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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 my company.”
“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.
“How else were we going to find someone to positively I.D. the body?” she asked. “It’s normal procedure. Do your best to I.D. the body on your own, contact the family and have them do the positive I.D. You know it’s the fastest way.”
He popped another beer and took a long pull on it as she sat and waited. “But I went about it all wrong,” he finally said. “I could see it in your face, as soon as I made the abrupt announcement their son was dead.”
“It’s your way. Not my place to question.”
He gave her an exasperated look and she turned away. When she turned back her expression was one of patience, as if with a small child who needed a lesson. “Look, I wouldn’t have done it that way, no, but that’s me.”
“You should have stopped me.”
“What? How was I supposed to do that?”
“You should have been the one doing the talking.”
“You’re the lead. You lead. I follow. If you wanted me to do the talking, you should have told me. Now you’re trying to blame me?”
“No-you’re not understanding. I’m saying I agree with you. I should have let you do the talking. I’m not blaming you for something you didn’t do. Am I that much of an asshole?”
She smiled at him. “No, boss. You’re just a little rough around the edges.” She took a long drink of her beer and looked around the room as if for the first time. “Nice place. Where’s Reverb?”
“Probably hiding from you. He’s not very social.”
“Great watchdog.”
He shrugged. “I trained him well.”
She stood, walked over to the bookshelf and looked at the pictures. She grabbed the one of his dead son, looked it over and then set it down again in its spot. She knew about Michael, but thankfully never brought it up with him. Everyone knew about Michael.
She wandered around the rest of the room, glancing at his limited knick-knacks and furniture and he watched her in a way he had never seen before. She had great legs and the skirt she was wearing showed them off. He figured the alcohol was contributing to this new perspective, but he didn’t care. She turned and noticed him noticing her. A tiny, little smile formed on her lips, but she said nothing. He quickly looked away.
“What about the footprints in the snow? Anything on that?” he asked.
She nodded. “All consistent with children or teenagers, unless the perp is a very small man or woman, which can’t be ruled out, of course. No other footprints were in the vicinity except for the rescue crew and ours.”
“What’s your gut feeling?”
“I think some kids were there. I don’t know what they were doing, but I bet they know something. If we can find out who, we can probably learn something about what actually happened.”
“What about the accidental death scenario?”
“Explain,” she said.
“A group of kids kill their buddy by mistake, panic, and try to ditch the body. I’ve heard about it happening before.”
“The only thing about that scenario that doesn’t make sense is the lack of a reported missing person. If the kid is local and had some horrible accident that’s being covered up, why hasn’t some distraught mother called us looking for her baby?”
He saluted her with his beer. “Good point. Unless it’s some parent that doesn’t care or isn’t expecting their kid to be home. Maybe he was away at a sleepover or party and he wasn’t due back home until today. Could be overlooked for a day or two.”
“Yeah. I guess we’ll see in the next twenty four hours. Should we check out the neighborhood kids tomorrow?”
“That’s my plan.”
“What about the Harrison kid? Think he knows anything?”
He paused. “My gut feeling is yes, but I’m going to leave that can of worms alone for a while, don’t you think?”
She nodded, drained her beer, crushed it and then added it to the pile of destroyed empties he had already accumulated.
He laughed. “Have another,” he said, holding up the beer to her. She grinned and took it from him.