Chapter 17
Jaxon stepped into Richard’s office and took the seat he was offered.
Richard asked, “So, what is your interest in this case?” He tapped the file in front of him. “Other than the obvious connection, since it involved your wife’s family.”
“The question really has more to do with Keisha’s sister, Kelly, who was badly injured in the accident,” he clarified, “and the fact that Keisha and I have both been getting some pretty ugly, and now threatening, phone calls.”
Detective Richard Martin’s eyebrows went up. “You did mention something about that on the phone.”
He nodded. “I did, and I’m hoping that I might find something relevant in the accident case file.”
He frowned at that. “What makes you think anything would be here?”
“Because I don’t know who else would be so against Keisha moving on and being happy, unless somebody out there thinks she doesn’t deserve to live, like the other driver didn’t survive.”
“Meaning that somebody related to this case could potentially have that as a serious thought, since Keisha is living her life, and somebody out there resents it?”
“Something like that, yeah. Keisha wasn’t even in town when it happened,” he told Richard.
“She was finishing off her college exams and had just written her final one and was prepared to go celebrate with her friends after all those years of hard work to become a veterinarian. Instead she got a phone call saying her parents had died in a car accident, and her sister was severely injured.”
Richard winced at that. “Talk about life-changing information.”
“Exactly, and her sister is still so angry and still not dealing at all with her situation as a paraplegic,” he added, with a headshake. “As a veteran, I am well aware of things that she could do to help her situation, but she isn’t interested, just wants to vent her anger on everyone around her.”
“And that’s always hard because nobody can make Kelly move forward if she herself is not ready to move forward.”
“Exactly, and I get that. Believe me that she’s not only not ready to move forward but she hates absolutely everything about me. Whether that’s jealousy in the sense that Keisha will have a life, I don’t know,” he said. “There are no good answers in Kelly’s mind.”
Richard stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. “Opening this door could bring up a lot more pain for everybody. You know that, right?”
“I was hoping all the information wouldn’t need to come out in the open,” he stated. “I just wanted to see if any connections would make sense, as far as these threatening computerized phone calls go. Remember that both Keisha and I get them, almost in succession with each set of calls.”
“Since we don’t have any details on these calls yet,” he pointed out, “I can’t even give you any answers.”
“Right. They come up as Private Numbers, and they’re pretty consistently sent, received in tandem, both her and me.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, that they are a lot more frequent than they were, … and both of us are getting hit, so the two of us are being targeted. If I get a call, I phone her and find out she just got one too.”
“Does anybody know about your divorce—or pending divorce?” he asked, using his words carefully.
“No, and now that the two of us are talking again, I’m hopeful that the divorce won’t happen,” he shared. “That would be news to anybody.”
“Interesting,” he murmured. “You would think that the phone calls would go to the sister, Kelly, since she survived.”
“Yeah, but maybe they feel as if Kelly has been punished enough.”
“Ah,” he noted, as he stared at him. “That makes a certain amount of sense.”
“Maybe, I don’t know. I’m just trying to figure it out myself.
I have asked Keisha to talk to Kelly and see if she is getting these phone calls, but she is not being very forthcoming about anything at this point.
Plus, Kelly used to warn her all the time about putting personal information out on the internet, and Keisha thinks somewhere along the line that she must have, since someone got her number.
I, on the other hand, have never done anything with social media nor posted things on the internet at all,” he explained.
“So I have no idea where my phone number would have been found.”
“It could have come from a completely different source,” Richard suggested. “Just because you both assume it was info on social media, that doesn’t mean it was.”
Jaxon shrugged. “I’m sure people have their way of getting phone numbers. I just don’t know what that is. It’s not what I did in the military, so I’m a little behind the times technologically.”
“What did you do?”
“Logistics. This last deployment, I was part of the maintenance crew,” he replied.
“I’ve certainly done my share of covert missions and all, but I’m also a carpenter, cabinetmaker, or whatever you want to call it.
So, I was part of an advance team that would go out early and set up the camps.
