Friday Night Frights (Jack and Ashley Detective series Book 1)

by R. D. Sherrill

  “I’ll sleep on the couch. You can have the bed,” Jack said, raising his right hand like a boy scout taking a pledge. “I’ll be a perfect gentleman. I promise.”

  “That’ll be a first,” Ashley shot back as she saw Randy sheepishly walk back toward them.

  “I’ve been suspended,” Randy revealed, his eyes welling up as if he was about to cry. “My father already talked to my commanding officer. He just called to break the news.”

  “Suspended? You just saved my life. You’re a hero. How can they suspend you?” Ashley asked. “I’ll give them a piece of my mind.”

  “Don’t bother,” Randy replied as he shook his head, already resigned to his fate. “They’re right. I disobeyed a direct order. Besides, my father will do anything to keep me away from the investigation.”

  As he turned to leave, Randy gave them a weak wave and muttered a half-sincere apology to Jack for his harsh words earlier.

  “You came to tell me something?” Ashley recalled aloud as Randy walked away. “What was it?”

  Randy paused for a moment as if trying to decide how to respond.

  “I wanted to say I’m sorry for everything,” Randy said. “I also wanted to make sure you did the right thing.”

  “The right thing?” Ashley quizzed, not understanding his meaning. “What do you mean the right thing?”

  Randy glanced at the ground before darting his eyes back toward Ashley.

  “Think about it,” Randy responded as he turned and left without another word. Ashley watched him as he walked to his car.

  “He’s an odd one,” Jack volunteered as he watched Randy drive away. His criticism got a sharp look from Ashley.

  With Jack leaving her little wiggle room, Ashley accepted his invitation for safe refuge at his hotel. The accommodations, she would learn, were better than she expected. A large suite greeted her when they finally arrived at his hotel room sometime after midnight. She brought bare essentials from her home. Most of her clothes smelled of smoke. She realized she would have to spend her Thursday trying to put her house back together while also trying to catch a killer. Her job just got doubly hard.

  “I’ll go down to the laundry and throw your stuff in the washer,” Jack volunteered as he got a whiff of the smoke on the clothing Ashley had packed. “Go ahead and stretch out on the bed if you want. It’ll be a few minutes.”

  Ashley gave Jack a faint smile as she plopped down on the couch. The excitement of the night was still pulsing through her blood. She doubted she would ever be able to sleep again.

  “Good luck on me sleeping tonight,” she responded as Jack carried the laundry basket out the door. “I don’t think that’s in the game plan.”

  Ashley underestimated her exhaustion. Jack returned twenty minutes later to find her deep asleep on the couch when he returned.

  DRINKING GAMES

  Ashley sat straight up, a sound beckoning her from slumber. She wrestled to free herself from the blanket Jack placed over her earlier that morning. She hated blankets, choosing to sleep only under light sheets as heavy blankets made her feel held down.

  Listening for the sound to repeat itself, Ashley heard it again. It was the phone. She rubbed her eyes, taking a second to gather herself as she recalled what brought her to the hotel room. The phone rang again. Where was Jack? No sooner had she asked herself the question than she picked up another noise in the background – the running of the shower.

  Since it was the room phone ringing and not Jack’s cellphone, Ashley reached over and picked it up. The man on the other end of the line, much to her surprise, already knew who she was.

  “You must be Agent Reynolds,” the man said after hearing her voice. “I’m Special Agent Carlos Rivera from the Texas Bureau. I hear you had a little excitement down your way last night.”

  “You could say that,” Ashley agreed as she fought off the cobwebs of sleep. “You must be one of Agent Looper’s associates.”

  Carlos chuckled at Ashley’s formal description.

  “Well, actually, he’s my boss,” Carlos replied. “He’s Special Agent-in-Charge for this district. Knowing Agent Looper, I’m surprised he hasn’t pointed that out to you already.”

  “Oh, he has. Trust me. He has,” Ashley said rolling her eyes. Her tone got another chuckle from Carlos.

