“He’s logged in right now. He just sent me a chat request.”
“Are you serious? Don’t accept!” she almost shouted.
“Too late. He says,
“Don’t answer him! He’s just messing with us!”
“I want to see what he has to say.”
“Please, Luke. He’s dangerous.”
“I know. I’ll end it if it gets bad. I’ll tell you everything he says and you can be like my safety gauge, ok?”
She didn’t know what to say. Every fiber of her being was shouting at her to make Luke stop but how could she from her own room? Luke was stubborn sometimes and he would do whatever he wanted.
“I don’t like this,” she told him. “But I’ll stay with you.”
“What should I type back?” he asked.
“Be honest with him,” she said. “Tell him we didn’t like it.” She heard his fingers on the keyboard and she waited.
“He typed,
She heard him typing again. “What are you typing,” she said.
“I’m telling him ‘At least we didn’t kill anyone.’”
“Don’t provoke him!”
“Let’s see what he says.”
She waited for what seemed like forever but it was probably more like a minute. She realized she was holding her breath and she let it out. Luke must have heard.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
“No! I don’t like this. The only reason I’m still here is because I care about you and I’m scared.”
“How much?”
“I’m terrified!”
She heard him chuckle and she couldn’t believe it.
“No,” he said. “How much do you care about me?”
“Oh…” She felt a little foolish, and then, still a little angry. Now was not the time to be talking about this kind of stuff. “Lucas, you’re my best friend, but you drive me nuts sometimes.”
“That’s not a very good answer.”
“What is he typing!”
“He hasn’t answered yet. So…I’m just your best friend?”
She could hear the playfulness in his voice and she realized he was just trying to get her to relax a little. “How can you be so calm when this killer is harassing us?”
“I’m not calm. But I feel stronger with you here.”
“Luke, I…” She started to cry and she knew he could hear her.
“Hey,” he said. “This has been the best and worst week of my life. The best part is you. The worst part is this jerk. I don’t want him ruining what we have and I’ll do anything to keep that from happening.”
“We’re just kids. How can we do that?”
He was silent for a minute and then he said, “I don’t know yet, but I’m not going to sit here and let him hurt you or anyone else.”
“This has been the best week for me too. All this other bad stuff makes me so confused.”
“Me too…wait…he’s typing…he said,
“A message?”
“Hold on…”
She heard clicking as his mouse navigated the screens.
“Shit…”
“What is it!” she said.
“It’s a picture.”
“Oh no…what’s it of? Is it bad?”
“I don’t know how he did this…it’s me…well, at least my face…it’s me they’re pulling out of the pool last night. I’m dressed in the dummy’s clothes and I’m dead.”
Chapter 10
Jaxon felt like an idiot. He had made a horrible, rookie mistake and was kicking himself for it. Kicking over and over again. How could he have been so stupid? In his twenty five years as a policeman he had never screwed up so bad.
He downed his twelfth Bud, crushed the can in one hand with a vengeance, and grabbed another one out of the cooler he had sitting by his chair.
His doorbell rang.
He didn’t want any visitors so he stayed where he was and ignored it. It rang again and then knuckles rapped on the wood of the door.
“Come on, Jaxon. It’s me. I know you’re in there.”
Sally. He was surprised. She never came to his place. He got up, opened the front door and was greeted with a twelve pack of Bud held out to him by his partner.
“Thought you could use this, but I see you’ve already started.”
He looked at the beer he held in his hand, shrugged, and then held the door wide, gesturing for her to come in. She handed him the twelve pack and walked past him into the small apartment he shared with his dog, Reverb. He closed the door and followed her into the living room. She sat and grabbed a cold beer from the open cooler.
“What brings you to my lovely abode?” he said. “Surely not the company.”
“I thought you might like to hear the latest on the kid.” He didn’t answer so she went on. “And I thought you could use
“I don’t need you trying to boost me up. I’m fine,” he said.
“Yeah, you look fine. How many have you had already?”
He ignored the question and said, “So, what’s the latest on the kid?”
She took a drink of the beer and set it down. “Preliminary cause of death is asphyxiation,” she said. “But not from drowning. The ME wants to wait on the autopsy to confirm it until the family is notified.”
“So, the body was moved?”
“That’s what it’s looking like. He died somewhere else and was put in the pool. Now, as far as notifying the family, they haven’t been able to positively identify the body. We’ve run fingerprints and come up with a big goose egg.”
“What about the FBI fingerprint database, IAFIS?”
“We haven’t hit it yet. That’s next.”
“Dental records?”
“Yes, but nothing has popped up yet. And no one has reported a missing child. At least not within the local and surrounding states.”
“So he’s still a John Doe?”
“Yes.”
“We need to widen the search. If he was killed elsewhere and dropped in the pool, he could have come from anywhere. Let’s start working national databases and see if we get any hits.”
“Already started it boss. I submitted the query in the computer system before I came over.” She smiled, took another drink, and waited as silence took over the conversation. “You know, it was an honest mistake.”
He shrugged.