Then I’m there to fix things and to keep things moving the way they’re supposed to,” he added, with half a smile.
“So, how did you get injured?”
“Friendly fire,” he stated, his tone curt.
“And you don’t think that has anything to do with it?”
“No, I don’t think so,” he stated, with a headshake.
“It was an accident. Just a really shitty accident that sidelined me from the work I was doing, which I loved. If I’d been single, I probably would have stayed, but I had a marriage to come home to.
One that I didn’t realize was falling apart, and that’s on me. ”
“No, it’s not just on you,” Richard argued. “You’re not the first man to come home to chaos. It’s at least partly because you’re different, and they’re different too. Time has gone by, and everyone isn’t necessarily understanding about how much adjustment is required.”
“I certainly didn’t understand, and I’m not sure I even do now. It’s been a rough time for us all,” he shared. “When you think about it, that wasn’t even in my thought process.”
“Of course not,” Richard agreed, with a nod.
They all knew of cases where military people had come home, only to find out they didn’t even have relationships anymore, but that wasn’t the case for Jaxon. The relationship had been there but had gotten really complicated because of Kelly. And that’s what he told Richard.
“And the car accident?” Richard asked him.
“It was before my time. I guess I didn’t handle it that well with Kelly initially.
Of course, in the meantime, I’d also been to rehab and had seen the differences in how wounded people healed, and I saw how much that mental attitude could make the difference.
I wasn’t up for coddling Kelly either and didn’t show a whole lot of patience,” he conceded, “and that is on me.”
Richard didn’t say anything and looked down at his notes. “Is there a pattern to when you get these phone calls?”
“Not really, all day, all night, yet I do feel as if it’s been a little more often in the evenings.
At times we get them in the middle of the night even.
Since I’ve been back, and we figured out that each of us was getting these harassing phone calls, we’ve determined that some happen within a few minutes of the other. ”
“Both of you?”
“Yes”—he nodded immediately—“both of us.”
“Interesting,” Richard muttered, “because you would think that would be a time frame that other people would be sleeping.”
“Or maybe they want to confirm that we don’t get a chance to sleep.”
“Right, back to thinking it’s something deliberate.”
He stared at the detective. “How can it not be deliberate when it’s phone calls to both of our phones, within minutes of getting a Private Number call? And with a very specific warning message about our marriage. That was a game changer for me.”
Richard laughed. “Yeah, good point. So obviously you both are being targeted, and this is deliberate. What we don’t know is why or by whom.”
“I realize this kind of incident isn’t a big-budget item for you guys, so there is potentially no interest in following up,” Jaxon acknowledged, “but I did want to confirm that you knew about it—in case anything were to happen. I would also like to follow up myself, if I can.”
Richard looked at him and asked, “And what exactly would you do?”
“I want to look at the names of all the people involved in this one accident. I understand at least three vehicles were involved. I want to see who passed on and who was left behind. All of that should be public record anyway,” he pointed out.
“So, it’s not as if I’m really doing anything for you by giving you this information.”
“I know, but no charges were filed, right?”
“No, it was deemed an accident.”
“Okay, so, if it was an accident, and there were no charges, I have to wonder if that had any effect on how this person may have recovered.”
“Or not recovered, you mean?”
“Yeah, recovered, not recovered. However you want to look at it,” he said, with a smile. “There could potentially be answers in the police report somewhere.”
“If you say so. I’m not so sure about that, but I can understand that you might think so.”
Jaxon stared at him. “I don’t know what to think,” he admitted. “I’m just working my way through things.”
“Of course you are, same as we would.”
“But the bottom line is that somebody is doing this, and, if I could at least understand their motivation,” Jaxon explained, “I might be able to convince them to stop, but that would mean actually meeting them.”
With that, Richard handed over the original police file he had pulled for him.
“Here is the police report and the forensic information. Read it, take notes, whatever, but you can’t take this with you.
The incident was deemed an accident due to bad weather.
I don’t know if we’ll ever know what happened, and I understand your sister-in-law doesn’t necessarily remember what happened either. ”
He nodded. “Who was in the other car?”