Frozen Past (22 page)

Chapter 42

Jaxon woke stiff and tired. Sleeping in a recliner was not one of his favorite things. Unless he’d had a twelve pack and some chicken wings. Victoria was missing and then he heard her voice coming softly from the kitchen. It sounded like she was talking to Mrs. Harrison.

He got up, stretched, and used the head by the front door and then followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Detective,” Mrs. Harrison said. “Did you sleep ok?”

“Yes ma’am,” he lied and glanced at Victoria who looked perfect. She was grinning at him and he realized he must look rumpled. He reached up and felt his hair sticking up in clumps and smiled sheepishly.

“Here,” Victoria said handing him a cup. “Looks like you could use this.”

“Thanks.” He glanced at the clock and saw it was 7:30. She had let him sleep.

“I’m glad it was quiet last night,” Mrs. Harrison said. “I felt safer with you two down here.”

“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.

Chapter 43

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.

“The chief back then probably had no choice but to put them together,” he laughed.

“Oh—right! How could you NOT team those two up?”

“The English investigator extraordinaire, and the brazen mountain man!”

They were laughing so hard that people were coming over and wondering what the hell was going on. They couldn’t stop to tell them. Jaxon just waved them away and they wandered off looking back over their shoulders at the two overworked and exhausted crazy people.

Jaxon was still trying to control himself as he looked over the papers in his hand for other unusual names associated with the case. He found one he recognized and at first it didn’t register anything other than being familiar. Then his laughter stopped suddenly and he sat up.

“Fuck me,” he said, and she said, “Not here.”

He looked up at her and she was still giggling. She saw his face and stopped. He handed her the piece of paper and said, “Third paragraph down, about midway through.”

She found it quickly and looked up at him. “We need to talk to June Littleton.”

* * *

As they were driving to June Littleton’s, Jaxon’s phone rang. He answered on the third ring and one of the officers at the Harrison house told him he needed to get over there.

“What’s going on?”

“The Pemberton girl got a package and it must be from the guy.”

“What’s in it?”

The officer told him.

“Shit. On our way.” He turned on his lights and made an illegal u-turn heading back to Annandale. He left the lights flashing but kept the siren silent.

“What’s going on?” Victoria asked after recovering from his violent maneuver.

“Ellie got a package delivered.”

“What?!”

“From him.”

“Is she ok?”

“She’s hysterical. We’re going there first. Call the Crime Scene Techs and get them over there.”

She took her phone out and got things rolling. If the traffic held up, they would get there at the same time.

After she hung up, she said, “Do you know what was in the package?”

He nodded. He told her and she turned and stared out the window. “Fucking bastard,” she said under her breathe.

“Yes.”

They got there a few minutes before the Crime Scene guys and walked into the house. Everyone was in the living room, crowded around Ellie who was still sobbing, holding on to Luke like her life depended on it. It sounded like she was saying, “Get it out of here! Get it out of here!” over and over again.

The officer took them to an upstairs room and showed them the box. Inside was the thawing head of a dog. The mouth was open with a greyish tongue lolling out and its eyes were open, but yellowed with the pupil’s bottom edge showing from beneath the eyelid. The brown, matted fur still had dried blood on it and Jaxon could even see raw flesh where the head had been severed from the torso.

“Is this her dog, Bentley?” Victoria asked.

The officer nodded. “She kept saying that name over and over again after she stopped screaming. The boy said it was her dog. Poor girl’s a wreck.”

“Have you touched anything?” Jaxon asked.

“You know better than to ask me that, sir.”

“Right. Sorry. How did it get here?”

“The brother brought it over along with a suitcase.”

“Do we know how the brother got it?”

“Lucas Harrison said the brother told him it was delivered this morning. I haven’t talked to the brother.”

“Ok. We’ll talk to him. Good job. I’m glad you called us.”

Jaxon took out a pen and used it to flip over the lid of the box exposing the shipping label. It was addressed to Eliana Worthington, not Pemberton. He showed it to Victoria who frowned.

Just then the Crime Scene Techs stomped upstairs with their stuff. Jaxon and Victoria let them do their work.

Walking into the living room, Victoria went to Ellie and touched her shoulder. She was huddled against Luke with her face buried in his sleeve. Natalie Harrison was trying to soothe her, but she appeared inconsolable. Victoria’s touch made her flinch.

“Ellie? It’s Agent Elliot, honey. It’s alright. Can you look at me?”

Ellie turned to her and said, “Is it gone?”

“It will be soon. They have to go over it for evidence.”

