Always By Your Side (Jack Archer x Mithran Ganesh)

Chapter Five

As we sped through traffic my blood was boiling luckily, I have Mithran to calm me down it wasn't long until we arrived quickly hopping out only to fall flat on my face. "Jack are you okay?" I nodded hopping up wiping the dirt off. "Yeah, I'm okay we need to hurry." He nodded as the two of us made our way in spotting them in the distance looking up, I saw one of the security guards' jogs towards us. "Excuse me are you with the Bureau?" We nodded showing them our badges. "Yes, we are thanks for stopping them they are suspects in a murder investigation." The security guard nodded holding up a small baggie which contained some sort of jewelry and a checkbook. "This was located in the building manager's suitcase." I nodded pulling on some gloves immediately noticing something else. "Hey Mithran come here for a moment." I heard him walking towards me. "What's going on Jack?" I turned around showing him. "Take a look at this doesn't this look familiar?" He nodded pulling out his notepad looking through it. "Yes, it's the victim's missing jewelry and what looks like her key to her apartment." Slowly looking up we saw that the building manger was getting nervous. "Why do you have the victim's jewelry and key?" He swallowed the lump in his throat. "I haven't been honest with you completely the truth is that I was inside her apartment the night before she was killed." We turned to look at him wide eyed. "So, you're telling us that you were in her apartment the night before is there a reason?" He nodded taking a deep breath. "I never intended for this to happen at all what happened was one of my tenants came in with a complaint saying that Kayla broke into their apartment and stole an antique, so I decided to confront her when she got back well the moment, she did I ran out of my office towards her apartment yelling at her to return the antique when she tried to close the door in my face that's when I lost it kicking in the door she screamed at me to get out when I didn't she grabbed her phone dialing the police I grabbed the phone from her hand going into her room tearing it from top to bottom when I didn't find it I decided to her jewelry and key saying that she had a week to get out and never come back." We just stared at each other for a few seconds before turning back to look at him. "Why didn't you report the theft to the local authorities then?" At this point his entire face turned pale white. "Well, I guess the other thing I forgot to mention is I have a warrant out for my arrest for breaking and entering also along with theft." Without saying another word, I escorted him to the cruiser while Mithran stayed behind questioning Derek writing down more important information after getting the building manager situated, I headed on back to where Derek's at. "Alright Derek why are you here?" He looked up at me before removing the piece of torn cloth off his left hand which revealed a bloody knuckle. "What happened?" Taking a deep break letting the tears stream down his face." I should have just stayed with her I received a text message from her a few days before she was killed when I found out that not only was her ex-boyfriend messaging her, but that retired cop was too." I turned to look at him with wide eyes. "Wait a minute her ex-boyfriend and the ex-cop were messaging her too!?" He nodded shaking with anger. "Looks like we're going to have to speak with them again in the meantime why don't you head off to the hospital okay we'll let you know if we catch the killer." He nodded slowly standing up with the help of the security guards it hurts to see him like this which gives me the burst of energy I need to solve this case and bring justice once and for all grabbing the evidence bag I headed back towards the cruiser after getting in the three of us headed back towards HQ along the way I had Mithran text Elliot asking if he could get an ID on the building manager hoping we could get a name while driving down the road my phone starts going off I answered the call putting it on speaker. "Hey Elliot, what's up?" At first, he didn't respond but a few seconds later he answered. "Hey Archer, I ran a background check on that building manager, and you'll never believe this it turns out that his name is Richard Huxley a wanted person in the disappearance of a married couple in 1975 the authorities have been searching everywhere for him luckily I managed to contact the detectives working the case unfortunately one of them passed away years ago but the other one is on his way down." I nodded turning towards Mithran who also had a smile across his face as we pulled into the HQ parking lot shutting off the cruiser while opening the door, I heard a loud crash followed by a loud crash sighing I grabbed the evidence and Richard as the three of us headed inside I was just hoping to get this done and over with but knowing that Chief Ripley will be on my butt. "Hey Mithran, can you deliver the evidence to the lab, and I'll take Richard to the interrogation room, okay?" He nodded as we headed in different directions during the silent walk Richard looked at me from the corner of his eye. "Is that your partner Secret Agent Archer?" I nodded trying to hide the blush. "There's no reason to be nervous you have feelings for him, don't you?" Once again, I nodded struggling to focus. "I'm sorry for asking but the way that you look at each other brings me nothing but joy seeing those who care about their partners no matter what, but I have a feeling that you two will make a wonderful couple just remember that all you need is love and trust to make a relationship work." I turned to look at him. "You really mean that?" He nods smiling. "Absolutely love is love everyone deserves to be loved." After arriving I opened the door allowing him in closing the door behind us, I took a seat on one side, and he sat on the other. "About the disappearance of the married couple in 1975?" He sighed looking straight at me. "My parents were friends with them I was 18 years old back then we got along just fine no trouble at all in fact they invited us all to pretty much everything I helped them out with chores but then one day I went over to their house to help out again but noticed a moving truck in the driveway, which was strange, but didn't think much of it then I turned around and went home about a few