“Do you not know THE Kenneth Smith? You know... Very prolific lawyer.”
"Oh! I know him." Said Jerome.
“And?”
Crooked, thief, manipulator of the law...”My opinion is not important.” He said.
“So you know who he is.”
“Yeah, I just wanted to understand his interest in you guys.”
“My father was very popular from what I understand. After he died, the friends started dwindling, and little by little it was just Uncle Ken and us.”
“I see.”
“What about the woman? Who was she? Did you find her killer already?”
“She's a junky. She probably crossed her supplier. I am going to spend one more day on the case to see what I find out.”
"If I were that woman's family, I would like closure. Please don't give up so soon."
"We haven't found a next of kin yet. We know her name, thanks to her fingerprints and because she has been arrested several times, but that's all we know."
“Please don't give up and don't do sloppy work. Her family needs closure.”
"You are very passionate about this, aren't you?"
“Yes, my dad's killer went free, a drunk driver, and my mother never found closure.”
“I'll do my best.”
“You don't think it is the same person as the other case, do you?”
“Are you referring to the case in Mississippi?”
“Yes.”
“I haven't discarded the possibility yet. That's the reason you are not home yet.”
“Believe it or not I feel relief knowing that Vicky and I can stay at your place one more night. I am a bit frightened by the whole thing and tomorrow is Friday. It will give me the weekend to settle into my new place without stressing about a killer out there.”
“Nothing to be frightened about.”
“Well, sorry if I don't agree with you.”
“What I mean to say is that I will be there to protect you and you won't go home until I feel sure you'll be safe.”
“Thank you. Can we please go to my place first? These last few days have been hard with just a couple of dolls to distract Vicky and I am afraid that your toy room is going to become too much of a temptation for her.”
“Sure. Why didn't you ask before?”
Because you scare me, she wanted to say, but instead she closed her eyes pretending not to have heard him.
The drive was quiet, except for the constant chatter coming from the backseat where Vicky was playing with her two dolls. The noise was soothing. Jerome looked at the two females in the car and thought of his father. Why in the world did he throw this away? He had been ten the last time he had seen him. His father had left him, his three sisters, and his very pregnant mother behind. Once this case was solved he would have to find some free time, go back to church, and go out some. He needed to participate in life again. His life had become a monotony of work and home and he would never meet someone like that.
He glanced at the woman next to him and realized that it could never work out between them. It was a shame, but it could never work out.
Jerome looked at Josie every couple of minutes as he drove and decided he needed to concentrate on the case, not the woman. He wondered about Ivonne and Josie, why had their house been chosen? The last time the victim had been seen was over thirty miles away from where she was found. His gut told him this wasn't random.
“Here we are.” He said.
“Oh! I fell asleep. Sorry, I will be in and out. I promise.”
“Do you need me to go in with you?”
“No, stay here with Vicky. If she comes she'll want to bring everything she owns.”
Jerome turned off the car and rolled down the windows while he waited for Josie to get back. He concentrated on hearing Vicky's monologue conversation. Children were always echoing grown up conversations in their play and he was hoping for something, anything, that might lead him in the right direction. Was Josie as innocent as she appeared? He turned to look out the window. He thought he recognized a car that drove by, but it could not be.
“Are you going to be my daddy?”
He opened his eyes surprised at the question, shocked a little, and just as he was ready to say, “when hell freezes over,” he heard a scream come from inside the house.
“Stay here.”
“Is my mommy okay?”
“Stay here, don't move.”
Jerome pulled his gun out of the holster as he ran into the house, meanwhile, Josie was running for her life out of there. Both people collapsed with each other. Just as Jerome opened his mouth to chastise her, he heard her.
“My bedroom.”
“Go to the car, Vicky is alone and scared. Here are the keys, lock the doors.”
Jerome took a deep breath. When Josie said my bedroom he immediately knew what he was going to find there, but went in to clear the area. He knew that it would be a female decapitated body just as the other victims had been. He knew that the killing had happened in the bathroom. He knew that the killer let them die slowly as he watched them bleed to death in the bathtub. He knew that the killer had taken the time to finish the job this time. He also knew that the killer would be gone by now.
Jerome was so frustrated. This place was cleaned of everything. The killer had taken the time to clean every speckle. There was no nook and cranny left untouched by the bleach... This guy knew what he was doing.
The only evidence of a crime was in the middle of the bed, where there was a female decapitated body. He was holding his gun ready to defend and protect, but the decapitated body on the bed did not need defending or protecting. He holstered his gun again and approached the cadaver. Where the head was supposed to be, there was an 8x10 picture of Josie's face. Poor Josie, she was probably terrified. The anger that rose in him surprised him. He wanted to protect and shelter her and Vicky. He could not fail them.
He ran out to make sure Josie and Vicky were okay. Nobody would hurt them under his watch.
