Persona - Chapter 3

 

Chapter 3 – The Search Begins

 

A few days passed while I was at my mom’s place.  It was summer vacation, and I didn’t feel like taking on any classes before I left College Station.  I felt even less compelled to take on classes after the news about Chase came through.  I found myself sitting for days with myself, my thoughts, and the copy of that letter.  In that time, I started looking for clues of my own as to who this person could be.  I cross-referenced the insignia that was printed onto the paper, but not much came up outside of headlines depicting images that held the same image.  Everything that I read involved the same name “Invictus Persona”, with most of them reading with some kind of cryptic title like “The Most Elusive Killer in American History”.  It seemed like all the headlines were indicating three things.  The first was that the killings that were tied to Invictus Persona were done in locations across the country.  The second was that nobody has identified who the killers are, but plenty have claimed to be involved in it out of a twisted desire for popularity.  And thirdly, that none of the killings have been linked back to one of the killers associated with “Invictus Persona”.

Much of what I kept reading lead to gruesome dead ends.  Three general trends emerged when I started looking into the killings.  People who were dismembered limb by limb were a sign of them having participated in something truly wicked and were of close proximity to something awful.  People in those cases often were in possession of things like pornography depicting minors.  Others who were killed with bullets were marked with a bullet through their head.  Those people were involved in either regular criminal activity or were just average people who were marked by the killers.  The last trend was that of two other people aside from my brother who were decapitated. 

What was interesting about those is that they were believed to be close to finding out about the killers but ended up falling short before it was too late.  They all also seemed to be involved in a plot of their own, but that plot it seemed varied.  One of the victims had a plan to get back at his wife, while another had a plan to get back at her brother.  It was a strange experience reading about all of this and thinking that these people could be seen almost as vigilantes, killing people they saw as being either too far from the grace of God or too close to the truth of who they are.  One thing was certain for me though, if anyone was going to have more answers outside of those killers themselves, it would have to be the FBI.

While I happened to be looking at more of the headlines, I heard a ring from the doorbell.  It happened to be an FBI agent.  It was a female agent at the door who was there to greet me.  I made sure that my shirt was properly buttoned and readied myself to open the door. 

“Hello?”

“Hello!  You must be Derrick Boseman.”  She extended out her hand to shake mine.  I extended out mine to reach hers.  I saw her badge and the truck that she and two other agents arrived in.  It was clear that they wanted to come in to speak to me. 

“Yes, ma’am.  I am.  Is there something that I can do for you?”

She nodded her head and took off the shades that she had on her face.  “Yes.  My name is Kelly Nelson and I’m an agent with the FBI.”  Even though I was expecting them to arrive, the feeling of seeing an FBI van and three FBI agents outside of my mom’s house was surreal.  “We would like to have a conversation with you regarding your brother.  We believe that it’s imperative that we discuss some of the matters of the case with you.  Can we come in?”

I looked back inside and called for my mom.

“Mom!  It’s the FBI downstairs.  They want to talk to us about Chase!  Can they come in!”

Within a flash, my mom was downstairs, dressed and hair just made, ready to talk to them.  “Yes!  Invite them in, please!”  She seemed to have been expecting them too.  She gestured with her hand for them to come inside. 

I looked to them and provided the same gesture.  “Please come in.”

All three of the agents walked inside, with Agent Nelson being offered by mom to sit on the couch, along with the other two agents.  Agent Nelson agreed and sat down across from us.  The other two agents introduced themselves as Agent Key and Agent Hernandez.  The one that we would be doing most of the talking with was Agent Nelson. 

So, as I’m sure that both of you are aware, this case has multiple police departments and many officers involved to try and figure out who these killers are. 

My mom was already confused.  “Wait, what do you mean by killers?  I thought that there was only one?”

Agent Nelson shook her head.  “Unfortunately, ma’am, there are multiple people who are suspected of being involved in the death of your son.  What would be the best name to refer to you by?”

“You can just call me Jeanine, miss…”

“Nelson.  Agent Nelson.”

My mother was still confused.  “I just don’t understand.  How are there multiple killers?  Have any of them been identified yet?”

Agent Nelson shook her head again.  “Unfortunately, we haven’t identified any of them yet.  We only know that there are multiple of them thanks to the letter that was brought to us by your son, Derrick.  Without his help, we would still be under the impression that we were pursuing a single suspect.  That was the perception of the public up until that letter was passed on to local police.  All the major headlines regarding other killings related to Invictus Persona seem to indicate an organized effort, so if it isn’t one person, they are an organized and prepared killing machine.  Any other help that you could provide us at this point would be greatly appreciated.”