The girl’s face fell and a noise escaped her that broke Jaxon’s heart.

“Please, make them hurry!” Ellie said. “I can’t stand to think it’s in this house.”

“Let’s go outside,” Victoria said, standing and extending her hand. Ellie looked from it to Luke, but didn’t move.

“Luke can come with us. It’ll make you feel better. Just until they’re done, ok?”

Ellie nodded and reluctantly took her hand. Her other hand grabbed Luke’s and Victoria walked them out back while Jaxon stayed in and talked to the parents. Ellie looked a little better already.

Ellie’s mother came to the door looking distraught and Jaxon led her to her daughter. Ellie sagged into her mother’s arms and cried even harder. At least her mother was here.

Back inside, Jaxon determined the Harrisons knew very little about the package and he knew his best bet would be to talk to the brother. They would stop by on the way out of the neighborhood after everything calmed down.

The Crime Scene guys finished up quickly at the urging of Jaxon and left with the dog’s head and box within an hour. Ellie looked instantly relieved, but still would not go up to the room. They talked with her about staying at the Harrison’s and the importance of remaining hidden and she said she wanted to stay.

“Would it be ok if I slept in another room?” She asked.

“You can sleep in my room with me,” Deana said, and smiled.  “I can move some stuff around and put the blow-up mattress on the floor.”

Ellie smiled and said, “That would be great.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come home, Eliana?” her mother asked.

“I think she will be safer here,” Victoria said. “He sent the package to your house in the belief she would get it there, so he must not know she’s here. Plus, Jaxon and I will be here again tonight, all night, along with the officers out front and back, and the officer in front of your house for appearances.”

Madison Pemberton nodded, but did not look happy. Jaxon was sure she missed her daughter and probably worried herself sick over her being here. Mrs. Harrison must have known it too.

“Madison? You can stay here with her if you like. We have room.”

She hesitated, but then shook her head. “I really appreciate it, Natalie, and I really want to, but that would mean leaving Patrick alone and I couldn’t do that. He won’t stay here even if you begged him.”

“You’re both welcome to stay if you change your mind,” Natalie said, and smiled.

“Thank you,” Madison said, then to her daughter. “Are you alright? If you need me, just call. I’ll answer quick and come over right away.”

Ellie nodded, a few tears showing, but she held it together. She gave her mom a hug and Madison left.

“We’re going to follow your mom to your house so we can talk to Patrick about the package,” Jaxon told Ellie. “The two officers are still here, so don’t worry. If another package shows up, don’t open it. Don’t even bring it into the house. Call us right away and we’ll be over immediately. That goes for everyone. Nobody opens any strange packages.”

“Where are you going after my house?” Ellie asked.

“We have some leads to follow, sweetheart,” Victoria said. “We still have to catch this guy and we’re getting closer.”

“What did you find?” Luke asked.

“Not right now,” Jaxon said. “We’ve got a lot to do so we can get back here tonight. We’ll fill you all in when we get back.”

Luke looked discouraged, but nodded anyway.

“Keep the doors locked and call the officer out front on the radio immediately if something happens. Got it?”

Jeffrey Harrison said, “We’ll be alright.”

Jaxon opened the door and said, “I know you will.” Victoria touched Ellie’s arm and smiled, then she walked out the door and Jaxon followed behind.

“We’re getting too close to this,” he said.

“I know. I don’t care.”

“I’m starting to care too much about those kids.”

“So am I.”

“We’re gonna get burned on this.”

“No way around it,” she said. “I’m not giving this case to anyone else. I can’t let anything happen to those kids. If Holt tries to pull me off, I’ll physically hurt him.” She wasn’t smiling.

“We need to be careful,” he said.

She suddenly stopped and turned on him. “Bullshit! I’m doing no such thing! I’m going to go after this guy like the crazed lunatic that he is! If you want to back off, be my guest, but I’m all in.” He stood there stunned. She turned, walked away, and said, “I thought you would be too.”

He caught up to her and grabbed her arm. “Hey! I’m on your side. I want this guy just as bad as you”

She wouldn’t look at him.

“Look at me,” he said. She moved her eyes to his. “I’m in. How could you think that I wouldn’t be? I’m just worried about you.”

“Well, don’t be. I can take care of myself.”

He smiled at her and said, “I know you can. I should know better than to be all protective around you. But we look out for each other, right? I’ve got your back. You can’t keep me from looking out for you.”

She finally smiled a little. “You’d better.”

They stood like that for a minute, the tension bleeding off.