The Jumper

by Brian H Groover

The Jumper

  Brian H Groover

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  1 Carol

  2 The Jumper

  3 John Doe

  4 Alicia

  5 Vanished

  6 Rachel

  7 Big Mistake

  8 Life and Death

  9 Rachel’s Story

  10 Stranger in a Strange Land

  11 I’ve Never Been Able to Find It

  12 Voice from the Grave

  13 The Next Jumper

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Brian H Groover

  The Jumper, by Brian H Groover

  Copyright 2015 by Brian H. Groover. All rights reserved.

  The cover design is copyright 2014 by Julie Chapman. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For additional permissions contact the author at author@briangroover.com

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  First Epub Edition: February, 2015

  This book is available online in paper or ebook formats for all readers.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

  for Julie Chapman,

  who designed an amazing cover

  for a noob

  and got a story rolling

 

  and

  for Gavin Wilson,

  who featured the story

  on Wattpad.com

  and got it noticed

  Prologue

  “Jumper!” a man yelled. A woman screamed, and a crowd began to gather. In less than a minute, a hundred or more were pointing, shouting, and watching from the street below.

  Eight floors above them, a man stood on a ledge in front of a window, looking down. His snowy hair blew about in the cool Pacific air.

  Those on the far side of the street could see that the window behind him was partly open. The glass in the lower half was visible, but not the top.

  The crowd gasped as a pair of arms reached through the open upper half of the window. They pulled the man back against the sash, and held him there. “Don’t let him go!” shouted a man in the crowd.

  The man on the ledge did not seem to be struggling, and the crowd held its breath. He stood that way for a minute or so, held back by a pair of arms around his shoulders. A few on the edge of the crowd could see a face to go with the arms, next to the head of the old man. In a moment, the man would be pulled back inside, and the little drama would be over. Some of the tension in the crowd began to ease, and a few began to look around, thinking about getting home to dinner.

  The still life on the eighth floor ended as quickly as it began. The second face vanished back into the window, and the arms and hands followed. The old man appeared to stand still for several seconds, then slowly leaned forward and pitched off the ledge.

  “He dropped him,” said the man who had shouted earlier, just before a second person screamed. The man tumbled silently to the street below, as the crowd watched in fascinated horror. Several more people screamed when he hit the sidewalk, but the man himself did not scream as he fell, nor did he flail his arms.

  1 Carol

  “Just let me get my wrap, and I’ll be ready.” Carol beamed at him.

  Jeff Cramer could not help her with her shawl; he was busy trying to work his jacket over the cast. After a week, it was really only a problem taking showers and when the San Francisco temperature changes made it itch. Three more weeks before he could take it off.

  Carol pouted at seeing his holster under the jacket, but she didn’t say anything. She knew he had to wear it. They had hashed that out too many times for it to be an issue now.

  As Jeff looked at his girlfriend, his heart began to thump. She was a study in carefully prepared beauty. Her hair was up in ringlets, and the long dress clung to her slender form. She has really worked hard for tonight. I wonder if she knows tonight is the night. After tonight, I won’t call her my girlfriend any more. He swallowed. I hope.

  He finished getting his jacket settled, and surreptitiously patted the jacket pocket to be sure the little box hadn’t gotten lost in the last five minutes. Six months since she moved in, and he was ready to take The Big Step. They were celebrating their six-month anniversary as a couple–at least, that’s what he had told her. Everything was all set.

  Then again, everything had been all set with Jane, two years ago. Don’t think about that, he told himself. This is different.

  As they began to move to the door, Jeff’s cell phone went off.

  “Don’t answer it!”

  Jeff lifted the phone far enough from his pocket to see who was calling. Oh, no. “Honey, it’s the precinct. I have to take this.” This can’t be happening again!

  “Don’t you ‘Honey’ me, Jeff Cramer! You are off duty. They can get someone else. If you answer that phone, we are through!” Carol’s brown eyes blazed up at him, as the phone chimed a second time.

  “I–” He grimaced and looked at her in anguish, as the phone continued to ring. Why wouldn’t she understand?

  He sighed over his guilt. “Carol, you know they can’t. I’m the only one available, and they wouldn’t be calling me on leave if it weren’t important.” He pressed a button, lifted the phone to his ear, and said, “Cramer.” He did his best to ignore the twisting in his gut.

  Carol stood perfectly still, watching him. Tears welled up and began to spill out over her cheeks. As Jeff said “hold on,” and set down the phone, her eyes opened a little wider, but he just used his good hand to open a drawer and pull out a sheet of paper and a pencil. When he did that, her mouth set, and she turned abruptly and went back into the bedroom.

  Despite taking down the captain’s information, Jeff watched her disappear and close the bedroom door with a finality that made his heart sink. Dammit Captain, couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow? But he already knew it couldn’t. “Yeah, Cap, I’m still here. What was that again?”

  When Jeff looked up after his call, Carol stood where she had before, and he was surprised to see that the long dress was gone. I really should have told her how nice she looked, he realized belatedly. Carol was in jeans and a t-shirt, and her hair, so carefully done up before, was down around her shoulders again. He actually liked it better that way, but he saw how red her eyes were, and the guilt rose up again. “Carol, I don’t know what to say.”

  She sighed, tried to laugh, and it came out as a sob. Then she took a deep breath, and smiled. “It’s okay, Jeff. I should have realized you were going to be yourself and do your duty, and I shouldn’t have asked you to be anyone else. I’m sorry.”

  Jeff’s mouth fell open. “I have to cancel our date, and you’re apologizing?”

  “Yes. Was it important, that call?”

  He sighed again, relieved, but still shaken by how she’d taken it. “Probably, yeah. A suicide, but there were some very strange things about it, and they need me to come in right away.”

  “Nothing dangerous?”<
br />
  He shrugged, and gave a half-smile. “Not if it’s a suicide, but you know it goes with the territory.”

  “Yeah, I got that when you broke your arm and almost got shot, last week.”

  Jeff looked down at the sling over his left arm, smiled ruefully and shrugged. He hadn’t told her about the itches, the aches when the weather changed–or the nightmares. He had gotten the collar despite his broken arm, earning a commendation and some paid time off to heal. He had hoped being on leave and around more would ease the tension from when he did have to go on duty–like right now.

  “I’m afraid I do have to go in,” he said. “Can we do dinner tomorrow?”

  She sighed again, but appeared to be calmer. “No, Jeff. I called Sally. I’ll be at her place, if you need me for anything.”

  His eyes opened wide, and he swallowed, then said, “Sure, take a couple days, and–”

  “I’m not coming back. I thought I could handle the stress, Jeff, and I can, but it’s not fun. What I can’t handle is the fact that I will never be enough to help you with your stress. This thing we call life–it’s supposed to be a partnership. If I can’t distract you from your work with the way I was done up tonight, I’ll never be what you need. If I can’t be that, then I don’t want to sit around to wonder if you’ll come home hurt again or not at all, knowing that I can’t help you deal with it when things do get bad.”

  She stepped forward and kissed him tenderly. “Good-bye, Jeff.”

  “Carol, I–”

  “Don’t. Just go.” She gently pushed him away.

  Feeling empty, Jeff turned, picked up his keys, checked his gun and holstered it, and left.

  2