Chapter 6: Jack-in-the-Box – Jake

The NYPD computer on Jake's desk was beginning to make his eyes water. He looked at the clock in the corner and realized he'd been looking for leads for three hours. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He had found nothing, other than a couple of people they could question. He sighed and then looked at his partner across from him. Amy was working furiously and taking notes from whatever she was reading on the screen. She suddenly looked up at him with a determined expression. Jake was startled that she had caught him staring at her, but she was uninterested in that.

"Jake! Look at this" she said, beckoning him to her computer. He jumped up quickly and stood behind her chair.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Okay, so I was doing some research on John-in-the-Box and for the past two months they've been filing reports of burglary. Guess what's been stolen?" she asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Tell me before I figure it out" he said, seeing how much she wanted to tell him.

"Materials! Wood, cogs, paints, everything that the perp would need to make his sets. It's the perp, I know it. Here's the best part: they haven't caught the thief even though they've installed cameras and an alarm system which means-"

"The thief is someone they know!" Jake finished.

"The thief is someone they know" Amy agreed, her eyes on fire from the discovery. Jake looked at her, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

"Amy. Santiago" He said, staring.

"Yes?" she asked innocently.

"I take back everything I ever said about you being a bad detective. You're a damn great detective and don't you forget it!" Jake said, already grabbing his jacket to follow the lead.

"Oh, I won't" she said, putting on her blazer.

"This could be our break, Amy. Okay, so I got ahold of Anita Hampton's mother and she's gonna be here in like fifteen minutes. So, one of us is going to have to stay here and question her and one of us should go back to John-in-the-Box— I call dibs on John-in-the-box no takesy-backsies!" Jake said as he grabbed his car keys.

"What?! No! I was the one who figured it out!" Amy protested with a scowl on her face.

"No takesy-backsies!" Jake reiterated and shuffled out of the bullpen before Amy could protest further.

Getting to John-in-the-Box was one of the worst drives of Jake's life. Traffic was awful and he was anxious to question the toy maker. He worried it might be a little awkward coming back as a cop, but he figured "Eh, good ol' John will get over it"

As Jake sat in stop-and-go traffic he remembered his discussion with Amy earlier. He thought of the confession he almost made and the way she looked when she said she wanted to talk about "everything". "Everything" was…hefty, to say the least. The prospect of this future conversation scared him, yet thrilled him. He worried over every bad scenario, but a part of him felt relief at the idea of telling her exactly how he felt about her. It was starting to be too much to just keep to himself.

Jake sighed and cursed the traffic. He cursed all the quiet moments that inevitably took his thoughts back to Amy and made his stomach turn. Those moments seemed to arrive with increasing frequency.

A jolt of excitement went through Jake as he pulled up to the toy store. He was going to ask John how many people had access to the alarms and how many people would know how to get around them. He smirked at the thought. He was sure this was going to give them the suspect pool they've been needing.

Jake was about to exit the car when he got a call from Amy, which he quickly answered.

"Hey Ames, I just got to the toy store. What's up?" he asked.

"Hey, just wanted to let you know what Anita's mom said" Amy said and Jake detected some bitterness.

"What ya got for me?"

"Not much. Last time she saw Anita was at a cousin's funeral. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and she didn't have any enemies that the mother was aware of" Amy said. Jake sighed. There had to be something connecting the victims.

Jake looked at the street ahead of him. He took in the shops: the toy store, the empanada place, the flower shop—

"The flower shop?!" Jake thought with a realization hitting him like a ton of bricks.

"Holy crap" he whispered. His mind worked slowly as he began fitting the puzzle pieces together.

"Jake? Jake?" Amy asked through the phone.

"Amy! Did Anita's mom mention anything about Anita bringing flowers to the funeral?" Jake asked, adrenaline making his heart beat faster.

"Um, she didn't say anything specifically. I could call and ask. Jake, what is it?" Amy asked. Jake knew she could hear the edge in his voice.

"Amy, what was the last thing that Preston Vice did before he was taken?" he asked.

"He went on a date" she said simply.

"And brought Anna flowers and then Kelly went to a recital—"

"And brought Kayla flowers!" Amy gasped.

"Amy, there's a flower shop across the street from John-in-the-Box!" Jake said with blood pounding in his ears.

"Oh my god, Jake! That makes sense! The murder weapon was a flower. Wait, hold on. Don't go anywhere" She said and Jake could hear her fingers type away at a keyboard.

"Jake! Jake! Jake!" She said with gasps on her breath.

"What? What? What?"

"Jake, the flower shop owner? It's John's son, Archie"

"Ames. That's our guy" Jake said, absolutely certain.

"Don't get too excited, Peralta. All we have is circumstantial evidence. This guy has covered his tracks. I'll start on getting us a warrant to search his place of residence and the flower shop" Amy said, always being the Scully to his Mulder.

"Sounds good, Ames. I'm going to go to the shop and scope him out" Jake said as he started exiting the car.

"Wait, Jake, maybe you should wait for me" Amy said, a touch of worry in her tone. He laughed and continued walking down the street.

"I'll be fine. I'm going to be in-and-out in five minutes. Hey, what's your favorite flower? I'll get you something nice" Jake said with a smile.

"I'm partial to daisies" she said and Jake could practically hear her smile.

"Daisies it is. Alright, I'm outside the shop now. Talk to you later"

"Okay, call me when you're back in the car"

"That's a big 10-4. Bye" he said.

