Richard Hale - Frozen Past

“Thanks, boss. I find him and you make me do the dirty work.”

“You’re better at it than me. Remember what happened?”

“I’ll handle it.” She smiled.

His cell phone rang. “Jaxon.”

“Mr. Jennings?” A kid’s voice.

“This is Detective Jennings. Who is this?”

The kid paused for a second and Jaxon thought they hung up.

“You told us to call you if we had any more information on the pool kids.”

“Harrison?”

“Yes, sir. This is Luke Harrison. Ellie’s with me too. Can you come to Ellie’s house? Something bad has happened.”

“We’re very busy right now, Harrison. Can you just tell me what’s going on?”

“We found more decapitated animals.”

“You say animals? Plural?”

“Yeah. Five of ‘em. Three dogs and two cats. They were buried in Ellie’s yard.”

“Don’t touch anything else. I’ll send some people over there now.”

“You’re not coming?”

“I can’t at the moment. We have something very important to do.”

“What?”

“I can’t talk about that with you.”

“Did you find out who the other kid is? Because there’s something buried with the animals you need to see.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a picture. A school picture, but it’s old. I think it’s the kid from the pool. I’m not sure though. That picture you showed us a while back? The one you asked if we knew? Is that him?”

“Yes.”

“You need to come out here. There’s a name on the picture, but it’s all covered in-uh-dead gunk and guts. The one name I can read is Little.”

“Littleton?” Jaxon asked.

“That could be it, yes. How did you know?”

“We’ll be right there. Don’t touch a thing.”

Jaxon stared into the hole and felt Sally move next to him. “The heads are all missing,” he said.

“I see that,” Sally said. “Three dogs and two cats?”

“I believe so. The little one looks like a dog. The fur is right. It’s hard to tell without the head. Maybe a Chihuahua?”

He held up the picture. It was in a Ziploc baggie and he was holding it with gloved hands. “Stewart Littleton,” she said. “Dogwood Elementary, 1984. Good likeness. I wonder why our guy decided to give us a little help?”

“Down deep, they all want to be caught. They can’t stop themselves unless they are locked up, so they unconsciously help the investigation. He just doesn’t realize it.”

“Is that what your FBI training taught you?”

“That and Michael.”

She nodded. Apparently, she didn’t want to go there, and that was fine with him. Michael’s murder was something he thought about every day, or maybe he should say, tried not to think about, and though the case had been solved, he lived with his own failure in everything he did. He couldn’t save him.

The Crime Scene team arrived and he let them move in. It was going to be messy and he was glad he wasn’t the one going through it. It had been tough enough pulling the picture out of all the rotting flesh.

He glanced over at the small crowd gathered in the backyard and saw Luke Harrison and Ellie Pemberton. Her mother was there too along with a boy he didn’t recognize. He had the features of the Pembertons and figured he must be related. They all looked anxious. He turned to Sally and said, “Let’s find out what they know.” She walked with him up to the group.

“Mrs. Pemberton, remember us? I’m Detective Jennings and this is Detective Winston.”

“Yes, Detectives, I remember you. I’m a little disappointed I’m seeing you again. I would have expected all this to be resolved by now.”

“Yes ma’am. I agree. We seem to be having some difficulty. Maybe you can help.”

“I don’t see how.”

Jaxon tried to plaster a smile on his face, but it felt strained. “Who found the gravesite?” he asked.

“We did,” Luke said.

“You and Ellie?” Sally asked.

Luke nodded. “We were goofing around and she saw a dog’s paw sticking up out of the ground.”

“What else?” Jaxon asked and Luke told them the rest of the story.

“Why would you dig it up?” Sally asked. “Pretty gross.”

“We noticed a bunch of signs all over the neighborhood,” Luke said. “Actually, Ellie noticed them first. Missing pet signs.”

“Five different signs,” Ellie said. “We kind of thought maybe this was one of them. I never would have guessed it would be all of them.”

“So these are all neighborhood pets?” Jaxon asked.

“I think so,” Ellie said. “I recognized one of the cats. It’s Jinxy. The Eldridge’s cat on Cotton Court.”

“Have you seen anyone back here?” Sally asked.

They all shook their heads.

“Have there been any strange things happening?” Jaxon asked.

“You mean like dead children showing up in frozen pools? That kind of thing?” Mrs. Pemberton said.

Jaxon just stared at her.

“I’d like to ask you two a few questions,” she said. “What’s being done to protect this neighborhood? When will my children and I feel safe? It started with our dog and now more decapitated animals are buried in my yard. It sure looks like someone is targeting my family and I want some protection.”

Jaxon looked at Sally who seemed to sympathize with Mrs. Pemberton, but she remained silent.

“Mrs. Pemberton, I’m sure that…”

“I don’t believe you’re sure of anything Detective and I want something done. You and your department seem to be ignoring the whole problem. I haven’t seen a single police car or heard of any police action inside this neighborhood in over four months.”

“I assure you ma’am, we are doing everything we can…”

“I don’t believe you.” She stood there with her hands on her hips staring at him. He couldn’t blame her. She was technically correct. The department had not gone out of its way to provide any added security or surveillance in the area, relying mainly on evidence already collected to further the investigation along. Hell, they’d been at a standstill until just yesterday.

“I don’t blame you, ma’am,” Sally said, calmly. “A police investigation can leave many unanswered questions lingering for the civilians. Unfortunately, it’s what has to be done. Certain information needs to be kept from the press so we can weed out every Tom, Dick, and Harry volunteering useless information. As far as security in the neighborhood, we will step up patrols and place a squad car in front of your house. That should help you feel safer until this investigation closes.”

Jaxon looked at Sally, impressed. She avoided eye contact with him and remained focused on Mrs. Pemberton.

“Well-ok,” Mrs. Pemberton said. “That will make me feel a little better. I just wish this nightmare was over.”

“So do we, ma’am,” Sally said. “So do we.”

Luke and Ellie were in front of Luke’s house hanging out with Jimmy and John. Luke told them about the discovery of the dead animals and John apologized to Ellie again, saying he was sorry he criticized her about the signs yesterday.

“You were right,” he said.

“It’s ok. I know what you were trying to do. I seem to have a short fuse when it comes to Bentley. It’s probably because I do blame myself for what happened.”

“Why did you guys call those cops?” Jimmy asked. “I thought we were supposed to keep this stuff to ourselves.”

“My mom came out and saw what we were doing,” Ellie said, “and she made us call them. Sorry.”

Jimmy looked concerned. “So he’s back?”

“It looks like it,” Luke said. “But we haven’t heard anything from him. He’s been quiet.”