Not my characters, just my story. I only wish I owned Pete. The story is best read if you've seen the series and know the characters. If you haven't seen it lately, watch, enjoy.

A Lifetime in Eight Days

Chapter 5: The Long and the Short of It

Entering the small kitchen of Pete's apartment, Lieutenant Jacoby placed a carton of food on the light blue Formica tabletop and began to lay out the items he'd purchased. He had spoken with Edie about an hour earlier, making arrangements to come over and talk, and he had stopped by the diner a few blocks up the street on the way. Having first phoned her apartment and gotten no answer, and recalling her frame of mind when he left her at Pete's place in the very wee hours of the morning, he figured she was still there. When the officer currently watching the building confirmed she hadn't left, Jacoby gave her a call, told her he'd be over and that he would pick up some supper for the two of them. She hadn't argued with him about supper, which he took as a good sign, but she'd promptly excused herself and headed upstairs after letting him in the door. He figured she was doing some woman thing so he found some plates and silverware to set the table with then leaned against the counter to wait. When she eventually walked into the kitchen about ten minutes later he had his arms folded across his chest and his gaze glued to his shoes. It wasn't until he heard her say his name that he even realized she was standing there.

"Oh, sorry," he murmured, mentally shaking himself before straightening and motioning politely toward the table. "I wasn't sure what you might like so I just picked up a couple of their specials."

Edie nodded then pulled the coffee pot out from beneath the counter and began adding grounds and water. Once that was done to her satisfaction she pulled open the refrigerator door and asked Jacoby what he'd like to drink. He spied a couple bottles of Budweiser on the bottom shelf.

"I'd like a beer." Then he eyed the top shelf. "Unfortunately I'm on duty so I'll just have some milk if that's all right." Maybe it'll help settle my stomach, he thought. He watched as Edie poured them each a glass. Then he watched as she stood and fidgeted, apparently loath to join him at the table. He eyed her critically. She looked tired. He guessed she'd taken a shower before his arrival as her face was free of makeup and the very tips of her hair were still damply curling. She was an extremely pretty woman, he certainly had to give Pete credit there. She was wearing a blue and white checked shirt, he wouldn't call it a blouse, and a very worn pair of casual white slacks. Either she'd had someone bring her some of her things or the clothes had been stashed at Pete's. He had a feeling it was probably the latter. Jacoby released a soft sigh and nodded toward the table.

"Sit."

Edie glanced at the table and the food on it before clasping her nervous hands in front of her and giving Jacoby a steeled look.

"Why don't you just say what you came to say and get it over and done with." Her response was more of a statement than a question.

The policeman shook his head, a gentle yet determined expression on his face and in his eyes.

"I'm afraid it's not going to work that way. I have a feeling you haven't eaten since yesterday, so that's the first order of business. After that I'm going to tell you some things and then you're going to go to bed and get some sleep." He held his hand up, palm outward, when Edie opened her mouth to say something further. "No arguments. They won't get you anywhere at all." He pulled out a chair and motioned for her to sit then took the seat opposite her.

"I'm not really hungry."

"That's too bad, you're eating anyway. And like I said, no arguments. I have kids. I've heard every argument in the book. They don't work for them and they won't work for you."

"Fine." Her reply reminded Jacoby of a truculent child but she did take a bite of her roast beef sandwich. Within a few moments they were both tucking into green beans and mashed potatoes as well. They ate silently until the meal was almost finished. Jacoby was the one to interrupt the quiet.

"When I stopped by Stanley's the blonde girl behind the counter...Millie?" He received a nod from Edie. "After I gave her my order she looked at me and looked at me, then finally asked me wasn't I Mr. Gunn's friend from the police department. I told her yes and she mentioned that Pete stopped by the other evening for the first time in a while. I finally got it narrowed down to Tuesday evening before-" He paused, peering at Edie as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. Before he headed out to meet those two hoods in what was obviously a setup orchestrated by Pauly Denner. And I helped lead him straight into it. Jacoby didn't say the words out loud, but they'd been niggling at the back of his mind all day. "Anyway, I got her talking and tried to find out whether anyone else had come in while he was there or if she noticed anyone hanging around, things like that. She had no idea but do you know what she could tell me?" It was a rhetorical question and Jacoby didn't wait for an answer. "She could tell me what style and color suit he had on, what color his tie was, what his cuff links looked like, what type of shoes he had on and what cologne he was wearing." He saw Edie's lips tip up briefly, which was what he was going for. "I go into a place and they don't remember my face ten minutes later, much less what I ordered or what clothes I was wearing."

