Character Sketch

Chapter 8 - Research

Chapter 8


Research





Jake made a few phone calls as soon as he got home, mobilizing a group of computer savvy, research expert, detail ferreting brainiacs.  He had resources he had cultivated his three plus years at the university.  He was going to meet up with Will Hardy in about an hour to do some research in the library archives.


Hopefully by tomorrow they would have backgrounds on most of the names on the list, a starting date for the attacks, the defining features of the assaults and names of the other girls.  With Melissa still unconscious they needed to interview the other victims. He felt invigorated to be doing something.


He gave in to the urge to call Katie.


“Hello.”


“Hi, Mrs. Moore, this is Jake.”


“Hi, Jake.”


“Is Katie still asleep?”


“You’re in luck, she’s standing at the kitchen sink getting a drink of water.”


“May I talk to her?”


“Here she is.”


“Hey,” a tired voice sighed.


“How you feeling?” Jake asked.


“My headaches a little better.”


“I’m glad.”


“So what’s up?”


“I just wanted to update you. No information yet but I’ve put the wheels in motion.”


“Isn’t it late, you’re not doing it tonight are you?”


“Yeah, Will Hardy and I are going to the library and look at the old campus newspaper to see if we can figure out when these attacks started and how many there’ve been. I’ve got a couple of other guys on the internet to get backgrounds on as many of the names you gave me as they can find.”


“You’ve got baseball practice in the morning.”


“Speaking of baseball, how would your family like box seats to the exhibition game on Sunday.”


“We have mass in the morning.”


“Well the game doesn’t start until 2:30.”


“I’ll check with my mom, not that I need her permission, cause I’m 19 and make my own decisions but. . .”


“I know she wants you take it easy.”


“Right.”


“I’ll see you tomorrow.”


“Don’t stay out too late.”


“Now you’re sounding like my mother.”


“Sorry,” she chuckled.


“Goodnight, Kaitlin.”


“Goodnight, Jake.”





He hung up the phone and smiled. He pictured her in an oversized t-shirt and baby blue slippers shuffling back to bed. The thought of her made him feel happy. He picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder on the way out the door to the library.





He fought down the fury that welled up in him as he thought about that stupid notebook. He held the new one she had started in his hand. The old notebook was still out of his reach.


He smiled when he thought of the roses he’d sent. She was a smart girl and by now she had figured out they were from him. He had come up with a hundred different ways to scare her. A picture taken when she thought no one was watching left on her doorstep. A flat tire on her bike, a message at work, a note in a textbook, the list was endless.


The rage burned inside him, a physical heat. Mostly he kept it banked and under control. Then something would trigger a memory and the anger exploded like a dry pine in a forest fire. What happened next was her fault, that monster, his father’s sister, his aunt.





Curtis dragged the cans of soup across the scanner and listened for the beep. His thoughts were on how close it was to the end of his shift.


“Hey!”


Curtis turned his head to see who was trying to get his attention.


A light flashed in his eyes.


“What’s the big idea,” he said to the guy with the camera.


“Research project,” said the student as he turned to go out of the store.





Bert Fulton zipped up his coveralls and shut his locker. As he walked toward the equipment closet to get his push broom his supervisor intercepted him.


“The weirdest thing happened today.”


“Yeah, what?” Bert asked.


“Some kid came in and wanted your work schedule for the last six months.”


“Why’d he want it?”


“Something about an efficiency report. Asked if you ever called in sick. Told him you were my best janitor.”


“Thanks boss.”


“But I’ve never heard of any efficiency reports before.”


“That is weird.”





Jake watched Kaitlin through the window at the city library. She bent over a table where a small boy was pasting bits of construction paper on to his art project. The boy smiled up at her as she spoke to him and pointed to his work.


Practice had lasted four hours this morning after which he had returned to his room to supervise the ‘campus mugger’ research. He stopped himself several times through the day from phoning Kaitlin but finally about three he called to see how she was doing. Her mother said Kaitlin was suffering with cabin fever. She had given permission for Kaitlin to go to the city library where she volunteered doing craft projects for pre-schoolers on Saturday afternoons.


Jake tapped on the window. The little boy Kaitlin was working with looked up. He pulled on Kaitlin’s sleeve and pointed at Jake. Her eyes widened in surprise, her face reddened and a smile sprang to her lips. She waved for him to come in. For some reason that blush warmed Jake’s heart.


“I thought you were supposed to be resting,” Jake said as he sidled up to her.


“Hey, everybody I want you to meet Jake.”


“Hi Jake,” came a chorus of preschool voices.


“He plays baseball at the university.”


“Cool.”


“You keep working and I’ll bring him around to look at each of your pictures.”


