Hazard
He raised his hands then and gazed at the blood that ran from them and smiled wide and dimpled in an absentminded fashion, before turning again to the dead man underneath him and admiring his work once more.
No one would recognise him now.
One week later:
The doctor sighed as he pulled off his gloves. This was a part of the job no man wanted to do. No matter that in this town nothing like this had ever happened before, and this would be the first time since he had arrived in this town fourteen years before that he was faced with this.
He discarded the gloves and washed his hands in the sink and stopped just inside the door to his autopsy room bracing himself for the news he now had to deliver.
Taking a deep breath Doctor Jeffrey Morgan swung open the doors and faced the officers waiting outside. The Sheriff, a gruff man by the name of Jim Beaver stood, with his remaining deputy Chris Kane standing hot on his heels, both men anxious for news and both hoping they were wrong.
Jeff stood facing the two waiting men, not wanting to draw this out anymore than he had to but not able to find the words he needed to say, finally he tentatively touched Jim on the arm.
“I’m sorry Jim, it’s him.”
Jim gasped in a choked sob before nodding briefly to himself and looked at Jeff and asked,
“You’re sure? You’re one hundred percent sure it’s my Deputy? My son?”
Jeff nodded and Jim bowed his head in grief, and Chris Kane stepped forward, a look of murderous steel in eyes that were suspiciously bright with tears.
“Is there anything you can tell us Jeff? Anything at all that can help us track the bastard that did this?”
Jeff hesitated, this was what he didn’t want, this was one time he really wished he wasn’t working in a town as small as this, where everyone knew everyone, because he knew that what he told the officers next was in all likelihood condemning a young man he had known and watched grow for years to the lions den. For these two officers had a vested interest in this one. A son and a colleague had been brutally stabbed to death in a fashion that he had never ever seen, not even in the damn movies, stabbed beyond recognition leaving only D.N.A. testing to give them a positive I.D.
“Jeff?”
Kane’s voice broke through his thoughts and he focused once more on the younger man. Clearing his throat he nodded slowly;
“Yes, I uh...I’m sorry Jim, I don’t want to upset you, but, I found some semen in his stomach...”
Jim’s eyes snapped to Jeff’s sorrowful ones.
“I’m aware that my son was gay Jeff, just tell us what you know, were you able to get D.N.A.? Who was my son with?”
Jeff sighed again and bowed his head briefly before raising it and meeting Jim’s eyes once more, it wasn’t the fact that he had found the semen, it was who the semen belonged to that bothered him, because he knew this town. He knew how the people of this town had treated this kid, and he felt sick that he was now about to condemn him.
“Yes I was able to get a sample and I know whose it is, I know who the last person was to see your son alive”
Kane stepped forward and growled in Jeff’s face.
“Damnit! Just tell us!”
“It’s Jareds, Jared Padalecki’s.”
“My god...”
Jim sat heavily in the chair he had vacated as he struggled to let the news sink in.
That fucking weirdo... that.... freak, had laid his hands on his boy...he had known his son felt sorry for him, had befriended him, but.... not this....goddamnit not this!
He raised a shocked face to Jeff and pleaded, “No... Jeff no... are you sure?”
“Yes, one hundred percent positive, I was able to compare it to other D.N.A .samples I have here from Jared, I have been his doctor for years, so yes I’m sure.”
Jim rose on shaky legs, shock and anger now warring inside him... that boy may not have been his flesh and blood, but he was his stepson and he was going to put down that murdering freak if it was the last thing he did.
“Chris... go bring him in...I don’t care how and I don’t care what state he is in when he reaches me, just bring him in lucid enough to confess... that bastard is going down!”
Chris nodded stiffly and left, taking another officer with him and drove the short distance to the quiet neighbourhood and the neat little house near the end of a row.
Stepping out of the car, he looked on at the normal looking house and wondered how such a murdering bastard could have lived here for so long and how long had he planned to kill his friend? The man he.....
He mentally shook himself from his thoughts and braced his shoulders. He nodded to the other officer pulled out his handgun and approached the house.
There was no sound at all coming from the house and after knocking quickly once, impatience got the better of him and he kicked the door in and was faced with a shocked and obviously terrified Padalecki who had just been heading to answer it.
“You sick fuck!”
Chris acted before he even knew what he was doing and in Padalecki’s shocked state he was no match for the officer who quickly had him pinned down.
“What? What’s going on? Have you found him? Is he ok? Please... Please tell me?”
Jared was yanked forcefully to his feet unconsciously reverting back to his habit of hunching over in an attempt to hide himself, a habit he had started to come out of, until now.
The young officer who was accompanying Kane looked on nervously,
“Uh Chris, I don’t think such force is necessary man, he isn’t resisting...”
“Shut up...shut the fuck up Welling or so help me god....this man is being brought in for questioning, he is resisting arrest and I have to use force...”
“But....”
