Chapter Twenty-Two: Unsolvable
"What did Holt say to you after he said how he hurt his wrist?" Rosa asked, over dinner that night
"You won't believe me if I told you" Jake said
"Try me" She replied
"He hurt his wrist Hula-hooping" Jake said. Rosa burst out laughing.
"That's Hilarious!" She laughed
"What?" Jake asked
"I don't know which is funnier. The thought of Holt Hula-hooping, or that, that was the best you could come up with" She laughed
"I'm serious" Jake replied
"No way" she said, her laughter starting to subside. She saw how serious he looked.
"Wait. Really?" She asked. Jake nodded
"That man really is full of surprises" She said
-The Next Morning-
Rosa walked up to Jake as he walked in with his perp, standing as close to Jake as she could, before she was attacked with Thumbtacks.
"This took a lot of hard work, and a lot of late nights. Take the weekend off Peralta" Holt said. Rosa felt sad at this. She was due to work their weekend, and was hoping that she and Jake could have worked it together.
"Thank you, you know I actually might. I am sleep deprived and way behind on my laundry" Jake said as Rosa walked off with the perp.
"Good work" Holt congratulated. Jake smiled at his praise.
Rosa and Jake were kept busy for most of the day
Rosa arrived home later that evening, to find Jake stewing over his laptop
"Bad news babe. Charles, Hitchcock and Scully now know about Babylon" Rosa said as she hung up her jacket, and walked over to him. Her presence made him look up
"What? Why?" He asked
"Charles needed a safe place to talk to Vivian, and Hitchcock and Scully got it out of him" Rosa said
"Fine. I'll install a lock on the door tomorrow" Jake said
"Thank you" She said placing a kiss to his lips
"What are you doing? I thought Holt gave you the weekend off?" She asked
"He did. But it's Friday night" Jake said
"So..." She asked
"So, I have an unsolvable case which I need to solve" He said
"Do you want some help?" she asked
"Oh, fuck yes!" Jake replied
"Ok. Talk me through the case" She said
"Ok. Nate Dexter. A small time crook who pissed people off. They blew up his boat with him still on it, and left no evidence, except this one charred finger. And Nate's melted Torso" Jake said
"Ok. What about his apartment?" Rosa asked
"Been knocked down" He said
"Ok. Who blew up the boat?" She asked
"We have four suspects. All people who had grudges against Dexter. They are all incarcerated now, for other crimes" Jake said
"Any of them give a new lead?" Rosa asked
"One. Frank Williams. Apparently, Sam Bunsen was owed a lot of money by Dexter" Jake said
"A new suspect. Can we track him down?" She asked pulling out her own laptop, and logging into the NYPD portal.
"Nothing on him in the federal database" Jake said
"Family?" She asked
"Only a wife, and she hasn't heard from him in 8 years" Jake said
"Did you interrogate her?" Rosa asked
"Here" Jake said tapping a few keys, and watching the interrogation footage. In full.
"So, let me get this right. Nate Dexter, owes money to Sam Bunsen. 8 years ago, Nate Dexter gets killed, and Sam Bunsen hasn't been seen since" Rosa said
"Yeah" Jake said
"Ok. What evidence do you have that Nate got killed? A finger and a torso?" She asked
"The finger was charred but they got his fingerprints from it. They matched the ones on the system" Jake said
"What about the Torso?" She asked
"Burned beyond recognition." Jake said
"Ok. So, tell me again about this Sam guy" Rosa asked
"We got nothing on him. No death certificate, and he hasn't been seen for 8 years" JAke said
"Wait. Nothing in the federal system?" Rosa asked
"Nothing. Why?" she aksed
"Why didn't his wife file a missing person's report" Rosa asked, Jake's eyes flicked up to hers.
"What?" He asked
"Well. If she hasn't seen him in 8 years, she would have put in a missing person's report. Which would be on the system. And if they were having trouble, then why is she still Mrs. Bunsen. Not divorced. Disappearing for 8 years I think that's bounds of abandonment which can quantify a divorce" She said
"I don't know" Jake said
"Look into Sam and Nate. See if there was more of a connection here. She didn't seem fazed by the fact that Nate had been killed. Actually. Looking at it. She was very sure that her husband had not killed him. She still calls him her husband after he's fucked off for 8 years. And she didn't file a missing persons report?" Rosa asked
"Seems odd, I'll give you that" He said
"Well. I've just sent off a warrant to trace Nate, Sam and Sophia's phones. Because Sam is a new lead, I don't know how much use it will be, but if we trace phone's and emails there may be a trace. Do we know what Dexter owed Bunsen money for?" She asked
"We have no proof, but our speculation from the other suspects is that Dexter had a gambling problem. And that be borrowed money from others, with false premises of paying them back, but gambled it away" Jake said
"So somewhere there must be some security footage" Rosa said.
