Authors Note: Apologies that this story is being drip fed to you! It the most complex story I have ever worked on, so I have been taking my time with it. Thank you for the continued support!
Brian followed Michael through to his dining room, surprised to see Robbie, Stuart and Stephen, already there with several files on the table and an incident board. He looked to Stuart who was sat at his laptop.
"AH DC Fraser, you are looking remarkably well!" Stuart froze unsure of what to do, opening his mouth to respond but Brian laughed and Michael smirked. "So, you have been busy!" Brian nodded, placing his bag down on the side and walking over to look at the photographs on the board, smiling seeing a young Jackie. "so, she definitely knew Chris from before!" Brian stated as he turned back to Michael "Who is the other guy?"
"that's Andy Jones!" Michael responded. Brian didn't seem to recognise the name, so Michael continued. "He was a UC; his cover was compromised, and he was murdered a few years ago!" Brian nodded.
"yeah, I remember, pretty brutal right?" Michael nodded and Brian looked back to the photographs on the wall, the crime scene of Chris's murder before looking back to Jackie's picture.
Michael placed the files from Brian down on the table. "Stuart, check these complaint references against Jackie's Files!"
"Jackie's Files?" Brian turned away from the board and Michael pointed to the projected screen on the wall.
"These are all Jackie's files!" Stuart responded scrolling through the folder showing the files. Robbie could not hide his anger any longer.
"EH…MIKE WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT HERE?" Robbie crossed his arms.
"Robbie!" Michael responded.
"No, he can't be trusted! He just randomly shows up every time we make head way!" Michael went to respond but Brian interjected.
"Robbie, I'm sorry!" Robbie stopped shocked, that was the last thing he expected to hear from him. Brian took a deep breath "I am truly sorry for how I treated you, I was wrong!" Robbie nodded but remained unconvinced. "Look, … I just want to help find Jackie! I love her and need her to be safe!" Brian declared in front of the room, he looked down obviously embarrassed. Robbie smirked, his anger subsiding.
"Ok, …. sherlock!" Brian smiled in response but felt a sadness, missing Jackie stepping in to correct Robbie, like she always did. Brian did not mind being called Sherlock, he was used to it, his family had joked about it often enough. Robbie nodded as if knowing he was thinking the same thought. "So … Jackie left these files for us to find!" Robbie stated.
"In the photo frame, right?" Brian stated looking to Michael who nodded. "Her brothers" Brian scoffed. "I should have remembered that when you showed me the photo, new frame, old photo! idiot!" he admonished himself. Michael smirked but felt a slight pang of disappointment 'so Brian had also heard the story,' he thought to himself, he wondered if Jackie had purposely not told him or simply forgotten she had not.
"Sir, these complaints were on the disk!" Stuart confirmed.
"So, Jackie was collecting information on Skinner?" Brian asked. Michael nodded to Stuart, who then opened the photographs of Skinner with Skelly. "What were they waiting for? This was enough to nail Skinner!" Brian said flabbergasted.
"Brian" Michael paused "we think that Jackie uncovered not just Skinner's actions, but a number of bent officers. She found some sort of network able to manipulate evidence, that has been able to operate under the radar, for god knows how long!" Michael paused "you know someone with enough power to make complaints disappear, send officers to Shetland!" Michael stated knowing that Brian on some level had already suspected some police corruption was involved.
"Why didn't she tell me?" Brian asked. He thought back to all the times he had confided in her, times when he knew he should not have, but he trusted her.
"Now that is a question, we have all been asking ourselves!" Michael responded with a sympathetic look on his face. He sat back down next to Stephen. "Stephen, was also able to obtain copies of the autopsy report!" Stephen nodded to Brian who sat down opposite him. "ok, so what do you have?"
"Right, Skinner died about 2 and a half weeks ago, he was shot point blank through the forehead!" Stephen nodded to Stuart who put the photographs on the screen.
"He was found in the basement of an old farmhouse in Callander by local kids trying to film the next Blair Witch!" Brian added.
"Yes, he had been dead only a few hours when he was found!" Stephen continued. "he had also been hit on the head twice, by a hammer or something similar. Most likely would have knocked him unconscious."
"So knocked unconscious perhaps to get him to the farmhouse. How long before Stephen?"
"From the photographs and the pathologist notes, I'd say perhaps an hour before he died!"
"Looks like this is another torture scene!" Robbie pointed to the hook on the roof, the obvious blood on the floor.