  “That’s our Jack,” Carlos replied. “Um, I mean Special Agent-in-Charge Jack Looper. Speaking of which, is he available?”

  “He’s in the shower,” Ashley revealed even as curiosity began nipping at her.

  Maybe the agent she was talking to could shed some light on the enigma she had for a partner.

  “Okay, well I tried his cellphone and didn’t get an answer so I thought I’d try his room,” Carlos said. “Tell him to give me a ring when he’s available. I’ve got some information for him about the case.”

  “I will,” Ashley agreed as she resolved to rope Carlos into a conversation. “So, I guess this is a pretty high priority case to get a special agent-in-charge assigned to it.”

  “Assigned? Not hardly,” Carlos corrected. “The agent-in-charge is the one who does the assigning. Agent Looper volunteered to spearhead the investigation. That’s not a bad thing though. He’s one of the leading agents in the bureau. It was quite a feather in the district’s cap when he transferred here from the Tennessee bureau a couple of years back and accepted the agent-in-charge position.”

  “Oh really?” Ashley echoed as she was now fully awake and wondering why Jack chose to become directly involved in this case. “Then that would mean I’m pretty lucky to have such an accomplished investigator as a partner on the case.”

  “Luck? I wouldn’t call it luck,” Carlos stated. “He requested you personally.”

  “Me? Why me?” Ashley responded with a hint of shock in her voice.

  “I suppose he didn’t tell you this, and you better not tell him I told you, but he respects your work, even says you’re the best mind the Rangers have got,” Carlos revealed. “Now, if it gets back to him, I’ll know where it came from, so this stays between us.”

  “I won’t breathe a word,” Ashley guaranteed with a broad smile on her face, feeling flattered by what Carlos told her. “I’ve never been picked first for anything in my life. Not even kick ball back in school.”

  Carlos laughed at Ashley’s arcane reference before the two said good-bye. Their short conversation was quite illuminating to her but not as illuminating as what she was about to see. Engrossed in her covert questioning of Carlos she had not noticed Jack step into the room. The agent was dressed in just a towel. He stood dripping water on the carpet, fresh out of the shower.

  “Who was that?” Jack asked, his voice making Ashley jump as she laid down the receiver.

  Ashley suppressed a gasp as she saw her shirtless partner standing before her. The long white hotel towel was draped down past his knees. His dark hair was still wet and dripping onto his chest. It wasn’t until that moment Ashley realized that under the staunch federal agent suit was a well-proportioned man, exceptionally conditioned with a toned body that told her he spent a lot of time in the gym.

  “What, haven’t you ever seen a half-naked man before, darlin’?” Jack quipped with a smirk on his face.

  Knowing Jack had caught her staring at him in his relative state of undress, Ashley felt her face flush as she forced herself to look away from him to hide her embarrassment.

  “Um, it was an agent from your field office,” Ashley said, clearing her throat. “It was an Agent Rivera. He wants you to call him back.”

  Jack nodded and picked up his cellphone to call the agent back as he stood, still dripping on the carpet.

  “And the answer to your question is yes, by the way,” Ashley said.

  “Answer to what?” Jack asked as he pecked at his phone, looking for the agent’s number.

  “Yes, that I’ve seen a half-naked man before,” Ashley retorted with a wry smile.

  “Ah, that’s good to know,” Jack said as he w
alked back toward the bathroom to place his call in private. “Glad you shared that with me.”

  “Great body, but still a jerk,” Ashley muttered softly to herself as she watched him walk into the bathroom and drop the towel, exposing his backside for a brief instant before closing the door.

  Did he do that on purpose? Ashley wondered as she stared at the closed door for a moment, debating whether or not to eavesdrop on his conversation with Carlos.