He called his friend Tom as he was the one leading this case, at least on paper he was. Then he called his boss to apprise him of the situation, and finally his partner. This was going to be one long night.
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 2:1
.
Chapter 15
It was two o'clock in the morning when Jerome finally made it back to the apartment. He was exhausted and felt defeated. They had looked everywhere for something, for anything, that would lead them to the killer and found nothing. All he needed was a fast shower and a couple of hours of shut eye. As he opened the door of the apartment he was surprised to find Josie standing there. She was so beautiful. She was so sexy. She was alive and so very angry.
She stood there for a second, not saying a thing, but her hands were fisted at her sides and her eyes were red. He knew it was not exhaustion. He wished he could hold her and comfort her.
“That man you sent me home with...I do not like him.”
“Liking is not part of the job description, hon. He's my partner. His job was to keep you safe.”
“He didn't even talk, except one word commands. I found that to be rude.”
“He has a bad cold. Every time he speaks, he coughs.”
“That's ridiculous. He didn't cough one time on the ride home, and I don't like to be bossed around.”
“Josie, you don't like anyone, and I cannot investigate this alone. I need you to be agreeable.”
Jerome was tired and just wanted this conversation to be over with. Josie was upset and he did not understand why. He was just trying to protect her and her kid, and couldn't this woman wear pants or something underneath that oversized shirt? There was something about a petite barefooted woman wearing nothing but an oversized shirt that drove him crazy. This was too much for him tonight. He moved passed her to the sofa, sat, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes, hoping she got the hint and went to bed. When
she did not seem to notice, he continued answering her questions to help her calm down; unfortunately, that was not helping him calm down any. His body was overflowing with adrenaline and his brain was lacking oxygen at the moment. Why couldn't she wear pants to bed? She was too much temptation.
“Josie, I had no choice. He was the first one on the scene and either he brought you home or you stayed there with Vicky while I finished. I knew it was going to be a long night.”
“He scares me.”
“That's because you don't know him. He's a good guy.”
“Please don't leave me alone with him again.”
“That's the paranoia talking, but if you let me go to sleep right now, I promise not to leave you alone with him again.” He would promise anything to get her to leave. She needed to be gone before he listened to his body instead of his God.
“Thank you. You know I could take the day off tomorrow and help you investigate the case.”
“No! You have to go to work. You will be safer there and I'll do a better job without distractions.”
“Pity...Did you find anything to help you solve the case?”
“Not really. The place was overly clean. Even the walls were clean. Bleach erases everything.”
“Yeah! That's all I could smell when I walked in.”
“He doused the place with it.”
“Is the killing similar to the one in my mom's house.”
“Very much so, with a few big differences. It was as if someone interrupted our killer at your mom's house. Does anyone else have access to the house?”
“What do you mean?”
“Does anyone else have keys to your house? I'm sorry, your mom's house.”
“No, not really. My Uncle Ken, but he never comes over uninvited.”
Jerome had his eyes closed as he spoke with her. At the moment he needed solitude. His brain needed to rest to be able to function in the morning. He needed a few hours of not thinking, and Josie was pushing him to his limit. He needed her gone. She was too much of a distraction. This was work, she was untouchable.
“Sweetheart I have to sleep for a bit. Please go to bed.”
He wasn't surprised when she ignored him completely and continued speaking. He had to be overly tired when he wanted to laugh at her gall. Most women were afraid of him, but not Josie St. Claire.
“This is the same guy from Mississippi, isn't he? And I'm next.”
He opened his eyes and looked at her. He saw the worry lines on her forehead and her eyes were wide open. He wanted to take all the worry away from her but did not know how. Words were cheap, but that was all he had to offer at the moment. “Sweetheart, I won't let anything happen to you.”
“You have no control in the matter.”
“Baby, you need to go to bed. You have about three hours before you have to get up for work and you need to relax.”
“Don't think that I didn't notice that you didn't answer my question. Sending me to bed won't change a thing. You have no power to protect me and I am next.”
“I don't know how, but I will protect you,” he said.
“You can’t! You won’t!”
“I can and I will.”
“How can you be so sure? You can't. I am next. Admit it!”
“No! You and Vicky will be okay. I promise!”
“You can't promise that. How could you confidently say that we are going to be okay?”
“Because God would not have brought you into my life to take you away.”
Jerome froze. He could not believe that he said that. Having a woman so near, must be affecting him. In frustration, he got up and went to the bathroom. This woman is driving me crazy. I cannot even keep my thoughts straight.
She was right though. How was he going to protect her and investigate the case when he didn't even have a partner he could count on?
Oh God! I cannot do this on my own. I need you to give me wisdom. You know I cannot keep them safe. Please Father don't let any harm come their way.
Josie moved from the sofa, where he had left her in a frozen stupor, to her room and as she reached the threshold she changed her mind. Instead of going to bed, she went to the bathroom. After a comment like that, there was no way she would be able to sleep. She stood at the door, wondering if she had lost her mind, before she knocked; she only got silence in return. She took a deep breath to calm down, and when that did not work, she called through the door. “Mr. Detective, you are a coward!”
