Richard Hale - Frozen Past

“No problem, ma’am. It was the least we could do,” he said.

“Will you be back tonight?”

“As long as it’s ok with your family,” Victoria said.

“Thank you,” she said and hugged Victoria. She looked surprised, but hugged her back after a second. “I’ve been so afraid for Lucas and Ellie. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to them.”

“We won’t let anything happen, Mrs. Harrison. Nobody will get within fifty feet of them,” Jaxon said.

“Do you promise?”

“Yes,” Victoria said.

Mrs. Harrison looked back and forth between the two and then said, “I believe you.”

“How are your other children handling this, Mrs. Harrison?” Victoria asked.

“Please, call me Natalie,” she said. “Do either of you have children?”

The temperature in the room dropped a couple of degrees and Jaxon saw Natalie’s face register confusion. Of course, she had no idea what that simple question meant to Victoria and him. He was about to answer when Victoria did it for him.

“Our son was killed, Natalie. Murdered.”

Natalie almost dropped her coffee and she looked back and forth between them. “Both your sons?” she asked.

“Victoria and I were once married,” Jaxon said. “We don’t mean to shock you, but there’s no nice way around the answer. The same bastard who is stalking these kids-your son-is the same man who took our son from us.” The venom in Jaxon’s voice even surprised him. “You see, we thought the man responsible for our son’s murder was rotting in a jail cell awaiting his turn to die. But, we were sorely mistaken.”

Victoria interrupted, “This information has just come to our attention. We would be aggressively trying to apprehend this madman regardless, but the case has our undivided attention now, if you understand my meaning. We will find this man and put an end to his atrocities one way or another.”

Natalie Harrison stood in shock. Her hand was raised to her open mouth and she looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “Oh my God!” she said. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”

Victoria went to her. “It’s alright, Natalie. You had no idea. I’m sorry if we upset you, but I want you to know we will stop at nothing to get this guy. Nothing.”

“What’s going on, Mom?” Luke asked from the doorway. “Did something happen?”

All of them stood looking at each other for a moment and then Jaxon cleared his throat. “Everything’s fine, Luke. Nothing’s happened. Agent Elliot and I were just having a talk with your mother. Nothing to worry about,” and he smiled, though it felt strained.

He seemed to buy it. “Is Ellie up?” The tension broke and they all smiled at the boy.

“No, sweetie,” his mom said. “I haven’t seen her yet. It’s still early. Let her sleep, ok?”

“I’m awake,” Ellie said from the doorway, appearing just as Luke had from thin air. Jaxon wondered how much of the conversation the two kids had eavesdropped on. Luke turned and smiled bigger than any kid he’d ever seen and if he was acting, then Jaxon was a drag queen. They hadn’t heard a word and he was relieved. No sense in stressing out the kids any more than they already were.

“Hey,” Luke said.

“Hey,” Ellie said back. “Your hair is sticking up,” and she giggled.

He turned red and then pointed at Jaxon. “So’s his.”

Then they were all laughing and the dramatic conversation from a few minutes before was long forgotten. Kids had a tendency to do that.

Jaxon dropped Victoria off at her condo and went home to shower and eat. They would be pouring over all the files, new and old, trying to connect the dots. The information over the last few days had grown dramatically and they needed to devote some time researching any leads that may surface from reviewing old cases. Maybe a piece of the puzzle would fall into place. Jaxon knew that sometimes it was the smallest, seemingly trivial piece of evidence that could start an avalanche of discovery. There had to be something they were missing.

Later they would visit Jimmy and John Besner’s house and check for bugs. He doubted they would find anything, but it was worth the effort.

Reverb was lying in the middle of the kitchen floor like he always did, lounging right in the path of Jaxon’s sleepy feet, and as he tripped over the old mutt, catching himself on the counter, something caught his eye. He bent to the floor and looked at the baseboard of the cabinet. A small, yellow-orange colored, broken piece of corn chip was leaning against the shoe molding. He picked it up, turning it in his fingers. He sniffed. Bar-B-Que.

Jaxon hated Bar-B-Que anything. Someone had been in his house.

The doorbell rang and Luke went to answer it. His dad beat him to it saying, “I got it!” It ended up being Patrick, Ellie’s brother. He stood there holding a suitcase and a box in his hands, a big stupid grin on his face.

“Hello, Patrick,” Luke’s dad said. “Is that for Ellie?”

“Yep,” he said.

“Alright, come on in.”

Luke stepped back so Patrick could come in and as he passed, Luke said, “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Patrick said and then just stood there. Apparently, he was still acting somewhat cool to him. Nothing Luke could do about it so he went to find Ellie. She was in his brother’s room, her hair wet from the shower.

“Patrick’s here,” Luke said. “He has some stuff for you.”

“Probably some more clothes. My mom said she would send him over with it.”

They went downstairs together and Patrick handed her the stuff.

“What’s in the box?” Ellie asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. “It was delivered today. I didn’t open it. You’d kill me if I did, anyway.” He turned and left.

Luke’s dad said, “Talkative, isn’t he?”

“He’s a jerk,” Ellie said. “He’s probably mad because my mother made him bring this over.” She grabbed the box and Luke took the suitcase, and they went back upstairs. In the room she put the box on the floor and Luke set the suitcase on the bed.

“Did you order something?” Luke asked.

“No. I don’t know what this is. Probably some swim team junk. Coach always sends me scholarship crap.” She tore open the top of the box and looked inside.

She started screaming. She didn’t stop for ten minutes.

Jaxon’s desk was piled high with documents and boxes. The desk next to him, which Victoria was using, looked the same. They had been perusing the old files for three hours and had little to show for it.

He felt tired and edgy, and she must be feeling the same because they had talked very little this morning. It was good they were comfortable together, but her presence was somewhat of a distraction. She was dressed in a skirt again this morning and a blouse which, though professional, showed off her cleavage in just the right way. A lot of the guys were walking by repeatedly and Jaxon knew why.

He was currently looking at the old file on Stewart Littleton, reading through the interviews of the family and neighbors from the time of his missing person’s report in 1984. Very dull. The investigator back then was one S. Holmes. He thought it was a joke, but the guy’s real name was Samuel Holmes. Jaxon wondered if he ever considered changing it to Sherlock. He told Victoria this and she laughed.

“His partner wasn’t a doctor was he?”

“Uh…” he leafed through the documents. “No-Jedediah Smith.”

They both looked silently at each other and then burst out laughing.

“You’re kidding, right?” She said.

He couldn’t answer because he was laughing so hard so he just shook his head. He handed the paper over to her and she looked at it and started laughing even harder.