  Putting away her carnal instincts for a moment, Ashley thought about what she had just learned from Carlos. His revelation provided more questions than answers. Why would Jack volunteer to head this case of all cases? Ashley knew how things worked in investigative departments and it was a rare occasion indeed when the boss himself came down to work as a field agent. In almost all cases, the agent-in-charge would coordinate the probe rather than take a hands-on approach. What about her selection as the representative from the rangers? She had been led to believe by Major Cowell that it was his choice to assign her to the case. If Carlos was right then she was hand-picked by the bureau. Sure, she had success in her area and was known as somewhat of a young prodigy in the investigative field, but to be chosen out of a large field of preeminent investigators was unusual for an agent with relatively no field experience. She was also intrigued by news that Jack had transferred to Texas a couple of years ago, despite his obvious affinity to his native Volunteer State. Did it have something to do with his divorce? Was he looking for a new challenge and new surroundings or was there something deeper to his move?

  She sat sipping coffee on the fourth-floor patio, overlooking Austin, when Jack stuck his head out the sliding glass door several minutes later. The agent, now dressed in his normal dark slim-fitting suit, was a stark contrast to the towel-clad man she had seen earlier.

  “I’ve got a meeting,” Jack announced in a rushed tone, throwing a key card down on the patio table. “Here’s the key to the room. I think you ought to stay here at least until Friday, just to be on the safe side.”

  “Meeting?” Ashley asked, sensing it had to do with the case they were working on. “If it’s about the case then shouldn’t I be attending? We’re partners, remember?”

  “You are liaison and advisor for the rangers,” Jack corrected. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you in the loop. This is bureau stuff. Besides, you need to get your house in order.”

  “This is bureau stuff,” Ashley wrinkled her nose as she mocked him.

  She was not keen on being treated as a second-class citizen for any reason, whether it was her department or her gender. What use was hand-picking her to assist on the case if she wasn’t going to be front and center?

  The damage at her house wasn’t as bad as she feared. Smoke accounted for most of the issues. The blaze was contained to the ceiling, floor and wall just outside her bedroom door. Whoever started the fire, she learned from arson investigators, forced their way into her home through the back door. The arsonist then went about taking his time, stacking items on her couch as so much kindling before dousing it all in kerosene and setting it alight. The inspector admitted there were no suspects, suggesting the perpetrator was likely driven by retribution for a case Ashley had worked in the past.

  The work on restoring her house to a livable condition would take several days, Ashley learned, meaning she would take Jack up on his offer for lodging at least for one more night. She gave the house one last glance as she drove away. The modest two-bedroom house had a soft place in her heart since it was the house where she had spent the last decade. She went there to live with her aunt on her mother’s side after her parents’ death. Aunt Glenda, who was several years the senior of Ashley’s mother, raised her as her own, supporting Ashley through the tragic loss of her parents.

  With the exception of a couple of years living on campus during college, Ashley continued to stay with her aunt until her senior year in college, when Glenda passed away. It was at that point Ashley first felt all alone, given that her brother had enlisted in the Air Force shortly after their parents’ death, making rare visits back to Austin during his stint in the military. Since her aunt had no children, Ashley was bequeathed the house and her aunt’s belongings. The fact that the fire had damaged the only house – still standing - that she could call home now made the entire matter more disturbing for Ashley. The house of her childhood had burned to the ground. The lot where it once stood on the outskirts of Austin was still vacant to this day. Ashley would pay occasional visits to the old site, treating it like a shrine to her parents, sometimes laying flowers there in memorial.

  With her personal duties done, Ashley turned back to the case at hand. She wondered if Jack’s meeting would help narrow down their choices when it came to their killer’s next victim - a victim who had just a day to live if they did not intervene. Regardless, Ashley felt she needed to do something on her end to narrow the field. Perhaps a closer look at each case file would help.

  For the next three hours, Ashley sat in her office carefully studying each of the teenage victims, looking for any association that might link them together other than Jack’s theory. However, try as she might, no bells were ringing.

  Throwing down the last of the files, Ashley eyed one more - that of Pioneer Jake, Jimmy Granderson. She had basically overlooked the youth in the string of victims, figuring he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Ashley picked up his folder, remembering her vow to leave no stone unturned. A cursory viewing of the file revealed nothing that stood out.