Kane turned to stare right into Wellings eyes and the younger man wisely decided to shut his mouth and go with the flow, Kane may be smaller than him, but he was known to be a total wild card and he wasn’t drawing him on him today, not with the mood he was in. So he took a step backward, raising his hands in a show of defeat...
Kane turned back to face Jared Padalecki who was staring at them in shock and Kane used as much force as he could to painfully cuff his hands behind his back causing a grunt of pain to fall from Jareds mouth...
“Please....whats going on? Questioning? Why? Have you found him? Is he ok? Please? God please tell me!”
Kane didn’t even try and hide the look of hatred on his face as he looked at the man who had murdered his friend, they had no proof yet, oh but they would get it, he would make damn sure of that! He yanked on Jareds arm hard causing another grunt to fall from his lips as he was led out to the waiting police car.
Jared didn’t even bother trying to reason with them; didn’t bother trying to tell them he would come peacefully. He knew what this was. This was this town, deciding he was a freak and a weirdo again, this was this town treating him like the leper they always had done. He should have known it wouldn’t last, should have known they would go back to this eventually. So he did what he always had done when they had teased and taunted him as a child, he shut down. He didn’t even react when Chris very deliberately took Jareds head as he was lowering him into the car and bounced it off the door causing blood to flow very quickly from the open wound it caused.
“Uh Chris...”
Kane turned to gaze at Welling almost daring him to speak again and Welling swallowed audibly before continuing;
“You uh... you haven’t told him why he is being brought in man, nothing will hold up in court the way you are going....come on... I want this guy to go down as much as you do...”
Kane considered this for a moment before nodding and smiling a nasty smile that Welling didn’t want to decipher. Bending down into the back seat of the car, where Padalecki sat, looking groggy from the bang his head had taken, he sneered.
“Know why you are coming with us Dickie?”
Jared flinched at the use of one of the names he had been taunted with for years and Kane continued, the glee obvious in his voice;
“You are being brought in for questioning, you are our number one suspect Paladickie, in fact, I’d say you’re our only suspect, in the murder of Jensen Ackles!”
Jared’s head snapped up at that and the terror and grief and disbelief at the words he had heard were obvious in his expressive eyes.
“No....No.... Not dead... he isn’t dead.... it’s a mistake.... oh god...”
He barely got his head out the door of the car in time to vomit at Chris’s feet, earning himself a hard slap to his face as he was roughly pushed back in.... but he completely ignored the acts of violence:
“No.... please.... It’s not Jensen, you’ve made a mistake.... it can’t be...”
Tears flowed freely down his face as he fought to control himself, he knew nothing he said was gonna matter now....nothing mattered now....
Jensen was dead....
Nothing mattered.
Chapter 2
No one would recognise him now.
One week later:
The doctor sighed as he pulled off his gloves. This was a part of the job no man wanted to do. No matter that in this town nothing like this had ever happened before, and this would be the first time since he had arrived in this town fourteen years before that he was faced with this.
He discarded the gloves and washed his hands in the sink and stopped just inside the door to his autopsy room bracing himself for the news he now had to deliver.
Taking a deep breath Doctor Jeffrey Morgan swung open the doors and faced the officers waiting outside. The Sheriff, a gruff man by the name of Jim Beaver stood, with his remaining deputy Chris Kane standing hot on his heels, both men anxious for news and both hoping they were wrong.
Jeff stood facing the two waiting men, not wanting to draw this out anymore than he had to but not able to find the words he needed to say, finally he tentatively touched Jim on the arm.
“I’m sorry Jim, it’s him.”
Jim gasped in a choked sob before nodding briefly to himself and looked at Jeff and asked,
“You’re sure? You’re one hundred percent sure it’s my Deputy? My son?”
Jeff nodded and Jim bowed his head in grief, and Chris Kane stepped forward, a look of murderous steel in eyes that were suspiciously bright with tears.
“Is there anything you can tell us Jeff? Anything at all that can help us track the bastard that did this?”
Jeff hesitated, this was what he didn’t want, this was one time he really wished he wasn’t working in a town as small as this, where everyone knew everyone, because he knew that what he told the officers next was in all likelihood condemning a young man he had known and watched grow for years to the lions den. For these two officers had a vested interest in this one. A son and a colleague had been brutally stabbed to death in a fashion that he had never ever seen, not even in the damn movies, stabbed beyond recognition leaving only D.N.A. testing to give them a positive I.D.
“Jeff?”
Kane’s voice broke through his thoughts and he focused once more on the younger man. Clearing his throat he nodded slowly;
“Yes, I uh...I’m sorry Jim, I don’t want to upset you, but, I found some semen in his stomach...”
Jim’s eyes snapped to Jeff’s sorrowful ones.
“I’m aware that my son was gay Jeff, just tell us what you know, were you able to get D.N.A.? Who was my son with?”
Jeff sighed again and bowed his head briefly before raising it and meeting Jim’s eyes once more, it wasn’t the fact that he had found the semen, it was who the semen belonged to that bothered him, because he knew this town. He knew how the people of this town had treated this kid, and he felt sick that he was now about to condemn him.
