Between Love And Hate

Chapter Thirty-two

Raven

Detective Jones. I remembered him the moment dad said his name while I was at the hospital. Even now, I still remembered how he would clap my back every now and then when I was still a kid. He still did it anyway.

Jones was a tall chubby man. He had scrawny beards and a tuft of hair around the bald center on his head. I used to pat it as a kid, it would make a slap slap sound and he would rumble with laughter. I stopped when I was twelve, because he got transferred. And when he came back, he was a little different.

"So, he contacted you out of everyone, for help?" Jones asked Roshni as he twirled the bottle of root beer he was holding as if it was a glass of wine.

"Yeah. I think it was because he saw me talking to Raven at the party." She answered, nervously staring at me.

"Has he called you since then?" My dad asked. Roshni shook her head as if to say no.

"I think he's somewhere cooking up some sort of plan or something. And until he's done, he won't contact you." Jones offered.

"I agree." I said. "D'you remember what he looked like?" I asked Roshni. She nodded. Jones picked up a plain A4 and a pencil, on my father's office desk and handed it to me.

"He had a full hair, but it was short. Ya'know, like real short. His eyes were really dark and he had full brows and a little thick lashes, a crooked nose and..." She moved her hands around, trying to describe and show me the places she wanted me to picture. I just quietly sketched.

"Eh, Uh I think his lips were big. He had beards, lots of it. And there were bruises on his face. His right eye looked like it had been punched black before that night and he had a fresh scar close to his left eye. That's the lot I remember." She stopped.

It was easy to picture Jace mentally, since I already had a mental picture of him. In a few minutes, I was done. I handed Roshni the paper. She took it from me and stared in shock.

"Damn, you're really good at this. It looks exactly like the man who pulled me into the store room." she said as she went over the sketch one last time.

Jones took it from her. He nodded his head in a serious manner.

"You see, the night of the incident, you broke Jace's face. I don't know how you did it, but all those self defense class you took as a kid paid off well. But the problem is, Jace is a wise prick. Might not have been educated much, but he knows how to get around things."

He paused to sip his root beer, before continuing. "When we got him to a hospital, he somehow managed to swap his hospital garment with someone else and his hospital band and then he started a fire. The guard at the door had previously been drugged by a nurse he managed to woo. He escaped in time before the explosion that took place, making us believe he died in the explosion."

"And how did you find out he was still alive?" I asked.

"The hospital's cam footage. It's either, he wasn't as wise as we thought or he was just stupid."

I bobbed my shoulders up and down and sunk back into the fluffy arm chair I was sitting on. Janelle's life was still in danger, our lives were still in danger.
I took off the ribbon I'd previously tied my hair with, letting my hair fall back as I tried to finger comb through the tangled mess.

"The nurse that helped him, have you found her?" I asked Jones.

"We haven't. Wherever she is, I think she's run off with him. But they're still in town, somewhere. We're on the hunt for him." he answered, finally emptying the bottle and sitting it on the table.

He glared at the big wall clock, before turning to face me and dad. "I can't stay much longer. It's past nine. I have to get home. I have a moody wife to handle."

Jones got up from his sit, gave dad a hand shake and a small hug. He clapped Roshni's back and when he got to me, he pulled me into a real tight hug.

"You've grown so big and mature. I'm really proud of you, Ray-ray."

I chuckled lightly and returned his hug. "Thank you." I said.

I watched as dad left the study with Jones as they talked about Jones' pregnant wife that seemed to kick him out of the house almost every night. I found it funny.

Roshni said goodnight before finally leaving me alone. I sunk back into the fluffy arm chair I'd previously been sitting on. I took the sketch I'd made of Jace and stared at it. I was the reason for that scar, I gave him that scar.

Jace Hemingway must have had either a bad childhood or a mental issue that probably caused him to turn into an obsessive person at such a young age. I almost crumpled the paper. Instead, I dropped it back on the desk before leaving the study.

"Are you serious? She did that?" The bubbly voice came from the kitchen, it was Janelle. And even though I itched to be a part of the discussion, I wanted to know who they were talking about.

"Yeah. She was quite the kid. Adorable and all. But she hated girly clothes and when she was still a little girl, we'd ask her what she wanted to become. She had the craziest answers."
That was mum's voice. I blinked.

"What was her answer?" Janelle? I was in for it this night if mum told her.

"When she was three, she said she wanted to be a knight in shining armor. When she turned five, she wanted to be superman. When she turned seven, a cook. And finally, when she turned ten, she wanted to be an artist."

I could hear everyone in the kitchen laughing. Kattie would definitely be rolling on the floor, Paris would be too confused to understand what was going on, she'd smile anyway. Grandma would have her hands on her stomach, trying to control her giggly face.

I casually walked in the kitchen, ignoring everyone. I could hear as they tried to stop laughing. But what did it matter? My answers were from a genuine heart.

I opened the fridge to get the bottle of milk but someone stopped me.

"Rae? We saved you some of the gelato. I hear you love ice cream."

I closed the fridge door and waddled towards Janelle and jumped on the counter top. I took the ice cream from her outstretched hand.

Mum patted my back in a sorry manner. They've bribed me with ice-cream, that was enough.

"When I was a kid, I wanted to be a princess. Princesses need their knights in shining armor. I have mine, and she's eating ice-cream right in front of me." Janelle said, not taking her eyes off me.

I smiled, feeling the cold of the ice cream on my bottom lip. She chuckled softly before bringing her lips close and peppering me with kisses. From the corner of my eye, I could see Paris closing her eyes and the "Awwwn" that followed after from the rest of the family members present in the kitchen.

It won't be long until Janelle's cheesiness rubs off on me...