Like a Moth to a Flame

Andrew 14

It took everything to get me to leave her right now. All I want to do is protect this woman. The pull towards her is insane and its taking eveything out of me to fight it. My phone goes off and I answer without seeing who it is. "Babe! I miss you so much! I made us dinner...can you stop by for a bit?"Its Jenna and I need a distraction from what just happened. "Yea, sure. I'll be there in a bit." She sounds giddy as she hangs up the phone. I wish it were Lisa though.

I leave Jenna's apartment after a short while because Grant called saying he had something he wanted me to see. I speed over to the office and find him staring at the crime scene photos he uploaded. "Where the hell have you been? Take a look at this shit." He says as he points to a photo of droplets of blood against the floor board under the kitchen cabinet. "CSI ran the blood found and   her fingerprints are present but the blood isn't hers. Its a mixture of James Moores and our new prime suspect, Sam Jones. He's got a record of armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and drug possession. You and I are going to pay him a visit right now."

I'm relieved we finally got the results back and its not Lisa's. I still need to know why her fingerprints were on his body and in the kitchen. But for now, things are looking up and we finally have one of the missing pieces to this puzzle.

Grant and I pull up to the last known address for Sam and its on the Southwest side of town. The house has an overgrown front yard, a broken fence, and a beware of dog sign on the mesquite tree in the front yard. The house is a dingy white color, small, maybe a 2 bedroom with an older model ford truck parked in the driveway. We both exit the car and walk up to the gate,rattling it to make sure the dog they're warning us, isn't around.Nothing appears so we head on in down the sidewalk, up the 3 cement steps leading to the front door. Grant's heavy hand knocks on the metal door. We anxiously wait to hear any movement coming from inside. Nothing. He knocks again as I place one hand on my gun and wait again. It doesn't look like anyone is home.

"We don't have any other addresses on file for this fucker," Grant says frustratingly as he turns around, canvasing the neighborhood from the front porch. "Lets pull some surveillance and see if he really lives here."

We head back into the car and wait as the evening sky gets darker. Its closer to 11:30 p.m. When a white sedan pulls up into the driveway. We both look at the file photo we have on Sam and look back at the person climbing out of the car. His height and weight match the description pretty closely but the darkness is preventing us to make a facial match. We decide to give it one more try.

"Excuse me, are you Sam Jones?"Grant asks as we both walk up to the fence again. The guy stands there for a minute trying to contemplate what he should say next."Yea, that's me. Who wants to know?" He's standing and clenching both fists staring at us both. "We're from SAPD and we have a couple of questions we wanted to ask you. Is it ok if we did so?" He doesn't move or say a word for a couple of minutes. I'm already trying to anticipate his next move. If he runs, he'll probably head back into the yard, jump the fence and head down the next street, hiding out in the homes. Or he could have a gun in his car and begin a shootout with us. Odds are, his aim isn't good but I can't take my chances. He could also barricade himself inside his home and begin a standoff. All 3 of those scenarios aren't good but we have to be ready for them or anything else he decides to throw at us.

He begins walking towards us until he's standing right in front of Grant and I. "Yea, what'd you want to know?" Grant doesn't miss a beat. "Do you know someone by the name of James Moore ?" "Who the hell is that? I don't know no James." "Well he was killed a couple of days ago and your blood was found at the scene," Grant continues. "So are you sure you don't know James?" I don't take my eyes off Sam as he shifts his weight. "Look, I did what I had to do. You want to arrest me, go ahead," he says as frustration begins filling his eyes.  I didn't expect that response at all but Grant begins to read him his Miranda rights as he handcuffs him and leads him to our car. Sam doesn't say anything else on the drive to the precinct. We book him in and seat him in the interrogation room. "Reynolds, you're goin' in with me. This one seems too easy but those are sometimes the ones that tend to go bad quick." I check my phone for a message from Lisa, but its just past midnight and she's probably asleep by now. I want to share the news with her, but for now, I'll wait. Maybe it'd be better to give it to her in person.

Grant leads the way into the room and we both take a seat with our notebooks and recorder as Sam watches us both with that same empty look Lisa described James as having.