Unexpected Pt. 02

"Hey I get it." I said. "I'd probably be the same way in their shoes. I'm frustrated at the lack of progress I'm making." I could feel the tension coming back when I felt John's hand on my shoulder.

"Don't be too hard on yourself son it won't do you any good." he said. "We all know you and your team and doing your best."

"Thanks Bill." I said feeling better again.

"Why don't you two finish your game." Kaitlyn said. "It'll be time to eat soon.

Bill and I finished our game of pool and had started another when Kaitlyn stuck her head out the door again telling us it was time to eat. With that Bill and I made our way back into the house. We all gathered around the table where after Bill prayed over the meal Kaitlyn said, "Here Matt, I saved you a seat next to me."

I sat down and we all began the passing platters and bowls around and loading our plates up. Kaitlyn wasn't kidding when she said her mom cooked for an army. There were only 6 of us but enough food for easily twice that much to eat and be satisfied. And, like most moms or grandmas wasn't shy about making sure everyone had plenty to eat, me in particular.

"Here Matt take some more of this." Judy said passing me the turkey platter and a gravy boat. "I can imagine it's been a while since you've had a meal like this."

Kaitlyn cut in, "Matt and his team live off of pizzas and subs from the shop around the corner from Police Headquarters."

"Oh that's terrible." Judy said grabbing another platter and pushing it in my direction. "Well in that case you must eat up and take some home with you."

Once we all got our plates loaded up to Judy's satisfaction, we were all sitting and eating and talking amiably when Bill suddenly said, "You know Matt, you're the first man Kaitlyn has brought home in a while."

"Dad!" Kaitlyn said incredulously. I stole a glance in her direction and saw she had gone slightly pink and thought it made her look kind of cute.

"You two do look cute together." Jeslyn said giggling.

"You guys are impossible." Kaitlyn said still blushing. "Matt is a friend."

"Then why'd you invite him over?" Jeslyn said still giggling and smirking.

"Because otherwise he'd be at home alone reading taskforce reports all day." Kaitlyn said.

"You don't have family around here Matt?" Jamie asked.

"There two states away." I said.

"And you couldn't get more than one day off?" Jamie asked.

"Not when I'm taskforce lead." I said. "So, I'm grateful to Kaitlyn and you all for letting me be a part of your Thanksgiving."

"Well, we're glad you're here Matt." Judy said as she pushed another bowl towards me.

We finished eating and all helped get the kitchen cleaned up and the leftovers put away. At that point after excusing myself to take a leak I grabbed my jacket and stepped out onto the deck to get some fresh air. I don't know how long I stood there gazing out over the big backyard before I heard the door open, and Kaitlyn come outside.

"There you are." she said as she came up beside me. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said. "Just wanted some fresh air."

Kaitlyn hooked her arm in mine and said, "Let's walk around the yard. I know I could use some steps after all that food and I'm sure you could too."

"Definitely." I said chuckling as I let her guide me down the steps into the perfectly manicured yard.

"You'll have to forgive my family." Kaitlyn said as we began to walk. "They all think it's time I found a good man and settled down before I become an old spinster. Hell, I'm only 28."

"If you're an old spinster I must be ancient since I'm 33." I said as we both laughed.

"Why haven't you found a nice girl to marry?" she asked.

"It's hard to date when you're a homicide detective." I said. "Even before I was taskforce head the hours I keep turned a lot of women off."

"Their loss." Kaitlyn said before I noticed her shiver.

"You cold?" I asked.

"Yeah a little." Kaitlyn said. "I didn't plan on being outside so long so I didn't grab my jacket." I stopped and unzipped my jacket and pulled it off and held it out for her.

"Oh no I'll be ok." she said.

"Take it." I insisted. "Your mother would kill me if I let you get sick."

"And she'd kill me if I let you get sick." she shot back.

"Come on take it." I said. "You'll make me feel better."

"Ok fine." she said and took my jacket and slipped it on but not before looking it over. It was my taskforce jacket. I guess I could have grabbed one of my civilian jackets but that one was on top and easy so that's what I went with. It was dark blue and had my stenciled under the city's police emblem and on the back big white letters spelled out "Black Woods Taskforce."

"Wow this is cozy." she said as she slipped in on and zipped it up.

"It's Lands End." I said. "We had them made up for everyone in the taskforce."

"So what about you?" I asked as we started walking again. "Why haven't you found a good guy to settle down with?"

"I've always been a career-oriented girl." she said. "I want to get myself established before I think about settling down. When I did try dating it was kind of like you, they were turned off by drive and determination and the time I put into it. I think they were intimidated by a strong woman."

"Their loss." I said and she looked at me and smiled.

As we slowly walked along Kaitlyn gave me a commentary of each section of the garden.

"Did you inherit your mom's green thumb?" I asked as we passed the rosebushes.

