I want to go home and see my wife and kids and if I have to listen to Rill Rill on repeat for the next month it will still be better than this case

Don Cooper


"What are you doing here?" Parker asked them with a pointed look.

"What are you doing here?" Don threw back at her.

"Responding to a complaint about a squatter," she said. "Someone thought they saw someone living here but, as you can see," she gestured to the centimetres of dust thick on the floor, "no one's been here for months."

"So, you just happened to run off to this random abandoned building an hour after finding out that we're going to search the town for Duke," Don said angrily.

"Why, Agent Cooper," she said with a small smile, "someone might think you're implying that I'm hiding Duke and that I'd run off to move him before you could search the town. That would be pretty stupid of me, wouldn't it? I mean, when you'd tapped into our security feed on the street. And with all those agents who suddenly showed up and started watching me this morning."

She smiled and took a few nonchalant steps towards him, hands on her hip, "Do I look like the type to panic?"

"No," Don conceded, "I guess not."

Jack lowered his weapon and re-holstered it with a sigh.

"Come on Parker," he said, "you said it yourself. If Duke's still in Haven, you know about it. I know why you want to protect him. I do. He's not guilty and Lord knows even we can't work out what the hell is going on. I'm not supposed to say this - Don will have my head - but we are well aware that this whole damn thing stinks. But if he's a fugitive, then that's all he is. We can't prove his innocence until he comes in."

"I appreciate your honestly, Jack," she said, genuinely, "I really do. But I have other means. I just need time. As for Duke, do your search if you want. You won't find him."

Don's head shot up at that and Jack gave him an inquiring look.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a misdirect," Don said. "It's another damn misdirect. And we fell for it."

"What are you talking about?"

"We're here. So are all our agents because we needed them to surround the house."

"And the roadblock's just sitting there with only Tony on it," Jack realised.

"He's running. Right now." Don cursed and pulled out his radio, "All units to the roadblock. I want it fully manned, I want every car searched and I want the list of all the cars that went through since Haven PD took it over this morning. And get me Chief Wuornos on the phone."

"I can't," the voice came back through the radio. "He left."

"Left when? To go where?" Don demanded.

"Half an hour ago. We don't know where."

"He went through the roadblock?"

"No clue. You'd have to ask up there."

"What was he driving?"

"His truck."

"Did he stop anywhere on the way?"

"Sorry, Sir, I don't know. He's the Chief and we were supposed to be watching the station. We didn't follow him."

"Shit!"

Don threw down the radio, calmed himself down and picked it up again.

"Is anyone at the roadblock yet?"

"Yes, Sir," came the reply, "we're here. Haven PD says the Chief is the only one who's left town in the last hour."

"Did he search the truck?"

"No, Sir. He says he didn't think he had to."

"And where was the Chief going?"

"Next town over, so he said."

"I want him followed, I want a map of everywhere he went once he left, I want the truck searched and, if he's already at his destination I want that searched too. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good."

Don glared at Parker, all his animosity for her finally boiling over. "If Wuornos has smuggled Duke out of town, we will find out. And then both of you are going down. I swear..." He shook his head, turned to leave and then swung back.

"I am not finished with you, Parker. I may not yet have proof that you're involved in anything but once we have the Chief and Crocker I will. And trust me, all of this - this little game you've been playing... well, I hope it's been fun because you've just been digging yourself a deep deep hole and we will force you into it. Come on, Jack. We have to find Wuornos.

Jack couldn't help but throw Parker a wry look as he went to follow his partner out the door. "Nicely played, Audrey, really, but you shouldn't have had Duke run. We'll find him now."

"If you say so," Parker said calmly and Jack found his confidence drop somewhat. He was almost not surprised, two hours later when they found the Chief in the next town – alone - and he was able to give them absolute proof that Duke had never been in his car.

Tony had photographed the truck as it went through the roadblock and there was obviously no Duke to be seen.

"You do realise, don't you, that we have no evidence that Parker and Wuornos were up to anything?" Jack asked his partner tentatively over a drink in the anachronistically-named Rusty Bucket.

Don just glowered into his scotch, downed it and then ordered another.

"I mean," Jack continued, "all she did was follow up a report of trespassing and he went on an errand to the next town. We have no evidence of anything."

"Jack."

"Yes Don."

"Shut up."

"Yes Don."

His partner downed another scotch and looked at his empty glass.

"Tomorrow, we call Burrell and we tell him everything. Lord knows how this is going to look on our records but he needs to know what we suspect and Parker needs to be investigated. And in the meantime, I am going to search every house, unit, apartment, barn, boat and every other form of accommodation in this entire town. That is what I'm going to do."

"Agreed. Now, how about we stop drinking and go back to the B&B. We're going to need all our wits."

Don nodded and stood up, gesturing meaningfully to the men's room.

Jack nodded and went to the bar to the pay their tab. As he handed the cash over, he saw his partner come out of the toilets gesturing emphatically with one hand while talking into his phone on the other.

"What the hell?" he heard him say as he came closer, "Who the hell is Howard?"

"Sir," Don said angrily, "you can't be serious. After everything that... yes, sir. Yes. Yes, Sir."

Don hung up the phone and, to Jack's surprise, he started laughing. A mirthless laugh that made Jack moderately uncomfortable.

"We've been called back to Boston," he said.

"Why?"

"Some agent I've never heard of named Howard has materialised with proof that White was the one who bribed Max Hansen's parole board."

Jack went pale, "The one who assigned us this case?"

"It looks bad, Jack," Don told him wearily, "White's disappeared, Burrell's in the shit and... oh, hell, you know what? Let's just go home."

"But... Crocker..."

"...is off the hook. Wherever he is in this big wide world, he's welcome to his damn life. Such as it is. I officially don't care anymore. I want to go home and see my wife and kids and if I have to listen to Rill Rill on repeat for the next month it will still be better than this case."

"But...?" Jack found himself feeling somewhat bereft.

"Look, Jack, I know you've enjoyed your little cat and mouse game with the beautiful and terrifyingly intelligent Miss Parker, but it's over. Let's get out of this crackpot town and back to sanity. And hope to hell that Duke Crocker is not the litigious type."

Don put his phone back in his pocket, saluted the bar, and headed out the front door to the car.

"He's not," said Jack vaguely, "his file..." And, dazed and confused, he followed his partner out the door.


As the sun set on the town of Haven: its mellow rays of gold and red lightly touched: the whitewashed lighthouse on the headland; the elegant roof of the Grey Gull, where locals were gathered to have a cleansing ale; the marina, where the Cape Rouge sat rusting alone; the smashed wooden spire of the Rev's church; the neat buildings of the main street; the metallic blue roof of Special Agent Cooper and Pistone's rental car as it drove out of town; and on and over to the bed and breakfast called Over the Way.

It touched the door of the one-bedroom abode of a certain local Detective, who was even now standing on the balcony with a victorious grin as she saw the rental car disappear into the hills.

As the sun dipped below the horizon and the light began to weaken, the door opened and out walked Duke Crocker, bag in hand.

He looked at Haven in the fading light, gave one self-satisfied smirk, pulled Parker into a giant bear hug and then headed off down to the Cape Rouge. And while he walked, he whistled a jaunty tune. And if he'd been there, Don would have recognised it.