They wandered around the tables and Jake complimented each budding artist. He sat beside one little girl that was struggling and started helping her as Kaitlin continued overseeing the group. It wasn’t long before the mothers came to pick up their children. Jake watched as Kaitlin talked to each mom and commented on their child’s work as they were leaving.


“Hey, I thought you were supposed to be taking it easy.” Jake trailed behind her as she cleaned up the tables.


“I’m okay. I just have to remember not to bend my knees too far, which is hard when I’m used to squatting or kneeling beside these kids.”


“So how long have you been doing this?” Jake gathered a hand full of crumble construction paper and several bottles of glue from a table.


“Since September.”


“Why are you doing this?”


“What do you mean?”


“Well you’re not getting paid.”


“Surely they have you do service hours as part of the team PR.”


“You mean visiting kids in the hospital?”


“Yeah stuff like that. Jake I grew up on this stuff. My dad had us down at the soup kitchen every holiday, Habitat for Humanity during the summer, tutoring kids in school, picking up trash along the freeway. Mom constantly cooks meals for new moms, someone with a family member in the hospital or the home bound. I try to put in at least four hours a week.”


“To what end?”


“Let just say it’s good for my soul,” she chuckled.  “Hey, I’ve got to get back, I told my mom I’d come straight back to the apartment.”


“Wait, I wanted to show you what I’ve been doing. Do you think she’d let you take a little detour on the way home?”


“I’ll have to call her.”


“How about if I call her?”





Kaitlin stood one step inside Jake’s apartment. A large bulletin board leaned against the wall in one corner of the room. A guy sat at the table with his lap top open peering at the screen. Another young man sat on the couch surrounded by papers he was sorting through. What arrested her attention were the pictures across the top of the bulletin board, pictures of many of the men on the list she had given Jake.


“How did you do that?” she said pointing at the faces.


“I have a friend who is majoring in photo journalism.”


Jake turned toward the guy at the table.


“Will come meet Kaitlin.”


The young man at the table pulled his eyes away from the screen stood and took one step toward Kaitlin shook her hand and then his eyes were once again riveted to the screen as he sat down.


“Ben this is Kaitlin.”


Ben turned his head from the papers he was surveying and gave her a cursory wave.


“We’ve got the dates of all the attacks, we think. So we have a pretty good idea when they started. That helped us eliminate anyone who had moved here after the first attack. The circled data under a couple of the pictures is fairly conclusive evidence that removes that person as a suspect.” Jake pointed toward the bulletin board.


“You’ve done all this in the last eighteen hours?” Kaitlin queried


“With a lot of help.”          


“What can I do?”


“I’m going to take you home so you can get some rest.”


“I can make calls or something.”


“Don’t worry I’ll put you to work on Monday but not before then. I told your mom I wouldn’t keep you long.”


“Jake,” she looked down at her feet and then into his eyes. “Thanks.”


“Gotta clear my name you know.”


“I’ll be glad to be part of the team.”








Jake grabbed a cardboard box out of the back seat of his jeep at Kaitlin’s apartment and handed it to her.


“What’s this?”


“You’ll see when we get upstairs.”


He pulled her bike out of the back of the jeep and carried it upstairs just behind Kaitlin. Jake took the box from her after he set down the bike. Mrs. Moore hugged Kaitlin and draped her arm across Jake’s shoulders and squeezed.


“Thanks for bringing her home.”


“No problem,” Jake responded. “I brought you something for tomorrow.” He pulled half a dozen team shirts out of the box. Over the left breast it said ‘staff’.


“These are great.” Michael bound up from the couch.


“I wasn’t sure what sizes to get.”


“Extra large that’ll fit me and a medium for Kaitlin and a small for Elizabeth.” Michael threw a shirt at Kaitlin.


“I also got six box seat tickets.” Jake said as he pulled the tickets out of his back pocket. “Let me know if you need more.”


“I’m calling Sylvia.” Michael announced.


“His girlfriend,” Katie whispered to Jake.


“Hey how’s your head feeling?” Jake tentatively reached his hand toward her hair.


“Not bad with my friend ibuprofen.” She took his wrist and guided his hand to the back of her head. “See the bump’s gone down a lot.”


Jake winced as he felt the knot.


“Do me a favor.” His hand rested on her shoulder.


“I owe you at least one,” Kaitlin remarked.


“Take it easy the rest of the day; I want you to be well enough to enjoy the game tomorrow.”


“I planned to anyway. It sure is nice of you to do this for my family.”


‘It’s part of the program. When you court the girl, it helps to also court the family,’ he thought as he smiled at her.


“My pleasure,” he said aloud.