"Unfortunately, no." she said. "I can't even keep a little potted plant alive in my apartment. Maybe I just don't have the patience for it."

"Don't feel bad." I said. "I barely have time to keep my yard from looking like the Serengeti."

After we finished the tour of the yard and were making our way back to the deck, we saw Jeslyn standing on the deck.

"There you two are." she said, "Desert is ready."

As all three of us walked inside Jeslyn said, "Found them. They were taking a romantic walk in the yard."

"Jeslyn!" Kaitlyn said.

"Hey, you two look really sweet walking together." Jeslyn said.

"You guys are incorrigible." Kaitlyn said shaking her head.

"What do you expect when we see you walking arm in arm and you're wearing his jacket?" Jeslyn said.

"Kaitlyn why did you take his jacket? He's going to get sick." Judy said.

"You see, I told you she was going to get on me!" Kaitlyn said to me. Turning back to her mom she said, "He made me take it."

"You were shivering." I said. "What was I supposed to do? Let you catch a chill and get sick? The last thing I need you sniffling and sneezing all over my office."

"Oh you're too kind." Kaitlyn said to me sarcastically and we all laughed.

"All right all right these cakes aren't going to eat themselves." Bill said and we all lined up to get desert.

After desert and a couple more rounds of pool with Bill in the garage it was well past dark and while I wouldn't be going to work until 7, I knew I needed to go home and get some rest. After telling Bill I should probably go he and I made our way back into the house and I began making the rounds saying goodbye to everyone.

As I was saying goodbye to Jamie and Jeslyn Judy appeared with a bulging bag filled with plastic containers.

"Here's some food for you to take home Matt." she said handing me the huge bag.

"Holy cow! I won't need to buy food for a week. Thank you." I said. "I'll give the containers back to Kaitlyn as I empty them."

"Come back anytime dear." Judy said. "Kaitlyn, you bring him around especially if he looks like he hasn't eaten."

"Thanks for everything." I said to everyone as Kaitlyn, and I moved towards the door. Kaitlyn and I walked off the porch and down to where my car was parked on the street in front of the house. I dropped Judy's care package on the back floorboard before turning to face Kaitlyn.

"I had a good time. Thanks for inviting me." I said.

"I wouldn't have felt right knowing you were at home alone just reading reports all day." Kaitlyn said.

We hugged each other for a bit before I opened my car and got in saying, "See you at the command center."

"You know I'll be there." she said smiling.

"I know my little groupie won't disappoint." I said and we both laughed.

"Bye Matt take care." she said still smiling at me.

"You too." I said as I started the car before driving away.

It wasn't until I saw Kaitlyn walking back towards the house, I noticed she was still wearing my taskforce jacket. It didn't even occur to me as we were talking or hugging each other goodbye. I know, some detective I am. I could have gotten her attention and gotten it back, but for some strange reason I didn't have the heart to. She seemed to like wearing it, never taking it off, even back inside and after her family's ribbing her for it. She'd bring it to me at the command center and in the meantime, I had other jackets to wear. I got home feeling a lot better than I had in a long time. And for the first time in ages felt ready to get back to work trying to find a serial killer.

***

Mid-morning the next day found me at a meeting of the taskforce's senor staff. We were arguing over the latest leads that should be followed up on. One particular lead had the staff divided. A call to the tip line said that our killer may be a former member of law enforcement.

"Matt I just don't see how it could be possible." Jeff said. "Someone in law enforcement doing these terrible things. Someone who could have sat in this room at some point." A couple of the other detectives voiced their agreement with Jeff.

"I don't like the idea either, but I feel like it needs to be followed up on." I said. "We've followed up on leads that made less sense. That trucker lead for example."

"Ok, I'll look into it." Jeff said.

Looking at a couple other team members I asked, "What about the reports that we're dealing with some kind of wildman who lives in the woods?"

"We've got a couple of undercover guys among the homeless population and a couple more searching the woods, but it's a gargantuan task. You know how large that forest is. If our guy is in there he could be anywhere." Detective Jason Riley said.

"I'll be honest though Matt, I don't think this is the right lead. Anyone who can shoot someone and dump their body in the woods without being caught I find hard to believe he's also living in those woods like Robinson Crusoe " Jason said. "I'd go along with the former cop theory first and I find that one hard to swallow too."

"I see where you're coming from Jason, but until we get something that isn't a dead end we've got no choice but to follow up on everything." I said.

"Yeah, I know. I just can't believe that after the thousands of hours we've put into this we still don't have a solid lead." Jason said. "I mean this guy has to be around somewhere. He can't just have vanished."

After going over several more leads and assigning them to be worked on I closed the meeting and made my way to meet Captain Jones. He and I then had a meeting with the Chief of Police, the city's Director of Public Safety and the Mayor. As I briefed Jones on our latest work, he and I agreed that the powers that be probably wouldn't be happy with our lack of progress.

