Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Loves Company ❯ Impossible Possibilities ( Chapter 13 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Kita and Subu-chan 
Something falls into place.
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.29.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 390 | Status: Work In Progress
Something falls into place.
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.29.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 390 | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter Thirteen: Impossible Possibilities
A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and waited patiently (Or not so patiently *giggle*) for the last chapter… long delayed as it was. Things are much better now. See, two chapters in one month…Thanks Catti, for being one of our most faithful readers and always telling it to us straight. Also to my friends on LJ, for all the birthday wishes and helping me not feel as old as I did on my birthday. Hana, for being the same as Catti, and a great person to talk to when I’m feeling down. (*waves* Hi, Hana!) Thank you to Garita for her wonderful stories and for faithfully keeping Kita company on DeviantArt. As always, your art is wonderful and many thanks for all the pieces you have dedicated to Kita and I. The Berkley and Drake picture is funny and sheer genius. (Hey Dog!!! Love you! You know I have all of your art saved so I can show it to Subu, right? Hi to Poshu too! *pokes* You need to write more too!)
Oh, and Garita, on my lovely roommate’s recommendation, I’m elevating you and Daxemon both to the title of Honorary Muses, with all the responsibilities and privileges thereof! Daxemon… Daxemon, reviewers like you… are, to borrow one of your own phrases, ‘a diamond that nature had naturally cut and polished!’ Thank you for your enthusiasm and I do hope you have luck in finding a place. Hopefully, when JJ and Drake finally get through all of their issues, you don’t hurt yourself. (*giggle* Lots of pillows around the computer chair, Dax!!!) Hope you find the inspiration to write more. We love to read other’s works as much as I like to write and Kita to draw.
Disclaimers: We do not own any of this with the exception of the original characters that show up randomly throughout this fic and our own imagination. Fake and all characters belong to the fantastic Sanami Matoh-sama so all props for her. No real warnings for this chapter except for a bit of language and mention of dismembered bodies. Okay, I think that covers everything, so without further ado, on with the story…
*----------------------------------------------- ---*
Drake scowled at JJ. “Okay, I know I haven’t had enough caffeine or nicotine to follow your convoluted line of reasoning, so tell it to me straight, please.”
JJ blinked, drawn out of his thoughts. “I think we’ve been going at this under some completely wrong assumptions.”
“I know we covered this.” Drake let some of his very real annoyance show through. He really needed a cigarette now. The rapidly cooling coffee in his cup was no consolation. “The point, please.”
JJ blinked at him and wordlessly tossed him a cigarette. Drake snatched it out of midair and scrambled for his lighter. JJ waited until he had drawn his first calming drag and relaxed back into his chair.
“Better now?”
Drake nodded, more than a little ashamed of his own bitchiness. “Sorry, JJ.”
JJ waved it off, smiling. “My own fault. I should have realized just how long you had been without.”
Drake savored another slow inhale. “So tell me what it is you figured out.”
“We were assuming it was their respective ages that was the common link, and in a way it was, but there was a flaw in that theory right from the start. One of the earliest victims that Jim dug up was two years older than the others.”
Drake nodded as he savored every breath of his cigarette. “I follow. So how exactly are they linked, if not by their ages?”
JJ looked down at his computer screen for a long moment. “In a way, it is the ages.”
“Now you’re confusing me.” Drake told him, spacing out the reply with another slow inhale. “How can it be not their ages at the same time it is?”
“I thought there was one common thread. We just didn’t look back far enough for it.” JJ said, his attention turned back to his computer screen. His nimble fingers were typing at a pace that would have made Drake jealous were he paying attention.
“JJ!” Drake warned softly. “Spit it out.”
“Sorry.” JJ sighed and waved him over. “Come here.”
Drake regretfully took one last drag from his cigarette before stubbing it out and coming to JJ’s side. “What is it?”
JJ tapped his mouse and a tearful voice came through the speakers. “…said to tell him that revenge was b-best s-served cold and this dish h-had been c-cooling for eight y-years.”
Drake winced at the sound of Stephanie’s tortured voice. He’d had nightmares about it last night. A lot of nightmares. “Eight years…?”
JJ nodded. “That got me to thinking about the night we were going over those files at Kellie’s. I did some more searching on the internet. We hadn’t looked back far enough for the connection. Look what I found.”
