Story 05 – Part 1 – Frozen

--I’ve got the information all set up,-- Tech signed.

The agents had completely missed his hand motions and his mother was not in the room. Tech sighed and smacked the palm of his hand onto the desk. When Agent Michaels looked over, Tech typed what he signed and pointed at the screen. Agent Michaels thanked him and asked him to put everything on the plasma screens that were on the lobby wall.

The first couple of times he had helped the agents had been kind of funny, and annoying. Neither had been completely sure how to deal with Tech. It had taken Agent Driver less time to remember that Tech was only mute. Still, it had taken Agent Michaels less time to figure out some of the basic signs and hand gestures that Tech normally used.

“Alright,” Agent Michaels said as Mr. Owens came into the room. “Sorry to put a damper on the holiday season, but we’ve got a serial killer on the loose. His victims have all been found frozen to death. Commonalities among the victims are as follows: male, late teen to early twenties, and all living somewhere in this city. They have different hair, eye, and even skin color.”

“It seems like the killer is specifically targeting some people,” Agent Driver said. “We just haven’t been able to find a connection yet. It seems the victims have nothing else in common.”

As the adults began discussing possible ideas, Tech started arranging the data that the agents had brought. It was slightly unnerving to realize that a few of the people who had been frozen were near his age. Though, he probably was not as unnerved as he should have been. It was just that these things never did bother him much.

Since he was listening for it, Tech actually heard the car pull up to complex. He turned as his uncle walked in and quickly signed what was going on. Uncle Car smiled and nodded as he walked over to look at what was being discussed. Everyone always praised Tech for his amazing hearing, but he was more fascinated with his uncle’s ability to read the truth from a person.

“The only pictures we have are the victims and we have no idea how they’re all connected,” Agent Driver explained.

Carmine looked at the pictures for a few minutes and then shrugged. “Maybe they’re not connected as a group, but individually. Of course, if you squint and ignore everything else, it sort of looks like they all have the same face. Anyway, you ready Tech?”

--I’m going to rock it this time,-- Tech signed. --Pun totally intended.--

--Funny,-- Uncle Car signed back. --Rock. Rock climbing. Clever.--

“Now don’t stay out too late, boys,” his mom said.

“Just an hour or two, Vi,” Carmine answered.

Tech had only agreed to go rock climbing the first ten times for a few reasons. First, he had wanted to cheer up Uncle Car a bit, and second because his mom had agreed to let him do that super road trip his uncle had randomly planned. Now Tech found that he kind of enjoyed rock climbing. He certainly was not as good as his uncle, but he was getting better. With Carmine, the rock climbing people never threw a fit about Tech not yelling the whole ‘ready to climb’ dialogue that was standard safety.

After an hour, Uncle Car had impressed several people with the ease in which he climbed up, under, and around the rock walls. Tech was getting better at the easy hand holds and was starting to dare the next skill level. He finally gave up and tugged on the rope, signaling to Uncle Car that he was going to repel. Pushing off with his legs, Tech prepared for the descent that never came.

Pulling on the cord, Tech looked down. Uncle Car blinked in surprise as he looked back up at Tech. After a quick sign, Tech was repelling down to the bottom. The moment he landed, though, he knew something was wrong. Carmine kept looking around, eyes slightly narrowed.

--I'm taking you back home now,-- Uncle Car signed as he kept looking.

There was a look in his uncle’s eyes that kept Tech from asking what was wrong as they returned the harnesses and left the building. Usually, at least the one time Tech had seen his uncle like this before, Carmine would relax after they left the person that was agitating him. On the entire drive home, though, Uncle Car still seemed on edge. Tech waited, but his uncle never said a word about what it was.

“I’ll see you tomorrow for Christmas decorating,” Carmine said as he dropped Tech off.