Catch and Release

Chapter 1 – Thursday, May 2, 2019

Chapter 1 – Thursday, May 2, 2019Sheppard rolled over. It felt as though he had just gone to sleep when his alarm sounded. He pulled his pillow over his head in an attempt to block out the alarm that vaguely sounded like someone getting a phone call underwater. It didn’t work. Probably for the best. He threw the covers back and swung his legs out of bed. His feet hit the hardwood floor, and as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he said, “I’m up, I’m up. Alexa stop.”

The alarm stopped on request leaving the apartment devoid of sound. Sheppard stretched and yawned, sat on the side of the bed and wondered what the day would have in store for him. The life of an FBI agent wasn’t anything like he had expected from watching movies and reading thriller novels. Real life seldom was. He spent most of his days analyzing data in an attempt to track down serial killers and kidnappers. Some-times, it led to an arrest, but most of the time, it didn’t.

Sheppard pushed himself off the bed, clicking several vertebrae in the process, and headed toward the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror, slightly disappointed with what he saw. He ran his hand up his midsection, noting that the abs he’d had only a few years ago had melded into one. His finger paused on a round scar over his left shoulder, a constant reminder of his last army tour. He shook himself out of his memories and ran his fingers through his short hair. He had noticed that his hairline had started receding in high school. Every time he looked now, he thought back to what his Lieutenant had told him on his first tour in Iraq. “You are a soldier in the US Army. Nothing about you retreats. Your forehead is advancing.” Sheppard smiled slightly as he turned on the faucet, lathered his face with shaving foam, and said, “Alexa, start the morning.”

His coffee machine started bubbling and churning in the kitchen while on the night-stand, the small screen of his Echo Show started up, playing the morning news report. He didn’t care much for the news. Everything he needed to know would come across his desk, usually before the media caught wind of it. Today, however, something caused him to stop shaving and pay attention to the report.

The morning news anchor was a young woman of about twenty-two. She was blonde, thin, and attractive. The kind of person who could be reading the phone book and have the attention of every man watching. He always found it hard to take her seriously. “On to national news, Ayatollah Abdus Salam was found dead in his Chicago home this morning after being stabbed seven times.” The screen changed to an image of an up-market house with yellow police tape hung across the entryway. Police camera crews took photographs of the door frame, and graffiti that had been spray painted on the front of the house. “The Chicago Police Department has released a statement saying that the murder of Ayatollah Abdus Salam matches the murders of two other Muslim clerics in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and they are working with the FBI to track down the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ayatollah Salam’s family and community.”

Sheppard had just returned to shaving when a loud chirp came from his night-stand. He walked over, picked up his cellphone, and studied the ancient looking phone’s display. “s**t,” he muttered as he recognized his office number. He flipped open the clamshell phone to pick up the call, held the phone to his ear, and said, “Agent Sheppard.”