Drake watched as JJ pulled up a file. There, plain as day, was a list of all their victims, including Tiffany Richmond and Sarah Brigmont and Mei Lin Roberts. Stephanie’s name was conspicuously absent.
“What is this?” Drake asked, tracing the line of names on the computer screen. There were some names he didn’t recognize, but every single identified body was there.
Settlesand, check.
Burkes, check.
Pierce, also check.
Rimes, check.
Branson, another check.
Rodenberg, check.
Merrick, also on the list.
And every single body that Jim had thought matched their killer’s MO. It was like a grocery list for a psycho, each name on the list to be methodically ticked off as they were killed.
“JJ? Where did you get this?”
JJ glanced up at him. “Wait. There’s more. I ran a report of missing persons against this list and flagged this name. She was reported missing a little over a year and a half ago. She vanished on a road trip and was never found.”
Drake felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. “Did she happen to be anywhere near Albany?”
JJ nodded. “Last known location was some forty miles upstate from there.”
Drake grimaced and wished for another cigarette to calm his nerves. “Chances are she’s the Jane Doe that Jim tracked down. The one who was missing all of her fingers and died from what the coroner at the time thought was a brutal stab wound to the stomach.” He leaned down and studied the list. “So where did you get this?”
JJ leaned back so Drake could get closer to the computer screen. “This is a class roster for St. Ignatius, a private all-girls Christian grade-school. Every one of our victims was in this class. Ria Guardian, the one who doesn’t fit the age pattern, was held back two years because of illness.”
Drake clapped JJ on the back. “So you found the common link! Hot damn, JJ, that’s great!”
JJ turned in his chair, blue eyes boring into Drake’s. “That’s not all I found.”
Drake felt something in his stomach twist at the look in JJ’s eyes. “What is it?”
JJ turned his attention back to the computer, tapping his mouse to page back up. “Look at the name of this class’s homeroom teacher.”
Drake felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. “What the fuck?”
JJ’s snort was humorless. “You tell me.”
Drake swallowed thickly. “Oh, shit.”
JJ sighed and looked again at the name highlighted on his screen. It was a name both horrifyingly probable and yet at the same time, impossible. “Looks like we have some calls to make.”
“How the fuck do we always end up with the weird ones?” Drake growled.
“You tell me, partner.”
Drake glanced at the name glowing bright on the screen and growled under his breath. “I’m so going to need more than one cigarette to figure this one out.”
JJ patted his arm, his normally cheerful attitude fraying around the edges. “At this rate, I may take up smoking too.”
Drake managed a halfhearted chuckle. “I’m going down to archives to pull up every scrap of information we have. See what you can find online.”
“You got it.”
Drake was almost all the way out the door when JJ’s voice, unusually solemn and quiet, stopped him in his tracks. “It’s only going to get messier, isn’t it?”
Drake leaned against the doorframe, his shoulders drooping. “I’m afraid it just might.”
“Shit.”
Drake nodded and left on his mission. JJ glanced back at the computer screen and the single, impossible name that mocked them with its very improbability.
How do we always manage to get the weird ones? JJ thought, echoing Drake’s earlier complaint.
*------------------------------------------------- ------*
Drake waved an absentminded greeting to Hinata as he entered the Archives. The dim light indicated that besides her, he was the only one down here. Just the way he liked it.
“You look like you’ve been run over.” Hinata observed quietly, looking up from her computer screen.
Drake chuckled softly. “I feel like it.” He stretched, listening to the joints in his neck pop. “This case is a bitch.”
She tilted her head, pale gray eyes bright in the dim light from her computer screen. “The same one that had your partner in and out of here a dozen times the other night?”
Drake sighed and shoved his fingers through his hair. “The same. We found a connection, now we just have to figure out how it’s possible.”
She leaned back. “All the files he borrowed are in that file cabinet over there. I haven’t put them up. I figured you might need them again.”
Drake flashed her a grin. “You’re an angel.”
Her laugh was rich. “Only sometimes.”
Drake opened the file cabinet and started to stack files on the corner of her desk. His attention was arrested by the date on one. “Hey, Hinata. Didn’t I only get the last six years when Richmond was prosecuting attorney?”
She shrugged. “He’d been prosecuting for ten years. I just went ahead and pulled them all for your partner. Figured you might need one of the older ones. Why?”