Jacoby leaned back in his chair as Edie stood and cleared the plates off the table and took cups down from an upper cabinet, returning with two cups of black coffee. After retrieving sugar and cream she settled back down in her seat and began adding both to her liking. He followed suit, sending an occasional glance her way, finally wrapping his hands around the warm cup and leaning into the table.

"Does it ever bother you?"

She looked at him curiously then picked up the train of conversation.

"Not as much as it once did." The corners of her mouth tipped up again. "It's just another one of those things that's not his fault," using Jacoby's words from early that morning. "He is who he is and I know other women find him attractive. If I was one of those other women I would too. But I give him a hard time about it when I get the chance just to keep him on his toes. I think it does things for his ego when he thinks I'm jealous." She lifted her cup for a sip of coffee then set the cup down and stared into its depths, arms folded on the table as she continued in a somber tone. "But that's as far as it goes, you know? They may see what he's like on the outside but they have no idea about anything else...like what color boxers he's wearing under that suit or who gave him the cuff links or why he wears that cologne or what brand of toothpaste he uses or what side of the bed he sleeps on. Those are things he saves for me. Or at least he did until I messed everything up."

"You and Pete will be okay. He hasn't gone anywhere."

Edie searched his gentle eyes and nodded hesitantly at the truth she found there. She could only pray he was right.

They drank their coffee in silence for a few minutes, both lost in thought, Jacoby trying to pull some words together to say what he needed to say, Edie trying not to dwell on where Pete might be and how much trouble he might be in and whether he was hurt or worse. She rested her chin on her hand as she continued to stare into her coffee, a reminiscent smile forming on her lips.

"I remember the very first time I ever laid eyes on Pete."

Jacoby leaned back and watched as she spoke, deciding he just might be on the cusp of a great discovery. Pete had never been one to publicly advertise his relationships, keeping his personal life just that, even when it came to good friends. Sure, he knew that Peter Gunn's relationship with Edie Hart went way beyond smooching on the deck behind Mother's or making out on that couch in the other room. Everybody who knew them was aware of that. But neither one of them talked about it. They probably just took it for granted that people could and would figure it out for themselves. Not that it was anyone's business. He hadn't even known Pete was dating the woman until three months after the fact. That's how much they kept to themselves about things.

"I had an audition at Mother's but she had something come up during the time I was supposed to be there, so she had me come in that evening and do a live audition instead." She slanted a glance at Jacoby. "When the club was actually open." He nodded his understanding. "I got there a little early to go over some music with Emmett and the other guys and then we did a set using just some stuff we all knew. Mother apparently liked it because she had us do a second set a little later. About halfway through the second set the door opened and this fella came in..." She picked up her spoon and began to absently stir the remains of her coffee. "He wandered over to Mother's table and sat down and she did that little thing she always does with his chin and gave him a kiss on the cheek. And she smiled at him." She laughed a little and shifted her gaze to the man sitting across from her. "That was the first time I'd actually seen her smile since I'd met her, so I figured he must be someone special. And he got this little smile on his face, just the corners of his mouth curving up, but you could see it in his eyes, too. And they talked for a little bit and then he turned toward the stage and started listening. And his eyes kept smiling and it felt like he was staring straight into my soul." Another small laugh and a wide self-deprecating smile. "And I thought he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen."

Jacoby studied her for a moment as she lapsed into silence. Rising from his chair he retrieved the coffee pot and poured them both a second cup. The sugar and cream ritual went by the wayside as he instead clasped his hands before him on the table and stared across at her. Edie placed her own hands on the table, grasping her coffee cup as if needing something to hang on to, and gazed back at him. After pondering for a moment Jacoby began to speak, his voice soft and reflective.

