Jackson

The department was in chaos when he arrived to work that morning. His coworker, Elisa, had come across a homicide on a welfare check the day before, causing everyone to now be on edge. Jackson wasn’t from this town, he recently moved to the town from out of state less than a year ago, but from what he got from the locals, it seemed as if this small town was a friendly place, a safe place. Things like murders didn’t seem to fit with this small town.

Everyone in his department grew up in this town, so he could understand why everyone was worried, but it wasn’t going to help find the killer.

He approached his desk and sat down, grabbing the stack of papers that were in front of him. It was paperwork from the case before that he still had to sort out before he was allowed to officially continue looking into the current murder case.

“Hey, Jackson,” a voice spoke from behind him. He had just finished filing away the last bit of the documents when he turned around to face whoever was speaking to him. “Oh, hey boss.” His boss was a short, stout man, and was much older in age, or he at least appeared to be. He would never tell anyone his age. “You were informed that you would be assigned to the murder case, correct?” Jackson nodded. It was an obvious choice, considering he had been there at the scene not long after it was called in to relieve Elisa.

“Elisa is also being assigned to this case, I want her to gain experience, especially since she was the one who had found the bodies. I think she will learn a lot from working with you.” Jackson nodded. “Yes sir, but isn’t she off today?” His boss nodded. “Yes, she was supposed to be off today, but I had to call her in. From today on the two of you will be working together until otherwise stated.” “Do you know when she might get here sir?” He inquired. “She’s looking for someone to watch her younger sister, then she’ll be free to come in. Once she gets here I’ll call you to my office.” Without another word, his boss turned on his heel and walked away.

‘It’s been a while since boss said he called her in, I hope she’s alright.’ Jackson was sitting in the break room, staring down the cup of coffee he had made. He was used to being able to get what he had to do done and being able to go on his own for a case, the sudden downtime made him restless. “Bridges, report to my office.” He got up, throwing away the coffee that he never finished.

There she stood, right in front of the boss’s desk. Her blond hair had been put up, part of Jackson wished it was down. He always liked her hair down. The two of them had never spoken to each other until yesterday, but he always was watching her from afar, trying to find a way to approach her without him coming off as being weird or creepy.

“Bridges reporting for duty, sir.” He said as he stood beside Elisa. He glanced over at her, their eyes meeting. Elisa looked away, a blush was creeping onto her face. Jackson smiled to himself. “Bridges, Reynolds, you both are going to be working together on this case to help find whoever did this. Reynold’s, did you turn in your revised report of the incident?” She nodded. “Yes sir, I did. I left it at my desk just like you asked me to.” Their boss nodded in approval. “Good, you two are dismissed then. Good luck.”

Jackson stood at the passenger side of the car that they had been assigned, holding it open. “After you.” He smiled at her as she got inside. ‘Maybe finally we can get to know each other a bit better.’ He thought to himself as he got into the driver’s seat.

“Where to first?” Elisa questioned the moment he was in the car. He was taken aback by her sudden straightforward question, but then again, this was their case and it made sense for her to ask. “I thought that it would be a good idea to go question the neighbor who called in for the welfare check to see if they’ve seen anything sketchy going on recently.” Elisa had her hands over one another in her lap, her face turned for her to look out the window. “Sounds good, let’s go then.”

“So, I heard you have a sister. How old is she?” He asked, hoping that he would be able to make some kind of conversation with her. She glanced over at him. “She’s eleven. We look nothing alike. She looks like our mother while I look like my father.” She looked down at her hands and frowned. “I took her in when our mother passed away last year, it’s been rough for both of us, but we’re adjusting.” Jackson placed a hand on hers and patted her hand. “Hey, I understand. I lost both of my parents when I was a kid and I had to step up and take care of my younger brothers and sisters. At least until social services split us all up.” “Oh, Bridges,” “Jackson.” He cut her off. “Sorry, Jackson, I’m sorry you went through that. Have you been able to meet up with your siblings since then?”

The car came to a stop and Jackson sighed. “Yeah, for the most part. We’ll talk more later. We need to get this over with.” He got out of the car and went over and opened the door for Elisa, and the two of them walked up to the front door of a tiny house.

Jackson knocked and a frail, elderly woman answered the door. “Officers, how can I help you?” She was probably no taller than 5’1. She had a hunched poster and held a cane in her left hand. “Are you Mrs. Connors?” Jackson questioned. The woman nodded in his direction. “Yes sir, I am.” Jackson looked at Elisa then faced Mrs. Connors once more. “I’m sure you were informed, but yesterday my coworker here answered your welfare check call, when she arrived at the scene the door was already slightly ajar, and she found the family dead in their home.” Mrs. Connors nodded, the color of her face draining quickly.

