Chapter 80: Search For Truth

"I can't believe he managed to send a note," Emma says, looking at the crinkled piece of paper. Jack grips the bars very tightly, his knuckles badly bruised and bloodied in some places after hitting the walls of his cell all night. Emma and Peter had come to visit him again, seeing if they can get something else to move this case along.

"You have to get me out of here!" Jack insists. "He's going to do something to her and the baby."

"Jack we're doing the best we can I promise," Emma says, knowing how desperate he's become. They're all scared for Rose, but the only way to do this is by the way of the law and to make sure that Cal doesn't do anything to anyone else. Sometimes she wishes that she and Peter could just do this themselves, barge into Cal's home and rescue Rose. It would be a lot faster.

"It's not enough!" he snaps.

Emma takes a step back, this is not the Jack Dawson she knows and loves. She offers her hand out to him, but he turns away in anger. Her heart breaks a little bit; he's no longer the brave and happy man she and Peter knew, he's so hollow and angry form being in jail, it's scary, to say the least. She grabs Peter's hand in fear.

"I know Jack… I know," she whimpers quietly.

"At least now we have proof that Cal did kidnap Rose, that should at least allow them to search his house and that he's the bad guy, not you," Peter says optimistically.

The two then rush off to the captain's office, leaving an enraged Jack behind.

…

Emma puts the piece of paper down on the police captain's desk.

"What is this supposed to be?" he asks, looking up from his paperwork.

"Proof that Caledon Hockley is not the man he says he is," the female lawyer says confidently. "That he's dangerous and that he's the one who should be in jail."

The two lawyers wait anxiously for the man to read it. Once he's done, he looks up at them.

"How do you know that this is Mr. Hockley who wrote this?"

"Because there was only one person on the Titanic who called Jack by his last name, Dawson... and we should know, we were there. Also, Jack told us himself that Caledon Hockley says that he always wins," Peter says firmly.

"And what makes you think that this note is not a fake."

Emma is ready to lose it. She makes sure that Peter still has her hand to hold her back if she goes too far.

"LISTEN!" she practically shouts. "This note is stating very clearly that this man knows that Jack is in jail, that there is a court case coming up and he will have to testify. He says that we won't be able to prove anything. He knew that Jack was supposed to be dead on the Titanic, and he states Rose by name. Worst of all, he's threatening the life of an innocent child. Now if that's not evidence, I'm going to a judge and I'm getting a search warrant. But if you are too blind to see that, then the unborn child's blood will be on your hands!"

She then steps back, satisfied with what she's said. She has tears running down her face, but there is a fire inside of her that has become a raging inferno, she can't stand to see injustice like this. Her mind goes back to her father's speech of the injustice in the world and how angry it made him. This outburst proved that she inherited the desire for justice from him. She was passionate about her work and it showed how much she cared about her family.

Peter gives her a gentle squeeze, while he was surprised by her angry voice, he was pleased that someone was finally saying something to this man. This had to be done, the police officer had to prove that he was actually competent and could protect the public. After the past few days, the couple both thought a lot less about the competence of law enforcement.

The captain looks at her with angry eyes. He is not used to being spoken like that, especially by a woman. He wants to arrest the girl then and there for talking back to an officer, but his mind still can't get rid of the line of the unborn child's blood on his hands. If an innocent woman and her unborn baby really were being threatened and he did nothing, he would have that on his conscience for the rest of his life. He opens his mouth to speak, but the woman once again speaks out.

"We're getting a search warrant from the courts," Emma says, as the couple begins to walk out. "Then you will have to do your jobs."

…

The following morning, Caledon is in his office doing some important paperwork when the phone rings.

"Hello?" he asks.

"Mr. Hockley?"

"Yes, Riptide what is it?"

"It's the police sir, they are at the door of your father's mansion. They say that they have a court-ordered search warrant."

"What?!" the tycoon says, standing up so abruptly that he almost disconnects the phone.

"They will not say what it is for."

"Is everything as it should be?" the man asks sharply.

"Y-Yes sir,"

"Don't say anything to them until I get there," he says firmly. "And don't let them in the house."

"But sir…"

"Don't!" the dark-haired man snaps angrily before putting down the earpiece and getting his coat and hat. He barges past his secretary without another word and heads down towards his car.

