Day 131 - Always one step behind

 Always one step behind

 Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Sonny was getting annoyed. There had been little movement on the murders or any discovery of motivations or who was ultimately responsible. The police hit the ground running and kicked in appropriate doors, questioned and detained the logical suspects, but so far there were just dead ends. As more and more avenues came up empty, the police let Sonny participate more and more. Perhaps they needed fresh eyes, or maybe they wanted someone to blame if nothing was ever resolved. He doubted they had discovered any new found respect for Interpol or former multinational-task force members. Stopping pirates on international waters was one thing, but most police didn’t want a foreigner interfering in their districts.  

 The thirty-three tattoo was at best at a standstill at worst a dead-end. There was a wide array of tattoos on the victims at all three crime scenes, but nothing matched the apartment murder. The police had files and files to identify gang tattoos, but nothing was matching thirty-three. Sonny had put in a few calls to contacts in the Philippines, but so far no one could tell him what had happened to the pirate with the forty-seven tattoo.

There was one similarity amongst some of the men at the mansion, a gang tag symbol. Three dots formed an upside-down pyramid within the outline of a skull. Some with a curved sickle intersecting the skull, some with a machete.  Different factions of the same gang. Or something to signify ranks.  Sonny had seen that tattoo before – a gang known as the Reapers, which he thought was defunct. Perhaps they had reorganized here. Or these were but a few scattered members now working as bodyguards. But the Reapers were from Jakarta and as far as he knew had never operated in Bandung. If the Reapers had moved cities there was no reason to go to Jakarta. But if they were spreading into new cities, then perhaps the slayings were in retaliation and a warning for them to stay out. That would wrap things up a little too nicely. And wouldn’t explain who thirty-three was. He hated to change cities, but if there was a connection he needed to find out.

Nothing would be worse than being a step behind in two cities, but Sonny didn’t think he had much of a choice. He had worked with an agent on one of the anti-pirate task forces and thought he had ended up in Jakarta. That was as good a place to start as any. Perhaps he remembered forty-seven and could open up additional connections that way. It seemed as though his road just took a turn straight to Jakarta.