by Liz Bradford
“For every woman the time of death was estimated to be between seven and eight pm of the third night after he took them…” her voice trailed off. “But what if he plans on holding her another day? He has changed his time table some.”
“Palmer,” Jamison stepped in this time, “he’s escalating; if he was going to change his time table on this part we would already have a body.”
Her shoulders dropped again. “So now what do we do?”
Jared move his hand to her back. “We go home and get some sleep.”
“But…”
“No, buts, Becca. Captain’s orders. Plus, there are patrols out all over the city keeping an eye out for anything, and they will call if they need us.”
“All right. See you all in the morning, I guess.” She turned from the table and left the room.
“Jamison, can you drop Becca’s car off at her house? I’ll give you a ride back for your car?”
“Sure.”
“Good night, Miller,” Jared said and turned and followed Becca. He wasn’t about to let her drive herself home.
“Good night, Johnson.”
Jared caught up to Becca at her desk as she was pulling her purse out of her desk. “Hey, I’m driving you home, babe.” He took her keys from her hand and tossed them to Adam.
She didn’t argue and just followed him to his truck. He opened the door for her, and she climbed in. He repeatedly glanced at her as he drove. She just stared out the window. Didn’t say a word, didn’t cry, but she looked as if she would break at any moment. He pulled into her driveway and got out and went around and opened the door for her. Adam had pulled in next to them and handed Becca her keys as Jared helped her out of the truck.
Adam said, “Take your time, Jared.”
“Thanks.” He wrapped his arm around Becca as he walked her to the door. She clumsily struggled with the lock, so he put his hand over hers and took care of it for her. He was really worried about her. He would have expected her to start crying by now, maybe she was just too weary to cry. He escorted her upstairs; he wasn’t going to leave until he knew she was going to be okay for the night. She stumbled on the stairs about halfway up, so he scooped her up into his arms. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. He carried her into her bedroom. The room was simply decorated with blues and grays and dark wood furniture. He set her down on the king-size bed.
“King size bed?” he tentatively teased her.
She blushed.
Phew! He was relieved that she took the teasing well.
“I, uh, I know it seems silly for a single mom to buy a king-size bed… but I had hoped to share it one day.” She yawned.
It was his turn to blush. “I should go.”
She grabbed his hand, “No, stay.”
“Becca, I can’t, and you know that.” He was tired, and she was tired. So tired that nothing would probably happen, but temptation was too great, and he didn’t have the strength to fight it. “Plus, Adam’s waiting for me.”
“I know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, Becks, you’re tired and overwhelmed. Trust me, I want to stay and hold you all night, but we can’t.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
He sat down on the bed next to her and cupped her face in his hands. His heart was pounding, but he ignored it. “It’s okay, babe. You get some sleep, and I’ll come get you in the morning, but if you need me at all, call.” He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. She fingered his tie that hung loose around his neck.
“Okay, Jared. Take the spare key that is in the drawer of the side table that is closest to the door, so you can lock the door on your way out. And keep it. I’d feel better knowing you have a key.”
“Okay, Babe, goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Jared.” He kissed her forehead again and turned and left. Turning to look back at her briefly before he headed down the stairs, she smiled at him and made it difficult to leave. But he did. He got the key and locked the door behind himself. As he drove away he prayed for Becca and Samantha if by chance she was still alive.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Becca rolled over and pulled the covers over her head ignoring whatever it was that had woken her up. She knew she had been asleep nowhere near long enough. Her head was pounding, but wait, there was another pounding. What on earth? Her phone buzzed on her bedside table, a text message. She groped for it without emerging from her cave of covers. She pulled the phone under the covers and squinted at the bright screen. It read, Wake up, babe. I’m at the front door. It was Jared. That made her smile a bit.
Thankfully, he had seen her at her worst many times before, so she didn’t even hesitate to crawl straight out of bed and stagger down the stairs to the front door. She checked through the peep hole to be sure it really was Jared before she opened the door.
Groggily she opened the door and waited for him to come in. “What the heck are you doing here so early? The sun isn’t even up.” She looked up at him, but he just stood there outside the door holding a large cup of Starbucks for her. “Are you going to come in?” He just stared back at her with a very somber look on his face. His strong jaw clenched.
“No…” she started backing up from the door. “No, no, no… no. No.” She couldn’t stop repeating it and shaking her head. She knew he didn’t have good news.
He came in as she kept backing up and quickly closed the door behind him and set her coffee on the table. He reached out and took her arms and guided her into the living room. He sat on the oversized arm chair and guided her to sit on his lap. He still hadn’t said a word.
“She is dead, isn’t she?”
He just nodded.
Becca felt herself beginning to shake. She had tried so hard to keep it together yesterday, but those dams and levees were breaking now. Every emotion she had held at bay yesterday was careening forward about to crash through the cement wall. She knew Jared knew it was coming based on the way he had led her to sit with him. He was ready to hold her, ready to help her put the dam back together so she could do her job once the torrents had eased. The tears weren’t coming though; she just trembled and stared at the hardwood floor. She recognized it as shock but wasn’t sure what to do about it. Jared stroked her back and then reached up and brushed her hair out of her face. Then the tears started to fall. They started as a little trickle; one tear at a time slowly streaming down her face, but then they came harder and faster, hotter than Hell itself. Jared pulled her in and held her as she leaned against him and let it all out.
