by J W Kiefer
“Well, you got me.”
And in more ways than you know, she thought.
Seventeen
The two detectives talked casually as they made their way to the small coffee shop just around the corner. Dana sat down at a table outside away from prying eyes and ears, while Jared went in to get their coffees. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what she was going to say.
How in the world was she going to explain everything that had been happening to her? She went over it all again in her head, but every time it sounded even more and more insane. In fact, after her little speech back at the morgue about everything having a rational explanation, how could she give any credibility to her feelings at all?
She was a detective and her whole adult life had been about finding the truth, and that truth was always found in the rational world. Even when she was a kid and her parents had taken her to church, she found it hard to believe in something she could not see and reasonably prove. She would never admit this to Jared, but she was not even sure as an adult that she believed one hundred percent that God existed.
Jared returned with two cups. He placed one down on the table in front of her. She looked up at him and saw the concern on his face and blushed. She was honestly touched by it, even though she wished that it meant more than it did. After all, he had been through over the last forty-eight hours, he was making the effort to be more concerned about her than his own pain.
Jared was the first to break the silence. “So… what’s going on?”
She glanced down at the warm cup in her hands. “Well, I guess there is no good place to start, so I will just rip off the Band-Aid and go right to the bad part. I took something from the crime scene the other day.”
“You did what?” Jared coughed, spilling coffee.
She still couldn’t look him in the eyes, not only because of her guilt but also for fear of her strong feelings for him. “I took something from the crime scene the other day,” she softly said.
“Okay,” he said, calming himself. “What did you take—and better yet, why did you take it?”
“It was a locket. I found it lying beside the Asian man whose body disappeared. As far as why I took it, I have no earthly idea.”
Jared was at a loss. Dana was his rock and the one person that always seemed to make the right decisions. It was simply inconceivable that she could have stolen evidence from a crime scene. Something was seriously wrong, and he had no idea what it was.
Dana mistook his silence for anger. “I really don’t have any memory of doing it, Jar. I am so confused.”
Her eyes pleaded with him for understanding. He was sure she was mistaken. Maybe she had dreamed about taking the locket and was confusing real events with fictional ones. But if that was the case, then more was wrong with her than mere fatigue. That scared him more than a simple act of bad judgment.
He noticed her anxiety growing the longer he stayed silent, so he forced a smile. “All right, just calm down. I am sure there is a rational explanation for this. After all, if you have no memory of taking the locket, then how do you know you took it?”
Her eyes gave way to the fear gripping her inside. “Jared, I know I took it, because I’m wearing it.”
Jared was shocked speechless.
She reached into her blouse and pulled out the small locket. The chain was still around her neck and her hands shook slightly as she held it for him to see. She could no longer hide the fear that was slowly overcoming her resolve. Tears welled in her eyes.
“It gets worse.”
“Really? Worse than theft and tampering with evidence?”
She took a deep breath but still could not calm herself. “Yes.”
Jared heard Dana speaking, but what she was saying was barely registering with him. He could not tear his gaze away from the locket. It was as if the rest of the world had faded away and no longer existed. All that remained was this locket. The red jewel in the center of the locket began to glow ever so slightly, its beauty filling his consciousness. He did not know why, but he desired it. In fact, he desired it more than anything he had ever sought before.
“Jared! Are you listening to me?”
He shook his head and blinked like he was waking up from a dream. “Yeah. Yeah, I was. I was just lost in thought.”
Dana misinterpreted his laps as more melancholy about Jasmine, and that made her even angrier. “Seriously? I am spilling my friggin’ guts here and you are still fixating on that woman! Jasmine is gone, Jared. Gone, and she is not coming back. Get over it already. I am here and I need you.”
Jared’s face looked as if she’d just slapped him. “I am sorry, Dana. I...”
When Dana realized what she had just said and done, she was mortified. “Oh God, Jared. I am so sorry. I am just really frightened. I have no idea what is happening to me. I barely slept last night, and I am so tired and confused.”
Jared smiled and placed his hand on hers. He wanted to be mad at her but seeing her like this drove all the pain and sorrow he had been feeling over the past few days from his heart. It likewise broke the strange grip that the locket seemed to have on him. “No, I’m sorry. You obviously needed me, and I’ve been emotionally lost lately.”
His touch and concern took her breath away for a moment.
“It’s okay.”
“No. No, it’s not. Honestly, I thought it was just the nature of the case that had you so spooked, but now I see that it is something else entirely.”
She shook her head. “None of what’s been happening to me makes any sense.”
“Well, why don’t you start at the beginning. What happened after you took the locket?”
“As I said before, I don’t remember taking it. Well, at least I don’t remember it clearly. It’s almost like waking up from a vivid dream—it simply fades away and there is nothing more than vague impressions. I know I took it, and I can almost remember doing it, but I can’t… if that makes any sense.”
