Sylvie

Walking over to the professor, Elle handed him one of the two coffee cups and sat down on the sofa, sipping hers. “Why is that?  All Noah did was tell me that you were looking into the bones found at the scene.”  She decided to not beat around the bush, “Specifically a very old skull.”

“Old would be one thing.  This one is quite ancient.”  He stood up and fished out a small USB drive and handed it to Elle. “These are my notes.  I couldn’t get the skull without raising suspicion.  I managed to remove all of the backup files and such.  What you have there is all of my entire findings.”  

“You drove all this way from Colonial Heights to Virginia Beach to give me this?  I mean you could have just securely emailed it and it would have been just as protected.”  Elle inquired with eyebrow perked.

Sighing, Charles responded, “Oh there’s more.”  He sat back and took a couple sips of his drink. “If you look at 14 News, you will see why I am so worried about Noah and what’s going on.”

Reaching for the television remote, Elle punched the on button and changed the channel to the news.  “What in the hell?”  She exclaimed while looking at the line of overturned trucks floating in the river, their paper contents still going downriver at a regular pace. “When…”

“This morning it was all over the national news and I took a peek at local news.  Apparently, local news was late to the scene and the initial looks were from bystanders.”  Charles paused, “Every last truck had bullet holes in the windows.”

Elle watched as a few helicopters changed their view of the overturned trucks in the river. “That is just outside ‘The Station’.”  She shook her head and took a healthy gulp of her coffee to try and clear her mind. “Noah and I had dinner there just last night, he told me in the office that the trucks would be taking those to the archives.”

Shaking uncontrollably, Charles set the coffee cup on Elle’s small table and leaned back in the chair holding his temples. “W-w-When I saw this, I tried to call Noah.  I didn’t get an answer.  So I took an alternate route to the university, and grabbed everything I could before the rest of the faculty came in.”  He took a deep breath, “It felt like a scope on my back the entire time I was making my way here.”

Paying more attention to the ongoing news coverage for the trucks and the people within it, Elle half heard Charles’s fear and being targeted.  Blinking herself out of the trance, Elle smiled. “You should be safe enough here.  The issue comes with trying to procure you a safe house via my director.”  She shrugged, “I am not sure who to trust right now, so for now I want you to stay here.”  Noticing that the screen panned over once more, Elle heard screams coming from the various news anchors.  Standing in complete shock, Elle couldn’t believe that the cross-killer would be so brazen as to put up a crucifix with a dead woman on it, and did so without the myriad of people milling about seeing it happen.

Professor Sheppard lowered his head and spoke solemnly, “That is the waitress from ‘The Station’ that waits on Noah all the time.  You likely met her last night.”  He rubbed his temples, “Isn’t that fourteen deaths in fourteen days of October?”  He sounded as though he were crying, “I’m not staying here.  I need to get out of this area, you have all of my findings and if you can get to the college, I am sure you can get the actual skull.”

“Don’t be so hasty, Professor.”  Elle chastised. “You can’t go on the run with credit cards or your normal identification, you will be found within hours.”  She walked to one of the windows and peeked through the blind trying to see if there was an assassin ready to kill the professor. “I need a bit of a disguise to mill about outside.  I can sneak out and get you a clear path like a bus or something, since you don’t want to stay here.”

Agreeing to the terms he heard Elle suggest, Charles resumed watching the television. “At least we know Noah is at least alive, for now.”

Walking out of the living room to her bedroom, Elle eagerly responded, “There is that much.  For how long we don’t know.”  She sighed and attempted once more to convince the professor to take protective custody. “Are you quite sure that you want to be on your own?  Whoever is looking for you will have a much easier time getting to you without some sort of guard present.”  Elle opened her closet and flipped through the different jackets until she found a zip-up red hoodie.

-I hate the color red.-

Mid-thought, the professor answered. “Agent Miller, I appreciate the offer.  I would rather just disappear.  I have plenty of money to draw from that isn’t traceable.  I learned to stash money and such away from the criminal father I have.”  He chuckled lightly, “While I took my life and profession seriously, I also learned how to do many things I shouldn’t.”

Donning the jacket and wearing a tattered set of jeans, Elle pulled up the hood so that her face was not easily seen. “Fair enough, just know you can always come back if you change your mind.”  She reached into the pockets of the jacket and found a crumpled piece of paper in the left pocket. “Let me go look around and we will get you out of here, professor.”

Quietly exiting her back stairwell door, Elle sat down on the first step and opened the piece of paper she’d found in the pocket.  Upon an initial glance the words looked like complete gibberish.  It took a few seconds for Elle to realize that this was a cypher message from Angelie of some importance.  A smile overtook her features as she tried to puzzle out the meaning.

—

Ovvsomkd,

K aesmu vsddvo xydo dy vod iye uxyg drkd xy wkddob grkd iye wki coo sx dro mywsxq nkic, uxyg drkd S vyfo iye kxn xyd ofobidrsxq sc kc coox.

Sp iye psxn drsc vsddvo xydo drkd S'fo demuon sxdy iyeb vokcd econ tkmuod. (Csxmo S uxyg iye rkdo bon, drsc wsqrd lo robo pyb iokbc)

Pyvvyg dro vsddvo bsnnvo gsdrsx.  Psxn yed pkfybsdo lydkxsmkv qkbnox, iye qyd sd sx iyeb rokn?  Grobo go qyd oxqkqon.

Drobo'c k lesvnsxq kmbycc drkd go'fo econ ypdox kc govv.  Vymuob 1031 mywlsxkdsyx 28159

S vyfo iye kxn rkfo pex gsdr drsc.

Kxqovso

—

Elle took a few seconds more to study the text and figured out that it was a shift cipher and Angelie started it from the letter ‘K’.  Almost skipping down the steps, Elle carefully folded the letter and made her way outside.

Taking the time to walk the block where her apartment was, Elle saw the normal people she’d become accustomed to seeing.  An older man feeding ducks with birdseed, The kiosk coffee vendor that she’d used a dozen times, A power-walking ponytailed mother with her toddler.

-This looks like my everyday life, professor.-