…

Joel orders all the police to spread out and to search the entire property carefully. Once Jack's lawyer friends came into the station at 5 o'clock in the morning with the court ordered search warrant, he immediately volunteered to head the search. He knew he had to do something to help Jack. So far, he'd simply sat on his butt and done nothing but watch his friend suffer in agony. Joel can't imagine the kind of pain his friend must be going through, sitting in prison, helpless to find the woman he loves and his child. Joel would go to the ends of the earth if his wife and children were missing and nothing would stand in his way. He had to at least rescue Jack's fiancée if she really was being held against her will and make it up to his colleague and friend.

A squad of officers were dispatched to the Hockley manor, owned by Caledon Hockley Senior. The place was rather magnificent, a white mansion towering high above the other houses in the neighbourhood, a vast property that stretched for miles, fenced in by the gate and an army of staff who worked in the home. A butler had greeted them, Officer Joel showed him the warrant and then split the squadron up.

"You four go upstairs with me, the five here search the grounds, and the rest of you start searching the main level and the cellar if it has one."

His fellow officers nod and begin their search. The butler stands very still, very scared about what is happening. He knows he has to try to cover for his boss, just until the tycoon gets here. He knew what would happen if they did find Rose, he would be an accessory to kidnapping as well as many other dreadful crimes. He couldn't believe that the police had caught up with them so quickly, but at the same time, he felt a little relief, pleased that the woman may be rescued and her torture could stop. Riptide immediately rushes to the man in charge.

"C-Can I assist you sir?" he asks. He decides to cooperate to show the squadron that they have nothing to hide.

"You can tell me about each room if you want," Joel says. "But keep in mind, everyone in this house is a suspect at the moment."

"Might I ask what you're looking for?"

"You may not," Joel snaps as he ascends the staircase, the butler following behind.

Joel and his team begin searching every room in the house, looking for anything that might imply a kidnapping. Riptide tells the officers what each room was usually used for, chatting lot more than Joel would've liked. He could tell the butler had something to hide, but he's not sure what it was.

However, all the team finds are immaculately made beds, spotless shelves of books, shiny bathtubs, and sinks as well as pristinely kept portraits in the halls.

"And this is the master's study," the butler says, swallowing hard.

Immediately Joel goes behind the desk, while another officer begins looking through the bookshelves, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"The master usually doesn't allow people…"

"Well, he will today," Joel snaps angrily, getting fed up with the manservant's constant chatter. He begins going through each set of drawers carefully, turning over all the papers and folders, the bank notes, and pencils. The top drawer, however, is locked.

"Why is this locked?" Joel asks angrily.

"The master keeps private things in there,"

"Well, they're not private when an officer is here, open this right now!"

Riptide swallows heavily. He opens his mouth to protest when a flash of the bound and helpless Rose comes to his mind. She doesn't deserve to spend the rest of her life locked in a cellar. His master had to be stopped in some way.

"Where are the keys for this?!" the officer insists.

"He… he keeps it over here," the manservant goes over to the fireplace, he removes an ancient Ming vase from the mantle. Underneath is a key. The butler then hands it to the officer.

Joel shoves the key in and roughly opens the drawer. There isn't much inside, just expensive fountain pens and a few pads of paper and a revolver, likely used for protection. Joel looks up at the butler.

"Does this man have a permit for the gun?"

"I believe he does."

Joel wants the gun tested so he has another person on his to team confiscate it for evidence. There is still no smoking gun, many men owned guns, but it wasn't proof of kidnapping.

However, something catches Joel's eye. Beside the desk is a wastepaper basket, which has a full pad of paper in it, which is very odd and quite wasteful. Joel picks up the item from the basket. The top page has been torn off and there's a very deep impression of the text underneath. Joel had seen the threatening note and recognized the type of paper that was used. He quickly grabs the paper and puts it in his uniform pocket.

He then stands up and walks out with his fellow officer not caring that they'd left the place in disarray.

The door downstairs opens and heavy boots hit the hardwood floors. Riptide swallows, as he gazes downstairs to see his master standing in the hall, looking very angry.

"WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE?!" Hockley hollers into the house.

Joel descends the staircase to face this man.

"Officer Joel Anderson, we have a warrant to search your property." He holds out the court order.

