Frozen Past

by Richard C. Hale

  “Do you know how to use it?” Jaxon asked.

  Surprised, the father nodded his head. “I go to the range once a month.”

  “A range is different than pointing it at a man. If you point it at a man, are you prepared to see it through?”

  The father hesitated, but then nodded.

  “Keep it close,” Jaxon said and looked the man hard in the eye. Mr. Harrison frowned but nodded once and got in his car. Jaxon watched him drive away. If anything happens to those two… but he didn’t let himself finish the thought.

  Jaxon’s phone rang. It was him.

  “You’re a busy Son-of-a-bitch, aren’t you?” Jaxon said.

  “Hello, Detective. We’re getting to know each other now, aren’t we?” Same numbers-all zeroes-same altered voice.

  “Oh, I know you good, asshole. You’re becoming predictable.”

  “So you say, Detective. How is my girl? I see you’ve been spending a little time with her today. Did she enjoy her outing?”

  Jaxon looked around again, trying to find a camera, but nothing was in plain sight. He had to have something around the area. “Why her? I thought this was between you and I. You take my son and I find you and screw you up beyond belief.”

  “Your son was nothing to me…”

  “Don’t you do that!” Jaxon shouted, people turning and staring at him. “Don’t you knock him down to some discarded toy you got tired of. He was everything!”

  “No. She is everything. And she will be mine. I’ve changed the plan. See if you can guess what it is, Detective.”

  “I’m coming for you!”

  Suddenly the voice changed. The man must have turned off the filter device. What came across was a deep, gravely, rumble of rage and anger that shook Jaxon to the core.

  “That’s what I told Michael. But you never came.”

  Ellie held on to Luke tightly. She was done crying and Luke had shed a few tears of his own with her although he had tried not to. It had just been too much. The roller coaster they were riding was taking its toll on them both.

  “I don’t want to go to my house,” she said. “I want to stay with you.”

  “Maybe you can.”

  She looked up at him. “Are you serious?”

  “I think it would be cool. My parents won’t, but this is a messed up situation. If you’re over here, Smith won’t know that and you’ll be safer. I bet Jaxon and Victoria would think it a good idea.”

  “My mom will never go for it. She’ll think it an excuse for us just to be together.”

  “A bonus,” he said and grinned.

  She smiled for the first time all afternoon and it warmed him. “It can’t hurt to ask, right?” she said.

  “Right. Let me talk to my parents first and if they agree, it will be easier to have them convince your mom.”

  She nodded and then kissed him. “Go ask,” she whispered.

  Luke and Ellie approached his parents and at first his dad was against it but his mom saw the wisdom of it. She had some rules, though.

  “Ellie will sleep in your brother’s room and your brother will sleep with you,” Luke’s mom said.

  Luke didn’t like it, but he knew it would be the only way they would allow her to stay.

  “I don’t want to put anybody out, Mrs. Harrison,” Ellie said. “I could sleep on a couch or even the floor.”

  “Nonsense, it will be no trouble. There’s a spare bed in the room anyway and Christopher’s car bed is easy to move. This is not a party, you two. If your mom agrees, then you’re welcome for as long as she will let you stay. But if she wants you to come home, we’ll take you right away. She’ll probably be worried. And no funny business.”

  “We promise, Mom,” Luke said and smiled at Ellie who nodded vigorously.

  Luke’s mom grinned back at them and gave Ellie a hug. “You’ll be safe here, sweetheart.”

  Luke’s dad made the call and after a little convincing, Ellie’s mom agreed to let her stay. She would gather some things for her and bring them over a little later. Luke’s dad pointed to him and said, “You, come with me for a minute. We need to talk.”

  The conversation that followed was not what Luke expected. His dad was very worried about Ellie and he told Luke that if something happened, the gun would be in his sock drawer.

  “Dad, I don’t…”

  “Luke, I love you son. You may have to grow up a little quicker than you want. I know this is scary for you, hell, it’s scary for me, but you’ll do what you have to do, when you have to do it.”

  “I’ve only fired it a couple of times with you at the range. Will you show me how to load it again?”

  “Tonight, when your mother has gone to bed.”

  Luke looked at his dad. He couldn’t remember a time when he seemed so tired. “Dad, we’re gonna be ok, right?”

  His dad smiled weakly. “Yeah, we’re gonna be ok. The police are keeping an eye on things and I’ll watch over us too.”

  “Ok.” Luke felt exhausted. He hoped the police would do what they said they could do. It just seemed like he and the other kids were doing better when it was only them dealing with the killer.

  “Now, I don’t want you disrespecting that girl while she’s here. You get my meaning?” His dad grinned and Luke nodded, his face feeling hot all of a sudden. His dad did something that surprised him, then. He hugged him and said, “I’m proud of you son. I know you’ll keep her safe. Go on. Go be with her and make her feel better.”

  The doorbell rang and his dad got up to answer it. It was Jaxon and Victoria to pick up Ellie. Luke heard his dad explaining the plan to them and they seemed to believe it was a good idea. Jaxon looked in and saw Luke watching and he turned back to his dad and said something Luke couldn’t hear. His dad closed the door and talked with them outside for a few minutes and then came back in looking pale.