The meeting with the powers that be went about as well as I expected it to. By the time Captain Jones and I left I was fuming. As we rode back to Police HQ I said to Jones exasperated,

"If he thinks he can do better than maybe he should take over the investigation."

"Matt, I know you're upset but..." Jones said.

"Captain, I don't mind being asked hard questions you know that." I said. "You've never held back hard questions and many times that's been very helpful to me. What gets me is being grilled by a Safety Director that's never spent a day doing what we do and thinking he can somehow get better results."

"I know Matt, but unfortunately there's nothing we can do about him." Jones said.

Once we got back to Police HQ, I spent the rest of the day following up with my team members and getting progress report updates. Since it was still technically a holiday week Jones agreed we could all leave early so a little after 6 with most of the team already gone, I packed up a box of files to review at home and headed out.

Once I got home, I heated up a plate from the care package that Kaitlyn's mom hand given me. After eating I spread the files out on my kitchen table and began reading. As I was trying to read the reports my mind kept going back to the meeting at City Hall and I felt my nerves getting worked up again. After a few minutes of trying to stay focused on my work and not succeeding I put the file down and took a deep breath. I knew of only one person who could probably make me feel better. I picked up my phone and called Kaitlyn.

After a few rings I heard her voice come through the speaker, "Hi Matt, what's up?"

"It's been a long hard day." I told her.

"What happened?" she asked sounding concerned. I gave her a rundown of the meeting at City Hall and my frustrations with the Safety Director.

"Wow, he sounds like a real asshole" Kaitlyn said. "Who is he to talk to you like that?"

"Unfortunately, he's the Director of Public Safety." I told her. "And the Safety Director is the top law enforcement officer in the city. He's my boss and he could fire me."

"Wow that sucks." Kaitlyn said.

"Like I told Captain Jones earlier I don't mind being asked hard questions. What gets me about him is that he's never been in law enforcement, yet he thinks he knows everything and can tell us how to do our jobs. I almost feel like he looks down at us even though we're his employees." I told Kaitlyn.

"How can he be the top cop if he's never been a cop?" Kaitlyn asked.

"The Safety Director is appointed by the mayor and is over police, fire, and traffic." I explained. "And apparently there are no requirements for that person to have any law enforcement or public service experience."

"Well, that's stupid." Kaitlyn said. "How can a person be a good Safety Director if they've got no experience in law enforcement?"

"You think like I do." I said. "I don't think Lovelle is a bad guy, but he's got the wrong mindset. I think he has a corporate background so that's how he thinks and runs things. Corporate guys often think they know it all. I think he's old friends with the mayor and that's how he got appointed. The mayor thinks the same way but at least he's got better people skills."

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that Matt." Kaitlyn said. "You didn't deserve that. You'll figure it all out I know you will. Why don't you get something to eat and try to relax."

"I ate when I got home." I told her. "I heated up some of your mom's cooking. I was going to try to get caught up on the latest reports that have come into the task force when my mind went back to dealing with Lovelle and it wouldn't leave me alone. I knew I'd feel better if I talked to someone about it and since you're one of the few friends I've got right now you got to be the lucky one to get the call."

"I'm glad I could help you Matt." she said, and I felt warmed by her caring. "Why don't you just take it easy the rest of the night. You've eaten dinner already so get some desert and find something to watch on TV. I know mom put some deserts in that package she made up for you."

"I really need to get caught up on these reports." I said.

"There's nothing in those reports that won't be there tomorrow." Kaitlyn said. "I know you'll be working tomorrow even though it's the weekend, so why don't you just leave it until then?" A brief pause before she added, "You know I'm right and you know I won't leave you alone until you agree."

"Ok, fine you win." I said trying to sound exasperated but not really succeeding. "Some of your mom's carrot cake does sound good."

"I actually made that." Kaitlyn said.

"Did I say carrot cake? I meant pumpkin pie?" I said coyly.

"Don't be cute." she said, and we both started laughing.

Once we stopped laughing, I said, "Thanks Kaitlyn, I feel a lot better now."

"Any time Matt." she said. "Now go get some cake and relax.

"Ok." I said.

"Oh before I forget you left your jacket with me yesterday." she said.

"I know." I said. "You looked so cozy and content wearing it I didn't have the heart to ask for it back last night."

"You're sweet Matt." she said. "I'll bring it to you next time I stop by the command center."

Kaitlyn and I then said our goodbyes and true to my word I packed up my files before getting a big piece of carrot cake and a tall glass of milk and finding and old sci-fi show to watch. Talking to Kaitlyn had the exact effect I had expected. I felt good as I ate my cake and watched the cheesy 70's sci-fi show on tv.