As she ran out of tears, the sobs subsided, and she forced herself to sit up from leaning against Jared’s chest. She had to pull it together; they had a crime scene to investigate. “I failed her. I was supposed to find her alive, but I didn’t. I’ve really screwed up this case. I wasn’t ready for such a big case. I’ve only been a detective for two years. I’m still practically a rookie.”
“Becca, it’s not your fault. And you aren’t a rookie. You are a good detective, and you are not working alone on this case. There is nothing for us to go on. We’ve been following one rabbit trail after another. There is no one to blame except the psychopath who is committing these murders. Do you understand?”
Becca looked him dead in the eye and nodded. He leaned his forehead against hers, and they sat for a few more moments. “I guess we have to get going, don’t we?” Becca said.
“Probably should.”
“Okay, I’ll go get dressed. Glad I managed to stay awake long enough last night to take a shower.”
“I’ll go find you some breakfast you can eat on the way.”
Becca stood up, and Jared’s hand lingered on her waist and her hand on his shoulder. She stroked his face as she walked away. She was so grateful that he was here. No one else would know how to help her through this. He understood her both personally and professionally creating a deeper connection and a deeper sense of support. She needed him and never wanted to lose him again.
She went upstairs and numbly washed her face, brushed her teeth, and put on a fresh suit. Once she was back downstairs she grabbed the coffee Jared had brought her and went and found him in the kitchen.
“Ready?” he asked when he saw her enter the room. She nodded. He handed her a toasted bagel smothered in cream cheese. They headed to his truck and then to the crime scene. They pulled into the park district park whose sign read “Devil’s Creek Park.”
Everyone else was already there when they arrived, even the Captain. Becca didn’t speak to anyone, though; she just walked straight over to where the body was covered and knelt down beside her, not caring about the effect the wet dirt would have on her clean gray suit. She lifted back the sheet that the ME had covered her with; it was Samantha Allen, young single mother, third grade teacher at her daughter’s school. “I’m so sorry, Samantha,” she whispered, “but I promise you I will get the scumbag who did this to you. I swear.”
Jared put his hand gently on her shoulder but didn’t let it linger. She stood and put on her tough face and turned to listen to what the ME and crime scene investigators had discovered. Nothing really new or different from the last four crime scenes, although it did appear that he had rushed this one a little more, probably because of all the squad cars patrolling the area. There were a few drag marks, but no trace evidence. The rain that had been falling for the last few hours had helped take care of that; they had barely even noticed the drag marks.
“Who called it in?” Jared asked.
“That woman over there,” he pointed to a petite middle-aged lady who was speaking with a couple of uniformed officers. “She was running down the path over there and heard something, so she came over to investigate. Must have just missed the perp, because she saw nothing.”
“This is a little more hidden than the last four,” Becca observed.
“We must have spooked him with having so many additional patrols. We figure that is why he decided to ditch the body closer to the woods this time.”
Officer Riley, a uniformed officer, came over to them, “Detective Palmer.”
Becca nodded for him to continue.
“We’ve been canvasing the area and met a man who says he saw a strange vehicle. It may be our perp’s.”
“Well, let’s talk to him.” Becca and Jared followed him to where a young man, probably in his mid to late twenties was standing with a dog on a leash.
“Hello, I’m Detective Palmer, and this is my partner Detective Johnson. Officer Riley said you saw a vehicle. Could you tell us about it?”
“Yes, it was a panel van, dark, not really sure what color; it was too dark out to tell. It looked suspicious, so I tried to make out the plates. Couldn’t though. They were covered in mud. Which I thought really strange considering the rest of the van was as clean as a whistle. I walk my dog through this area every morning, and I hadn’t seen that van there before, so I thought it might be useful.”
“Clean, that fits our guy,” Jared said, “Anything else you can think of that stood out about the van. Even the most trivial detail can help.”
“Not that I can think of. It was parked over there, in the darkest spot directly between the street lights.”
“Thank you so much,” Becca said and handed him a business card. “Please let us know if you think of anything else.”
“Of course.”
Jared and Becca walked over and joined Jamison and Miller. “Anything good?” Jamison asked.
“Not really,” Becca replied, “but we do have something to search for, and that’s more than we had yesterday. To the station?”
“Yep, let’s go,” Jamison responded as Jared and Miller nodded their agreement.
Jared paced back and forth across the conference room as Jamison sat at the table with a laptop searching the Department of Motor Vehicles’ database. There were too many dark panel vans out there. So now they had to go through each one that was owned by a Caucasian male in his thirties or forties and cross check the registered owners with the criminal database to see if any of the owners had a police record. It was tedious and pretty much a one-man job. Becca was out grabbing lunch for the four of them, and Jared couldn’t remember what Miller had said he was going to do.
