10:50 am
FBI Headquarters
Nikki had a case open on the man Simon sent her the info on and was in the process of compiling all of the information she could gather. Simon had traced him back through his IP address and his name is Philip Bernard, 33, 5’ 9”, Brown eyes, brown hair. Bernard lives in Jacksonville, FL and drives a 2015 Ford Mustang. Nikki ran him through all of the data bases and found out he had 2 assault charges in his mid-20’s and then he was remanded to a mental health facility from 2014 to 2016. Nikki had requested the Jacksonville office to interview the hospital to learn what they could about Bernard and to pay a visit to his home to see what they could learn there as well. She had just hung up with the SA who informed her that Bernard was not at the residence listed on his license and hasn’t lived there for over 2 months. No forwarding address was left. Nikki reviewed Bernard’s financials and there has been no activity in the same 4 month period. Nikki had a sinking feeling that Bernard was on the road trying to imitate Simon.
Nikki had read all of the posts that Bernard has left on the Road Rage site and she had to agree with Simon that if he hasn’t already, it was only a matter of time before he started killing. She had noted a few comments in particular, “Simon, I truly believe in your mission and I would love to help. I have some unique skills that will come in handy”, and “I definitely have some targets for you Simon, we can make them pay together”. As of late, the posts started taking on a darker tone when Simon didn’t respond to him, “Why won’t you let me help you, do you think you are the only one who can bring justice”, and his latest comment, “There’s enough room for both of us, if you don’t want my help I don’t need yours either. Maybe I will pay your lady friend a visit and see what she thinks”.
“He obviously has no idea who he is dealing with” Nikki muttered. Since they have the VIN for Bernard’s Mustang and Nikki was pretty sure he would have gotten rid of it in lieu of something similar to Simon’s mobile Ops center. She asked the Jacksonville agents to check with the local car dealerships to see if maybe they can get lucky and find the Mustang or even better, what he traded it for so they could have something to track. Without a location or any murders to investigate, the car was the best lead they had at this point. Nikki only hoped they were wrong about Bernard, but she has been doing this long enough to know better. She was feeling restless so she headed over the firing range to get in some practice. Nikki was extremely proficient with her service weapon but it never hurts to practice. Plus, there is something therapeutic about shooting that calms her when she is stressed or anxious and this thing with Simon has her twisted up tighter than a pretzel. Now that she thought about the pretzel analogy, she was also going to have to go out and get some lunch.