Author's Note

Massive thanks to Corona Pax for her help with this chapter. It wouldn't be nearly this good without her.

Also I need to clear up a few things I saw in the reviews. First, the upload schedule for this story is always on my Profile page. Currently it is every Monday but if that changes I'll mention it on there. Second, I love getting suggestions and requests but I honestly can't use them sometimes. This story is planned pretty far into the future and either suggestions don't fit into the plans or go against the tone of the story. Third, I really enjoy reading the reviews but please don't ask when a chapter is coming out on the day that it's scheduled to. I'm in South Africa and (although I'm terrible at keeping track of them) I'm in a different time zone. So sometimes the chapter might fall on a Sunday if I upload a bit too early or on a Tuesday if I'm a bit too late. Either way, it'll come out. You can start spamming me with those reviews if I miss a few weeks without a reason, I'll have no complaint then.

That's everything, so now on to the story. It's a longer chapter today, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 69

The police station wasn't very big. Then again this town didn't really have much crime going on in it. Really the biggest spot of crime was Freddy's...not that they could really do anything about it. The lawyers that place must employ to cover everything up must cost them a fortune.

The officers on duty were going about their business at their desks or chatting to each other while a couple of minor offenders were being processed in the back. It was pretty calm as police stations went. A pretty young guy, probably just out of the academy was manning the front desk and grinned at Jeremy as he entered.

It was very jarring compared to the darkness he knew this town possessed.

"Can I help you, sir?" the kid asked cheerfully.

Jeremy nodded slightly, slipping something out of his pocket and showing it to the man. "Yeah, I told Chief Danvers I was coming. I'm here to check out some of your cold cases."

The officer glanced at the badge. His eyebrows popped up and he looked a little confused. "Uh, sure Detective. I'll take you downstairs. Just sign this." He pushed a clipboard toward Jeremy and called behind him. "Hey, Murdock. Handle the desk for me will ya?"

The trip down to the records room was awkward for a few seconds.

"So what's a big city Detective like you doing in a town like this?" the officer asked, trying to make conversation.

Jeremy was quiet for a minute. "I'm working a case."

"Oh, yeah...I figured..." the officer seemed embarrassed to have asked.

"What your name?" Jeremy asked. He wasn't trying to be standoffish. He was just distracted.

"Daily, sir. Rick Daily."

"How long have you been on the force, Daily?"

Daily laughed. "Still a rookie. I got out of the academy four months ago."

Jeremy snorted. "Is Sergeant Stone still there?"

The kid looked at him awkwardly.

"Uh, Sergeant Stone...hasn't been around for six years sir." he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "He never taught me so I just know about him from the older guys. Did you know him?"

He looked curious. It was an avoided topic in the station.

Jeremy frowned a bit at Daily's tone but chuckled fondly. "I graduated from the academy here. He was my class's drill Sergeant. Taught me most of what I know. We were close but lost touch after I got promoted and moved." He paused and shrugged. "Actually, I was hoping to catch up with him while I was in town. He retired?" Jeremy couldn't imagine Stone was old enough to retire. Plus he was stubborn jerk and probably couldn't stand being away from the station even if he was retired.

Daily paused at the door to the cold case office and grimaced.

"Um, I'm sorry. Sergeant Stone died six years ago." his tone was apologetic. It wasn't all that uncommon for old students or buddies of Stone's to come by looking to get back in contact with him. He was one of those guys that seemed to get along with everyone and made friends just by breathing. Of course if the rumours were to be believed he was also a tough superior. "According to Officer Black that would be the only way the Sergeant would ever have retired." he gave a weak smile. He always cracked bad jokes when he was uncomfortable.

Jeremy immediately felt as if someone had drop-kicked him in the stomach. If they were still on the stairs he probably would have tripped and fallen down a flight. He froze for a second and swallowed.

It took him a second to breathe out a weak laugh. "Yeah, Black's right. Sarge would have needed to be dragged out." He was afraid to ask. Being on the force wasn't exactly a safe job. "What...happened?" It didn't seem real. Stone was always so tough and sure of himself. He could be strict, but he was fair and a good friend. Once, after a really bad call, he sat Jeremy and a couple other new guys down and talked them through what happened, even though they were already ordered to meet with the station counselor the next day. Jeremy struggled to believe he was just...gone.

Daily looked away, uncomfortable with grief at his young age.