Cal grabs it and stares at it so hard one might assume that he wants it to catch fire from his angry gaze. He wants to punch the man in the face, but he knows he can't arouse suspicion. He collects himself, takes a deep breath and forces a smile on his face.

"Well, hello then Officer Anderson, pardon my outburst, what can I help you with?"

"We're looking for this woman," Joel says, holding up the photograph of Rose. Cal does his best to not react while Riptide swallows a large lump in his throat. "Rose DeWitt Bukater. We are aware that she is your fiancée."

"Was my fiancée." Cal corrects. "I haven't seen her in months. What's happened to her?"

"You must have read the papers, Mr. Hockley,"

"Oh of course I have, now I remember, Miss DeWitt Bukater has gone missing. Pardon me, sir, I believe the stress of the day's work has cluttered my mind. But what use is searching through and destroying my house useful to you?"

Joel decides to hide the fact that they've found a note threatening Rose's life. "We must search every place she might've been in case she had run away."

"Well, she certainly has not been here, in fact, Rose has only set foot in this house twice before."

"And you're sure of that?"

"Positive."

"Well, we believe that Miss DeWitt Bukater and her unborn child's life might be in great danger."

"And what made you come to that conclusion?"

"That is official police business," Joel says firmly. He begins walking through the mansion, preparing to search the rest of the house. Cal and Riptide follow close behind. They find one officer in the kitchen. Several of the staff sit on crates nearby watching the action around them.

"Any luck?"

"No sir, but we found a door leading what appears to be down to the cellar but it's locked."

Joel turns to Cal and Riptide. "Do one of you gentlemen happen to have the key?"

The manservant swallows a large lump in his throat. He gives a quick sideways glance at his boss, who clears his throat loudly. Riptide fumbles with the keys in his pocket. Very slowly, he walks down the back stairs towards the cellar. He can feel Cal's hot breath on his neck, sending shivers up his spine. He knows his life was in danger at this very moment, but they could not arouse any suspicion. With a shaking hand, Riptide unlocks the door.

Joel and another officer push past the two men and enter the cold and dim cellar. The two take out their torches and search around. The cellar looks particularly barren with empty wine caskets, some dusty shelves that hold pickling jars and a few cured types of meat hanging from hooks. Joel comes upon a door, this thick metal door opens with ease, and he can see it's nothing but a big empty room.

"We hardly use the cellar anymore due to the invention of ice boxes," Cal explains. "The cook only keeps a few things down here now."

Both guilty men's hearts are pounding, both have mounting fear inside of them. Joel is not quite buying their story if this place is hardly used, why is there a distinct lack of dust in the air. He then comes to the second metal door and this one has a large lock on the door.

"Why is this one locked?" Joel demands.

"Because it's caved in sir," Cal lies. "Two winters ago, heavy snowfall weakened the structure of the cellar and it caved in on itself. My father has had it locked every since to prevent anyone from getting hurt."

"You mind if we take a look to be sure?"

"I wish I could Officer," Cal explains. "But my father has the only key and he carries it on his person at all times. Why that is I cannot be sure?"

"And there's no duplicate?"

"No, sir."

Cal is lying very smoothly. He actually had the key, which he kept attached to his pocket watch at all times after what happened with Riptide. He only gave the manservant the key to serve Rose her meals, but then the butler had to give it right back to his master. It was unfortunate that Riptide could no longer save the poor woman from his master's sadistic beatings.

Joel puts his ear to the steel door for just a moment, seeing if he can hear anything. There is a small sound, it's almost like breathing, but it could very well be the wind. However, Jack's colleague was not buying the full story, if the father had locked the cellar two years ago, why did the lock have fresh fingerprints on it and why did it look new?

He knew he'd have to get heavy equipment if he was ever going to open it, but they didn't have any equipment, and he did not have enough evidence to force Mr. Hockley to open the door. There was some suspicion, but not enough to make an arrest or accuse the millionaire of anything.

"All right then," Joel says. "That's all we can do right now, come on Jacobs."

The two officers walk back towards the stairs, Cal and Riptide let out their collective breaths. They follow the two men of the law upstairs but leave the door unlocked as to not arouse further suspicion.

"We'll be in touch if we need anything else, Mr. Hockley," Joel says as he exits the house.

"Good luck with your search Officer," Cal says calmly. Inside he is angry but also relieved that they did not find out the truth. There was some suspicion, but he could wave it off without further problem.