  Jimmy Grandson had lived in Rock River for about three years according to his records, after moving there from Fort Worth. From the looks of things, his mother, Laura Granderson, must have been divorced. His father was listed as Joseph Granderson, whose address was still in Fort Worth. Ashley figured Rock River may have been Laura’s retreat after the divorce, a way of distancing herself from her past. A check of his student record also revealed nothing as Granderson appeared to be a good student with no disciplinary record, further cementing the premise that he was eliminated because he saw too much.

  At the back of his folder were copies of his death and birth certificates. Looking at the date of birth, Ashley was reminded of how young the victim was. The thought made her shake her head in disgust as to what kind of person would knowingly take such a young life. That’s when she saw it, plain as the nose on her face, atop his birth certificate. Jimmy Granderson was born at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

  “What the ...?” Ashley mouthed to herself as she quickly dug back into the folder, latching onto a document she had missed before in her half-hearted research of his folder.

  It was a decree of legal adoption. According to the papers, Jimmy had been legally adopted twelve years ago by Joseph Granderson. The adoption permanently gave the boy his last name. Prior to that time he went by Jimmy Wells, bearing his mother’s maiden name up until the legal adoption. In the court papers, the birth father was listed simply as “unknown,” meaning the adoption was little more than a formality after the marriage between Joseph and Laura.

  Ashley did the math in her head as her fingers sifted through the pages in Jimmy’s file and back to the birth certificate where there was no name listed under father.

  “No way,” Ashley muttered to herself as she fought the suspicion that was gathering in the back of her mind. “That’d be crazy.”

  The discovery triggered an avalanche of thoughts in Ashley’s mind, thoughts that were too tempting to resist. She would make a call on the off chance her wildest theory might have life. The call was to Rock River Airport.

  “This is Agent Ashley Reynolds of the Texas Rangers,” she began, already resolving to be less than forthcoming about the reason for her call as she spoke to the airport manager. “I flew in there a couple of days ago along with Federal Agent Jack Looper and I just want to get some information to put together our expense account.”

  “Yes, Ms. Reynolds. I remember you,” the manager responded. “How can I help
you?”

  “I want to get the parking fees for the trips Agent Looper made there,” Ashley said. She was fishing for information since she recalled the ground controller making reference to Jack having been to Rock River before.

  “Okay, just a second and I’ll get that for you,” the manager said as he placed her on hold.

  Ashley nervously tapped her fingers on the desk as she waited for several minutes, all the time her suspicions growing stronger.

  “Okay Ms. Reynolds, I’ve got the records in front of me,” the manager began. “How far back do you need the records?”

  “How far back?” Ashley wondered aloud.

  “Yes, we have parking fees for Mr. Looper’s plane dating back to last year,” the manager replied, leaving Ashley speechless. “They go all the way from last year up until his last visit, which was two days ago. He’s made several trips in here. He must have friends in Rock River.”

  “Could you fax me a copy?” Ashley inquired, the little voice in her ear now yelling that something was amiss.

  “Sure can,” the manager agreed. “Give me your number and I’ll fax them right over.”

  The records left Ashley in shock. According to the parking charges at Rock River Airport, Jack made seven trips to Rock River dating back to the summer before. Three of the trips were since the murders, one with Ashley, one being his return trip after dropping her off, and the other being just before she arrived on the scene the morning after the murders. Why hadn’t he told her about being at the scene before her? Better yet, why had he withheld his frequent trips to Rock River? From their first conversation, Ashley felt Jack was way too familiar with the case, even for a crack investigator like himself. It was as if he’d immersed himself in the case for days before he ever met her that afternoon in Jana’s office. It wasn’t a case of Jack hitting the ground running. He was already at full sprint when he made contact with her the first time. Ashley now had three mysteries to solve: who killed Jana and the others, who tried to burn her alive and why was her partner lying to her? She would start tonight with the first mystery, resolving to solve it before the sun rose Friday morning. If she was going into battle against a cold-blooded killer under the Friday night lights, then she had to know she could trust the person who had her back.