Return To Maine Chapter 26
A/N: To the guest reviewer who commented on my bold print. I am so sorry if this annoys you, but due to poor eyesight, it is the only way I can see what I am typing. I am going to have to have cataract surgery soon and may be slow in publishing as I am just now finding out about it and have no idea of the healing process and how long it will take or what I will or will not be able to do afterwards. That being said. I want to assure you that I am NOT abandoning this story. There is still much to tell. So I hope you all will still stay with me and I thank you in advance for staying with me.
Okay. On to the story.
She arrived to find Espo and Ryan already on the scene. "He still refusing to open up?" Kate asked as she approached the two on the sidewalk.
"Yep." was the answer she received.
"Okay. Let me try."
Espo nodded, "You got it , boss."
Ryan and Espo flanked her on either side as she approached the door.
Rapping her knuckles sharply against the door, she called out. "Jack Wyatt! NYPD! We need to ask you some questions. Open up, please!"
"NO! Not happening!"
Through the door, Kate could hear the girls whimpering, begging Jack to take them to McDonald's like he had promised them.
"Jack. We just want to talk to you. That's all."
"No. You want to take my girls from me the way that Pam did."
So that was why he murdered her. It figured. That was how most of these cases went.
"Is that why you killed her, Jack?" Kate asked.
"She had left me and was going to take my girls where I'd never see them again and I couldn't let that happen."
There it was. Both motive and confession, but without a signed or recorded confession and with the lack of evidence, they were dead in the water. They needed to convince him to let the girls go and to turn himself in.
"Jack, you just confessed to the murder of your wife. You need to let the girls go and come with us peacefully. We have no evidence against you right now, but if you come and talk to us willingly, perhaps we can get this all cleared up."
"No! Not going to happen!"
"Jack, we just want to talk to you."
NO! I said that was not going to happen and it isn't! Now, you and your buddies need to back away and just let us go." A shot was fired out a window and the terrified screams of two little girls were heard through the block.
"What was that?" Kate asked.
"A warning shot. If you or your buddies try any funny business and do not let us go, I will shoot you."
A group of Swat officers appeared on the scene and she motioned to all of them that there were to be no shots fired unless she gave the signal.
A Swat officer pulled her aside and asked her what the conditions were and Kate informed him, "There are two very little girls in there and I don't want them in harm's way anymore than they already are. I'm still trying to talk him into giving himself up, but need a little more time. Hold your positions until you receive my signal."
The Swat officer nodded and went on to brief his team.
Kate approached the door again and could hear the oldest little girl screaming at her father telling him she hated him because he always hurt their mommy and she wanted her mommy now!
Kate's heart broke at hearing that. She could totally relate to having their mother murdered, but these little girls were so much younger than she had been, but that made it even more tragic. And knowing that their dad would more than likely be found guilty and spend the rest of his rotten life in prison, he was still their dad. Their memories would haunt them forever. She wanted to break down and cry for them, but she had a job to do and breaking down would have to wait until later.
"Jack! You just shot at police officers and endangered your daughters lives. Do you honestly think you are going to get away now? This is not going to end well unless you send the girls out and give yourself up."
Silence from inside the house. Kate pressed her ear to the door and heard whimpering and Jack trying to reassure them that they would be going on a long vacation and have lots of fun.
"I don't wanna go with you! I hate you! I want mommy!" the oldest girl protested.
Kate's heart broke a little more. Little girls should love their daddy, always remain daddy's little girls. But daddies were not supposed to be murdering slime balls, either.
"I hungwy, daddy." stated the youngest one.
"Jack, you are already in so much trouble. You know that you'll never get away with this and if you try and run, we will catch you. Now we can do this nice and easy, or we can do this the hard way and trust me, you don't want that."\
More frightened whimpers from inside the house but no response from Jack. Damn it!
Kate rapped sharply on the door again. "Jack, if you do not want to turn yourself in, at least send the girls out first. I promise, you do not want them to see what happens next. If you surrender, I promise I will do all that I can to help you. Just please, send the girls out so you and I can talk."
Jack remained uncommunicative, but after what seemed an eternity, the front door to the residence opened and the two little girls came out, scared and crying.
Officer Ann Hastings rushed up and took the girls, protecting them behind the open door of her cruiser.
Kate looked to Ryan and told him to inform Officer Hastings to take the girls through the drive in at McDonalds and then take them to the precinct where the phone number to their aunt was on the corner of her desk and to call their aunt to come after them.
After the girls were whisked away to safety, Kate tried to talk Jack into giving himself up, but he still refused and after a couple of hours, tear gas was shot into the home and Jack came staggering out only to be snagged by Ryan and Espo, cuffed and placed him under arrest for shooting at officers.