"Car crash. No foul play or anything. Apparently the entire force was out checking after it happened to make sure. Just...really bad luck. You know, rain at night. Didn't see the other car. The other car didn't see him..." he stared at the door. "You know his desk is still up there? None of the officers will take it. It's just like he left it with his photos and stuff. I'm sure Officer Black would let you take a look if you want before you left? If it would, uh, help?"

Jeremy nodded silently and went through the door as Daily held it open for him. "Y-yeah. I'd appreciate it."

"So, uh, what cold case are you looking for?" He asked with forced cheerfulness.

The room wasn't very big since the town didn't have a history of unsolved crimes. Luckily it was neat and organised.

Jeremy hesitated, unsure if it was a good idea to say so. "The 1996 disappearances..."

Daily looked startled.

"Actually." Jeremy said before Daily could reply. "Everything you have involving Freddy's."

Daily shifted but made a beeline toward a section of the room, Jeremy trailing behind.

"I heard one of them was found." Daily said, trying not to sound too interested. "A little girl." It was a surprise he even knew the case existed to begin with. Curiosity killed the cat.

"..."Jeremy eventually spoke. "She wasn't lost. They found her crying and covered in blood. That's what got the police involved in the first place."

"I would think some kids going missing would."

"Well... the parents didn't think they were missing at first. It was a different time. People were a lot more trusting back then. And the town was smaller. The idea that anyone, a neighbor, could have kidnapped someone's kids was unheard of. The Chief at the time was so adamant it had to be someone from out of town that by the time he was pulling in locals for questioning, the suspect had plenty of time to..." Jeremy trailed off, the previous night coming to mind. It was one thing thinking about the murderer as some faceless monster, it was another to have him mock you face to face.

"1996? You were there?" Daily asked, reading labels on the boxes. Jeremy didn't look old enough.

"You could say that."

Eventually Daily pulled out a box and dropped it on the table.

"There's not much. Um, everyone in the station has looked at some point or another. Cause of the urban rumours you know? Cops are just naturally curious." He gave a weak smile. "Do you need me to stay? Or have you got this?"

Jeremy waved him off. "I'm good. Thanks, Daily."

"It's not a problem, sir. Let me know if you need anything."

Jeremy was already looking through the box and barely noticed the other cop leave.

This was it? He knew it was a slim case file but he could have sworn it was more than this

There was the initial report that was filed because of Hedy. Then there was the very basic missing persons reports for the kids. There weren't any interviews with employees here or even evidence from the crime scene. The forensic report was clean. Instead the majority of the file was made up of cease and desist orders from lawyers.

It made his blood boil reading them. The lack of regard for grieving families was sickening but he pushed through. He noticed his family mentioned a few times, which wasn't a surprise, but it was very annoying how the lawyers refused to acknowledge any of the children by name.

He got it was the lawyers' job, but how illegal were they willing to be. Cease and desist letters wouldn't be enough to derail an investigation. There had to be something sketchy going on under the table. Something that would make the police go against everything they believed in to turn a blind eye.

Of course something like that wouldn't be in the actual report. According to the file the main officer assigned to the case had been Officer Black. Talking to him would probably his best bet at finding out what had stalled the investigation so thoroughly. Something must have happened to stop this entire station from digging any deeper.

Jeremy stayed for a couple more hours in a cold dry basement pouring over the files. Finally, he decided he wasn't going to learn anything he didn't already know.

Word of his arrival had apparently spread by the time he made his way back upstairs.

A man much taller than him trapped him in the doorway with a bone crushing handshake before Jeremy even had a moment to introduce himself.

"Name's Alistair Black. I heard that you were a friend of Stone's?" He asked in a deep voice.

It was pretty obvious that most of the station was listening in as Officer Black was not a quiet person. "Any friend of his is a friend of ours."

There were many nods of agreement all around.

"Jeremy Fitzgerald," Jeremy said, giving the hand a hearty shake. "Sorry for your loss. I didn't even know he passed."

"It was sudden. He knew so many people we couldn't contact them all for the funeral. And his wife was killed with him so she couldn't help."

He'd never met the woman. All he knew was that she was the only person on the planet that had actually scared Sergeant Stone. A single phone call from her had him tripping in his hurry to get home on a number of occasions.

Jeremy felt a pit in his stomach. "Didn't they have a daughter?"