Drake scowled as he found the one he was looking for and checked the date. “I never even thought about it. JJ might have noticed, cause he pegged this file early on. Something the killer said in the message he passed along through Stephanie. Said that this revenge had been cooling for eight years.”
Hinata rose and glanced at the dates on the file in his hand. “And eight this one is. Good call.”
Drake scowled at the file in his hand. “Yeah, but unless we’re wandering into the realm of ‘The Twilight Zone,’ this can’t really be it.”
Hinata glanced over his shoulder. “Ooh, good point.”
Drake scowled at the file in his hand. “Tell me about it.” He glanced at her. “Hey, Nat, do me a favor, willya?”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Spit it out, Parker.”
“While I’m going through these hardcopy files, hit one of the microfiche readers and see what else you can find from the papers in this time frame.”
“Only if you promise to buy me dinner sometime.”
Drake chuckled. “Sure thing. What do you want? I’ll have JJ pick it up for you when he goes out to get mine later tonight.”
Hinata scowled at him. “I meant out, Parker. As in, a restaurant where they have tablecloths and silverware on the tables.”
Drake froze, arrested in mid-motion. “Uh… I’m flattered, Nat… but - uh - I’m sort of seeing someone right now.”
Seating herself on the edge of her desk, Hinata sighed. “Isn’t that so my luck? She’s the jealous type, I suppose? Ah, well, never mind. Just remember you owe me dinner.”
Glad she didn’t ask any more awkward questions, Drake nodded and returned his attention to the stack of papers he was sorting through. Behind him, Hinata sighed and slid off the desk, headed for the microfiche reading room. Drake breathed a silent sigh of relief when she was out of earshot. I just don’t think I’m ready for the rest of the precinct to know that I’m… bi... if that’s even the right word for it.
He was deep in his search for related files (of which there were frustratingly few) when she returned, a stack of hardcopy pages in her hands. “Here you go, Parker. This is everything I found. Think it will help?”
Drake scanned several of the pages. “I don’t know how, considering that this whole thing is impossible, but thank you.”
Hinata laughed softly. “You’re welcome.”
Drake gathered up everything that the both of them had garnered, (despite what he thought, it made for an impressive pile of paper) bid Hinata a slightly nervous farewell and headed back to his office. JJ was still focused on his screen, so Drake quietly sat at his desk and began an effort to sort the stack of papers into some semblance of order. He had made a little progress when JJ leaned back with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to have to invest in some reading glasses if I’m going to keep doing this. All this staring at the screen is giving me a headache.” Drake realized that there were thin lines of pain etched in JJ’s forehead.
Glancing at the closed office door, Drake rose and stood behind JJ’s chair, gently pressing his fingertips to JJ’s temples and moving them in soothing circular motions. JJ went boneless, slouching in his seat with all the inherent grace of a cat. “Ooh, you have until the fifth of never to stop doing that.”
Drake chuckled softly and dropped a kiss on JJ’s forehead. “If you were a cat, you’d be purring.”
JJ smiled at him and made a purring sound deep in his throat. That and the flash of heat in those blue eyes sent a pang of desire right through Drake and without even thinking about it, he captured JJ’s tempting lips in a heated kiss. JJ’s mouth was warm and willing and Drake leaned down to wrap his arms around JJ’s shoulders.
It was a long moment before either of them drew back enough to take a shaky breath. “Keep kissing me like that, and I’m going to think you’ve decided to take things to the next level.” JJ whispered, softening the words with a slight laugh.
Drake shuddered and held JJ a little tighter, before releasing him entirely and taking a step back. “You wouldn’t be far wrong.”
JJ snorted. “Not likely. You’re still a bundle of raw nerves. I can see it in your eyes.”
Drake took a deep breath. “So I’m nervous. Doesn’t mean I’m not grown up enough to know my own mind.”
JJ didn’t comment, turning his attention back to his computer screen. Drake would have gotten angry, but the truth of the matter was that JJ was right and how he hated to admit to that. Drake sighed instead and returned to his seat. “So what have you got so far?”
“The same thing I had when you left… diddly-squat. For all this, it’s a dead end.” JJ scowled. “It’s impossible, but all the facts fit like a glove. I’m beginning to think you’re right and we’re just chasing our own tails.”
Drake sighed softly. “Don’t think like that, JJ. Even if it’s an impossibility, it’s the first thing resembling a solid lead we’ve had yet in this case.”