Kate had Jack Wyatt dead to rights on taking pop shots at police officers, but she wanted to nail him for the murder of his estranged wife and the mother of those two little girls. Pam and those little girls deserved justice and she would see damn well that they got it.
As Ryan and Espo escorted Jack Wyatt through the bullpen on his way to holding, she told them to escort him to Interrogation Room One.
Espo nodded his head at her and did as she asked, as she gathered what little information they had on Pam Wyatt's murder and was about to head into Observation and watch Jack Wyatt through the mirror for a while to watch him sweat. Hopefully, she would be able to sweat a confession out of him.
The phone on her desk rang and she snatched it up. "Beckett."
"Hey, girl. I'm about to send the DNA from Pam Wyatt's body off to the lab, but it looks like it will be sometime tomorrow before the results come in." Lanie informed her.
"Actually, that will be fine, Lanie. If you haven't sent it off, yet could you hold off for a few minutes and come up here to swab Jack for his DNA before you send hers off?"
"On my way. See you in a few."
"Great! Thanks, girl." She hung up and turned to Officer Hastings. "Ann, I am going to be in Observation and I'm expecting Dr. Parrish. Could you bring her to me when she arrives?"
"Sure, Detective Beckett.
"By the end of the afternoon she was still no closer to getting a confession of murder from Jack than she had been. He had asked for his lawyer, of course and officially she didn't have enough evidence to hold Jack for the murder of his wife, yet, but she could damn well hold him for taking pop shots at officers.
She'd have the evidence she needed by morning to charge him with that, too. Knowing that the girls were safely with their aunt now and Jack was securely locked away in holding. Kate grabbed her purse and headed home.
It was just after 1:00 am when she stepped through the door of her apartment and breathed a sigh of relief as she toed off her shoes, her cell pinging a chime that let her know that Rick was trying to Face time her..
Hmmm. It was Rick. She hadn't heard from him since she kissed him goodbye at the airport now, yesterday morning? Late for him to call though. He normally called about 9:00 pm her time. She wondered what Paula and Gina said to him since he virtually ran from his book signing obligations to whisk her away to Maine for their 8 month anniversary.
"Hey Babe." she answered tiredly.
"Hey yourself, gorgeous. You look tired."
"I'm exhausted."
"Difficult day? What did I miss?"
"First, I need to tell you that I had to tell Lanie about us. I wanted to wait until you got back like we planned, but I wanted to wear the necklace you gave me the other day as a reminder of our glorious weekend and just to feel closer to you, you know?"
"Yes, of course."
"I thought it was tucked securely beneath my shirt, but it must have slipped out at some point without my knowledge and Espo noticed. After teasing me about it, he must have called Lanie. To make a long story short, she showed up at my door earlier with pizza. Lanie being Lanie, she wormed it out of me. I am sorry, But I have her word that she won't tell anyone and I trust her."
"It's okay, sweetheart. I trust her too. So the boys know nothing?"
"Espo is suspicious and he probably has Ryan curious now, too but they know nothing for sure and they aren't going to know until we are ready to tell them, either."
"So, how was the rest of your day?" he asked.
She told him about Pam's case and the 2 daughters left behind and the rest of the day, her expectations and hopes for the next day. "When I came home earlier, I just wanted you here, to be in your arms." she concluded.
"I wish I had been there to make your day better."
She smiled at the screen and asked, "Just how would you have done that?"
She had made it to the bedroom and began undressing.
His image grinned back at her. "I see that you're still wearing the necklace."
"Yeah. I don't want to take it off." she replied.
"Do you have any idea how much I love seeing it nestled against your breast?"
"You're such a pervert!" she snorted.
"Yeah, but you love me, anyway."
"You're right. I do." she agreed.
"I love you, too. Now, do me a favor."
"What?"
"Close your eyes and wrap your fingers around that necklace."
He watched as she turned down the bed linens and crawled in between the sheets and did as he asked.
"Now, imagine my fingers trailing softly against your skin, my lips kissing up the sleek column of your neck until I reach you ear lobe, taking it in between my lips and nibbling on it and how it drives you wild."
"Mmmm. I wish you were here." she muttered, her eyes still closed, reveling in the thoughts he was instilling in her brain and imagining him doing just that.
With that visceral reaction, she was able to mutter, "I love you." before closing her eyes and letting the lull of his voice and that very visceral vision lull her to sleep.
He watched her as she slept for a few moments. "I love you, too sweetheart. Sweet dreams." he whispered to Kate as he ended the call.
TBC