"Yeah, little spitfire of a girl." He chuckled and most of the cops had fondly exasperated looks on their faces. "She barely survived the crash. But she's a tough girl. His desk's on that side of the room if you want to take a look. She wouldn't take the family photos so they're still there."

Jeremy nodded so Black gestured for him to follow.

"Just as he left it," the other man said, waving a hand at the desk.

A stack of faded sticky notes.

A pencil cup full of unusable pencils and a mix-match of cheap pens, half of which didn't work but Stone forgot to throw away.

Jeremy couldn't believe it. The dustless organized clutter made it look like Stone was going to walk through the door any moment.

He'd get on the station's case for pranking their guest, all while laughing about it himself as he clapped Jeremy on the shoulder and started embarrassing him with stories of Jeremy's rookie days. Then he'd just sit down and scold the man for not stopping by to chat the past ten years. He'd ask about the kids and give Jeremy dad-to-dad advice they both knew Stone was pulling out of his keister as they talked.

A clay paperweight made by a young child. It was impossible to tell what kind of animal it was supposed to be, but it was messily painted red with pipe cleaners for whiskers and something resembling a tail.

But Stone never burst through the door shouting "FITZGERALD!" and Jeremy swallowed the lump in his throat as his eyes continued to rove over the articles on the desk. He was too distracted to listen to Black talk about how Stone was so proud of his family and how the man spoiled his daughter and wife with adoration.

"'His girls', he'd call them." Black chuckled.

An old computer unplugged long ago.

Jeremy chuckled automatically in reply, but he was stuck in his own thoughts. He was a little mad at himself. It was his fault for not bothering to call a single time over the years. If the timing was different, Jeremy knew it wouldn't hit him as hard as it was. He'd have a clearer head. But things really sucked at the moment and this was the sour, rotten cherry on top. Hedy lying to him for months at the cost of her safety was the first hit. Then he learned Scott was dead, murdered by his nightmares, and had been for a while without Jeremy even knowing. Then, of course, the ghost children came into the picture and that was plain depressing and horrible. Then the murderer shows his infuriating grin and that's just Hell on Earth. Meanwhile, Jeremy was forced to sit back and watch a teenager with clear mental instabilities handle it.

A single sticky-note on the computer saying "Don't forget gas!"

It all comes to this. Learning one of the last guys Jeremy could call a father figure was dead and gone for years. And he didn't even know it happened.

It was like a curse. He was always late. Always the last to know, long after he had any chance to make a difference. Long after he was too late to save anyone.

A group of family photos beside the computer.

His thoughts were rudely interrupted by a flash of black hair and two sets of green eyes, courtesy of Stone's wife and daughter, neither of whom Jeremy had seen before.

The photo was old and fairly faded from constant exposure to light but Jeremy's eyes landed on the figures and immediately he felt his legs turn to jelly just a little bit as his brain struggled to catch up with his eyes.

Officers were trying not to make it obvious they were watching Jeremy. He was a stranger to those present and it was suspicious for a big city detective to show up out of the blue to look at case files. They were curious. But work had to be done and bookings had to be filed so the peanut gallery of men and woman gradually went back to work when it was clear nothing interesting was going to happen as Black talked the guy's ear off.

Then the white noise of a mostly quiet station was shattered.

"DAMN IT! You've got to be kidding me?!" His tone and volume were so unexpected that a coffee pot was spilled and three people ran into the sharp corners of their desk in shock.

Alistair cut off and stared at Jeremy. "...You okay, son?"

Jeremy was rubbing both his eyes with the heel of his palm and groaning. He took a sharp breath. "Ruby Stone. Her name is Ruby Stone. Ruby is Stone's daughter." He understood the exasperated faces when Black mentioned "spitfire" earlier. Suddenly, the paperweight was looking an awful lot like a fox.

Alistair gave him a strange look while the entire station returned to staring at him.

"Uh, yeah." he replied slowly. "Ruby Stone, resident troublemaker. Even Stone could barely keep up with her. The amount of times he'd come into work, slump at his desk and start telling everyone the latest story of what she got up to last is endless."

