Ice Lessons 4 (warning- mention of kids abduction/hurt…..)
The hands went back to the file and brought out another photo, but this time it wasn't the smiling school portrait. The girl's face was badly bruised, the hair disheveled and her eyes stared back dully.
"Meet Jessica Owens, 12 years old, picked up outside Colorado Springs High, and persuaded into a dark green or black Ford with some sob story about her mother. Taken for a meal, drugged, and driven out to a remote house or cabin where she was subjected to a serious assault. Later she was returned to the city and dumped on a street corner. It was very cold in January I'm sure you can imagine."
The detective's eyes bore into Jack's face as he flinched from the painful photo and mental image the words had produced.
"Does any of that ring any bells for you Colonel?"
"No."
The hands brought out another picture, another girl battered bruised and damaged.
"Meet Alannah Crosby, 12 years old taken from the bus stop around the corner from Colorado Springs Junior. Sob story, dinner, the cabin, assaulted and dumped on the other side of town. Do you remember this one in March?"
"No!" his head pounded with the awful images, the strain of his face bruising and swelling up as he sat there, and he couldn't breathe through his nose, his wrist ached.
"Wait! I remember seeing a headline about looking for links between two girls and a school, but nothing more than that. I can't remember when that was- ages ago. Look, I'm away a lot. I have a house in town but I also spend most of my time on the base. I don't get to see or read local papers."
"Interesting." replied the detective and he slid the last photo across the desk.
"Meet Nancy Sparkane, 13, this time taken from Harrison, same story apart from this time she woke up before he could dump her. They got into a fight she managed to scratch him badly."
"Good."
"Yes well, it's been over three weeks so that could be a long shot. However as a precaution Forensics are going to come in and take those samples we talked about, take some pictures and look you over."
"What!" Jack shouted. Can they do this? he wondered.
"Relax- just your head and upper body Colonel. Nothing to worry about- right?"
"We can always sort out a witness line up and ...other…samples later if necessary Colonel."
Jeez, Jack flinched mentally from that little scenario.
There was a knock at the door.
The detective went over to the door and waved a middle aged man carrying a big case and camera in. As he stood at the door, another detective came up waving a piece of paper.
"Look what just came in!" Langley read it and peered back into the room at Jack.
"You've got to be kidding me. Are you sure about this?" he said.
"It's being confirmed right now. What are you going to do?" asked the detective in the corridor.
"I'm almost done here" Langley gestured back at O'Neill.
"Right."
"Let me know the minute that other information comes back will you?" said Langley.
"I've gotta tell you there's all hell breaking loose at the front desk. Big brass in big boots. You might not get very long."
"Really? Well they'll just have to wait their turn." and he shut the door again.
---------------
Langley studied the Colonel as the CSI guy checked him out.
His gut was telling him that this wasn't their man. The MO was off for a start, unless he'd changed tactics.
However the profile seemed to indicate that their man had found a pattern that worked very well for him ...unless the last 'incident' had scared him.
The cabin was too far away to be probable, unless he was lying. He was still waiting for the background checks on that one.
What they really needed was body evidence.
----------------------
The Forensic technician took photos of Jack's busted nose, and the knot on his head.
"These are definitely new abrasions, nothing underneath them. Is the police doctor on duty- has he been checked out?" The technician asked the detective.
"Not yet, he's on his way." Langley reminded them.
Jack could feel gloved hands checking his face and head then move to his neck. He had a feeling the police doctor was never going to be 'on his way'.
"There's something at the back here though- quite big, looks tender and recent." noted the Tech guy, causing Langley to come over and look.
"Can you remove your sweater and shirt for me so I can get a better look at your neck?" he asked Jack, both of them missing the flash of disappointment on Langley's face.
Damn he must mean the snake scar, how do I explain that? thought Jack.
"Remove your sweater and shirt please, and then place your hands flat on the table so I can get clear shots of both sides." requested the technician.
" You're gonna have to give me a hand here." said Jack as he lifted up his supported wrist to show the detective and Tech guy who then looked it over.
"I can't do much with that except rig a sling or something, needs an x- ray."
He still took pictures of Jacks hands as well as he and Jack were able, and then helped him remove the sweater; Jack managed to undo the shirt. The Technician pulled the shirt apart and off his shoulders. Jack's dog tags lay warm on his chest.
"Wow." said the tech guy " that's quite a collection you have there." as he surveyed the lean muscled torso with its mementos of service in the line of duty.
