Soulmates - Jack Thompson

-33-

"El Lobo's racing in the fourth. Place a bet for me after you find Chadwick." Sousa put his feet on his desk.
"You aren't coming with her?" I asked as I took the money from him to hand it over to Peggy.
"You aren't either."
"Yeah, but I'm 'not allowed' to go, because you have work for me." He nodded.
"Ugh." I brought Peggy downstairs and went up again as soon as she was out of sight. I went to Daniels office, because he hadn't gave me the work yet. I found his, still sitting with his feet up on his desk, but he put them down and stood up as soon as I entered.
"I'm sorry for how I talked to you." Okay, I didn't understand it anymore.
"I don't have work for you, well not extra work." I raised an eyebrow at him.
"I just wanted to tell you something before you find out yourself." He sat downing his desk like Jack always did. It looked weird as I saw Daniel doing it instead of him.
"I have a girlfriend, for quite a while now." I felt shocked. Why didn't he tell me? It was like he could see right through my head.
"I didn't say anything because I was scared... I didn't only move her for the job, but also to run away from my feelings for Peggy." I felt bad for him and offered him a hug. He looked sad, it broke my heart to see him like that, he always seemed so happy.
"I'm sorry Dan." He smiled.
"Well, you can go to work now." I nodded.
"Yes sir." And I laughed as I walked out of his office.

I was reading some files and staring out of the window as I thought about what Sousa said. I felt really bad for him, but also for Peggy. I knew she really did like him. And I also knew that she didn't like it when he went to Los Angeles. She sounded less confident and happy on the phone, luckily it went away after a while. I didn't know how she was feeling at the moment, but I knew it was better than before. Suddenly I thought about Jack, I never really realized how much I missed him. I barely talked to him and I was too busy laying in the sun all day. I felt guilty and called him right away.
"Jack Thompson." He sounded annoyed by the phone.
"Hey, it's me."
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" He immediately sounded different.
"No, I just wanted to check up on you."
"Oh, okay." His voice sounded relieved. Why would he think something had happened?
"So? How are you?"
"I'm fine." It was really awkward. We never had awkward conversations, but I just didn't know what to say.
"Good, have you gotten something out of Underwood yet?" It was silent for a while.
"No." I figured he probably just shook his head and then realized I couldn't see that.
"Okay, uhm... have a great day!"
"Thanks." He hung up the phone immediately. What was that? He didn't even bother to start a talk with me. I instantly regretted calling him. I just went back to the files.

After a while I saw Peggy coming back up again. I rushed to her.
"What happened? What did you found out? Did he kill her? Did your horse win?"
"Rose, calm down." She said as she walked straight towards Daniel who was on the phone. Looking at his face, I figured it was his girlfriend. I couldn't let her come in there.
"I'm sorry, I just had a bad day." I looked at the ground and even though I actually was sad, I still had to fake it.
"Oh no, what happened?" She stopped walking and we sat down at a desk nearby. My plan was working.
"I thought it was a good idea to call Jack, so I did..." I started.
"But he tried avoiding me and acted like he didn't want to talk to me at all." It wasn't hard to bring up fake tears.
"I'm so sorry." Peggy hugged and comforted me. She had two completely different sides. At one side she was confident, strong and she could be a huge bitch. But at the other side she was loving, caring and emotional. I saw Daniel putting down the phone.
"It's alright, I feel better now I talked about it." A few seconds later we stood up and I dried my fake tears. Daniel was walking towards us already.

"So?" He asked as we followed him to the lab.
"Chadwick was nervous. He has more to hide than a dalliance with an employee." She said.
"Now that the autopsy report's complete, we have a better idea of what happened."
A door opened and closed behind us. Henry ran after us, coughing and scoffing. That guy had a terrible cold.
"Been on this case for two years and you're not gonna wait for me?"
"If you just came immediately and didn't run like a snail." He coughed again and didn't say anything anymore.
"Still freezing in here. How did Meltzer even cut into the body?" Henry said as he closed the door behind us.
"What'd you find, Dr. Meltzer?" He didn't reply.
"Dr. Meltzer?" Daniel tapped on his shoulder. I let out a huge scream as the scientist shattered into pieces.