He and Riptide stand at the door as the group of officers gather and converge for a few moments before getting into their vehicles and leaving.

Once they're gone, Cal releases that anger.

…

Meanwhile, back at the station, Jack waits for his food to be delivered. His battered hands are shaking badly, his rage is so built up he just might explode. His mind keeps going to Rose, he needs to find her. She saved him when he was trapped in the sinking ship, now he needed to rescue her. The two of them saved each other in every way possible, but this time, more than one life was in jeopardy.

The warden brings Jack his food, leaving it on the small opening of the cell for such things to be done. Jack looks at the food in front of him, a leg of dry chicken and what looks like pudding, which required metal cutlery. It was just a spoon because a fork or a knife could be used as a weapon.

Jack sits in a cloud of anger when suddenly he remembers something. A trick that someone on the street had taught him. It was before he'd met Fabrizio, in a small neighbourhood in Italy, he came across a young street urchin, not unlike himself. He had been digging through the trash can and found a discarded spoon behind a villa. Jack, who was starving himself, watched in fascination as the boy sharpened the spoon on the wall and then bent it to the desired shape, he then used it to pick the lock of a small bakery in the villa. With some effort, the urchin succeeded and he slipped inside, grabbing a few pieces of bread and a pastry for himself. The boy paused, staring at Jack for a few moments and then ripped a piece off the bread to give to the drifter. The boy then vanished, never to be seen again. The same method could be used here.

Jack's heart pounds as he realizes what he can do. He knows how wrong it is to do this, he does want to be free on his own terms, but he should have never been thrown in jail in the first place. He begins scraping the end of the spoon against the wall, hesitating the whole time. He had faith that Emma and Peter could free him legally, but it wasn't fast enough. Rose's life was in grave danger and there wasn't enough time. As he continues to scrape at the wall, his stomach turns several times in agony.

…

Joel stood with the captain, taking the note that had been shoved onto the officer's desk yesterday. It had been crinkled in some places, but it was still intact. Joel took a pencil and began shading the top page of the pad, an old trick every officer should know. As he shaded, the impression began to show a message. Joel's heart pounded as he shaded until a clear message could be shown. He takes up the note and compares the two. He nearly shouts out in excitement, he then looks at the ripped part of the threatening note and laid it on top of the pad of paper, it fits perfectly.

"I believe we have a match Captain," Joel says.

The gruffer man frowns for a long moment before sighing. "Send a message to Mr. Hockley, we're coming back to his place and call up the lawyers. I want a ballistics test done on the gun you acquired."

…

Emma sits in one of the firm's meetings rooms, with her head in her hands. She can't help but feel so guilty for what happened with Jack yesterday. She could see the distress on his face, which mirrored her and Peter's. She stares down at yet another document.

Just then, Felicity, her secretary comes in. "Telephone Miss Carson."

"I can get it," Peter says gently, deciding to give his fiancée/wife a break.

He goes to answer it, leaving Emma with Mr. Jamieson.

Within a few moments, there is a loud shout of excitement. "YAHOO!"

Both lawyers jump up in surprise as Peter is now back in the room, looking very excited.

"What's going on?" Emma asks.

"They finally searched Cal's mansion."

"Did they find Rose?"

"No, but they found proof that he wrote the note, he's going to be questioned again and they're going to search it once more,"

Emma's blue eyes brighten happily. She smiles something that felt like it had been awhile since she'd done so. She stands up happily and embraces Peter. She's practically crying in joy.

Finally, their words had been believed and finally, they could find Rose and Cal would get the justice he deserves.

"That is good news, we need to tell Jack!"

The couple frantically gets ready and hurry down the street towards the police station, Mr. Jamieson hurrying to catch up with them. However, Peter senses that something is off as they enter the station. All the desks are empty, it's still very loud, but the people are clustered to one side, where the holding cells were. He and Emma rush over frantically and they fight to the front. Peter can't shake the feeling that something is wrong.

The entrance to holding cells is taped off, with many officers surrounding it.

"What's going on?" Emma asks, going up to the nearest officer.

"Jack Dawson has escaped."

A/N: Here you are Sam Fraser, just what you wanted. Thanks for the feedback, I may not do everything that you want, but it will be kind of close.