Chapter 17 #2
“The other victim was an older man. There was no evidence of a heart attack or other medical condition, so there was no reason to believe it was caused by that,” Richard shared, pointing to a picture.
“Honestly, the scene was a huge mess by the time we got there. Other vehicles were off the road, and everybody was running all over the place, trying to get people out of vehicles and off to the hospital. In fact, Kelly might have been better off left in the vehicle, considering the damage to her spine,” Richard noted, as he put a picture in front of Jaxon.
“But the bystanders were trying to get her out of the vehicle because a fire had started.”
Jaxon grimaced. “That’s a common problem, both moving the injured and avoiding the car fires that erupt after these accidents. You can’t even consider everything else that might have happened in a situation like that,” he noted.
Richard nodded. “You just have to do the best you can, which is what everybody did, and the end result was that she’s paralyzed, hates her life, and now nobody can do anything to help her make it better—including you.
Yet, at some point, she has to decide how she wants to live the life she has now, and that does not mean making you and your wife miserable. ”
“Yeah, she doesn’t see it that way yet.” Jaxon sighed. “I don’t really want to upset the apple cart any further because I know all too well what happened last time.”
Detective Richard nodded. “That makes sense, but that’s all I’ve got for you.”
Jaxon thanked the detective, then stood up and walked out of Richard’s office. As he stepped out the door to Richard’s office, his phone rang. Recognizing the Private Number on his screen, he turned back to Richard, who was speaking to someone, and said, “Looks like it’s our caller now.”
Richard immediately walked over and said, “Answer it, and put it on Speaker.”
When he did, that same chilling and mocking laughter filled the room. Several of the other cops within earshot stopped and listened. Then the caller asked, “Do you think the cops will help?”
“What do you think?” Jaxon asked.
“Not one bit.” And, with that, the call terminated.
Jaxon faced Richard. “So how the hell does he know that I’m here?”
Richard gave him an odd look. “That is a completely different story,” he declared, staring at the phone. He asked for it immediately and said, “I’ll take this to our techs and see if they can get anything from that call.”
“Sure, but I’ve got to tell you, every time, … like every damn time, it’s always a Private Number, and it’s never long enough to get it traced.”
“So, he’s also savvy and—”
“Very vindictive,” interjected one of the other cops, frowning at Richard. “I don’t know what this is about, but I don’t like the sound of that call.”
“No, neither do I,” Richard confirmed, as he scratched his chin. “Give us a little bit, Jaxon. Just take a seat. If you need anything, you can talk to Paul here.” With that, Richard took off with Jaxon’s phone, having a handle on it.
Paul stared at Jaxon, shrugged, and went back to his work.
But, for Jaxon, all he could do was sit here and wait, and he couldn’t even tell Timber what was going on. Timber had sent him into town to do this, and now it had become a whole different story.
When Richard came back, he shook his head. “No way to trace anything on that. And the number is likely useless, even if we had it. If he’s smart, he’ll use a different burner phone each time, and then get rid of it.”
Just like Gregory had said. Jaxon nodded. “So what am I supposed to do?”
“Watch your back,” Richard instructed. “And hers too because this doesn’t sound very good at all.” He frowned. “From what I just heard, I’m getting that somebody is really pissed off about something.”
“Yeah, and, from my point of view, if you guys can’t do anything about it—”
“For now we really can’t, other than put out feelers for purchases of too many burner phones at once,” Richard shared apologetically, “because there’s no way to trace that single Private Number call.
Even if we could, we would need a whole lot more information.
You can hope he stops calling at some point, but, after hearing the message today for myself, I don’t see your caller stopping anytime soon. ”
“It’s definitely escalating,” Jaxon agreed, trying to keep his frustration down.
“So, if you find my dead body on the side of the road somewhere, it’s not an accident.
” And, with that harsh note, he stepped out into the big bad world, wondering who the hell was after him and Keisha and why their harassing caller had gotten so ugly about it.
Sure, they were part of a family who died in car accident, along with another family man, but neither Keisha nor Jaxon were at the accident scene. He shook his head.
As soon as he got back to his truck, he contacted Timber and told him what happened.