JJ sighed and rubbed his forehead, glancing at his computer screen and the single name glowing there like it was mocking them. A slap in the face, as it were…
Melanie Hayle.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and waited patiently (Or not so patiently *giggle*) for the last chapter… long delayed as it was. Things are much better now. See, two chapters in one month…Thanks Catti, for being one of our most faithful readers and always telling it to us straight. Also to my friends on LJ, for all the birthday wishes and helping me not feel as old as I did on my birthday. Hana, for being the same as Catti, and a great person to talk to when I’m feeling down. (*waves* Hi, Hana!) Thank you to Garita for her wonderful stories and for faithfully keeping Kita company on DeviantArt. As always, your art is wonderful and many thanks for all the pieces you have dedicated to Kita and I. The Berkley and Drake picture is funny and sheer genius. (Hey Dog!!! Love you! You know I have all of your art saved so I can show it to Subu, right? Hi to Poshu too! *pokes* You need to write more too!)
Oh, and Garita, on my lovely roommate’s recommendation, I’m elevating you and Daxemon both to the title of Honorary Muses, with all the responsibilities and privileges thereof! Daxemon… Daxemon, reviewers like you… are, to borrow one of your own phrases, ‘a diamond that nature had naturally cut and polished!’ Thank you for your enthusiasm and I do hope you have luck in finding a place. Hopefully, when JJ and Drake finally get through all of their issues, you don’t hurt yourself. (*giggle* Lots of pillows around the computer chair, Dax!!!) Hope you find the inspiration to write more. We love to read other’s works as much as I like to write and Kita to draw.
Disclaimers: We do not own any of this with the exception of the original characters that show up randomly throughout this fic and our own imagination. Fake and all characters belong to the fantastic Sanami Matoh-sama so all props for her. No real warnings for this chapter except for a bit of language and mention of dismembered bodies. Okay, I think that covers everything, so without further ado, on with the story…
*----------------------------------------------- ---*
Drake scowled at JJ. “Okay, I know I haven’t had enough caffeine or nicotine to follow your convoluted line of reasoning, so tell it to me straight, please.”
JJ blinked, drawn out of his thoughts. “I think we’ve been going at this under some completely wrong assumptions.”
“I know we covered this.” Drake let some of his very real annoyance show through. He really needed a cigarette now. The rapidly cooling coffee in his cup was no consolation. “The point, please.”
JJ blinked at him and wordlessly tossed him a cigarette. Drake snatched it out of midair and scrambled for his lighter. JJ waited until he had drawn his first calming drag and relaxed back into his chair.
“Better now?”
Drake nodded, more than a little ashamed of his own bitchiness. “Sorry, JJ.”
JJ waved it off, smiling. “My own fault. I should have realized just how long you had been without.”
Drake savored another slow inhale. “So tell me what it is you figured out.”
“We were assuming it was their respective ages that was the common link, and in a way it was, but there was a flaw in that theory right from the start. One of the earliest victims that Jim dug up was two years older than the others.”
Drake nodded as he savored every breath of his cigarette. “I follow. So how exactly are they linked, if not by their ages?”
JJ looked down at his computer screen for a long moment. “In a way, it is the ages.”
“Now you’re confusing me.” Drake told him, spacing out the reply with another slow inhale. “How can it be not their ages at the same time it is?”
“I thought there was one common thread. We just didn’t look back far enough for it.” JJ said, his attention turned back to his computer screen. His nimble fingers were typing at a pace that would have made Drake jealous were he paying attention.
“JJ!” Drake warned softly. “Spit it out.”
“Sorry.” JJ sighed and waved him over. “Come here.”
Drake regretfully took one last drag from his cigarette before stubbing it out and coming to JJ’s side. “What is it?”
JJ tapped his mouse and a tearful voice came through the speakers. “…said to tell him that revenge was b-best s-served cold and this dish h-had been c-cooling for eight y-years.”
Drake winced at the sound of Stephanie’s tortured voice. He’d had nightmares about it last night. A lot of nightmares. “Eight years…?”
JJ nodded. “That got me to thinking about the night we were going over those files at Kellie’s. I did some more searching on the internet. We hadn’t looked back far enough for the connection. Look what I found.”
Drake watched as JJ pulled up a file. There, plain as day, was a list of all their victims, including Tiffany Richmond and Sarah Brigmont and Mei Lin Roberts. Stephanie’s name was conspicuously absent.