months later I was driving down the highway minding my own business and listening to some cassette tapes when I spotted a wanted poster with my picture on it apparently the police received an anonymous tip saying that I was involved in the disappearance which wasn't true so I did the only thing I could do I kept on driving until I reached the next town over and what I did next was changed my appearance dyed my hair a different color sold my car changed my name and started my new life as I building manager." I just kept staring at him trying to comprehend on what to do next. "How come you didn't come forward and prove your innocence?" He shook his head looking down at the table. "Once again I'll be honest, I didn't have a good record I stole stuff I'm not proud of what I did that's why I left to have a fresh start hoping that one day I would be forgiving." I nodded smiling. "You will but in the meantime, you'll be staying in the holding cell until further notice." He nodded as I helped him up taking him to the holding cell once that was done and over with, I headed back into the interrogation room only to find Mithran sitting there along with the ex-boyfriend and retired cop. "Sorry about the delay now back to the situation at hand why didn't you two tell us that you were messaging Kayla around the time she was killed." Both of them just stared at us for a few moments before looking down. "There's no point in denying it I still love her so when I got back into town, I drove by her apartment but saw her arguing with someone." This immediately piqued my interest. "Did you get a good look at the person?" He thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, this person is about six feet three inches tall with fair skin a black hoodie red curly hair and also has a deep voice." After Mithran written down all the information thanking him, we had Jonah escorted him back to the holding cell which left us with Jacob Brown. "So, our question to you is why are you messaging Kayla did you plan on silencing her?" He shook his head. "No as I said before, I have no idea who she is." That's when I pulled out pictures of the crime scene followed by the pocketknife. We also found your fingerprints at the crime scene and on this pocketknife not only that Kayla's blood was on the blade care to explain?" He started to sweat profusely followed by licking his lips." Ah well I guess it can't be helped now can it I'll admit that I was in fact there at the apartment not to hurt her but to let her know to be very careful around Jason he's extremely dangerous." I turned to look at Mithran with my eyebrow raised. "Are you telling us that you allowed Jason to borrow your pocketknife?" Jacob's eyes widened in horror. "Absolutely not I reported stolen as for the blood I thought it was his." We could only stay silent. "I'm sorry but we need to ask if he ever done this to anyone else besides Kayla?" He thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I'm sure he did but that's one of the reasons I retired in the first place nobody deserves to lose those precious to them." We completely understand what he went through slowly reaching under the table I grasped Mithran's hand in mine not caring if anyone saw. "You can count on us Sir let's head back to the crime scene Mithran were in the home stretch." As the two of us headed out the door only for us to hear the soft whispers of Jacob's voice. "You can do it I know you can." With the fire burning in my heart, we quickly hopped into the cruiser quickly pulling out before speeding down the street back towards the apartment right as we arrived luckily for us nobody was here. "Just in time let's get a finally sweep of the crime scene before it's cleaned." After getting out of the cruiser we quickly headed upstairs and towards the apartment. "Same as last time we'll search each room hoping to find what we need and send this monster away for good got it?" Mithran nodded smiling as we split up taking different rooms searching with a fine-tooth and comb making sure that we don't miss anything important but just when I'm about to give up I think of Mithran and his courage to never give up wiping the sweat off my face I get back to work that's when all of the hard work paid off there in between the air conditioning vent is what looks like to be spots of blood. (That's strange the victim was killed in the living room which could only mean it belongs to the killer!) Grabbing a swab and vile I made my way towards the air vent carefully swabbing the grate just to get enough for testing. "Perfect I hope you're ready because I have a good feeling about this." As I made my way into the living room, I saw that Mithran was busy placing what looks like a webcam in the evidence bag. "Where on earth did you find a webcam?" He pointed to the TV stand. "It was hidden in the cabinet between some books if we're lucky enough it might have captured the murder, I'm hoping that Elliot will be able to see if he can find the last piece, we need to end this once and for all." My eyes went wide followed by a smirk. "Then after that's done, we can arrest the killer and go out on our date!" He nodded slowly turning around to face me once again the room is silent except for the sound of my heart beating faster and faster than something amazing happened he leaned up close and pressed his lips against my cheek my entire face turned bright red I didn't want this moment to end but we had a job to do as we headed back towards HQ, I turned to look at him with a smile followed by wrapping my arm around his waist holding him close. "Thank you for being part of my life you mean everything to me." Pulling into the parking lot I shut off the cruiser laying my head back but before I could do anything I felt myself being dragged out by my ear. "JACK WHY THE HECK DIDN'T YOU ANWSER YOUR PHONE AGAIN I'VE BEEN TRYING TO CALL YOU!" My entire face went pale. "I-I'm sorry Carmen but we were busy getting evidence it won't happen again I promise." But that didn't work this time because the next moment I'm running for my life with Carmen on my tail when I tried to yell for Mithran to help only to realize that he already went inside with the evidence, but I didn't mind though the sooner we arrest the killer the sooner we can go out on our date I would've been lost without my friends and Mithran but as long as they are by my side I'll achieve anything.