I was ready to ask my questions, but it seemed like Agent Nelson was keener on getting information out of us than I was to get information out of her.  It seemed like I wouldn’t get much out of her if I didn’t provide something in return to discuss first.  All the while, my mother was looking towards me, almost as if to say that I needed to speak up since I brought them that letter.  So, I spoke up.  “Well, from what I had looked at regarding other headlines, I noticed three general trends regarding the killing that ‘Invictus Persona’.  One trend was limb dismemberment for people who were holding onto things like child pornography.  Another one was a bullet between the eyes for what seemed like average people.  And the last trend was for those who seemed to get too close to ‘Invictus Persona’.”

Agent Nelson nodded her head.  “You’re correct on all those accounts.  Those are trends that we noticed as well.  What we were unsure of was whether your brother was directly involved in anything to do with this.” 

My mom started to grow concerned.  “Now, listen.  I don’t think that my son would have done anything to warrant this now, would he?”

Agent Nelson showed a face that seemed to warrant concern.  The entire time this conversation was happening, I was studying them.  She wore a well-kept suit, same as Agents Key and Hernandez.  They seemed ready to deliver what news that they could and ready to gather as much as possible.  I wasn’t sure what to give them, so I readied myself to answer them.  Agent Nelson spoke first.  “Well, from what we have gathered, your son seems to have been involved in his own personal investigation of the killings conducted by ‘Invictus Persona’.  We gathered some information from his room and computer that were relevant with the permission of a warrant.  We need to know as much as we can about the line of separation between your son’s interests and yourself, as this can help us determine whether you may become a target yourself.”

This was when I decided to speak.  “My brother and I were close growing up and I know that he tended to be a bit overzealous in knowing about things, to the point where he’d be a little obsessed.  However, I don’t think that he would be the kind of person to try and put himself in harm’s way.  He was always caring and cautious.  He wanted to make sure that everyone he knew was provided for and wanted me to work with him in a restaurant at one point.  Our interests differed and we grew apart, him wanting to run a restaurant and myself wanting to become an investigator.”

Agent Hernandez had been silent up until this point.  “So, do you think that your brother and you shared enough distance regarding ‘Invictus Persona?’”

I nodded my head.  “Yeah, I think so.  My brother always went down the rabbit hole on things that he was interested in.  I prefer to take my time and do my due diligence when it comes to getting anything done.”

Agent Key had been taking notes throughout this entire discussion to make sure that there was something to fall back on in the event of something relevant arising from the conversation.  I wasn’t content.  I needed to know what was going on and what they had already found.  I decided to ask.  “So, is there anything that you can tell us about the killer?”

Agent Nelson turned to Hernandez as if to indicate that she needed permission to be able to speak on the killer.  “From what we know, it’s suspected that this killer is possibly a local, but we don’t know for certain yet.  We currently believe that we are dealing with a copycat killer that is following along with the orders and killings of someone else, but we don’t know for sure.  For now, I recommend keeping an eye and ear out for anything that might be relevant, as well as focusing on the grieving of Chase Boseman.”  Agent Nelson looked away before speaking again.  “I’m sorry for your loss.  Hopefully, we’ll eventually be able to track down who killed Chase and bring them to justice.”

A local copycat killer, this was news to me.  Someone who was local to the Houston suburbs or to Houston itself could be anyone at that rate.  I wanted to know more, but they were already getting up out of their seats.  It was clear that they weren’t at liberty to share more with me, despite my persistence.  I needed to know more, but it seemed clear that they weren’t ready to have someone who wasn’t even a rookie involved in investigating his own brother’s death.  My mom began to sob again as I helped to send the agents off through the door.  She had been like this for days, breaking out into random bouts of crying.  She likely needed therapy to be able to help her sort through this loss.  Me?  I needed answers that they weren’t about to give up that easily.   It would be some time before my brother’s body would be laid to rest, so I wanted to do my due diligence to make sure that if I did find anything, that it would go immediately to bringing that killer justice.  My mom could probably find her peace, given enough time and help.  I wasn’t going to settle until I had answers to who did this and made sure that they were sitting behind iron bars or buried six feet under.  This was my own investigation, and this is where things truly began. 

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