23. Jamison
Tucking my phone back into my jacket pocket, I once again looked over at Gisele, reassured that she was safe with Claudia, Georgina, Dani and her husband Ryan. Jock took off with Miracle in his arms only minutes ago, heading back to his place. Relieving me from worrying about Miracle as well.
I’d been in Blessings for three weeks, one of those spent back in Gracefield catching up with my unit. In my time in Blessings, I’d come to care for Gisele’s family very much. How deeply those feelings went for her, and Miracle scared the shit out of me, especially now.
When Claudia called to tell me that someone had broken into Elle’s house overnight my first thought had been Miracle. The fear that something might have happened to her had me sprinting from the pub to Elle’s place. I already knew from the night before that Gisele was safe at her place because we had been on a date, and I had walked her home and made sure the house was safe before leaving. I remembered how hard Gisele had laughed while she watched me checking her windows and back door, the humour in her voice when she called me nuts, telling me again that nothing bad ever happened in Blessings unless it involved her and that fucking stupid curse.
Running down the main street to Elle’s, horrible visions flooded my head of what could’ve happened to Elle and her niece. It hadn’t mattered that Claudia assured me that Elle and Miracle had not even been there, choosing to stay at Jock and Georgina’s place for the night.
By the grace of God.
Fuck, if they had chosen to go home —, no I wasn’t going to let myself go there. I couldn’t.
Giving one last longing look in Gisele’s direction, this time finding her watching me, I winked at her and received a weak and sad smile in return. I truly hated that the most beautiful woman I’d ever met, who had captivated me from the beginning wasn’t smiling that amazing gorgeous was she always did.
We had only a few minutes together since I arrived at the scene, going straight to her and Miracle who at that time had been cuddled on her mum’s hip crying tears with no sounds. It fucking broke my heart.
My first thought was Optimus was still at Gisele’s. She insisted he stay with her for the night so when Miracle arrived home in the morning it would be a great surprise for the little girl to see my Pug she had grown quickly attached to. Considering what had happened to Elle’s dog, I found Claudia and whispered in her ear so Miracle wouldn’t her me. Immediately Claudia took off to move Optimus to her place, agreeing with me that in the light of day it might be a little too hard on Miracle seeing my dog after losing little Dutch.
Josh had wrapped the little dog in a blanket and taken him out the back of Elle’s house after I had done my initial walk through and photographed each room. All the while pushing back the pure rage and anger that was racing through me. In my years on the police force, and the horror and shit I’d seen and encountered, taking photos of the little dog dead from a twisted neck sent me into a shaking rage like I have never experienced. Big city crime was something I was unfortunately used to seeing, I wasn’t immune to horrible crime scenes, but I would always be able to control myself and compartmentalize it, keeping it from affecting me personally.
This one was different. For the first time since being a rookie and seeing my first murder scene, this was affecting me personally. Real fucking personally.
Suddenly I caught movement in my peripheral vision. A very mad and pissed off blonde woman so similar to the one I was falling hard for was making her way through her front gate.
Elle might fool most people in Blessings, coming across as the sister that didn’t give a shit, the tough one, but she wasn’t fooling me. Behind the pissed off I saw the sadness and the fear in her eyes, I also saw she was on the same page as me.
She knew who did this and so did I. Proof be damned, her arsehole spouse did this I had no doubt. What I did have however was a footprint on the kitchen floor. A good muddy footprint.
“He did it, didn’t he.” Elle said the second she made it to me, standing with her back to her sister and mum, her voice low but sure. I knew Elle wasn’t going to let me ‘police her’ out of getting involved, because truth be told I needed her help. So right there, I made my decision.
“How far do you want to get into this?” I asked her outright, already knowing what her answer would be but still I had to ask because if I was right — if both me and Elle were right then Elle’s life was about to be turned upside down, as well as the rest of the Blessing family. I had to be sure, she knew just how ugly this was going to get if my suspicions were on the ball. I knew in my mind that I was correct. What I needed Elle to understand was the possibility of the escalation in Jake’s behaviour. Going from smoking weed with his buddies on fishing trips was worlds apart from breaking into her home and destroying it.
“Don’t cop me Jury, I’m more than aware of the magnitude in his change of behaviour.” Predicably Elle responded exactly the way I knew she would, spitting fire and refusing to be bullshitted.
Okay then.
“Josh, Ryan and Jake’s mates know him but not as well as I do. There are things they won’t know, can’t know but me.”