He looked closely at Jeremy. "Do you know her? Considering that reaction? She doesn't look anything like her dad, more a spitting image of her mom." he gestured at the photos where the grinning kid really did resemble her mother the most. And now that he knew what she looked like, as a teen Ruby looked even more like her. The most jarring thing about the pictures though, was how happy she looked. There was no haunted look in her eyes or sarcastic twist to her smile. She just looked happy. In all his time at the restaurant he'd never seen Ruby look like that. He'd seen her apparently carefree and spreading chaos but there was always something in her expression that kept her from looking completely happy. Even when she was sitting with Foxy or Bonnie and just talking, the ghosts in her eyes were just as apparent as the ghosts in the pizzeria. He'd seen her sad, and even angry (something she must have inherited from her father now that he thought about it. That intensity and menace was all Sergeant Stone.)

But never truly happy like she was here in the photos, eyes clear and smile bright.

He knew vaguely from Hedy what had happened to her parents. But to make this connection...

"She used to say that she was going to become a cop when she grew up, she idolised the Sarge." Alistair sounded like he was far away.

Under the desk was a box with 'confiscated' scrawled across it. Inside was a number of weird items ranging from mangled bits of machinery to a taser that was still sparking. The stuff had Ruby written all over it as if she'd put her name on everything in black marker.

"Oh that, every time we catch her with something new and potentially dangerous we confiscate it and put it here. No one's got the heart to throw her stuff away and it kinda feels right to store it at his desk. Although she always snatches something whenever she visits. She'll sit at the desk for a bit and when she leaves something is missing from the box. Can't even see how she does it on the cameras." he chuckled.

There were responding chuckles from the rest of the station as they all got nostalgic looks on their faces.

Jeremy groaned softly as he let the pieces settle in his mind, hands still pressing into his eye sockets as he attempted to rub the sand from the last few sleepless nights away. "My kid sister works late nights with Ruby. They work...uh...basically on their own so they've gotten to know each other pretty well. I got...introduced a little while ago."

There were a few snickers at his expense.

"Yeah she can be a bit much at first huh?" Officer Black patted his shoulder. "But give her some time. She's a good kid under all that madness."

"You might want to not mention that you knew her dad." another officer warned him. "She...didn't take their deaths well."

The snickers faded and everyone looked pensive now.

"She doesn't like to talk about it." another cop told him.

That was an understatement. If anyone even hinted at her past the girl shut up and death glared them into submission. Hedy was the only one who managed to pry any details out of her. When the teen wasn't angry with her of course.

Jeremy looked a bit apprehensive, unsure if Hedy had mentioned his job to Ruby and the Animatronics yet. If so, the topic might be unavoidable. "I'll keep that in mind."

"And whatever you do, don't get on the girl's bad side. She might look like her mom, but her temper is all Stone." One of them winced. "A rookie made some stupid comments once. After she was through with him he immediately requested a transfer as far away from here as possible. Also developed a nervous twitch and curled into the fetal position whenever he saw glitter."

Jeremy stared for a second.

Too late, he thought to himself, a little spike of anger with the situation back at the pizzeria popping up before he squashed it. "Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't recognize the temper right away."

Another officer came over, coffee mug in hand, to join the conversation. "Fitzgerald, right? I'm curious. What does your sister do?" she said. "Ruby hasn't the best luck keeping a job for long."

"They do different things," Jeremy said. Should he even mention Freddy's? Did they not know where Ruby was working? "They just both work at the same place. My sister's head mechanic. Ruby..." he chuckled dryly. "Ruby works security."

That sparked another round of chuckles but this time it was a little sad.

"After Stone, her future dreams died too." He explained. "It's not a police job but its close enough to hope that she might be getting better. Things were really bad for a while."

Jeremy nodded sharply. "Thanks for showing me this, Black."

"Please. Call me Alistair. Or Al. Either works. Let me know if you need anything."

"Funny you should say that." Jeremy said. "I was hoping you had some time to talk about an old case."

Al shrugged, "Gotta be more specific, son. I've worked a lot of cases."

"Freddy's. You were the lead back in '96 right?"

Al sipped his coffee and looked a Jeremy over the edge of his mug before answering. "They reopening that one? I would have been told."

"No...it's kind of a...personal project," Jeremy said.

Al crossed his arms. "You need a new hobby, Fitzgerald. That place is no good."

"I just have a few questions."

Al seemed to consider it for a minute. "My shift ends in an hour. I got time then."

Jeremy glanced at the clock. He was hoping to catch some sleep before he had to be at the pizzeria.

The rest of the station had gone back to work so it was just the two of them talking now.

