When They Looked Away by Olivia Edgefield

Author:Olivia Edgefield [Edgefield, Olivia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PITB publishers
Published: 2023-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Bleary-eyed, Captain Torres sits behind his massive wooden desk, new evidence reports from the Helping Hands shelter fire in his hands, stamped CONFIDENTIAL in large letters, and hand-delivered to him. He reads about the discovery of a small charred fireproof box, inside the box a tooth, a little boys bloody T-shirt with an LAPD logo on it, a photo of Sam Lewis at a youth retreat, his arm around a group of boys, a checkbook, and a surfer key chain. On the tag of the shirt, written in faded black marker, J.S. There is a note from the crime scene lab, the DNA from the blood on the shirt matches another sample already in the system, a missing child named Jacob Sharp. Hands shaking, the captain stares at the page. He reads it over and over again until his eyes get blurry. He reaches across the desk for his phone.

Groggy, he wakes Geoff up from a dead sleep.

“Hey, Captain. I’m not late, am I?”

No one has ever wanted to do a better job than Geoff, thinks the captain. “No. Not at all. You don’t need to come in today. Brenda’s back, and she needs the hours. Are you okay with that?” He feels terrible, lying to Geoff, but this information is too big, too heavy, and he can’t spend the morning worrying about taking care of both Geoff and Evelyn.

Geoff, disappointed, says, “No. That’s okay . . . uh . . . did you see the fire?”

“Yes, the fire at the shelter.”

“No, across the street, at the encampment, last night.” On alert, the captain straightens; this makes things even more complicated.

“No, I didn’t. Thanks, Geoff. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Hanging up the phone, the captain pauses and flips through a Rolodex, silently thanking his predecessor, Bob, for being a Luddite. It has come in handy more than once. He dials the number for the fire investigation unit.

“Hey . . . this is Captain Torres, northeast precinct. Can you send me over anything you have on a fire last night in a homeless encampment? . . . Yes . . . across from the shelter fire? Just email it over. . . . Interoffice, you should have it. Thank you.” The captain looks at the photo of Jacob’s shirt.

He sits, quietly allowing himself to feel the gravity of the moment. Then he looks at the photo of Sam Lewis. The FBI will want to work this case. He has to tell Evelyn before word gets out, and she has to play by the book on this. He picks up the phone and dials Chad first, leaving a message to come into his office directly, then he texts Evelyn and asks her to do the same. Grabbing the page, he makes sure he is reading correctly. Jacob. It’s Jacob.

* * *

In the park that day, he stood over the charcoal grill, nervous that he would burn the burgers on his first day as captain. Transferring from Compton, these folks were way more relaxed; he never recalled having any sort of workplace picnic before.

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