“That sucks, but they’re right. Richard is good at his job, but your caller is pretty savvy, and, until they can grab some concrete evidence, what are they supposed to do?”
“I don’t know,” Jaxon muttered, “but I don’t feel good about leaving Keisha alone, and I certainly don’t feel good about some asshole trying to stop whatever it is that we’re doing.”
“I get that too,” Timber noted.
“So, while I’m here in town,” Jaxon began, “I’ll track down the other family who lost somebody. … They may not want to talk to me though.”
“And yet, if they have nothing to do with it, they might not have a problem at all,” Timber pointed out.
“At least I have their contact information.” With that, he disconnected from Timber, went to a nearby coffee shop, and ordered himself a coffee. Then, from the back corner, he made the call. When a young man answered, Jaxon explained who he was.
“And what do you want now?” Cameron asked, with a yawn and a completely disinterested voice.
“I just wondered how your family was holding up.”
“That’s a bizarre question, isn’t it?” Bitterness filled his tone. “My father was killed in a car accident. What more do you want to know?”
“I understand. My wife’s parents were killed in that same accident.”
“Yeah, but that damn driver didn’t suffer enough,” he barked.
At that, Jaxon froze. “What do you mean, the driver didn’t suffer?”
“The police all said that a man was driving the other car. However, my father was alive when I initially got to him, and he told me that bitch was driving the other car.”
“The mother?”
“No. The one who’s paralyzed. So, she gets to live with what she’s done, but sometimes it still doesn’t seem to be quite enough punishment. My mother would say it’s more than enough though,” Cameron muttered, with a sigh. “I’m still trying to get over the loss of my dad though, so don’t mind me.”
“I’m sorry. I realize it was a pretty harsh ending.”
“Yeah, you’re not kidding,” he spat, sorrow in his voice. “My dad was the best, but—”
“Do you think it was deliberate?”
“Oh no, not at all,” he replied. “It was an accident. Yet, … as you know, accidents don’t make us feel any better. Just because it wasn’t deliberate doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
“No, of course not,” Jaxon agreed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that.”
“How is she doing?”
“Not very well,” he murmured. “She’s struggling in many ways.”
“To be honest, a part of me says good, and another part of me says that’s the wrong thing to say,” he admitted. “I know she’s in a wheelchair, so that can’t be easy on her, but I wonder if she ever even thinks about my dad.”
“I can mention it to her, but are you open to having a conversation with her?”
“No,” he declared, his tone harsh. “My mother would probably be open to it, but I’m not. I still see him in every room I walk into. I haven’t got Mom’s fatalistic attitude. She’s always saying, It had to happen sometime.”
“Did your father have a health condition?”
“Oh, you’re not blaming this on him,” he stated forcefully.
“No, never,” Jaxon confirmed quickly. “That’s not why I was asking. Yet what you shared about your mom’s attitude sounded like she knew his time was coming, sooner than later.”
“He had Type-1 diabetes and was struggling to control it,” he explained. “So, if anything, maybe that’s what she was talking about. I don’t have a clue. I’ve never thought about it in that way before.”
Jaxon didn’t say anything to that. Dying from Type-1 diabetes or from a car accident was still fatal either way.
Cameron added, “I’ve got to go, and I don’t know why you even bothered calling. If you want to talk to my mother, I would appreciate you giving me a heads-up first. So I can warn her.”
“Of course,” Jaxon acknowledged. “I wouldn’t want to upset her.”
“It’s not as if speaking to you about the accident that took her husband will make her feel good though, now will it?” he snapped. “You’re dredging up a major loss in her life, losing somebody who she absolutely loved and spent every waking hour with.”
“Of course,” Jaxon replied.
When Cameron rang off, Jaxon sat here, wondering about what he’d heard.
Cameron was a young man, and maybe he had more anger and frustration inside than was obvious, yet nothing in his tone of voice stuck out as threatening.
All in all, he sounded more frustrated and missing his dad than anything else.
Their harassing caller could have been him, but, as Cameron had pointed out so aptly, Kelly was already in a wheelchair, and that was her punishment. So what would be the point of finally and permanently breaking up Jaxon’s marriage to Keisha?
What was most fascinating was the fact that Cameron declared that Kelly was driving. That was something Jaxon needed to follow up on.