“They were such good people, they would come over often and have dinner or I would go over there and have dinner with them.” “By any chance have you seen anyone weird hanging around the area, or close to their house? Or anyone who possibly had any issues with this family that would want them dead?” Elisa asked.

Mrs. Connors shook her head slowly. “Sadly, no I have not.” She thought for a moment then gasped. “Wait! About a week before I made the call I had noticed that there was a kind of dark blue van parked in front of their house. I had gone outside to get my mail, I remember the man in the vehicle asked me if I knew if they were home. I had told him they weren’t because I had seen them leave a little while prior. He seemed angered. I asked if he wanted me to let them know that he stopped by but he quickly told me no and drove off.”

Jackson crossed his arms, frowning. “Did you get a good look at the guy?” “He had dark brown hair, but I think it was dyed because I noticed that his roots were blond. His hair was cut semi-short, he was wearing a gray hoodie with some black pants that had cuts in the legs where the knees are.” Elisa had taken out a pad and pen and begun to write down the details the elder woman was giving. “Is there anything else about him that you can tell us?” Jackson inquired. “Hmm, I would say he was about 5’7? He seemed scrawny and he had a thin face. That’s all I can remember.” Jackson nodded. “Thank you Mrs. Connors, that will be all.”

“Is there anyone in town that comes to mind that might fit that description?” Jackson questioned once inside the car. “No, not that I can think of.” A brief pause. “Wait, why are you asking me that?” Jackson shrugged. “I just assumed you had been born and raised here like everyone else I seem to know here, so I thought with that kind of perk you might know most people in two and might have an idea.” Elisa huffed out her cheeks, “Well, yes, I was born and raised here, and for the most part I DO know everyone here but don’t go assuming things.” Even with her puffed-out cheeks, her tone was playful.

The two of them both went around the block asking neighbors if they had happened to see anything, all of them had reported that they never saw or heard anything that could lead to a clue as to what had happened or who could have committed such a crime.

Lunch rolled around and Elisa had picked out a place for them to eat lunch. “I’m glad you picked where we went, I usually go home and make my lunch there.” Jackson chuckled. Elisa gave a questioning look. “I’m not sure if you knew since we never had a chance to talk before, but I actually just moved here less than a year ago. I’m still learning my way around the town.” Elisa hummed. “Well, maybe when we both have some time after work, we could meet up, and I could show you around town?”

“That’s very kind of you.” Their food arrived at their table and Jackson dug into his food right away. He had no idea he had been this hungry. Elisa laughed. Jackson looked up at her, his cheeks flushed. “Calm down Jackson, the food isn’t going anywhere.” He swallowed what bit of food was in his mouth then rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, it’s just so good and I was super hungry all of a sudden.” “Well, let’s finish eating and get back out there. I’m sure we can find something soon enough.”

With lunch taken care of, they headed back to the scene of the crime.

“Make sure to check every room carefully, don’t touch anything unless you put on your gloves first. We don’t want to lose any possible leads that could lead to the killer.” Elisa rolled her eyes in a teasing manner. “Yeah, yeah. I understand, don’t worry.”

Jackson smirked at her reaction, then headed into the first bedroom that was connected to the hallway. The air was musty, and the room looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a while. There was a layer of dust everywhere, and with every step, he was forced to inhale that dust.

He stopped at the bedroom window and looked outside. The window was slightly opened, this caught his attention. He crouched down to examine it a bit further and noticed fingerprints that had been left in the dust. The direction of the fingerprints showed that someone came in from the outside.

“Elisa!” He shouted out. “Come here!” He heard footsteps running toward him. “What is it, Jackson?” He looked back at Elisa. “I think I may have found a possible clue as to how our killer entered the house.” He pointed at the fingerprints.

Elisa quickly took out her phone, snapping a photo of the prints. “Alright, I got the picture. Should we keep searching for now?” Jackson shook his head. “No. For now, let’s go back. Someone will come out here and take the fingerprints and run them in the system to see if we can find a match.” He pushed back the hair that had started to stick to his forehead, his brow creasing. “I’ll never understand how someone could do something so cruel.” Elisa stayed quiet, but her silence to him meant that she thought the same.

“Let’s head out, probably go home and get some rest. Alright?” She nodded. He led them out of the house and headed back to the station.