chris said.
“No look at the license plate, IK – LD – M. It’s the same one on this cab in this shot.” Devon slid the pictures to Demi and watched her examine it. She then looked at Devon intently. He nodded once.
“Well… what if we… read it?” she mouthed slowly.
“Let me see.” Devon took the papers back and read the license plate out loud as if it were a word. “Ick ild em… I kild em… I killed them.”
“Oh, well that’s nice,” Andrew said as he sat down in the armchair in the corner. Demi walked over with the papers and sat on Andrew’s lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist as she continued to read the pictures. Demi took a quick glance around the room. Her eyes paused on Devon. “You wearing new perfume?”
“Yes, you don’t like it?”
“No, I do. It smells like apples.”
“Thank you.”
After a few moments of silence, Devon walked over to one of the five computers sitting on the long desk against the back wall. “I’m going to see if I can track this cab. What was it again? IK – LD – M?” He typed in MAX the Mass Murder into the search box.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Chris walked over to the mini fridge and got out a water bottle.
“Toss me one,” Devon heard Drake say. He clicked on the first link on the right of the screen, Followers: 436,089. Devon clicked on it and read some names.
Trenton Fisher.
Greg Harnage.
Jessica Ernest.
Diana Woods
Tim Ternan.
Olivia Camporelli
Nicole Miller
“Nicole…?” He clicked it. The link led him to a profile page designed by Nicole. At the top it said, Nicole Miller is a Follower of MAX. Devon did not like the idea of his own sister following this MAX online, much less putting her full name on the Internet. That was really dumb of her, dumb of all these people. Now the murder knows their real names.
Devon clicked back and then hit Diana Woods. The profile came up. There was a picture in the top left corner, just like there was one of his sister. There was a pale skinned girl with dark hair that came just above her shoulders. Her make-up wasn’t heavy, yet not exactly natural either. There was something that caught his eye. At the bottom of the profile, it said, “What would you like to say to the world at this very moment?” Devon scrolled down to see Diana’s response. “MAX makes me feel safe to walk the streets at night.” The last update was on November 2 at 11:57 p.m.
“That’s ridiculous…” Devon clicked the back button and clicked on Tim Ternan.
“Who’s Tim Ternan?” Devon whipped his head around to see Drake looking over his shoulder sipping his water.
“Oh, nobody. Just someone I thought I knew.”
Devon hit the X in the top right corner and closed out of the website. He turned around in his chair to see what was going on behind him. Chris was staring at another computer screen farther down the long row of monitors. Andrew was still sitting in the armchair with Demi on his lap; she was looking at Devon strangely. Her eyes then shifted to Chris. Her eyes portrayed her thoughts clearly and Devon understood every last bit. The two of them have always had a similar thought process. It was hard to believe that Nicole was actually his sister and not Demi. However, maybe Devon preferred it that way.