Picture Perfect

Chapter 36

    I stood in the middle of the room completely still. I knew all eyes were on me but I didn't care. I was so pissed off and so scared that I could not move.
    At some point, could have been ten minutes or ten seconds, Hayley put her arm around my shoulder and guided me towards the door.
    Before we got to the door she turned back and said, "If it's okay with you Detective Hunter, I'd like a copy of everything you have sent to our station."
    "No problem." Emma replied.
    "And Joey, could you get in contact with Kayla and compare notes?"
    "Not a problem Hayley. I'll call her first thing tomorrow morning. We should have some initial tests run by then."
    "Thank you both. And Hunter if you want to stop by and see what we have from the other scenes you are more than welcome." Hayley added.
    "Thank you, I'll probably be by in a day or two."
    As we passed through the primary crime scene Hayley looked at John and he immediately said, "Full report will be on your desk tomorrow. Also feel free to call me after you look it over if you have further questions. I'll also reach out to your CSU to compare notes."
    "Thank you." Hayley replied then lead me out of the house.
    The cool night air jolted me out of the shock. I immediately grabbed my phone to make a call.
    "Hi mommy." Sebastian greeted happily.
    "Hi sweetheart." I replied unable to stop the flood of tears suddenly streaming down my face. "Can I talk to your dad?"
    "Sure." He said then I heard him yell for Aaron.
    "Hey what's up?" Aaron asked.
    "Is everything okay at home?"
    "Yeah of course. Why wouldn't it be?" He asked. When I didn't respond he said, "Ash, what's wrong?"
    I took a few deep breaths then answered, "I'm at another crime scene. Another family is dead."
    "Are you okay Ash?"
    "No. The killer left a camera behind and among other pictures there were shots of me, you and Bash. And a threatening note."
    Aaron didn't answer right away. I was about to speak again when he said, "Damn that was quick."
    "Huh?"
    "A marked cop car just pulled up in front of the house and that other detective Hayley is always teasing you about is walking up to the house with some guy."
    I had to smile. Aaron was horrible when it came to remembering people unless they were a hot female, so of course he would semi remember Jameson. I looked over at Hayley and saw her putting her phone back in her pocket. I smiled at her appreciatively knowing she was responsible for calling in the cavalry.
    "Hey Ash, Kayla just walked in the door so I'm gonna let you go."
    "Alright. I'll be home as soon as I can Aaron, I promise."
    "Just be safe Ash and come home when you can."
    I turned back to Hayley and said, "You've been busy on your phone."
    "Yeah but let's talk in the car on the way to your house." Hayley said then began walking towards the car. She quickly added, "And hand over the keys partner cause there's no way I'm letting you drive anywhere right now."
    Though I would normally fight Hayley on this, I willingly gave up my keys. My mind was racing, I didn't feel like I could concentrate on any one thing even something as simple as driving.
    The drive from the crime scene to my house was only about ten or fifteen minutes so Hayley wasted no time. As soon as the car was in motion she asked, "Are you okay Ash?"
    I sighed then replied knowing Hayley had been viewing the pictures from behind my shoulder at a distance, "That's a stupid question to ask."
    "Understood." I said with a shrug. "Now I've gotta ask, how did you get people to my house so fast?"
    Hayley smiled, "I'm just that good partner."
    I laughed then replied, "Seriously though. A patrol car, Kayla, Jameson and Jones? Again I ask how did they get there so fast?"
    "When I saw that first picture of you and Bash I sent out a mass text. Jameson and Jones were already in the neighborhood and Kayla was home." Hayley replied.
    "Good call." I replied with a smile. "Now if we can figure out who the hell this psycho is, I might feel comfortable leaving my house again."
    "Huh?" Hayley responded out of confusion.
    I sighed and explained, "This is the second scene that has had some sort of link to me and my family. At this point I don't feel like I should leave my house until this fucker is caught."
    "You can't be serious Ash?" Hayley said in disbelief then added, "You can't catch this guy if you're hiding out at your house."
"Well I can't protect my family if I'm not at home, near them!" I said hoping this would end the conversation. Logically I knew Hayley was right, I couldn't hide out but right now it's all I wanted to do.

Hayley watched as Ashlee ran into her house after they arrived. Before she joined everyone inside she had one more phone call to make.

The rest of the day and night went by fairly uneventfully. Ashlee spent most of the time with her son upstairs while everyone else; that being Aaron, Hayley and Kayla talked downstairs.
"The Captain called me earlier and said there will be at least one car outside around the clock, again." Hayley stated.
Kayla rolled her eyes, "Because that worked so well before."
"Relax Kayla, I asked Ash to get rid of them before." Aaron admitted.
"Are you kidding me?" Kayla said in shock. "Why on earth would you suggest something so stupid?"
Aaron shrugged, "I don't know. The constant surveillance out front kinda creeped me out."
Hayley rolled her eyes at Aaron's weak response. "And having a psycho murderer watching your family doesn't creep you out at all?"
"I know it was stupid." Aaron replied slouching his shoulders and sounding defeated. "I just thought between Ash and I we could keep us and Bash safe without raising too many questions from Bash."
Kayla immediately recognized what Aaron was thinking but not saying, "Aaron under normal circumstances I have no doubt you can protect Bash but this situation is not normal. There is a crazy fucker out there with an ego the size of California who has shown interest in you, Ash and Bash. You are a wonderful dad Aaron, but that's not enough right now."
Aaron nodded and looked at Kayla, "Thank you for understanding where my stupidity was coming from."
Kayla just shrugged, "I'm a mom, I get it."
"There is a little more to it though." Aaron added.
"Okay." Kayla replied obviously confused.
"Ash and I have another court date coming up." Aaron reminded them. "I'm afraid all this might change the judges mind about our current arrangement."
Hayley and Kayla looked at each other, hesitant to ask what they were both thinking. Hayley finally spoke up, "Do you want things to change?"
"Well I'd like to not have a crazy killer watching us but other than that no, I like living here and it makes Bash happy!"
    "For what it's worth it makes Ashlee happy too." Kayla said reassuringly then added, "And even though they think they're too cool to admit it my boys are happy you and Bash live here too. And of course Jackson and I love having you two close as well."
    Aaron smiled, "Thank you Kayla, that really means a lot."
    "You know as long as you take every precaution you can, like allowing cops to be posted outside, there's not much the judge can do. I mean it's not like this happens on every case Ashlee and I work." Hayley offered.
    "True, thank god." Aaron replied.
    They all laughed a little which seemed to ease the anxiety in the room.
    Hayley was about to say something when her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and said, "Excuse me, I've gotta take this." THen she went into the kitchen for some privacy.
    "Hey, thanks for getting back to me so quickly." Hayley said as a greeting.
    "No problem, what can I do?"
    "Tomorrow there should be files from Greenfield's team on mine or Ashlee's desk, can you bring them over to Ashlee's house?"
    "No problem. Anything else you need me to bring?"
    "A suspect would be nice." Hayley joked, "But seriously, just those files and anything else you've dug up on these cases. Oh and maybe some beer, it may be a long night."
    "How's Ashlee holding up?"
    "Too soon to really tell. She took Bash up to her apartment when we got here and I haven't seen her since."
    "Maybe alone time with her son will do her some good."
    "Hopefully it will. See you tomorrow."
    "Absolutely."