“What is this?” Drake asked, tracing the line of names on the computer screen. There were some names he didn’t recognize, but every single identified body was there.
Settlesand, check.
Burkes, check.
Pierce, also check.
Rimes, check.
Branson, another check.
Rodenberg, check.
Merrick, also on the list.
And every single body that Jim had thought matched their killer’s MO. It was like a grocery list for a psycho, each name on the list to be methodically ticked off as they were killed.
“JJ? Where did you get this?”
JJ glanced up at him. “Wait. There’s more. I ran a report of missing persons against this list and flagged this name. She was reported missing a little over a year and a half ago. She vanished on a road trip and was never found.”
Drake felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. “Did she happen to be anywhere near Albany?”
JJ nodded. “Last known location was some forty miles upstate from there.”
Drake grimaced and wished for another cigarette to calm his nerves. “Chances are she’s the Jane Doe that Jim tracked down. The one who was missing all of her fingers and died from what the coroner at the time thought was a brutal stab wound to the stomach.” He leaned down and studied the list. “So where did you get this?”
JJ leaned back so Drake could get closer to the computer screen. “This is a class roster for St. Ignatius, a private all-girls Christian grade-school. Every one of our victims was in this class. Ria Guardian, the one who doesn’t fit the age pattern, was held back two years because of illness.”
Drake clapped JJ on the back. “So you found the common link! Hot damn, JJ, that’s great!”
JJ turned in his chair, blue eyes boring into Drake’s. “That’s not all I found.”
Drake felt something in his stomach twist at the look in JJ’s eyes. “What is it?”
JJ turned his attention back to the computer, tapping his mouse to page back up. “Look at the name of this class’s homeroom teacher.”
Drake felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. “What the fuck?”
JJ’s snort was humorless. “You tell me.”
Drake swallowed thickly. “Oh, shit.”
JJ sighed and looked again at the name highlighted on his screen. It was a name both horrifyingly probable and yet at the same time, impossible. “Looks like we have some calls to make.”
“How the fuck do we always end up with the weird ones?” Drake growled.
“You tell me, partner.”
Drake glanced at the name glowing bright on the screen and growled under his breath. “I’m so going to need more than one cigarette to figure this one out.”
JJ patted his arm, his normally cheerful attitude fraying around the edges. “At this rate, I may take up smoking too.”
Drake managed a halfhearted chuckle. “I’m going down to archives to pull up every scrap of information we have. See what you can find online.”
“You got it.”
Drake was almost all the way out the door when JJ’s voice, unusually solemn and quiet, stopped him in his tracks. “It’s only going to get messier, isn’t it?”
Drake leaned against the doorframe, his shoulders drooping. “I’m afraid it just might.”
“Shit.”
Drake nodded and left on his mission. JJ glanced back at the computer screen and the single, impossible name that mocked them with its very improbability.
How do we always manage to get the weird ones? JJ thought, echoing Drake’s earlier complaint.
*------------------------------------------------- ------*
Drake waved an absentminded greeting to Hinata as he entered the Archives. The dim light indicated that besides her, he was the only one down here. Just the way he liked it.
“You look like you’ve been run over.” Hinata observed quietly, looking up from her computer screen.
Drake chuckled softly. “I feel like it.” He stretched, listening to the joints in his neck pop. “This case is a bitch.”
She tilted her head, pale gray eyes bright in the dim light from her computer screen. “The same one that had your partner in and out of here a dozen times the other night?”
Drake sighed and shoved his fingers through his hair. “The same. We found a connection, now we just have to figure out how it’s possible.”
She leaned back. “All the files he borrowed are in that file cabinet over there. I haven’t put them up. I figured you might need them again.”
Drake flashed her a grin. “You’re an angel.”
Her laugh was rich. “Only sometimes.”
Drake opened the file cabinet and started to stack files on the corner of her desk. His attention was arrested by the date on one. “Hey, Hinata. Didn’t I only get the last six years when Richmond was prosecuting attorney?”
She shrugged. “He’d been prosecuting for ten years. I just went ahead and pulled them all for your partner. Figured you might need one of the older ones. Why?”
Drake scowled as he found the one he was looking for and checked the date. “I never even thought about it. JJ might have noticed, cause he pegged this file early on. Something the killer said in the message he passed along through Stephanie. Said that this revenge had been cooling for eight years.”