He headed to the animal clinic first, wondering just what to tell Keisha, because it wouldn’t be an easy conversation. When he walked in, she was just locking up.
“Hey,” she greeted him, with a big smile. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
“No, I just came back from the detective’s office.”
She stopped and stared at him. “Why? I know you mentioned it before but are you sure it’s a good idea?”
“Why what?” he asked. “Why did I go, or why am I back?”
“Either way,” she said, frowning at him.
“I wanted to confirm that somebody knew about these phone calls.”
She paled as she realized the meaning behind that. “Great, not exactly what I wanted to think about today.”
“No, I’m sure it isn’t,” he began, “but certainly you can see why it’s something that needed to be brought up. As it is, I got another one of those phone calls while I was still in the police station.”
She grimaced. “And could they do anything about it?”
“No.” He shook his head. “They did take my phone and checked it out, but they couldn’t get anything, which we pretty much already knew from Gregory.”
“Of course,” she muttered. “I keep thinking there’s got to be something we can do, but I come up with just nothing.”
“How about dinner?” he asked. “I’m in town anyway.”
“Sure,” she agreed, with another smile. “I would love to. There’s a new fish-and-chips joint not too far from here, if you’re interested.”
“Sounds great,” he said, with a bright smile. With the clinic all locked up, they used both vehicles to get there, so she could go home afterward, and headed to the new restaurant.
As they walked in, they were given a table right away, even though it was pretty busy. He looked around and noted, “This is a pretty-hopping place, isn’t it?”
“I’ve spoken to several of my staff, and they’ve all been here and say it’s great.”
The fact of the matter was, it was midweek, so it was surprising to find it so busy, even for a new establishment.
As it was, the employees were moving pretty fast. Keisha and Jaxon had their drinks already, then ordered quickly, as both of them just wanted the main offering, the fish and chips.
When the waitress returned in a matter of minutes with their order, Jaxon looked at Keisha in surprise. “Really fast service, wasn’t it?”
“That’s what they do full-time though,” she pointed out. “It’s like their main menu, all day, every day, so it makes sense.” As they tucked in to eat, she added, “Tell me what the detective had to say.”
“So, that would be Detective Richard Martin, and he has military history with Timber and also some police history with some incidents involving the Haven. Richard gave me the details on the accident with your family, and I contacted the other family.”
She winced and slowly nodded. “I’ve often thought about doing that. I’ve always felt horrible because it wasn’t just my sister and my parents who were affected,” she acknowledged. “Another family was as well.”
He took another bite and nodded.
“How was your reception?” she asked.
“I spoke to the son, Cameron. He mentioned he wasn’t nearly as reconciled to it as his mother, who seems to be a lot more fatalistic.
In fact, he mentioned her saying something about it being bound to happen sometime.
” Jaxon tilted his head. “But the kid still holds a lot of bitterness. He’s clearly still actively grieving the loss of his dad. ”
She nodded, then asked, “Do you think he’s the one sending us harassing phone calls?”
“I didn’t get that feeling from him,” Jaxon said.
“Obviously I don’t know for sure, but I didn’t get any sense of that level of anger or revenge or retribution or the like.
Cameron certainly felt angst over the accident for a whole other reason.
” He hesitated for a moment, taking a drink of his water.
“I don’t even know how much to tell you. ”
“Oh, you need to tell me everything,” she declared, throwing her hair off her shoulder. “This is my family.”
“I know that, but he shared something that I don’t know if you already heard, and it was pretty distressing, even for me.”
She immediately sat back and stared at him.
Thankfully she’d already finished her dinner, which was probably a good thing, since she was about to lose her appetite.
“What did he say?” she asked.
“He pointed out that the police report stated that your father was driving.”
“Yes,” she muttered, sitting up, her back straight, “and he was such a careful driver. I was really surprised they’d been in an accident at all.”
Jaxon just nodded.
“Okay, Jaxon. What are you saying or not saying?” she asked. “The accident has already happened.”
“His father told Cameron something before he passed on.”
She frowned. “That’s right. I remember he lived for a time but died that night in the hospital.”
Jaxon sighed. “The father told Cameron that the young woman was the one driving.”