Already having to go ahead order to investigate the robbery and break-in from my boss back at headquarters due to my suspicious it was my missing person case possibly behind the crime, I was here in Blessings until the case was solved.
Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I pulled up the photo app and scrolled passed the ones Elle didn’t need to see right then, but I knew she was eventually going to insist I show her, until I found the one I wanted.
“See that,” I said holding the phone down in front of her, the one of the muddy footprint. “Can you tell me what that is?” In a way I was testing Elle’s statement about knowing things about Jake other’s wouldn’t. It wasn’t exactly a dirty tactic, more making sure she could handle what was most likely coming.
“Looks to me like a print of a Red Back pull on boot.” Elle answered me, looking me straight in the eyes.
“Size?”
“Eleven.” She answered immediately, without a doubt in the world it belonged to her husband.
Brave woman.
Shutting down the app before Elle could make a move and take my phone from me, I gave her a slight nod and half a smile.
“Do you have any of his shoes still in your house?”
Elle looked over my shoulder towards her home, the slight shudder from her body not unnoticed.
“If he didn’t take anything that belonged to him, there should be some sneakers in the spare room cupboard. He moved into the spare room a few months ago,” Elle said with barely contained anger, “or I should say I moved him into the spare room.”
“Anything other than sneakers?” I preferred the same kind of shoe if possible.
“The garden shed,” Elle nodded, “there are two pair of his work boots in there.”
“Okay, good.” Giving Josh a nod for him to come forward, being the only cop in town I was depending on Josh to help me with some of the work without compromising the legalities of the case. My captain had already given formal permission for me to have Josh help me to a certain extent, due to the circumstances, but I still needed to tread carefully.
Coming over to us, Josh dropped his arm over his sister-in-law’s shoulder, giving the top of her head a kiss first before turning his attention to me.
“Mate, I need you to go into the spare room and get a photo of any sneakers that might be in there size eleven,” pausing I looked at Elle, and getting an eye roll back in return.
“Josh knows my house just as well as he knows his, Detective.”
“Of course, sorry I should’ve known,” I muttered, still trying to get a grip on how close this family were. Handing Josh my phone, I opened it for him.
“Also, in the garden shed, any work boots too okay. Remember don’t touch them unless you are wearing gloves. I mainly need the soles, copy that?”
“Got it,” Josh said without missing a beat, taking the phone and jogging off to do the task appointed to him.
Elle and I stood there in silence for a few minutes, just looking in the direction of her house. I could sense she wanted to ask me questions, but she wasn’t ready, and I wasn’t about to force her. However, being a Blessing woman, Elle didn’t stay silent for long.
Not looking at me, still staring at her house, Elle reached out and put her hand on my forearm.
“I nearly brought Miracle home last night,” she whispered brokenly, “she could’ve been there, she could’ve of?—”
“Don’t,” I growled, turning so I was the one holding her forearms, my grip gentle but firm. “She wasn’t and neither were you. There is no what if or maybe if, Elle. Miracle is safe and you are safe. Nothing is ever going to happen to you or little lamb, I won’t let it.” Never in my whole professional career had I ever promised a victim anything I had no power or right to do so. I’d assure them I would do everything I could to solve a crime or find a perpetrator. This time was different. This time it was personal.
This time I meant and believed every single word I said.
I was going to find Jake Cunningham and bring the son of a bitch back in handcuffs, and make sure he paid for destroying Elle’s house, killing her dog and breaking the heart of the cutest, sweetest girl, who was fast becoming as important to me as her mother was.
My date with Gisele ended with a hug and a sweet but short kiss, as much as I wanted to do so much more with her, I sensed her nervousness even though we had talked about our mutual attraction. I’d been honest about my feelings and wanting to spend time, real time with her and Miracle. Gisele’s nerves weren’t directed at getting close to me, more what might happen to me. She was convinced she was cursed, and it was going to take a monumental effort in patience from me to show her the curse was a load of bullshit.
I hated that it was keeping Gisele from me. Yes, she agreed that there was something definitely happening between us, she was going back and forth in her head every time she decided it was time to take that leap with me.
Nothing about her behaviour was game playing, teasing or playing with my emotions, it was just that bloody curse brought to life by imbeciles, with nothing better to do with their time.
I forced that anger and frustration to the side, now was not the time to get stuck in my head. Gisele had feelings for me, real feelings, I just had to hold onto that and give her the time she needed, and the one thing I could do was keep showing her I wasn’t going anywhere.
I wanted her, and I was going to have her.