Hinata rose and glanced at the dates on the file in his hand. “And eight this one is. Good call.”
Drake scowled at the file in his hand. “Yeah, but unless we’re wandering into the realm of ‘The Twilight Zone,’ this can’t really be it.”
Hinata glanced over his shoulder. “Ooh, good point.”
Drake scowled at the file in his hand. “Tell me about it.” He glanced at her. “Hey, Nat, do me a favor, willya?”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Spit it out, Parker.”
“While I’m going through these hardcopy files, hit one of the microfiche readers and see what else you can find from the papers in this time frame.”
“Only if you promise to buy me dinner sometime.”
Drake chuckled. “Sure thing. What do you want? I’ll have JJ pick it up for you when he goes out to get mine later tonight.”
Hinata scowled at him. “I meant out, Parker. As in, a restaurant where they have tablecloths and silverware on the tables.”
Drake froze, arrested in mid-motion. “Uh… I’m flattered, Nat… but - uh - I’m sort of seeing someone right now.”
Seating herself on the edge of her desk, Hinata sighed. “Isn’t that so my luck? She’s the jealous type, I suppose? Ah, well, never mind. Just remember you owe me dinner.”
Glad she didn’t ask any more awkward questions, Drake nodded and returned his attention to the stack of papers he was sorting through. Behind him, Hinata sighed and slid off the desk, headed for the microfiche reading room. Drake breathed a silent sigh of relief when she was out of earshot. I just don’t think I’m ready for the rest of the precinct to know that I’m… bi... if that’s even the right word for it.
He was deep in his search for related files (of which there were frustratingly few) when she returned, a stack of hardcopy pages in her hands. “Here you go, Parker. This is everything I found. Think it will help?”
Drake scanned several of the pages. “I don’t know how, considering that this whole thing is impossible, but thank you.”
Hinata laughed softly. “You’re welcome.”
Drake gathered up everything that the both of them had garnered, (despite what he thought, it made for an impressive pile of paper) bid Hinata a slightly nervous farewell and headed back to his office. JJ was still focused on his screen, so Drake quietly sat at his desk and began an effort to sort the stack of papers into some semblance of order. He had made a little progress when JJ leaned back with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to have to invest in some reading glasses if I’m going to keep doing this. All this staring at the screen is giving me a headache.” Drake realized that there were thin lines of pain etched in JJ’s forehead.
Glancing at the closed office door, Drake rose and stood behind JJ’s chair, gently pressing his fingertips to JJ’s temples and moving them in soothing circular motions. JJ went boneless, slouching in his seat with all the inherent grace of a cat. “Ooh, you have until the fifth of never to stop doing that.”
Drake chuckled softly and dropped a kiss on JJ’s forehead. “If you were a cat, you’d be purring.”
JJ smiled at him and made a purring sound deep in his throat. That and the flash of heat in those blue eyes sent a pang of desire right through Drake and without even thinking about it, he captured JJ’s tempting lips in a heated kiss. JJ’s mouth was warm and willing and Drake leaned down to wrap his arms around JJ’s shoulders.
It was a long moment before either of them drew back enough to take a shaky breath. “Keep kissing me like that, and I’m going to think you’ve decided to take things to the next level.” JJ whispered, softening the words with a slight laugh.
Drake shuddered and held JJ a little tighter, before releasing him entirely and taking a step back. “You wouldn’t be far wrong.”
JJ snorted. “Not likely. You’re still a bundle of raw nerves. I can see it in your eyes.”
Drake took a deep breath. “So I’m nervous. Doesn’t mean I’m not grown up enough to know my own mind.”
JJ didn’t comment, turning his attention back to his computer screen. Drake would have gotten angry, but the truth of the matter was that JJ was right and how he hated to admit to that. Drake sighed instead and returned to his seat. “So what have you got so far?”
“The same thing I had when you left… diddly-squat. For all this, it’s a dead end.” JJ scowled. “It’s impossible, but all the facts fit like a glove. I’m beginning to think you’re right and we’re just chasing our own tails.”
Drake sighed softly. “Don’t think like that, JJ. Even if it’s an impossibility, it’s the first thing resembling a solid lead we’ve had yet in this case.”
JJ sighed and rubbed his forehead, glancing at his computer screen and the single name glowing there like it was mocking them. A slap in the face, as it were…
Melanie Hayle.