"Yeah... Hang on" Jake said tapping a few keys. And he opened up a folder
"This is 2 weeks of CCTV, from Nate going into his local betting shop. In these we see all four convicts as associates. There are two more people but we have never been able to ID them. Backs to the camera" Jake said, playing the footage
"What's the bets that this is Sam and Sophia?" Rosa said
"Given the circumstances, I'm going to say very likely." Jake replied.
"Oh. Warrants for both have come back." Rosa said
"What does Sam's say?" Jake asked
"He has no registered phone for the last 8 years, but the last known cell for him is this, and it shows... Some angry texts to this number demanding a large sum of money. Jake can you cross reference this number with Nate's? She asked It was a match
"Wow. Ok, what does Nate's say?" Jake asked.
"Huh. That's strange" Rosa siad
"What's strange?" Jake asked
"Nate's phone's still in use" She said
"What?" Jake asked
"Yeah. So, either someone has been using Nate's phone for the last 8 years..." Rosa started before Jake interjected
"But it was public knowledge that he was killed..." Jake said
"Or he wasn't killed. Look at who's phones have been off for the last 8 years. No sign of Sam Bunsen... Are we sure that Bunsen wasn't the victim?" Rosa asked. Jake's mind was running in circles
"What about the finger?" He asked
"You said there was an explosion, right?" Rosa asked
"Yeah" Jake replied
"Could it have been blown off?" She asked
"What's the most recent call on Nate's phone?" He asked
"Oh! Jake you're never going to believe this" She said
"What?" He asked
"Sophia" She replied
"Where is he?" Jake asked
"Pinging his coordinates now" Rosa said "Here" She said pointing to an address.
"Sophia's house" Jake said standing up
"Are we going?" She asked
"We're going" Jake replied. They called by the Nine-nine, and whilst Rosa put in an arrest warrant, Jake rounded up the uniforms into a tactical team.
They arrived at Sophia's house, and surrounded it.
"Ok. I want two on the back door. Two on the side door. Rosa and I go in the front, I was two on the front door. I want two on the road, ad I want two in the cars. Cars, you are command Support. I am the lead, Diaz the secondary. We move in through the front door. Everyone outside is protection, unless told otherwise. It's 3am, but they will be hyped up from interrogation today. We go in quick, we arrest both Dexter and Sophia, and we have a safe operation. Does anyone NOT understand?" Jake asked. Silence
"On Three. One... Two, THREE" Jake said as he kicked the door down, and he and Rosa marched in, guns drawn.
"NYPD SHOW YOURSELF" Jake shouted
"HANDS ON YOUR HEAD" Rosa called to the figure walking to the top of the stairs. They caught the figure, and handcuffed Sophia.
"Movement outside" Came a voice through the radio. Jake nodded to Rosa, who stayed with Sophia as Jake ran into the bedroom, and saw Nate at the window about to jump.
"Hands on your head!" Jake called. Realising the building was surrounded, he came quietly. He put his hands on his head, walked out with Jake until Jake arrested him.
Once Sophia and Nate were safely in cuffs in separate cars, Jake and Rosa did a sweep of the property. No one left inside.
They notified Dispatch and returned to the Precinct, where they processed the perps. At 5am, Rosa finally went home, Whilst Jake stayed to get a signed confession from Dexter.
He texted Terry to meet him early, and got a reply at 6am saying he would be there at 7am.
Jake remained working whilst waiting for Terry to walk in, during that time, he found that Nate had cut his own finger off, and checked with his dealings for crimes with a nine fingered man. He found some cases, and had even more against him.
"I got here an hour early. This had better be good" Terry said walking in. As he walked in, taken aback by Jake's appetence, as he had not slept at all that night.
"What happened to you?" he asked
"I have not slept in … Since I last saw you many hours. Plus, I think I'm hallucinating because I'm pretty sure I just heard your biceps mocking me" Jake said
"Nah. That's possible. My biceps mock a lot of people" Terry said
"Good to know. So, I re-watched the interrogation, and get this. Sophia wasn't lying about anything. She doesn't know who killed Nate Dexter. But she does know something way better. Come with me" Jake said as he didn't move
"Jake" Terry said waking him up. Jake, very tired, then led Terry to the witness room of the interrogation room, to see Nate Dexter behind the desk.