“Yes I was able to get a sample and I know whose it is, I know who the last person was to see your son alive”
Kane stepped forward and growled in Jeff’s face.
“Damnit! Just tell us!”
“It’s Jareds, Jared Padalecki’s.”
“My god...”
Jim sat heavily in the chair he had vacated as he struggled to let the news sink in.
That fucking weirdo... that.... freak, had laid his hands on his boy...he had known his son felt sorry for him, had befriended him, but.... not this....goddamnit not this!
He raised a shocked face to Jeff and pleaded, “No... Jeff no... are you sure?”
“Yes, one hundred percent positive, I was able to compare it to other D.N.A .samples I have here from Jared, I have been his doctor for years, so yes I’m sure.”
Jim rose on shaky legs, shock and anger now warring inside him... that boy may not have been his flesh and blood, but he was his stepson and he was going to put down that murdering freak if it was the last thing he did.
“Chris... go bring him in...I don’t care how and I don’t care what state he is in when he reaches me, just bring him in lucid enough to confess... that bastard is going down!”
Chris nodded stiffly and left, taking another officer with him and drove the short distance to the quiet neighbourhood and the neat little house near the end of a row.
Stepping out of the car, he looked on at the normal looking house and wondered how such a murdering bastard could have lived here for so long and how long had he planned to kill his friend? The man he.....
He mentally shook himself from his thoughts and braced his shoulders. He nodded to the other officer pulled out his handgun and approached the house.
There was no sound at all coming from the house and after knocking quickly once, impatience got the better of him and he kicked the door in and was faced with a shocked and obviously terrified Padalecki who had just been heading to answer it.
“You sick fuck!”
Chris acted before he even knew what he was doing and in Padalecki’s shocked state he was no match for the officer who quickly had him pinned down.
“What? What’s going on? Have you found him? Is he ok? Please... Please tell me?”
Jared was yanked forcefully to his feet unconsciously reverting back to his habit of hunching over in an attempt to hide himself, a habit he had started to come out of, until now.
The young officer who was accompanying Kane looked on nervously,
“Uh Chris, I don’t think such force is necessary man, he isn’t resisting...”
“Shut up...shut the fuck up Welling or so help me god....this man is being brought in for questioning, he is resisting arrest and I have to use force...”
“But....”
Kane turned to stare right into Wellings eyes and the younger man wisely decided to shut his mouth and go with the flow, Kane may be smaller than him, but he was known to be a total wild card and he wasn’t drawing him on him today, not with the mood he was in. So he took a step backward, raising his hands in a show of defeat...
Kane turned back to face Jared Padalecki who was staring at them in shock and Kane used as much force as he could to painfully cuff his hands behind his back causing a grunt of pain to fall from Jareds mouth...
“Please....whats going on? Questioning? Why? Have you found him? Is he ok? Please? God please tell me!”
Kane didn’t even try and hide the look of hatred on his face as he looked at the man who had murdered his friend, they had no proof yet, oh but they would get it, he would make damn sure of that! He yanked on Jareds arm hard causing another grunt to fall from his lips as he was led out to the waiting police car.
Jared didn’t even bother trying to reason with them; didn’t bother trying to tell them he would come peacefully. He knew what this was. This was this town, deciding he was a freak and a weirdo again, this was this town treating him like the leper they always had done. He should have known it wouldn’t last, should have known they would go back to this eventually. So he did what he always had done when they had teased and taunted him as a child, he shut down. He didn’t even react when Chris very deliberately took Jareds head as he was lowering him into the car and bounced it off the door causing blood to flow very quickly from the open wound it caused.
“Uh Chris...”
Kane turned to gaze at Welling almost daring him to speak again and Welling swallowed audibly before continuing;
“You uh... you haven’t told him why he is being brought in man, nothing will hold up in court the way you are going....come on... I want this guy to go down as much as you do...”
Kane considered this for a moment before nodding and smiling a nasty smile that Welling didn’t want to decipher. Bending down into the back seat of the car, where Padalecki sat, looking groggy from the bang his head had taken, he sneered.
“Know why you are coming with us Dickie?”
Jared flinched at the use of one of the names he had been taunted with for years and Kane continued, the glee obvious in his voice;
“You are being brought in for questioning, you are our number one suspect Paladickie, in fact, I’d say you’re our only suspect, in the murder of Jensen Ackles!”
Jared’s head snapped up at that and the terror and grief and disbelief at the words he had heard were obvious in his expressive eyes.
“No....No.... Not dead... he isn’t dead.... it’s a mistake.... oh god...”
He barely got his head out the door of the car in time to vomit at Chris’s feet, earning himself a hard slap to his face as he was roughly pushed back in.... but he completely ignored the acts of violence:
“No.... please.... It’s not Jensen, you’ve made a mistake.... it can’t be...”
Tears flowed freely down his face as he fought to control himself, he knew nothing he said was gonna matter now....nothing mattered now....
Jensen was dead....
Nothing mattered.
Chapter 2