Twisted roots

The perfect plan

Jessie’s Apartment – 10:43 PM

The rain tapped steadily against the windows as Jessie stood over the kitchen table, a pinched expression lining her face. Across from her, Levi shuffled through surveillance photos—grainy black-and-whites of Aaron Cole coming and going from his building from the station from nowhere in particular.

“He’s taunting us,” Levi muttered, slapping one of the photos down. “Look at this. Who walks right past a city surveillance camera after escaping captivity?”

“Someone who wants us to know he’s in control,” Jessie replied. “And someone who doesn’t think we’ll go to the police because he knows we can’t.”

Levi’s jaw tightened. “Especially now that Marquez is circling.”

Jessie didn’t respond right away. Her hands were trembling, but only slightly—just enough for her to close them into fists.

“She suspects him,” she said finally. “Interrogation Room 2 isn’t standard protocol for a ‘routine check-in.’ She’s digging.”

“And if she keeps digging—”

“She’ll find me.”

That was the problem.

It was no longer just about catching Aaron.

Now they had to do it while making sure Detective Elias Marquez never figured out that Jessie Black wasn’t chasing the Black Thread Killer—

She was him.

Or at least… she had been.

Planning in the Dark

Jessie walked over to the whiteboard mounted beside her kitchen cabinets. It was clean, freshly wiped. Time to rebuild.

She wrote in red marker:

> GOAL: Recapture Aaron

RISK: Marquez suspects Aaron

THREAT: Aaron suspects Jessie

“Whatever we do next,” she said, “Marquez can’t know we’re watching Aaron too closely. If she catches us following him, she’ll ask why. If she sees us in the wrong place, the wrong time—she’ll connect the dots.”

Levi stood. “So how do we move without making noise?”

Jessie picked up a second marker.

> Step 1 – Recreate Aaron’s mistake

Use his ego. Set bait. Give him a target. One that looks vulnerable—but legal. A public trail.

“Something that makes him think he’s one step ahead again,” Jessie said. “But we’re setting the board this time.”

> Step 2 – Create an alibi

Jessie must stay above suspicion. No absence from work. There is no involvement near any new scenes.

Levi raised an eyebrow. “So I’m the bait again?”

“No,” Jessie said. “This time, you’re the eyes. You track him. Quietly. And you draw him into the location—without even knowing it’s a trap.”

“Meaning…?”

Jessie exhaled. “We give him a victim. One that doesn’t exist. But one he can’t resist.”

The Setup

They chose the location: an abandoned nursery just outside city limits. Out of the way. No cameras. Used by squatters, but empty this time of year. Jessie could prep it—sterile, rigged, controlled.

They forged a file: a fake case profile of a man named Victor Landry, a recently released pedophile with a suspicious parole record and proximity to children’s parks.

Jessie used her access at the department to leave behind a file folder—carefully “misplaced” in a shared digital drive that Aaron could see.

“Once he opens it,” Jessie said, “he’ll think we’re watching this guy. But there’s no one there. Just a staged crime of opportunity. One that’ll pull him in.”

“And once he arrives?” Levi asked.

“We dose him again,” Jessie replied. “Fast. No hesitation. No speeches this time.”

“But what if he doesn’t take the bait?”

Jessie turned, eyes hard.

“He will. He needs to feel in control. The moment he thinks someone else is getting to a ‘guilty’ man before he does, he’ll show up just to prove he’s better than us.”

Levi nodded slowly. “Okay. But what about Marquez?”

Jessie picked up her phone and started setting an auto-send message.

“I’ll be logged into the lab that night. Cameras will see me. Badge will be active. I’ll have a dozen digital breadcrumbs putting me miles away.”

“And me?”

“You’re just visiting a friend. No weapon. No motive. No connection.”

She looked up at him. “This time, we get him… or we vanish.”

Meanwhile – At the Precinct

Detective Marquez sat at her desk, cross-checking Aaron’s case files against recent Black Thread signatures.

The deeper she dug, the more patterns aligned.

But something else had started to creep into her mind—Jessie Black. Always assigned to the scene. Always first on the forensic analysis. Always precise, emotionless… almost too clean.

She clicked open Jessie’s department profile and skimmed her recent call logs.

Her cursor hovered.

A late-night call to Levi Porter.

Unusual.

She checked again—another the night before.

Then another.

Marquez narrowed her eyes.

> “What do you know, Jessie Black?”