"You can hang around here for an hour or come back afterwards?" He offered.

He didn't seem too keen on talking about the case. Although most people were that way whenever Freddy's was brought up.

"You got a place I can sit?"

The other man gestured at an empty desk and the chair beside it.

"Thanks."

Jeremy sat down and watched as Black went off somewhere else. After a minute Jeremy pulled out his phone and dialed a number in his contacts.

"Hello hello," Hedy's voice came through. She sounded cheerful, but it was clearly forced. She was exhausted.

"Hey."

"I have my next class soon. What do you want?"

"By any chance, have you told your friends what I do?"

"What? That you're a cop? That you're a homicide investigator? It hasn't come up. I'm aware of the irony."

"Maybe don't tell anyone. Especially Ruby."

"Why?"

"I just found out I knew her dad. He was my instructor at the academy."

"Oh no...Yeah. I won't tell her. But she has a habit of finding things out."

That was true. And if he understood the hints the cops dropped in conversation, it sounded like she visited the station often. So if one of them mentioned him then it could all come out in an unpleasant 'why are you hiding things' way.

What a mess.

It did explain why she got so much leeway with the law in town though. They all knew her and were willing to let things slide, especially considering that she usually didn't mean too much harm. It was probably like having a whole bunch of uncles on the force.

"Maybe tell her when the time's right. Not tonight obviously."

Hedy scoffed in agreement.

Jeremy waited for Hedy to continue the conversation, but she didn't say anything.

"How're you doing, sis?"

"How do you think?" Hedy answered sarcastically.

"I'm sorry this is happening."

"It's not your fault. It's not Ruby's fault either." she added. "We couldn't know, but this mess was a long time coming."

"You need to stop coming to work. That bastard is enjoying it."

"Can't do that. He'd get a kick out of me running away. I'm not interest in giving him the satisfaction."

"Ruby needs to stop treating this like a game. There's too much at risk."

"Well, it is a game. One with high stakes, but a game nonetheless." She sounded resigned.

"There's got to be something we can do."

Hedy didn't answer. Eventually she said. "I'll see you tonight."

"Hedy, wait."

"Hm."

Jeremy hesitated as he glanced at the box under Stone's desk, his eyes drawn to the sparking thing. "You...you know that question I asked last night?"

Hedy stayed silent.

"Well, how much electricity does Ruby have in that taser she made? How does she make them lock up?"

"She has two settings. High voltage and low. She uses high voltage when looking to incapacitate a human and low with the animatronics."

Jeremy blinked. "I would think it's the other way around."

"Nope. A lot of voltage, but low amplitude is used when it's set to hurt humans," Hedy started, slipping in to a nerd mode. This was the kind of stuff she loved to talk about. "30 Volts is enough to kill a human, but tasers use 50,000. It's the tiny amount of mili-amps that made it painful but safe. Basically, a ton of electricity, but a short amount of time exposed to it. The bots run naturally on about 500 volts with internal amplitude of 10 amps. So touching an exposed wire on Mangle could kill me if I'm not careful. Humans and bots react differently to a tazer but the effect appears the same. When human muscles are exposed to high voltage, they spasm and loose motor control. With animatronics, their systems trip like a surge protector and that shuts them down. It doesn't take much voltage to do that, so Ruby uses way less so it doesn't hurt them permanently. The amps don't matter as much to them because of circuit breakers. Ironically, humans are tougher against electricity."

"How much of that voltage would it take to kill them?"

It was quiet on the other line and for a moment, Jeremy thought Hedy would hang up on him.

When she spoke, she sounded as if she was ashamed to tell him.

"Just 20 from an outside source..." she whispered. "The fuses only work for internal surges. If the whole body is flooded they short."

The taser just sat there innocently sparking at him.

"Thanks sis." he hung up after he said goodbye.

He might not know her well but he knew for sure that Ruby would never forgive either of them if he did what he was considering. Despite her violent tendencies she valued a life above everything else and she saw the bots as alive. As long as she thought Spring was alive she wouldn't stop trying to free him. Or defend him if she thought it was necessary. Since she had already overheard him asking some...suspicious questions, she'd no doubt be on alert from now on.

…

Could he do this?

On the other hand could he live with himself if he did nothing?

Neither was an easy question… And the answer could change things drastically at Freddy's.

He rested his head in his hands and groaned.