"There was a homicide case about six years ago. It started out as a missing persons case, a young girl who'd just graduated from high school. Her name was Eleanora White. Her parents reported her missing when she didn't return home from a friend's house. She was seventeen, still underage, so the investigation began rather quickly when she still hadn't made it home by nightfall." Jacoby spoke slowly, reliving the case while he talked, trying to give a simplified explanation of something that had been very complicated at the time it happened. "But it seemed like she'd disappeared into thin air. She'd never been at the friend's house to begin with. None of her other friends had seen or heard from her. Every tip turned into a false lead. About a week after she went missing her body was found dumped beside the railroad tracks on the east side of town, right where Harmony Road cuts across the tracks and turns into a wooded area." The policeman stared at his clasped hands, a frown wrinkling his brow. "She'd been strangled. The medical examiner also determined she'd been assaulted." A simple word that could mean many things, but he could see that the woman seated across from him understood its implication in this instance.

"Did you find out who killed her?" Edie wasn't sure yet where the story was going or how it might involve Pete, but knowing Jacoby he'd get to it eventually.

"Yes and no." Jacoby took a gulp of coffee before continuing, grimacing at its tepidness. "The investigation lasted for a couple months and we had a suspect locked down. I won't go into details because they're too long and complicated, but we knew the guy was guilty. We absolutely knew without a doubt that he did the crime. The problem was we didn't have the evidence to prove it in front of a judge or jury. There were no fingerprints or other physical clues left behind to tie him to the case. He had an airtight alibi for every minute of every day the girl was missing. He had people protecting him and our regular snitches weren't talking. Our hands were tied unless someone came forward with information and that never happened."

The policeman rubbed his hands over his face then set his arms on the table, his fingers drawing restless patterns on the shiny surface.

"As you can imagine the parents were devastated, they didn't know where to turn. They wanted justice for their daughter. So did I. So did every cop in this town. So when the father asked me for the name of someone in the private sector who could be trusted to take a look at the case, someone who couldn't be bought off and who wasn't afraid of who he might come up against, I took him to see Pete." Jacoby breathed out a deep sigh. "Pete busted his tail on that case, running down everyone we'd talked to and finding people we hadn't thought to interview, going over everything in our files, talking to every cop who worked on the case. He had contacts, even then, who could come up with information for him that we in the department could never even hope to lay our eyes on. And still he came up empty just like we had."

"So this man got away with what he did." Edie could only imagine Pete's disappointment. He didn't take such outcomes well, always wondering what more he could have done or what he might have done differently. And six years ago he'd been much younger and undoubtedly much less experienced. It would probably have affected him harder back then.

"Not entirely." The ghost of a smile lit Jacoby's face. "Pete is resourceful if nothing else. While we old fuddy-duddy cops were just looking to take this guy down for murder, Pete decided that anything that would put him behind bars for any length of time would at least be a start at making him pay for Eleanora White's death. Between what he dug up during his investigation, and what the guys in Organized Crime had been sitting on for a couple years already, Paul Denner ended up being prosecuted for an assortment of crimes and was sentenced to ten years in state prison. It wasn't much but it was something."

"I don't understand what all of this has to do with what happened to Pete."

"When Paul Denner went to trial he drew Judge Harry Sedgewick. The guy's a no-nonsense type who's known for tough sentencing. Denner had already had a number of serious scrapes with the law so Judge Sedgwick ordered him incarcerated at The Beltway. It's the toughest prison in the state." Jacoby rubbed his chin, feeling the bristly evidence of a long day without a shave. "Needless to say we were all quite delighted when we heard where Denner was going. There's a strange sense of ethics among some prisoners in places like that. We figured Denner wouldn't last long once the story of Eleanora White's murder started making the rounds."

Jacoby looked at his watch. He was officially off duty after a marathon self-assigned double shift. Lifting himself wearily from his chair he opened the refrigerator and availed himself of one of those beers he'd noticed earlier. He plunked himself back down and pried the cap off the bottle as he met Edie's questioning gaze.

"Unfortunately that didn't happen. Denner was the subject of quite a few beatings and was knifed with a shiv at one point, but he managed to survive everything thrown at him."

He tipped the bottle of Pabst and took a long swig.

"To add insult to injury, he was paroled two weeks ago." Jacoby set the now empty bottle down and met Edie's gaze. "When he was sentenced to prison he threatened Pete. He said Pete would pay for, and I quote, sticking his stupid PI nose where it didn't belong. Denner's back in town and he's behind Pete's disappearance, this I know. And we will find him. Whatever it takes we will find him. And when we find him we'll find Pete."