“It does. So, you don’t know why you took it?”
“No. I have no idea what possessed me to do it. In fact, ‘possessed’ may actually be a good description of what has and is happening to me.”
“I don’t follow,” he said, confused.
“Ever since I took this damn thing, I have not been able to sleep. In fact, I’ve had the same terrible nightmare every time I close my eyes. It just keeps repeating over and over again.”
“What is the nightmare about?”
She took another calming breath and held her coffee with both hands. “A man. Japanese, I think. In fact, the very same man we believe was killed by the Eastside Stalker and whose body disappeared last night from the morgue. And this same man’s face is also inside the locket I compulsively took from the crime scene yesterday.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “Maybe, with all that has been going on, and being the officer who discovered the body of the Asian man, somehow sparked something in your subconscious that caused you to dream about him.”
She looked him right in the eyes as he spoke, and he saw in her eyes a fear as he had never seen in her before.
“That is what I rationalized as well, until I saw the picture that was in the locket,” she said unsteadily. “The portrait is not only of our victim but also his children. The same children I see viciously murdered every time I closed my eyes.”
Jared didn’t know what to make of that. “You must have looked at the picture sometime before you went to sleep.”
“No. I didn’t. Jared, there is no rational explanation for what has been happening to me. In fact, I had strangely forgotten the whole thing even occurred until I touched the locket at the precinct. As soon as I did, the whole series of events came flooding back to me like it had just happened. I am so confused!”
“It’s okay. Tell me what you can remember about the dream.”
What Dana could remember was every intricate detail of the nightmare she had been forced to experience the night before. Right down to the
metallic smell of the children’s blood. Jared was surprised at how much of her dream she was able to recall. Quite frankly, it was near medically impossible for her to have such a lucid memory of a dream. Perhaps if she had just awoken, it would be possible for her to remember it, but not hours later.
“And that’s all I remember,” she said, her face flushed and streaked from crying. “Honestly, it was more like I was reliving a memory from a past life than having a dream. It was so… real.”
Jared sat looking at her quietly for some time before he spoke. “Well, dreams can be strong like that, but they’re usually linked to a memory, experience, or emotion a person is trying to repress.”
She grimaced and took another sip of her coffee. “Thank you for the analysis, Dr. Phil. I already knew all of that. Don’t you think psychology would be the first place I would look to try to make sense of all of this? There is nothing, and I mean nothing, in my past or present that could possibly cause my subconscious to create such a horrible event. I mean, they murdered my children! Er, his children. Oh God, I can still hear their little voices.”
She began to cry again, and Jared knew it was time to let her off the hook. “It’s going to be okay, Dana. It was just a dream, I’m sure of it, and it’s over with now. Probably the whole thing is just your subconscious making you feel guilty about taking the locket.”
She looked at him dubiously, but he did see a glimmer of hope in her eyes. He was lying to her and he knew it, but he also knew that she was a practical person by nature, and he’d given her something rational to latch on to.
“Come on, partner,” he said with a wink. “You know full well that you can’t handle guilt. As I recall, every time we did something even remotely sketchy when we were kids, your conscience got the better of you and you ratted us both out. I am sure this is just your mind’s over-reactive way of forcing you to come clean.”
She smiled slightly and brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face. “You think so?”
“I am certain of it,” he said smiling encouragingly. “Hey, let’s try this. I’ll take the locket from you right now and put it with the rest of the evidence we collected yesterday. Once you no longer have it in your possession, I am sure your guilty conscience will be sated, and these intense feelings will fade. I’ll just tell the sergeant on duty that I forgot to log it in.”
“Are you sure? What if Johansson finds out?”
“He won’t, and after I have logged it in, we can both take it to Johansson and see what the FBI can find out about the people in the image. Sound good? Maybe this is the key to identifying our missing John Doe.”
“Okay,” she said, taking the locket off. “Honestly, I was beginning to think I had lost my mind, but what you’re saying makes sense.”
She handed him the locket and he slipped it in his pocket. Dana sighed as if she was freed from some heavy burden. “I really appreciate this, Jared.”
“Of course, what are partners for?” he said, putting his arm around her and guiding her back toward the precinct. “Of course, my new nickname for you is going to be Klepto.”
She stuck an elbow in his ribs. “Like heck it is.”
“Oh, you are never living this down, partner,” he said with a mischievous grin.
As the two detectives slowly walked away from the coffee shop, they were unaware of the man scrutinizing them from the shadows. He chuckled to himself, ignoring the people passing by.
“So Tzedakah has already chosen another bearer,” he said, “and so soon after the death of the Shogun. Well, he always was a fickle master, but to have chosen the detective, now that is an interesting development, no? Perhaps we shall stay around for a while and see how this develops. Maybe I will have the pleasure of killing two bearers before my time is done.”