  “What is it, Dad?” Luke asked.

  “Nothing.” But Luke could tell he was lying. It was something alright, and it looked like something big. His mother could see it too and she joined him in the kitchen where they murmured in low voices Luke and Ellie couldn’t hear.

  Luke sat with Ellie who leaned into him and he closed his arms around her and stroked her soft, blonde hair.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I couldn’t stand being alone in my house.”

  “Your mom and your brother were there.”

  “But I felt alone. My mom just wanted to yell at me.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said.

  She kissed him softly on the lips, and then stared into his eyes.

  “You know, my dad told me I wasn’t to ‘disrespect you’ while you’re here.”

  She giggled. “Are you going to?”

  “Depends on what you consider disrespectful, I guess,” and he smiled.

  “Nothing you could do would make me love you less,” she said, a little smile on her lips, but her eyes were serious.

  “I know,” he said in a whisper. He searched her face and was overcome by a desire to grab her and hold her as tight as he could. Never let her go. The feeling was so strong and so intense, it almost brought tears to his eyes. She must have seen it, because she grabbed him and pulled him close, holding on to him as if she would never see him again. They clung to each other like that for quite a while.

  Chapter 38

  On the ride back into the station, Jaxon remained quiet. Victoria had heard about the phone call, but when she asked him about it, he said the killer was just taunting him. He could tell she knew something else had happened, but she didn’t press him.

  The fingerprints they had scanned into her cell phone of the boy had confirmed what they already knew. Quentin Jenson would never hack another computer again. Ever. The boys head had yet to be found. The dogs’ too.

  When they were able to move the body and actually work on his computer systems, the FBI boys could do little with what they found. The Jenson kid had rigged the system to lock down if it was tampered with. Smart
kid. Too damn smart. They had loaded everything up and taken it to Quantico to see if they were able to get anything useful out of it. It would take weeks and Jaxon did not have weeks.

  Stopping by the Harrison house to pick up the Pemberton girl, they discovered the folks were thinking for themselves and Jaxon liked what he heard. If they could keep the killer guessing as to the whereabouts of the girl, it would buy them a little more time to track him down. The new message Jaxon got from the killer on the phone bothered him though, and he didn’t understand what was going on in the asshole’s head. The plan had changed. He was supposed to guess what that new plan was. Prick.

  If he could think like a killer, then Smith would already be dead. Jaxon’s mind was not quite up to the task of sedating kids and then mutilating corpses, but he thought the killer might be gunning for the Harrison boy. It was just a gut feeling, and at this point, it was all he had.

  “Are you going to let me in on the phone conversation?” Victoria said after they had been in the car for a while.

  He told her.

  “Is that all he said?”

  He hesitated.

  “Come on, Jaxon. What are you not telling me? I thought we were working on this together.”

  He sighed and then coughed in his hand. “I got a little unprofessional with him.”

  “And…”

  “I told him I was coming for him.”

  “So-I would probably have said the same thing.”

  He paused again. “He told me Michael was nothing to him and I lost it. I started screaming at him and that’s when I told him I was coming for him.”

  “Ah, Jaxon. I’m sorry.”

  “That’s not all.”

  She waited, staring at him.

  “He turned off his voice altering device and let me hear his real voice. He said he told Michael I was coming to rescue him and I never showed up.”

  She turned away and stared out the front windshield, silent. After a moment, he saw a single tear trace a line down her cheek.

  “I don’t blame you, you know,” she said quietly.

  “What?”

  “I don’t blame you for what happened to Michael. I know you think I do, but I don’t.”

  The air became like a dead thing in the car. Jaxon was having a hard time sucking it into his lungs.

  “What are you talking about?” he said. “You left me. You said you hated me and you left.”

  “I don’t think you remember things as clearly as you would like. I was out of my head with grief. I said things to lash out at anything and anyone around me. You did the same, but you decided to take all the blame and turn it into something you could hold onto. Something that numbed the pain, something that pushed me away. You drove me away.”

  “You told me I killed Michael. You said that to my face.”

  “I said we killed Michael.” Her voice broke. “We killed our son and I hated you for it. I hated you because I hated myself! We couldn’t stop it! We let him die and I hated myself.”

  He pulled to the side of the road, angry drivers honking at them. He ignored them. “You wouldn’t look at me,” he said. “For days you wouldn’t even glance at me. Then when you did, I wished you would go back to ignoring me. I could see it in your eyes. Your baby-our baby was gone, and it was my fault. And the truth of the matter was, I knew you were right. I had let that monster have our son, let him take him away from me. I thought I was protecting him by going after the wrong madman, but in the end it was my mistake, my anger, my pride that killed Michael. And I hated myself.” He slammed his fist into the dash. “I still hate myself!”

  Silence followed for a moment as he tried to get control of himself. He looked at her and saw silent tears streaming down her face.