"Terry Jefford, let me introduce you to our murder victim. The not dead Nate Dexter" Jake said
"What the Hell is going on?" Terry asked. Jake mimicked a mind explosion
"Sophia wasn't lying. I just wasn't asking the right questions. She hadn't seen her husband in 8 years, and she but she was positive that there was no way he killed Dexter. That's when it occurred to me. No one killed him" Jake said, as he continued to explain the case to Terry, he was so thankful of Rosa at that moment.
Jake spent the day explaining his solve to Holt, who was more than chuffed with Jake's accomplishment. Rosa had asked to be kept out of this one, as much as Jake would have loved to have given her credit, she thought that it would be too suspicious. Besides, she had 20 open cases. Holt would be pissed with her if she started working another case when her 20 were open.
Holt had then given Jake the day off, where he went home and slept. Meeting the squad that night for a drink. Rosa was at the bar talking to Gina, when Terry walked over to him
"ATTENTION! Everyone raise your glasses to the AMAZING Jake Peralta. Today he did the impossible. He solved Case 53ABX-32QJ!" Terry said as the crowd drank and cheered for him
Jake made up some speech about how they should thank the murderer. Jake quickly walked off, and found a nice quiet table. Where Terry walk up to him.
"What's going on with you? For the past two days, you've been telling me how amazing it's going to be to solve this case. This does not look amazing.
"I don't know man. I thought I'd be more psyched too. Maybe I just need a cooler case" Jake said
"No. That is not going to work. You set the precinct record. You weren't happy. You solved an unsolvable case. You weren't happy. No case is going to make you happy. Something's bothering you. And whatever it is. You gotta deal with it" Terry said
"Well maybe I can't deal with it right now... Or You know. Whatever" Jake said looking over at Amy sat at the bar. Jealous of her talking to Teddy.
What Terry couldn't see from where he was, was Rosa sat just out of view. Jake's eyes flicked to the two women. He was so unsure. He was so conflicted. He didn't know what he wanted. He couldn't decide. He was falling for Amy. But he had loved Rosa so long. He would happily spend the rest of his life with Rosa, but Amy. He had seen a different side to her, and he wanted to see more of that side.
Sure, Amy was dating Teddy. But that showed that she could date cops, openly. Rosa wouldn't do that. Rosa and he had been a secret from day one. He didn't want it to be a secret anymore. But he couldn't say that to her. She had asked for a secret relationship. She had been the one to tell him to keep it a secret. And back then he was really into that. He loved the secrecy and the sneaking around. But he was 34 now. He was thinking of settling down. And as much as he wanted that to be with Rosa, he knew that it wouldn't. But Amy. She challenged him. She made him think. Sure, they didn't have that much in common, but they had some things, and that night of their date. They did get along quite well.
"Oh" Terry said looking back at Jake, realising what he was looking at. "That's a tough one" Terry said
"Yeah" Jake agreed
"But solving more cases isn't going to make you feel any better. Having a drink with a friend might though" He said
"Thank you, but I don't think another drink is going to help" Jake said "I think a lot more drinks may help" Jake added, downing the rest of his pint and getting another for him and Terry.
Rosa had sat in the bar for hours. Amy and Teddy had left about two hours ago, and she was currently playing Gina at darts, watching Jake and Terry dance and sing 'Whatta man', Which she had to admit was fun to watch.
It was a further hour after that, that Terry decided to leave. It was almost midnight, and Charles excused himself too, Gina leaving with them. Hitchcock, Scully and Holt had left before Amy, leaving a much quieter bar, and Rosa and Jake drinking at the bar.
"You solved the case" Rosa said breaking the silence. Jake had peaked from his alcohol educed high a short while ago, and was starting to crash into a pit of depression beside her.
"WE solved the case, Rosa. You know I couldn't have solved it without you" Jake said
"I know. Why are you so glum?" She asked Jake didn't answer.
"It's because of Amy and Teddy isn't it" She replied. Jake sighed
"Yeah" He said. Rosa took his hand, and Jake looked at her.
"I know, I will never be Amy. But I am here if you want" She said. Hoping he understood what she was saying. She could never bring herself to say the words, to tell him that she wanted a relationship. And anyway, he was in love with Amy. He would never go for her anyway.
Jake on the other hand felt a twinge at her words. Willing himself not to believe that she meant a relationship. He knew that was not what she wanted.
"Come on. Let's go home" Jake said taking her hand and throwing down some money to pay his tab. They walked home, enjoying the cool breeze of the midnight air.