Nothing To Lose Part 12

 Jonas deals with a personal tragedy as he and Danny continue to hunt for the Bay City killer.

 Part 12 

Jonas drove to the open park near where he lived. It was only a few blocks down the street from his house. From a distance, he could see the flashing lights of other responders. They were setting up a perimeter around the entire block-sized park. His nerves were frazzled. Fearing the worst, that it would be somebody he knew, Jonas pulled around a corner heading back toward the bay area. He got out and waited, being methodically slow about putting on his detective's badge.  

When Danny caught up, he parked just to the west, near the tape. He noticed Jonas waiting, standing with the Suburban. Why hadn't he gone to take a look? Danny wondered. As the senior detective on duty, he was surprisingly hesitant to act. Danny walked over to his partner, his hands in his pockets. He noticed Jonas finally opening the rear end when Jonas saw he was coming. Danny thought for a moment; he meant to wait.  

"Hey," he casually said. "You alright?"  

Jonas nodded. Again, he was lying. There was something about the crime scene that he feared. He hadn't told Danny and didn't know if he would. As he stood there, fiddling in his bag, he tried in vain to get his heart to slow down. Nothing was helping. Not breathing control, not mentally focusing on the task at hand, nothing.  

His hands were trembling, and Danny noticed. Even from the corner of his eye, Jonas could see the worry. He told himself to get it together. Danny was green as an investigator, but not stupid. So, he closed the Suburban and started walking toward the center of the park. Everybody gathered around the merry-go-round in the middle of the attraction.  

"What's got you so rattled?" Danny asked as two of the patrol officers stepped away, and they could see the victim.  

"Well, I guess I know why they were circling the ride."  

Both Danny and Jonas listened as the patrol commander filled them in on the call, and on the scene when they got there. But to Jonas, it was like hearing someone yell with your head in a bucket of water. All he could focus on was the shape of the victim beneath the white sheet. She was approximately five seven, petite built, with more than enough shape for her to have been attractive to both sexes. Beneath the sheet, her arms and legs had been quartered outward. He could tell from the body and the way the sheet lay across her.  

"Who covered the body?"  

"Um, it was that way when we got here," one of the patrol officers reported. "I touched part of it to check for a pulse, but I dropped it when I looked underneath. I could tell she was gone."  

Jonas looked at Danny. He told him to take pictures of the scene. There was no reason not to, and in court, the image beneath the sheet would show an absolute intention to stage things this way. Whoever they were looking for used the sheet with a purpose in mind. He just didn't know for sure what that was.  

While Danny was snapping pictures, working his way around the body, he asked the patrol officers if anybody had found an id, or if anyone recognized the victim. When nobody had anything to offer, he looked up at Jonas. It was close to Jonas's neighborhood. He stood the best chance of recognizing the woman.  

And Danny was right. Jonas knew it. His gut was screaming at him. So, he stepped forward, turning the merry-go-round until her head was close enough for him to reach without compromising the scene. Part of him wanted desperately to push it off until after the crime-scene techs were done. But he knew they needed to identify the body if they could.  

Leaning over, he pulled the sheet back. When he pulled it down on her face, he stared into Susan's lifeless eyes. She was wearing a runner's top and tennis shoes. She had gone out for a jog. He felt sick to his stomach as he froze in place. Staring down at her, he couldn't believe she was gone.  

Danny put his hand on Jonas's shoulder, asking him if he knew the girl. He could tell she meant something to him. Danny knew there was someone he kept time with. He'd mentioned her at the cafe when they finally put things aside and found they could work together. By the look on Jonas's face, there was only one person she could be.  

"Is this Susan," asked Danny, needing Jonas to confirm his suspicions. When Jonas shook his head and turned slightly, staring into the distance, Danny nodded at one of the patrol officers, motioning to cover her up.  

"What was her last name," asked Danny.  

"Roberts...her name was Susan Roberts. She lived just down the block," he told him.  

Danny pulled Jonas aside, pulling him out of the perimeter and back to where they parked. He was insistent enough that Jonas just walked, like a kid being dragged across the yard by a parent with a readied belt waiting inside. Danny was so worried that their pace quickened enough that the sudden stop at the Suburban pushed Jonas against the back of the vehicle. Jonas was shockingly silent after that stunt, and Danny realized he'd made it apparent that there was a problem. He couldn't even think of how to say the obvious thing.  

"When's the last time you saw her?"  

Jonas shook his head at his partner. It was enough that Danny knew his worries were valid. The two of them had been together the night before. That was the worst news he could get.  

"What time did she leave?"  

Jonas didn't know for sure when she left. She typically left before he was awake, just like this morning. When he woke up, she was already gone. That's when he checked the message from Danny and told him he needed an hour. Jonas racked his brains for anything else, but he was as shook by this as Danny was. But there was something. It was small, almost innocuous, but now that he looked back, she didn't leave a note.  

"You know you should recuse yourself from this," Danny told his partner.  

"Don't even try it," snapped Jonas. "There's no way I'm going home."  

"You should be, but I'm not ready to take this on my own. So, I'll keep what I know to myself, for now."  

"Does anybody else know?"  

He and Susan kept their relationship with each other discreet. She wasn't acquainted with the job, and they were just neighbors as far as anyone else knew. He shook his head, and told Danny there wasn't anybody they hung out with or that knew they were even a thing. It was something they were pretty tight lipped about.  

"Good," sighed Danny.  