The Musketeer smiled a wicked smile and preened his mustache as he watched the two detectives. When they were gone, he sighed. “I think I will get a croissant, or at least what passes for one in this century,” he lamented and faded into the busy crowd of people around him.
Eighteen
Upon arriving back at the precinct, Dana and Jared were met immediately by Agent Johansson. He was leaning up against the wall directly next to the front door, smoking a cigarette. He smiled and waved them over exhaling through his nose as he did. He casually flicked his cigarette away as they approached.
“Crazy day, huh?” he asked with a slight groan. “It’s not every day you get a serial killer and a missing corpse all in one swoop.”
Jared nodded and Dana casually avoided Johansson’s gaze. She noticed Johansson glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, and she tensed up a bit, clearing her throat. He grunted but gave no other indication that he had noticed the anxiety she was trying to hide.
“Well, my fellow gumshoes, the Bureau has officially come up with squat. It’s like the guy simply popped into existence to die and then, bam, he’s gone again. Honestly, it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Sucks too because this was the first real possible clue that this bastard left behind. Every other victim has been a woman, and upon further investigation, there’s always evidence of the killer stalking them before he finally murdered them. But this guy, he was definitely more of a wrong place at the wrong time kind of killing.”
“Well, hopefully, the CSI guys can find something that will help break this case open,” Jared replied. He yawned and his hand drifted to his pocket and to the locket he had hidden there. Dana noticed the movement and her face went pale. Jared was going to tell Johansson about the locket before he had time to secretly put it in with the other evidence they had collected.
Jared removed his hand from his pocket and she visibly relaxed. No, he wouldn’t do that to her, and she knew it. Regardless of whether he felt the same way she did, he was still her partner, and he would not betray her trust that way. She knew, however, that someone had to tell Johansson about the locket, even if it got her into trouble. Particularly if the locket was the key to this case.
“We have some new evidence,” she blurted.
She blushed and Jared stared at her incredulously.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Just show him already!” she snapped. “We need to just get everything out and on the table in order to get this guy before he ruins someone else’s life. And besides, it was eating me up, anyway, and you know full well I would not have made it more than a few more minutes before I confessed.”
Johansson smiled. “You two are like a friggin’ TV show over here. Seriously, have I stepped into prime time or something? Anyway, all drama aside, let me see what you got.”
“Okay, but just so you know,” Jared said watching Dana out of the corner of his eye, “I forgot to log something in yesterday. No one was trying to hide anything from you or anything like that, it was just a brain fart on my part.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Dana huffed. “Just show him the stupid locket already.”
Jared scowled at her and removed the locket from his pocket and held it out for Johansson to see. Johansson reached out to take it from him, but Jared flinched back. The FBI agent noticed the movement but reached out and took the locket.
For some strange reason, everything inside Jared was screaming for him not to let Johansson take the locket. It took every ounce of discipline he had to not snatch it back from the man before he’d had a chance to examine it.
The agent scrutinized the small piece of jewelry curiously. He flipped it over a few times, taking in every inch of detail, before finally pushing the small button and opening it to reveal the portrait inside. He stared at the small faded picture.
“This is our missing John Doe.”
“Yes. That’s why we thought it might be the missing piece of the puzzle that could break this case open for us,” Dana said.
“I am not going to ask why this is not in evidence right now,” he said, his brow furrowed, “but from now on, no more surprises, okay?”
Both detectives nodded.
They both nodded again.
“Okay. Now that we have got that unpleasantness out of the way, what do you two think about this little trinket you found?”
“Well,” Jared said, his eyes still fixated on the locket, “it is definitely a picture of our missing victim and we thought that maybe it could help us to identify him. We assume that the two children that are with him in the picture are his. They might help us identify him.”
Johansson returned the locket to Jared. His hand trembled slightly as he reached for the locket. It took all of his internal fortitude not to swipe the locket from the older man’s hand.
“Okay. Why don’t you two take that thing down to the lab and have the CSI geeks see what they can get off it? Also, make a copy of the picture and send it to me so I can give it to my people to see what they can dredge up on the two kids. I want to warn you both, though—this is still most likely another dead end.”
“Copy that,” replied Jared as Johansson turned to walk away.
“You’re not coming with us?” Dana asked.
“Nah, I need to make a few phone calls and check in with the big wigs back in NYC. I trust you two can handle this without daddy watching over your shoulder. Just make sure it gets there this time, okay?”
Johansson pulled out his phone and left the two detectives to their task.
Jared turned to Dana who still appeared a bit shaken. “Well, that went better than I thought it would.”
“Yeah,” was all she said as she watched the FBI agent walk away. Her face was still pale, and her eyes were sunken in from lack of sleep, and she looked as if she’d just lost her best friend. The truth was, however, that she felt like there was something off about Agent Johansson. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she was sure he was hiding something from them.