"Bye" She replied and hung-up.

Jake looked at the flower shop and inspected the outside. It was well kept, but small. There were big cursive letters on the sign above the door that said "Archie's Arrangements". Buckets of flowers of every color lined the entrance and it made the air smell like perfume. Jake opened the door, a bell ringing as he came in, and saw that the shop was empty. He looked around for an employee until he saw a bell on the desk. He went over to it and tapped it quickly.

Seconds later, a man came through the back door. He was tall and strong looking with dark, black hair and even blacker eyes. He smiled as he saw Jake, but the smiled never reached his eyes. Jake instantly got a bad feeling.

"Afternoon sir, how can I help you?" the man asked.

"I was actually wondering if I could get some help with an arrangement" Jake said, going back into undercover mode.

"Of course. What's the occasion?" he asked.

"Well, I'm trying to impress a very special lady" Jake said with a smile.

"I should have guessed" he said with a knowing smile.

"So, are you the Archie fella I heard all about on that sign outside?" Jake asked as the man stepped from behind the desk and grabbed a flower bag.

"That's me. Flower arranger extraordinaire. What about you? What do you do?" Archie asked and a whistle went off in Jake's mind. He immediately came up with an alter ego.

"Oh, well, I'm a stand-up comedian. I'm from a small town in Nevada and decided to come to New York to follow the dream"

"A comedian, huh? Wow. Must be exciting. Alright, so any flowers you want in the bouquet specially?" Archie asked.

"Daisies. She likes Daisies" Jake said, an unwarranted smile creeping on his face.

"Ah, who doesn't?" Archie asked as he started grabbing flowers and plants from around the shop. In a matter of minutes, he had made a pretty impressive bouquet. Jake was really only planning on getting three daisies tied with a bow or something, not a full-on smorgasbord of flowers. He briefly worried at the stares he'd get if he came into the precinct with it and presented it to Amy.

"Wow, this is something" Jake said as he grabbed the bouquet from Archie.

"Glad you like it" Archie said as he went to his register.

"What do I owe you?"

"59.99" Archie said and a pit formed in Jake's stomach. Still, he pulled out his wallet and handed Archie his debit card, if not a little reluctantly.

"What a deal" he said, kissing sixty bucks goodbye. Archie handed Jake back his card and was about to leave when Archie stopped him.

"Oh! You know what? I forgot to add a ribbon around it and get a card for you! Stay right there" Archie said as he disappeared into the back.

Jake thought about this man as a killer. He seemed pretty normal, but the evidence was stacking against him and he had asked about Jake's profession.

Archie came back quickly with a red ribbon, card, and card holder. He came around the desk and started putting the ribbon the bouquet. He put the card in the card holder and in the center of the flowers, right next to a dahlia.

"Thanks, man. Have a good day!" Jake said as he turned to leave the shop. He was stopped short, however, by a large force of pressure around his neck. Almost as quickly, he realized a rag was covering his nose and mouth. It took Jake a second to understand, but he was being attacked. He thrashed and tried to pull the arm that latched onto his throat, but his body grew weak quickly. His eyesight began to blur and panic set in. Jake tried to use the back of his head to hit his attacker, but he never landed a hit. He felt his knees cave in as he breathed in more cyanide and his body grew numb.

And then: darkness.

For a long time, there was only darkness. Jake had no sense of where he was or what had happened to him. He was just there in the endless black, a complete absence of light.

When he did stir, he was confused about where and who he was. He realized that his hands and feet were tied first and as his eyes began to focus, he made out that he was in a large, half-built building. The floor was cold, unforgiving cement and he was surrounded by metal shelves. He figured out he was in a warehouse.

As his clarity expanded, so did his memory. He had been attacked by the flower shop owner, the Toy Box Killer. At the thought of the killer, Jake suddenly realized the situation.

"He's going to kill me" Jake realized in horror. That's when he saw it. A huge box with intricate designs on each side stood in the corner. The box was open and a gigantic spring came spilling out the top. Jake noticed one of the sides' even had a handle. It was a Jack-in-the-Box. Another terror-filled realization struck him: it wasn't just a Jack-in-the-box, it was his tomb. Jake felt his breaths get shorter as he began panicking.

"Oh god oh god oh my god oh god" he said under his breath.

"Calm down, Jake. If we're crafty we can get out of this" he thought to himself and he made an effort to slow his breathing. He counted each inhale and exhale at four seconds and it helped.

As Jake looked around to find something to cut himself free, a loud clang of something metal hitting the cement floor filled the room.

"Dammit" mumbled a figure that came around from behind the Jack-in-the-box. It was Archie, picking up a metal piece that had fallen from the box.

"He must still be building the set" Jake thought. Jake's eyes got wide once more as he started understanding Archie's plan.

"The only reason he hasn't killed me yet is because he hasn't finished making the set" Jake thought.

It was only a matter of time.

AN: Thus ends chapter 6! What will poor old Jakey do? Guess you'll have to see next time! I'm really excited to work on the next few chapters.

So 10-4 is radio code for "yes, I understand your message" so Jake was basically just playing around. When I worked at aquarium we would always joke on the radio and say stuff like "Oh, yeah that's a BIG 10-4" so that was just a little homage to that.

Thanks so much for reading and for your comments! Those always really help me get chapters out quickly so thanks so much!