บท 80: Chapter 80

"Sorry about the wait."

Stepping out of the airport, Leonardo apologies to the middle aged man who waited patiently for nearly an hour. Since it took a while to sort out the issue due to the woman and her family that harassed him on the plane. Which he felt he should have just turned a deaf ear if it had known it would take so long to sort out.

"It's quite alright." The man said. "I was just looking at the code the killer sent me."

The man in question was a man in his late forties, maybe fifties. He has a mixture of dark and gray hair with a receded hairline. Shaking his head, the man motioned him to follow behind as they walked to his car.

"So, I understand you are a retired federal profiler who attempted to catch this reactive killer before?" Leonardo asked.

"Yeah, and it shames me not being able to catch him until now." Max sighed.

"Well, it shouldn't be too hard. I got a few leads I found on the plane that should give us a direction or lead us straight to him." Leonardo answered.

"Really? I can see your reputation isn't false." Max said.

"Anyways, let me see that letter the killer sent you." Leonardo asked.

Max didn't care much as he handed over the paper where a small paragraph was on top. Which basically taunted Max as well as how he is back once more. While below were a bunch of letters that were like a word search block.

After a few seconds, Leonardo soon marked all the keywords inside. Which just told of some key things in the crime such as the method he chose to use. Which just confirmed a guess of his since he thought of a few on the plane.

"Alright, it looks like the killer was forced to change his M.O. and not because he wants to. Also with this wordsearch and small details, either he has a near perfect memory or he is taking pictures of the scene. The latter is more like it and due to this I would say he is a perfectionist. Even after nearly two decades, he is still trying to match his original M.O. the best his mind would allow him to." Leonardo said to himself. "So, he either had a medical issue such as a stroke or head injury or his body was injured and he can't exert much pressure on the right side of his body. Not to mention he still lives in the area since he had such clear targets back then and I assume now as well."

"Huh? Why do you say that?" Max asked.

"In the photo of the latest victim that I received. I noticed the right side seemed lacking strength and while the killer tried to cover it. He didn't do very well in my opinion since it basically glared the right side weak to me." Leonardo replied. "I will show you when we get to the station as I need the database."

"Oh, alright." Max replied. "At this rate, you might catch him before BAU even arrives." Max grumbled something about paperwork.

"That would be great. I got a few things to do back in Gotham." Leonardo said as he looked out the window.

Arriving at the station, Leonardo was directed towards a room where they prepared the files of the Keystone Killers. However, after looking over everything in a few minutes since he already saw the overview beforehand or been told. Leonardo went to work on searching the database where he began to filter search.

Where a bunch of names appeared and Leonardo soon began to edit his search even more. For most names that popped up, Leonardo did a quick glance and shook his head. Most of them, while possible, weren't what he was looking for. Right before he stopped upon a man in his forties with a half bald head.

The man was in the air force for a while, but what made him smile a bit was the man's previous jobs. It was noted the man worked as an alarm installer, but was involved in a car accident during that year. After which the Keystone Killer went dormant after.

Then he noted that there was a small mention of him during an interrogation from a small-time thief. So, Leonardo felt the chances of this guy being the killer he is after is fairly high. So he moved on and began to pick up a few things from the case files.

"Someone go invite this man in for a chat." Leonardo asked an officer.

"Huh, you got someone already? It hasn't even been an hour since you got here. I also just got the snack food ready also." Max walked in with a small bag.

"Odds are fairly high, however, when he arrives we will know." Leonardo shrugged as he tossed Max the man file he just printed off.

"Walter Kern." Max frowned as he looked it over. "I don't see what makes you so confident in choosing him."

"Look at his noted history or more specifically the date of a car crash." Leonardo sighed.

Max nodded but didn't comment more. Since he began to look over the old case files and began to compare a few things. In which he was looking for flaws or evidence to prove otherwise. However, unlike Leoanrdo who could process more information than every supercomputer within seconds, Max took longer time.

Finally after a few hours, Leonardo who was just sorting things out and Max were still fact checking. Walter was escorted into the station and headed towards the interrogation room. Where the man seemed fine on the surface, but Leonardo could hear his heartbeat accelerate when their eyes met.

"Get someone to collect some of his DNA and get that sample analyzed as soon as possible. Also get a warrant and search his place, he should have trophies of his victims somewhere he can easily get too and disguise." Leonardo asked.

"Alright." One of the officers nodded and went to submit to get the warrant going.

"How can you be so sure he is the killer?" Max asked.

Handing over the evidence in his hand he managed to put it together while waiting. It allowed Max to see the thought process and also speed up checking the facts. Which made him sigh and feel old seeing how such a young man came and broke the case like a storm.

"Are we going to interview him now?" Max asked.

"Let him sit and wait for the primary search results to come back." Leonardo shook his head. "Doing it now won't get us anywhere. He will just continue to deny. Just look at his degree in criminology. So he probably won't break down unless caught red handed or face proof he can't refute."

Time flew by as Leoanrdo continued to round up what he could as he awaited the result. Which didn't disappoint as the search team found a scrapbook full of pictures and items that he took from his victims. Well assumed he took them for they were with the photos of the crime scene of before and after he killed the women.

"Well, I assume you can take it from here." Leonardo said to Max.

"Yeah. It's unbelievable that he was finally caught. I've been chasing him for so long, it's almost like a dream." Max sighed to himself in disbelief.

"You would have caught him eventually. Don't forget times are changing and this isn't the 80's anymore. What once was possible might not be now." Leonardo said as he grabbed his bag of clothes.

In the end, Leonardo got a ride back to the airport where he reboarded and headed back to Gotham. In truth he felt he wasted so much time since the plane ride lasted longer than it did to track down the killer. Not to mention, he felt bored since it was fairly easy since most of the previous detectives did all the heavy lifting and just needed someone to put it together.

'If I run into another case like this. I will just ask them to send the information over and just sort it. It would be so much easier and faster than riding a plane.' Leonardo mentally thought to himself.

Leonardo's mind begins to wander as Clark is finally out of his funk. Where he finally began to accept Jonathan's death and Lana is no longer his girlfriend.