Niki slipped behind the steering wheel and nearly screamed in pain as his knees had trouble fitting under the wheel. Frank knew he had forgotten to put the seat back for Niki and his long legs. He made every apology he could. Niki reminded Frank the he was married to Bob’s sister and that this was a daily occurrence.

“Why didn’t you want me driving?” Frank asked; knowing that Niki preferred to let him drive whenever they traveled together.

“This is a new car and I don’t need you wrecking it when you talk on your phone;” he didn’t say any more even though the thought race through his head. He wasn’t accustomed to vocalizing even after Gabby had been getting him to open up.

Frank understood and said what Niki was thinking; “In other words, I do the phoning and you do the acting?”

Niki nodded his head in agreement. For the most part, he said nothing else on the trip to The Barn. He listened to Frank’s end of various phone calls. Frank put his cell phone on speaker mode when he had Big Ed on the other end.

“Ed this case has history for Bob, Vickie and Gabriela. I had Fast Eddie and Reggie doing the preliminary footwork; none of the neighbors saw anything. We have the two rookies, each with several years under Mike Kenney doing the prelim workup and learning everything they can about the Professor Peter Jamison case. This was well before my time. Do you remember Jacques Silva?” Frank was leaning on his old friend, but Big Ed had no qualms about the favor; Frank was like a son to him.

“I remember that real well. It was the year I retired from official and not so official government employment. What’s up?”

Frank felt him out; “Mike found a poem on Bob’s mom that was almost identical to the first one on the Jamison case.”

“I made sure that rotten bastard paid in the most terrible terms possible; Elaine and Monique were good friends and colleagues. He dances with the devil in a much fouler place now. It can’t be him. I personally made sure he would hurt no one every again for the rest of eternity.” Big Ed fumed. Frank sensed the pain and had seen that side of Big Ed only once before and had sworn not to encounter it again.

“We know it’s not the same person. I’d like you to complete a dossier on Professor Jamison with particular attention to protégé’s, children and all relatives. This sounds and looks personal.”

Big Ed volunteered; “I’ll do you one better, Frank. I will find you every detail of his sordid life. By the time, we’re done we are going to know how many diaper changes he had as a baby.” Big Ed gave Frank some additional names of people to call who knew how to access the college crowd and acquire domestic surveillance dossiers from the previous sixty years; “I’ll start with all other aspects of his life, while you and Niki dissect his days as a college professor.”

Big Ed changed concentration and addressed Niki directly; “Niki, I’m sending you some new access codes in an encrypted e-mail. These will open wide the doors to your favorite databases with unrestricted access to all levels. Your Princess Sophia will have a lot of work to do with this case.”

Frank let his guard down for a minute and gave a chuckle. Big Ed asked; “What’s so funny, Frank?”

“I’m just learning about taking my laptop with me when I go out. I for sure haven’t even thought about giving it a name yet.”

“Ah, I forgot, you’re like me more a field person and let everyone else do the reports. I’m sure Niki will help you with your laptop. I think the two of you should lead this one together. I have a hunch about this one. And, if my hunch is just twenty percent correct, this is not going to be pretty.”

Niki added; “You both know that Bob and Gabby are going to insist on being a part of this!”

Frank returned to being all business; “Yes, but we are going to need to be their shield. We don’t want either of them doing something they will regret later on; grief breeds stupidity when it comes time to act. Bob is pretty good when it comes to keeping things under wraps; but this is family.”

Niki confirmed Franks comments; “I agree with Frank. I know Gabby will want to do great harm to who ever did this. Their family is very close and they both are going to be taking this personally for a very – very – long time.”

Big Ed reminded Frank of the past; “I remember how you were when my Betsy went missing and then when you found her in that ally. I know how much you loved her and how much that shredded your soul. You had all those years of intensive training to fall back on. Bob’s and Gabby’s backgrounds are different, so I agree with your assessments. Elaine and I will be out to The Barn later. I’m sure she will be bringing some of her “snacks” along – they’ll be needed.”

The phone call ended as Niki turned into the lane at Hacienda de la Hoya y Sanchez. The Barn was on Frank’s acreage. The car had barely stopped before Frank was out the door and striding to the front door of The Barn. Niki, even though much taller and with much longer legs, had trouble catching up to Frank. He had seen this determination in Frank only a few times before. He thought that this was going to be one of those cases where Frank was going to be all business and the perpetrator may end up being the last victim.

Frank threw open the reluctant front door to The Barn. He hadn’t noticed the bitter cold, walking in only a sweater from car to building. In a stern voice he greeted Lynda and stomped off to the command center. Niki was right behind him. He stopped at Lynda’s desk and let her know what was happening and that all calls should be filtered through Stefan.

The command center was buzzing with activity. The three main viewing screens were loaded with the files of Professor Jamison, his photographs and a “T” chart showing the similarities of the cases. The others around the room were getting live video feeds from Bob’s house and waiting on the live feeds from Reggie’s and Fast Eddie’s web cams. Frank was immediately getting updates on what he was viewing from Ben and Bev.

Niki pulled Stefan aside; “All incoming phone calls and communications is going to be filtered through you. Nothing goes to Bob, Vicky or Gabby until either Frank or I have cleared it first. There is every indication that they all have history with some really painful memories involved. You’ll learn the details soon enough; the ugliness of the Chauncey Roy murders is about to be resurrected.”

Stefan paled; “I quickly scanned the file. I will have to read it more carefully. Mr. Wellington should be landing in Cleveland in about an hour and Mr. Parker should be in California in about five hours. Mr. Parker rigged everything so they can run their web cams while driving and pick up video feeds when they’re not in the cars. In other words, we’ll have instant access to everything as they see and hear it.”

Niki, thought of one more thing as he turned to walk toward Frank; “One more thing Stefan, make sure you feed all new developments to folder “Jan2009” on Princess Sophia’s desktop. I will be checking it often.”

Anxiously nervous and embarrassed for not knowing, Stefan stammered and reverted to his native language; “Er – er, entschuldigan Sie mir bitte. Was ist Colombian Necktie?”

Niki looked at Stefan’s reddening cheeks; “No need to be embarrassed; you’d have no reason to know this term. It got the name from a particular style of execution used extensively by the Colombian drug cartels that flourished in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s. At first it was used to send a warning to anybody who even thought about snitching. Then it just became a signature to the rest of the world to never cross them. This is where the assassin deeply slices the victim’s throat and then pulls their tongues out through the hole in the throat leaving it to dangle like a necktie. It is a pretty gruesome experience to see it.”

Stefan was visibly shaken and Niki wanted to ease it just a bit; “Stefan,” Niki slipped his big paw around Stefan’s opposite shoulder; “There is no end to how cruel a man can be to his own kind.”