Secret Deception (Jonathan Black's Love Story)

Chapter 4: Discovery

I sat down in the large chair behind my desk in my New York office. Every state has a field office and as the director I have an office in every field office. I found a small glass jar in the bottom right drawer and placed the purple flower into it. Sitting in front of me in the center of the desk was Jonathan's file. In it, every single piece of evidence used against him in the trial; every witness statement, every picture, his interrogation transcripts; everything. I'd been over every inch of the file over a hundred times and I honestly couldn't think of anything I could have missed.
Nevertheless, I opened the file and browsed over the pictures of the car; the body; the scene. Nothing I hadn't seen before. The position of the body always bothered me. On her left side, her back facing the accident; unnatural. Even if she'd been thrown from the car she'd have flown forward, not sideways. All of the damage was to the front of the car; yes the windshield was shattered and yes it's possible she could have landed that way but it was unlikely. Try as I might I couldn't persuade the judge to allow us to recreate the accident.
Now, a year later my technical analyst had been working on a simulation that would show us all the possible locations the body could have landed taking Jonathan's statements, witness statements and the physical evidence into account.
I continued to read over the file and a sentence I must have overlooked caught my attention.
"Traffic camera footage unavailable at this time."
I never saw any traffic camera footage. As Jonathan's attorney I should have seen any footage the prosecutor's office had. I picked up my phone.
RING. RING.
"DA Oscar Maxwell's office." A pleasant young woman's voice answered.
"Is Mr. Maxwell available?" I asked her.
"He is out of the office today. Is there a message I can leave for him?"
I sighed.
"Will you just tell him that Director Carter would like to speak with him?"
"Of course, Director. Have a wonderful day, ma'am."
"You as well." I hung up and sighed again.
I sat back in my desk chair and looked up at the ceiling.
I'd had an incredibly rough week when Jonathan told me we were going to stay in and he'd make dinner and we'd watch a movie in my basement theater. He drew me a bath with Epsom salts and relaxing candles. I stood in the doorway in my fluffy bathrobe watching him. When he saw me he smiled.
"This is okay, right?" He asked his eyes bright in the candlelight.
"It's perfect, Jonny." I smiled at him.
He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me. I looked up into his face with my hands rested on his biceps.
"Relax for awhile and I'll come get you when dinner's ready."
I nodded.
He leaned down and pressed his lips to my forehead. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to get lost in him. He squeezed me gently and pulled away from me. He smiled at me before walking passed me to the stairs. I watched him walk down the stairs before turning to my bath. About an hour later he knocked on the bathroom door.
"Dinner's just about ready, Lexa."
"Okay. I'll be right down."
After toweling off and dressing in a light pink soft cotton v neck sweater and soft black yoga pants I made my way down the stairs to the dining room.
Before me was an elaborate setting. A large candelabra sat in the center of the table. 3 candles lit casting a soft glow on the expertly plated dish he'd prepared. It was simple yet elegant. Steak and lobster over some potatoes and broccoli. Jonny was standing behind my chair.
"It looks amazing, Jonny." I walked over and sat in the chair he held out for me.
As he pushed my chair in he pressed his lips to my hair. He sat across from me and reached for my hand.
"I know you've been having a hard time at work and I know it's not easy not being able to share the burden of your thoughts with anyone. I know why you can't but it does bother me to see you so upset." He said as I took his hand.
"I just wanted to set something up to where you didn't have to think for awhile."
I smiled at him.
"This has all been so perfect and exactly what I needed."
He smiled back at me and we ate in comfortable silence.
After dinner he insisted I let him clean up and set up the movie in the projector. I smiled and shook my head while I watched him.
As we settled in to watch whichever scary movie he chose for us he turned to look at me.
"There's one more thing."
He pulled a small square box out of his pants pocket and handed it to me. I opened the small box. Inside was a small silver bracelet with a silver heart that was completely adorned with Swarovski crystals.
"It's beautiful, Jonny. You didn't have to do this." I looked up into his eyes.
"I just want to make you happy." He smiled back at me.
"Just being with you makes me happy. Jonny, you make me happy."
He leaned toward me and kissed me.
The ringing phone ripped me from my pleasant memory.
"Director Carter." I answered.
"Director. This is Oscar Maxwell. My assistant tells me you called."
"Yes. I was looking back over the Jonathan Black file and I noticed that the traffic camera footage was unavailable at the time of the original report and I was wondering if you'd seen the footage?"
"Let me pull up the case. One moment."
I waited my breath caught in my throat.
"No, Director. The traffic camera footage was never recovered."
My brow furrowed.
"Okay, Mr. Maxwell. Thank you for returning my call."
"Of course, Director Carter. Have a great day."
He hung up and I slowly returned the phone to it's cradle.
I starred into the distance for a moment; my thoughts racing.
I picked up the phone again and dialed an all to familiar number.
"Alexia?" A strong male voice answered.
"I need your help." I said into the reciever.