The Death Of Jackson Harris

Chapter 4

"You look like shit."

"Thanks, Grace. That's something I want to hear."

She laughed and tossed a file to the side before sitting back in her own office chair. Her own desk and chair were moved in here while I was out and all the files and folders surrounded her desk and some even laid on the floor. I took a glance at the one on the floor and winced as I saw folder number fifty-six. More complaints and cases were coming in, we were never going to reach the end of it.

"Jacob is almost done questioning the five people about the complaints that were made this morning. Plus, another ten, but he wanted to talk to the wife of the guy that was just murdered before going to talk to the new ten people. He should be in one of the questioning rooms if you want to head over. He has the notes he's supposed to give you anyway."

I sighed and dragged my body out of the office and down to the questioning rooms. I stopped a detective to ask which one he was in, and he pointed to the third room. I entered the room to see Sarah Jenkins standing there looking bored.

"Anything interesting?" I asked sarcastically.

"This one claims that Jackson Harris was the one who robbed his store but camera footage showed a blonde, tall, skinny man who looked to be in his twenties. Still, he's certain it's Jackson Harris."

I released a chuckle and shook my head. Jackson Harris was a professional criminal, he wouldn't risk himself by robbing a store with not even a mask to cover his face. No, Jackson Harris was smart, which pissed me off even more.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Just tired," I mumbled.

She nodded and sighed before checking her watch and releasing a happy squeal, saying, "Lunchtime! Do you mind staying here? I was observing, but there wasn't much to take note of. He was looking for you anyway."

"Yeah, go ahead."

She yelled her thanks before disappearing and happily going on her way. I rubbed the back of my neck in stress and sat down on a chair as I watched the hard-headed man demand it was Jackson Harris. Jacob was having none of it as he shook his head in frustration and took a deep breath. After a while of constantly hearing the name, a headache was bound to form. The name was spoken more times than we can count and it was even more frustrating that we don't know who or what the guy even looks like. It was a pain in the ass.

"Here's what I'm thinking. You heard about the news of the murder and thought, 'Hey! Let's get some media attention for our store by making a fake robbery scene!' You had an old friend pretend to be Jackson Harris so we would take the bait and let me guess, you weren't going to press charges after all to let your old buddy go. Is that right?"

The man sat there furiously as he glared at Jacob who chuckled and stood up straight. He gathered up his paperwork as the man continued to sit there in all his anger. Jacob opened the door for the man who bumped his shoulder against Jacob's on his way out. Another detective escorted the now shouting man out the door along with his buddy who pretended to be Jackson Harris. The door opened to reveal Jacob who looked at me and gave another chuckle.

"Do they honestly think we are stupid?"

I shrugged and rolled my eyes, sitting up to fix my bad posture as I said, "What can I say? People get desperate."

"I just finished up with the five people if you want to head out with me to go talk to the wife now."

"Ready when you are."

"Cool, I'll drive. By the way, no useful cases from the five. Three were completely fake, and two were from paranoid people. I checked everything out, and I still filed some paperwork in case you wanted it. You never know when something could actually be useful."