Jerome heard her through the door, and could not help but smile. He had to agree with her. He was a coward, but he was a smart coward. There was no way he was going to get involved with her.
The idea alone was laughable. She was definitely what he did not need. There were so many reasons he did not have enough fingers to count them all. Even if he overlooked the obvious, her willful personality would drive him to an early grave.
He needed to remember that his job was to protect her. She was young and naive and he would never take advantage of her. His mother would box his ears just for thinking of it.
Whatever feeling he thought he might be having was just hormones. She was a beautiful female sharing his home, he was a normal male. His body was going to react to the proximity of the two different genders. This was all scientific, it would go away once she moved back to her house.
Josie was furious with Jerome. How dare he make such a sweet remark and hide in the bathroom. They were probably just words meant to help her feel better, but she could not help the tingling that happened all over her body when he was near. For him to walk away was just cruel. Fortunately, she recognized her body and understood that her hormones were just overreacting to the nearness of a great male specimen, she also understood that nothing would come out of the mutual attraction. Most men only wanted one thing from her and when she was not willing, they walked away. No man wanted to raise another man's child. All of this would be over soon enough and she would go back to her lonely life.
Very slowly she walked to her side of the bed, kneeled down, and prayed. Her prayer became a litany of two phrases she repeated over and over as she cried. You are my shield. You are my protector. You are my shield. You are my protector. She was terrified.
She was terrified of being the next victim, She was terrified of not seeing her daughter grow up. Oh, she was even more terrified of falling in love and not being loved in return, and she was mostly terrified of being too proud to fight for that love. She knew herself and knew that she would let her one chance at love slip through her fingers.
Jerome, still in the bathroom, heard her crying. He struggled with what he knew he was supposed to do, or to be more specific, he struggled with what he knew he wasn't supposed to do. He knew he should get in the shower and rest a little, but he also knew he wanted to hold her. He desperately wanted to make her feel safe. He understood how frightened she must be feeling as he was terrified himself. He was panic-sticken of the idea that he might oversleep and let something bad happen to her and Vicky. He was terrified of failing them. If he approached her right now though, especially after his stupid remark, he was going to confuse things even more. Their relationship would move from the professional to the personal and all three of them would get hurt. He had already done enough damage for one day.
You don't have the power to keep them safe, he reminded himself. Just do the best job you can do. “Help me!” He cried out to the heavens.
He took a shower hoping that her cries would be muffled by the sound of the water, then went to his new bed, the sofa, where he sat and continued to go through all the events of the last few days. He needed to solve this case and send her on her way. He was missing something, but what?
“Darn! Woman! How do you always manage to sneak in on me?”
“Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, but I thought of something.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow?”
“It's about the case...clues.”
“Okay, I'm listening.�
�
“The killer is extremely OCD.”
“Tell me something I don't know.”
“Well, let me give you my impressions as I walked in the house yesterday.”
“You already told me what you saw.”
“Yes, but you see...I'm terrified, and every time I close my eyes I see new things. I see things I didn't remember seeing before.”
“I'm listening.”
“Can you look at me when I'm speaking? I don't know if I'm speaking to you or to the air.”
“Do you mind wearing some clothes?”
“I am wearing clothes! What's the matter with you?”
“Why do you have to make everything so difficult? I'm losing my sanity here,” he said.
“Listen! I am completely covered here. Stop being a prude and listen to me.”
“That's the root of the problem, I am NOT being a prude.”
Jerome got up in frustration and moved to the recliner where he could put some distance between them. There were so many reasons why this relationship could never work. Not only was his job to protect her, but she was too sweet, too young, and too white; besides what did he know about kids. Until now he had avoided them like a cat avoids water. Oh! He would love a family, but she and Vicky were not for him.
From the recliner, proximity was not the problem. His body was reacting to the view and it was so much clearer now. He was in trouble. He definitely needed to ignore the attraction. This woman was trouble.
“The place was extremely clean, you see.” She continued.
“Okay, keep going.”
“I think that he cleans after he's done with the killing; but there is more.”
“Josie, stop beating around the bush and get to the point.”
“Did this last woman come walking into my place or was she already dead?”
“How does that matter?”
“Are you sure you are an experienced investigator?”
“Get to the point Josie. I'm tired.”
“Simple, I think he invites them in, pretending to have an attraction. If I have someone over, I'm going to tidy the place up a little, and if it's a surprise visit, I'm going to pick up some obvious stuff. I imagine that an OCD person is going to do a lot more cleaning than just pick up a couple of toys.”
“I see where you are going. Continue.”
“Let's pretend, the woman walked in with the killer. You know, like a date. They probably sat on the sofa to talk and kiss, who knows what else.”
Love is...Blind Page 7