  “I would have done the same thing,” she said. “I would have gone after the bastard like you did. I’ve thought about that night every day. Thought about what we could have done differently, what I didn’t do, what we missed. I’ve tortured myself and cried until I thought I would disappear. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to join him. It didn’t make a difference. It didn’t change a thing. I’m still here and Michael is gone and no matter what, I can’t bring him back. Michael’s gone and so were you. I needed you, and you abandoned me.”

  She turned toward him and looked into his eyes. “I know how much you hurt,” she said. “I know because I hurt just as much. I feel everything you feel. You didn’t believe that, but it’s true. I didn’t know how to help you then, because I couldn’t help myself. But I need you. I need you to be there for me. I can’t take another day of this. I can’t live through this nightmare we’re still in without you beside me. I forgive you.”

  He couldn’t look at her. His mind was whirling and everything seemed out of focus.

  “Look at me,” she said and reached up and touched his face. He turned to her and saw in her eyes everything that had meant something to him in the past. Everything that had been missing since the day his son was taken from them. He could see Michael in her eyes and something snapped inside of him. He could hear it break. A sharp, quick, SNAP! and then a release. Something eased inside and he could breath. At least a little.

  “I need you,” she whispered. “I love you.”

  He watched his hand move up to her face and touch her skin. The face he had loved so long ago, the face he could still trace in his mind if he closed his eyes. It was like touching an angel. A thing so beautiful and so forgiving, he gasped at the feel of her. Deep inside, buried beneath all the self hatred and loathing, he had longed to feel her, longed to see this look in her eyes, longed to love her. He pulled her to him and kissed her softly and she melted into him, the feel of her so familiar and so new at the same time. The kiss grew deeper and his hands moved over her, finding all the favorite places he remembered about her. Feverishly, he needed to touch every part of her, because he knew this wouldn’t last. Knew she would be gone and knew he would go back to feeling lost and ruined again. She clung to him hungrily and her hands clasped the back of his neck, fingers running through his hair like she always did and it drove him crazy.

  Honking horns broke the trance and they looked at each other and laughed. Something passed between them and no more words needed to be said. He pulled into traffic and drove to his place where their clothes fell into a pile and she didn’t even have a chance to say hello to Reverb.

  Afterward, as he held her, the afternoon sun warming their skin, she said to him, “We’re not going to let this happen to these kids. We’re not.”

  He touched her face and she turned up to him. “No. We’re not.”

  Chapter 39

  Luke and Ellie had an epic day. The best they’d had in weeks. Jimmy and John had come over and they had all abused the air hockey table in the basement, then watched a movie while his mother made them supper. Chili dogs and tater tots. Even his sisters and brother joined in the party. Ellie laughed more than he had seen her laugh in a long time. It was good.

  He could tell there was a tension lying just beneath the surface of everything, but if he didn’t think about it, he found he could ignore it. His dad stayed busy doing dad things, but even he joined in on a game of air hockey for a few minutes. He and Ellie beat him and his mom.

  After Jimmy and John left, Ellie’s mom came by with her things. She stayed for a few minutes and talked to Luke’s parents, though Luke couldn’t hear what was said. Her mom looked distraught, but thanked them for taking care of Ellie. When she left, Ellie hugged her tight and held on to her. Her mother asked her if she wanted to come home and she said no. She needed to stay here for a little while. Luke would protect her. Her mother didn’t look so confident of that fact.

  After she left, Ellie leaned her head against Luke’s and said, “I don’t think she wanted me to stay.”

  “She’s your mom. She’s just worried about you.”

  Ellie nodded against his forehead. “I miss her already.”

  He took her face in his hands. “You can go home an
y time you want. You know that right?”

  “Yeah. I’m just being a baby.”

  “I want you to stay, too, but I know what it’s like being homesick. I don’t like being away.”

  “But you like me here, right?”

  “Duh?”

  She punched him in the arm.

  “I remember when we were in third grade,” Luke said, “and you spent the night at Sheila Everby’s house.”

  She laughed. “You remember that?”

  “Of course. You two snuck out and threw rocks at my window until I woke up.”

  “And then we giggled like the stupid girls we were and ran away.”

  “I knew it was you and called you back. You guys were in your underwear.”

  “We were not!” she said, shocked. “That was pajamas.”

  “Looked like underwear to me. I saw your pink panties.”

  She turned red.

  “Anyway, you guys stayed under my window for a long time and Sheila kept saying she wanted to go home but you didn’t.”

  She was smiling. “You came down and she got mad and left,” Ellie said.

  “Then we got caught and put on restriction for two weeks. Your mother was so mad at you.”

  She laughed. “So was Sheila’s mom.”

  “I missed you those two weeks,” he said.

  “You did? I thought girls were ‘ucky’ back then.”

  “They still are,” and he pulled away from her making a face.

  She pulled him back to her and kissed him. “Are you sure we’re ‘ucky’?”

  “Totally.”

  They stayed close and quiet for a minute and then he said, “I wanted you to stay with me back then. I even asked my mom.”

  “I bet that went over well.”

  “She actually considered it for a minute and I thought she was going to let me ask you and then she said no, it wouldn’t be appropriate.”