Jack tuned the guy out as he took his photos. He hated this part. Really hated it. He struggled not to react, not to get up and go, not to smash the camera He didn't like to be a side show. It didn't help that he'd been through this a few times in the service - but not for a while; probably Iraq was the worst time, but not the last. The Doc complained that his file was three times the size of any patient she'd had before and almost half of it was documentary photos that scared even her sometimes.
"Colonel?" said the detective- pulling Jack back into the present.
"Huh?"
"DNA mouth swab, that neck wound, and blood sample."
Damn when this was over they were going to have to get his samples back before they ran them through the lab. Unidentified thingies in his blood work would get the lab or CDC too interested. Maybe Doctor Fraiser could hijack them? Jack wondered
"Whatever." said Jack can't this just be over? Surely the General was on his way?
The Technician did his stuff, gingerly cleaned his face up with some wipes and then left after helping to button up Jacks shirt. He offered to rig a temporary sling with his sweater but Jack refused and he put it back on- it wouldn't be long now he hoped.
The cavalry should be saddled up and ready to leave by now
"So how'd you get that injury on the back of your neck?" Langley was circling for the kill...just in case he was wrong.
"I got bitten while I was…away a few days ago, it got infected and there we are. Scar tissue, the damn thing itches like hell." explained Jack knowing that it wasn't doing him any favors, but it was the truth. Why make something up?
"Ok. Now where were we? Oh yes. Are you married Colonel?" continued Langley still trying to get information, a link, and a clue- something.
"Look- I'm sure you have all my details right there on that sheet, you know all this!"
"I need to hear it from you. Answer please, Colonel."
"Divorced." crap, Jack could see where he was going to go with this line
"She divorce you or the other way around?"
Jack sighed.
"She left me, we'd drifted apart. I got called up; when I got back she was gone, papers on the table."
"Any kids? You said you liked children."
Jack closed his eyes tight for a second then opened them to stare at the detective.
"We had a son. He died. We broke up. We divorced- end of story."
"Uh huh, how old was your son Colonel?"
"10 almost 11"
"You still see your wife?"
"Ex- wife- sometimes. It was bad for a while, but it's sort of ok now."
"What happened to your son?"
Jack let out a deep breath and stared at his colorful wrist in his lap.
"Colonel? Answer the question please."
"He shot himself with my gun, at home." he said quietly. The detectives head jerked up.
"That's why you divorced?"
"Pretty much. She forgave me but couldn't forget. As for me- I could never forgive myself but sometimes I can forget." as he said the words he remembered saying something very similar to Daniel right after they'd got back from the second Abydos trip. Jack had collected the homeless stray and given him a beer at his house.
"Uh huh, so you know this Doctor Fraiser well?"
"She's the Chief Medical Officer at the base."
"Do you like her?"
"Yes, when she isn't sticking me with needles. She's very good at her job."
"I saw her in the interview room. She's an attractive lady."
"I'm divorced, not dead."
"So, you two ever go out on a date?"
"No."
"Didn't ask her out and get rebuffed?"
"No."
"Maybe you couldn't take no for an answer, and decide to get your own back in some sick way?"
"No!" snapped Jack.
"You said you were hurt a few months ago."
"Correct."
"Spent much time in the sick bay other than that?"
"On and off, routine physicals that sort of thing."
"So you'd know where, for example, drugs would be kept?"
"I know where the locker is, but I don't know what's in there."
"Okay."
There was a knock on the door, Langley went to answer it. Jack couldn't hear the heated whispering between the two detectives.
"I'm almost through here. I'll be up there in a minute. Don't talk to him without me okay?" he heard Langley say before he shut the door again and faced Jack.
"I think we're done for now." said the detective. He ended the session on the tape, took it out, wrote on it and placed it in a plastic bag. He gathered it up with his folder and printouts.
"You mean I can go?" Hallelujah
"We're still waiting for confirmation of what you've told us. I'll have to put you in the pen, and we can take it from there."
"Not going home then" confirmed Jack at least he wasn't going in some small cell on his own
"No, not just yet."
"You don't think I did this do you? Are you going to charge me with anything?" stated Jack
"I'm not going to comment. We are pursuing all lines of enquiry. Let's go sir." and he led Jack back out of the room along a corridor and down a flight of stairs to a caged room where several other people were already inside. A uniformed officer came up and opened the door and pushed Jack in, as the detective went to fill in some paperwork at a nearby desk.
Jack looked round at his temporary home, a bench on two sides. One end was occupied -an old man with long beard was wedged in the corner and snored loudly.
Come on, George where are you? Jack wondered.
He sat on the end of a bench. He leaned back against the wall, staring back out at the exit door. Back to playing the waiting game.