"Well, he had no other injuries except the blunt force and gunshot wounds"
"So, not all his blood?" Robbie asked.
"correct not all his blood, but they had no match on their DNA database" He looked to Michael who nodded "so I asked my pathologist friend to run the samples of the blood, vomit and the other bodily fluid against our database" Stephen added.
"Other bodily fluids?" Michael asked and Stephen nodded to Stuart to move through the photographs.
"Em, there was signs that he had been sexually active just before his death." Michael looked at the photographs, gunshot wound to his forehead, blood smudged down his temple and his trousers open. "I asked him to email you the results, Stuart!" Stuart opened his emails, seeing an email from Dr Rossi. Stuart clicked on the attachment. The file opened and the results were projected onto Michael's wall, the could all see the match. The room was silent, no one wanted to say the words out loud. Michael again looked at photographs of the crime scene, trying not to imagine Jackie there. The pain she must have been in, how much she had been through, praying to God she was still alive.
Stephen eventually broke the silence "Given there isn't as much of Jackie's blood here than that at the warehouse, they might have treated some of her injuries, so she didn't bleed out!" Stephen tried to find the positive, he could see they were all lost in their own despair. Michael nodded appreciating Stephen trying to help.
"Meaning keeping her alive is important to them!" Michael nodded "so there is still a chance she is alive now!"
"even if they are keeping her alive, its just so they can torture her some more!" Robbie said emotionally, scoffing looking away from the board. Michael looked to the others, the latest development a blow to them all.
"We need keep focused and we need keep looking for her! We owe it to her to keep going!" Michael stated looking to the men in the room, the others eventually nodding. Michael looked at this watch "Listen, it's getting late, we have just had a lot of…..upsetting… information. So, I suggest we call it a night, and start fresh in the morning!" The others didn't respond but Michael knew they would not make any headway tonight after finding yet more evidence of Jackie's pain and suffering, he wasn't sure he could keep a clear head. "ok the plan of attack for tomorrow! " Robbie and Stuart looked to Brian, and Michael stopped to look at him realising he wasn't just barking orders to his subordinates.
"I'm happy to follow your lead, Mike!" Brian obviously just as distressed as the others; Michael nodded.
"ok Robbie and Stuart, I want you to go to the rape crisis centre, follow up on the complaints Brian found for us, ask discreetly if Jackie mentioned anything to them about investigating officers for misconduct, see what you can find out. Also see if you can find out anything more on the DNA database reform, Jackie must have saw that as an more effective way of flushing out the corruption on a large scale so see if you can find out more about it, find out if anyone was publically or privately against it!" Robbie nodded.
"Stephen, I want you to look at some of the Autopsy files that Jackie has collected, there is a reason she picked these files so see if you can see something, Christ anything, in common. Stuart can put them together for you!" Michael nodded to Stuart, who immediately started collating files for him "if you could look at Andy Jones' first, he was important to Jackie and to Chris." Stephen nodded. "Thank you, Stephen!" Michael nodded, knowing that Stephen of all of them did not feel comfortable circumventing the normal procedures.
"And me?" Brian finally asked.
"Fancy a trip to Callandar?" Brian nodded "I want to see the crime scene for myself see where that bastard died and see if Jackie left any clues for us!" Michael shrugged; he knew it was a long shot but he felt a need to go! "We will meet back here tomorrow night!" The other nodded starting to pack up. "Gents" They paused "thank you! I know this isn't easy for any of us" Michael stated looking to each of them.
Michael had walked everyone out of the door, Stuart was the last to leave, before he did Michael did something out of the blue, he pulled Stuart into a hug. He could tell Stuart was shocked but of all of them Michael knew Jackie would be most annoyed if he hadn't been taking care of Stuart. Her instinct to protect him was strong. Stuart thanked him before he left, seemingly relieved for the brief moment of comfort. Michael closed his door and returned to his living room, he walked over to the mirror above his mantle piece looking at himself then down to their photograph "Jackie I am soo sorry!" he felt his breathing rapid the emotions he been trying to repress flooding out of him. He leaned onto the mantle piece crossing his arms and resting his head for moment he sobbed, before looking back up at the mirror again "what are you looking at?" he scoffed wiping the tears from his eyes. He nodded, for the first time in years he wanted a drink, but he picked up Jackie photograph instead and examined her face. "I'll find you Jackie, I promise!"