“So, Jared,” Jamison said, “things seem to be going well for you and Palmer. You seem to be getting back into the groove of being partners and all.”
Jared gave the man a questioning look as he tried to decide how to respond to the comment. He liked Adam Jamison for the most part, although he didn’t feel like he knew him very well yet. He did know that Adam was witty, but cocky. He loved his old sports car and was never afraid to speak his mind. Adam was probably two or three years younger than Becca but had been a detective for about six years.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jared’s response sounded more defensive than he had meant it to.
“Hey, man, just trying to make conversation, no need to get defensive. Listen, Rebecca’s my friend, too, not just a coworker, so I know about you two. It took me a few days to put the pieces together, but I eventually realized you were the past she avoided talking about.”
“Didn’t mean to sound defensive. Just not used to talking about her at work.”
“No doubt. No secrets around here, though. I can tell she’s really happy to have you around, so I’m glad you’re here. And that’s something coming from me.”
“What do you mean ‘from you’?”
“Well, Rebecca has been like a big sister to me. She’s a lot like my older sister, Heather. Same personality and even look. So, I have a tendency to stick up for her like a brother. She actually says I’m the little brother she always knew she never wanted. I take that as a compliment. I wasn’t sure about you at first, but I trust you now. You guys have something… not sure what the right word is, but it is unique.”
Jared didn’t have time to reply to Jamison’s comments because Becca came in, arms filled with two brown paper bags and a tray full of drinks. He hurried over and helped her unload her arms of the Chinese food and shot her a smile that made her blush. Jared laughed internally at himself for how proud he was that he could still make her blush like that.
They ate and worked, but by four o’clock they still had nothing to move forward with. The van was proving to be another rabbit trail. They had fourteen dark-colored panel vans owned by white males of the right age range in the entire state of North Carolina, but only four had a police record, and not one of them fit the profile.
“Go home, guys, you’ve worked enough in the last few days,” Captain Baker said when he found them still belaboring the mystery van. “And don’t rush in tomorrow morning, y’all look awful,” he said as he closed the conference room door.
“Well, he doesn’t have to tell me twice,” Jamison closed his laptop and stood up.
“Me neither,” Becca said, “I want to see Callie so bad. She’s been at Amy’s all weekend.”
Jared wanted to see Callie something fierce, too, but he didn’t know what to say. He just followed Becca out of the conference room and to their desks. Once there he checked for his keys, where had he put them?
“Looking for these?” He looked up and saw Becca dangling them in the air. “Remember, I took your truck to get lunch because I didn’t drive today because you had Adam drop my car off last night?”
“Oh yeah.”
“So, you ready to go or what?” she teased him and tossed him his keys.
“Yes, let’s!” He followed her out to his truck. She seemed in a surprisingly good mood, probably just relieved to leave the case and see Callie for a while.
They climbed in his truck and headed down the road when Becca said, “Hey, I was just thinking if you are going to be driving us around at all, maybe we should get Callie a booster seat for your truck.”
He smiled. She really was welcoming him into Callie’s life and that thrilled him more than he could ever express. Two weeks ago, he didn’t even know that he had a daughter,
but now he couldn’t imagine life without her. “That’s a good idea. Should we do that now before we pick her up? It’s either that or run by your house first. Of course, I guess I’m assuming it is okay if I come with you to get her. I’d really like to see her.”
“Sure, and I was assuming you would come over. I would like you to hang out with us this evening. I guess we need to talk about these things a bit better. Frankly, Jared, I’d like having you over all the time, but that’s not reasonable, I know.” She gave him a shy smile that distracted him from driving so he slammed on the brakes at a red light, thankful no one was in front of him.
They made it to the store in one piece, and as they walked to the baby section to get the car seat Jared found himself struggling with the fact that he’d missed Callie’s infancy. He could easily blame Becca for that, but he didn’t. In the first moments after learning about Callie, he had been so angry that Becca had vanished on him and never told him about his daughter, but that had quickly faded as he realize how much he had hurt Becca. Now he just blamed himself. If he hadn’t taken off like he did, he could have experienced Callie’s infancy. He could have seen her in a cute little dress like the one he saw on the rack they walked by. He could have bought her that bib that said, “Daddy’s Little Princess.” It broke his heart that he’d forfeited that time for a little “soul searching in the desert.” Maybe one day he would have more kids, give Callie a little sister or brother.
Jared took a risk and vocalized his thoughts as they turned down the aisle with the car seats, “Becca, do you ever want to have more kids?”
He had surprised her with the question. She just stood there looking at him for a moment, and then answered, “I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess, yeah, I would. Being a mom is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, plus I’m sure Callie would love a baby brother or sister. Why do you ask, Jared? Do you want kids? Did it only take two weeks of knowing you were a father to make you want it?” She paused but didn’t let him answer. “Or are you wanting to try and capture the part of Callie’s life that you missed?”