Jonas walked around the opposite side of the Suburban and knelt to the ground. Tears came running down his cheeks. As Danny stood there, he waved a couple of officers away and told Jonas to get it together. He was thinking about how to delay their next move, and what to do about the other obvious problem. The coroner's office will have a full medical exam. There was going to be DNA.  

"Shit!"  

Jonas looked up, not realizing what Danny had suddenly had an epiphany about. Standing up, wiping his face, he asked him what was wrong. Then, when he thought about it, he realized it wouldn't be long before the world knew he and Susan were together.  

"Your DNA," Danny told him. "Is it in the system?"  

"No, but that's not going to matter for long. If they find her cellphone they're going to tie her to me. And from there it's not long..."  

"We've got to be the ones to get the warrant and search her place," suggested Danny. "Otherwise, you're going to get benched."  

Jonas knew Danny was right. He was impressed that the kid thought of it that fast. The two of them had to maintain control, or the investigation was going to get hampered. Jonas wiped his face and walked back over to the scene. Danny followed him, and they started playing their parts. They gave assignments to the patrol division and told them to run everything through them before anybody else. They wanted any evidence, interviews, and any leads.  

"I know a judge who will fast track the warrant to search the victim's home. We'll take care of that," said Jonas.  

One of the patrol officers noticed that they seemed to know who she was. Jonas told the officers that he knew everybody within five blocks of his house. As they seemed to accept that answer, Jonas and Danny hurried to their cars. They were going to meet at the station after Jonas got a judge to sign a search warrant. Until then, nobody had the authority to go inside.  

Jonas drove to Judge Davis's home. Darren Davis was a semi-retired judge who happened to be an old friend. After years of being buddies, Judge Davis trusted Jonas's judgment enough that he barely asked any questions. The warrant to search Susan's property was an easy one to justify. They were covering their bases and making sure nothing could be challenged at trial.  

After getting the warrant, he pulled out onto the road and headed back toward the downtown area. His mind wasn't there. He was somewhere else after seeing Susan's body. Turning on the radio, Jonas felt a tear streak down his cheek. He was questioning a lot of things.  

Why did Susan leave so early? She never stayed long enough for them to wake up together. In many ways, she was as dammed as Jonas. It never seemed to matter to him before, but before, there was always tomorrow. Now, that was gone, and he was feeling that reality.  

That made him feel bad for lying to Judge Davis. He'd looked a friend in the eye and told him the warrant was to secure their case. There was never going to be a case. Jonas knew already that if he got the shot, he'd put whoever killed Susan down. And nobody, not Judge Davis or Danny, was going to stand in his way.  

The drive back to the station was a little longer than some. Judge Davis moved to a town North of Bay City. There were a lot of retirees that chose to move into Princeton, or even Le Claire. He'd always thought about moving up the river when he retired. Now, that wasn't so much a thought. He wasn't sure he'd ever see retirement.  

The clouds were rolling over Bay City and the river valley. Things were getting dark quickly. He flipped on his wipers as the rain started coming down. As he turned his wipers on, he noticed he wasn't as alone on the roads as he thought. Somebody was tailing him.  

Seeing the gas station a quarter of a mile up the road, Jonas stayed calm. He was going to pull in and see if the car had followed. If it was feds, they'd be easy to spot. Agent Smith had promised any assets they could to help him find who killed Danica. If it wasn't, he could get the vehicle description and the plate.  

Jonas moved off the road aggressively, waiting until the last second to turn. He came to a quick stop in front of the gas station. As the car behind him passed the station, he recognized the sports coupe and pushed his foot almost through the gas pedal. It was their mysterious priest.  

Back on the road, Jonas tried to catch up with the silver-gray sports car. He pressed the call button on his phone. As he kept up with the expensive import that the priest drove, he listened to Danny's phone ringing.  

"Stevens," he heard over the speaker.  

"Danny, run this plate and see who the owner is. I'm right behind Father Michael," he instructed. Jonas read off the plate, "Whiskey, Alpha, Henry, 4501. Out of Iowa."  

"10-4 Boss," replied Danny. "Do you want me to send another unit?"  

As Jonas hung close to the coupe, he thought about a backup unit. A backup unit would help, but the responding officer could be a problem. Jonas intended to get answers. And he was ready to cross whatever lines he needed to in order to make that happen.  

"No, partner. I've got this," he told him. "Just run the plate and text me the information. In case he evades me again."  

He disconnected the call. Jonas followed Father Michael into the outskirts of Bay City. As they got closer to town, the priest climbed out of the car at a diner and walked in. Jonas slowly rolled up in front of the diner, turning around in the middle of the street, and drove onto the lot. He sat in his Suburban for what felt like an eternity.  

When Jonas walked inside, there were very few patrons. The waitress seemed familiar. He'd definitely run across her before. He spotted the priest sitting at a table, calmly looking over a menu. Jonas balled up his fists and purposefully walked through the diner and up to Father Michael's table. When he stopped, Father Michael looked up at him.  

"Detective, I thought we should talk," he said, pointing at a chair across from him.  

At the station, Danny was on the phone as he ran the plate on the Aston. Watching the screen as he talked to a girlfriend, he suddenly fell silent.  

"Son of a bitch," he said aloud.  

The plate read back came back to a former New York City Detective. Father Michael was a cop. Danny scratched his head. If that was his interest in the case, then it made sense. But why was a New York Priest in Bay City and skulking around crime scenes?  

To be continued...