The results of the fingerprint search were not what Knox and Jensen had been expecting. They had anticipated a match to one of the people who were working on the Backstreet Boys’ crew, or perhaps to a convicted felon who happened to be in the area. They got quite the opposite though; there was a match to a latent fingerprint from a cold case. To make matters even more complicated the case hadn’t been worked since the mid-50’s.
Jensen had a difficult time believing that they were looking for an old man but it was hard to dispute a perfect fingerprint match, even if their print wasn’t as good as they would have liked. Late into the night, well after Knox had left for home to sleep and shower, she found herself staring at his computer screen at the man who supposedly was in the alley with his hand around Melissa’s throat, the man who she was supposed to believe ripped out a 21 year old woman’s liver.
He had been brought in for questioning on a homicide in 1955, the details of which she didn’t know yet. All she knew because of the age of the case (digital records were only kept on recent cases, older ones were still boxed up and kept in warehouses) was that this man had been a suspect but later cleared. Still his photo and fingerprints were kept in the system until the case was finally closed.
Gabriel O’Dell was his name. He would have been just about thirty at the time his photograph and fingerprints had been taken, which would make him almost 86 years old now. Jensen found it nearly laughable to think that someone who had been around for close to a century could strangle a girl with their bare hands before defiling her body, she just didn’t buy it.
She let out a tired sigh, leaning her head in her hands as she continued to stare at the photo. He was attractive for the time and his rough-around-the-edges rebel style was definitely influenced by Elvis and James Dean who were popular at the time. It was a black and white photo which didn’t give her a very good idea of what he looked like in person but Jensen knew from the accompanying information that he had light brown hair, blue eyes, and stood a little over six feet. He had a thin face, with a soft rounded jaw and strong brow line, a definite pretty boy. She wondered what he looked like now; probably wrinkled, and weathered.
When people started coming in to work Jensen realized that she had been sitting there all night. At some point she had likely nodded off but she was too anxious to start making phone calls to go home and sleep. They needed to talk to the cold case officers who were more familiar with Mr. O’Dell, and try to find out where he was now.
As she dialled the number for the investigating officer’s she glanced down at Knox’s desk, covered with a collection of random paperwork. One piece of paper stuck out over all the others though; the Backstreet Boy’s schedule. They would be in Georgia that day, attending a fundraiser for some children’s charity. She wasn’t ready to let go of the chance that they were somehow involved with Melissa’ s murder, but had to accept that for now they were in the clear.
~*~
Ever since Baylee had been diagnosed with Kawasaki disease Brian and Leighanne had gotten heavily involved in the world of charities and fundraising. The boys had all dabbled in charities before, a few of them even having their own, but they had stayed at arm’s length from the fundraising portion of it all. When the Littrells asked though, they couldn’t help but agree to appear at a black tie dinner in the hopes that Brian would be able to secure some government funding for his Healthy Heart Club that would pay for heart surgery for underprivileged children.
Things had been tense between them since the fight the day before with no apologies given for the things they had said. With everything that had been through though the four of them knew that they would be able to get over their spat and move on. The same couldn’t be said for Nick and Lauren. They had all sat trying not to eavesdrop as the two of them fought in the back of the bus. They could have left but AJ and Rochelle were living there too and Brian and Howie were nosey enough that they wanted to see what was going to happen. Brian had never intended to out his friend in front of Lauren. It wasn’t the first time he had hidden infidelity on the part of the youngest, he was notorious for not being able to stay faithful to his girlfriends. Brian knew that he really loved Lauren though and felt bad that it was his fault they were fighting. The whole debacle had ended when Lauren came out and announced that she would be staying on the other bus for the time being and would be getting on a plane as soon as possible. She was supposed to come with them to the dinner but instead was back at the hotel trying to sort out her travel plans.
Dinner was being held at the Atlanta History Centre, a museum that explored not only the history of Georgia but of the south as a whole. The room was full of politicians, socialites, and other privileged people all anxious to give some of their money away for the kids. Shortly after their performance Brian had lost sight of Nick. He finally found him in the museum looking through an exhibit titled ‘Civil War to Civil Rights’. From what he could tell it was a century of American history told through photographs. He’d seen it when they walked in and had wanted to take a look at but he didn’t imagine that would end up being in the middle of the party. Nick was standing underneath a Confederate flag, his fingers lightly touching the frame of a photograph on the wall.
Brian was quiet as he approached; peering over his friend’s shoulder to see what he was looking at. It was a photograph of a soldier with his arm wrapped tightly around a beautiful brunette. He could only assume it was a wedding photo because the girl looked downright regal in a white lacy Victorian wedding dress, a sheer veil falling over her long hair. Once he’d gotten a better look at it he realized that the woman looked an awful lot like Nick’s soon to be ex-girlfriend.
“Wow,” he said, making Nick call out in surprise, “Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. She’s beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Nick agreed, sticking his hands in the pockets of his tuxedo pants, “she died in childbirth.”
“She did?” Brian asked, raising his eyebrow, “How do you know that?”
The taller man glanced quickly between the photograph and his friend, “It’s written on the panel next to the photo. C’mon, let’s go over here I want to show you something cool they have about Martin Luther King.”
“Yeah sure,” Brian nodded in agreement, glad that his friend seemed to have moved on from the tension of the day before. He started to follow Nick through the exhibit but something was telling him to go back, “I’ll be right there.”
He quickly jogged back to where Nick had been standing under the Southern Cross, the battle flag of the Confederate Army. After a quick look behind him to ensure he was alone he swung back around to the grainy sepia toned photo of the beautiful brunette on her wedding day and looked next to it at the panel describing the photo, a feeling of unease coming over him as he read it.
This picture, of Confederate Captain Joseph Gabriel of Atlanta, Georgia with his new bride, was taken in a Civil War Camp near Baton Rouge, Louisiana in summer 1862. Captain Gabriel was listed as MIA after the Battle of Bayou Bourbeux, a Confederate victory in November 1863.
He read it over three times, but there was no doubt that the picture’s description said absolutely nothing about the Lauren doppelganger that was in it, but he didn’t know why Nick would have lied about it.
“Brian? You coming?” his friend called out from further into the museum and he quickly responded in the affirmative, running to catch up.
~*~
Nick sat down heavily on the King sized bed in his hotel room sinking into the plush softness. His hand came up and tugged anxiously at the knot on his tie, pulling himself free of the tight confines of the fabric. He didn’t like Georgia; it made him uncomfortable being back there, there were too many memories, too many things to remind him how wrong his life had gone. He never could have anticipated what he had seen in the museum and it was making things even harder to process in his head.
He stared down at his hands, taking note of the yellowing of his skin. He’d been trying so hard to rid himself of his curses, the things that held him back, that he sometimes forgot that he was still human in the end.
The door to the hotel opened with a rustle and he looked up in genuine surprise to see Lauren walking through the door. After the fight over his almost infidelity he was sure he wouldn’t see her again, she had been so mad. Her purse was in one hand and he could see a piece of paper in the other that he suspected was a boarding pass. She had come to say goodbye.
They looked so similar it was almost uncanny. It had been what had drawn him to Lauren in the first place the very first time he had laid eyes on her nearly three years ago; he knew where she had come from. Watching her go would be as crushing as it had been the first time he lost the one he loved.
He had tears in his eyes as she crossed through the living area into the bedroom where he was sitting watching her through the door.
“Nick,” she spoke confidently, trying not to be swayed by his emotions, “I’m leaving. I just wanted to let you know.”
Immediately he was up off the bed. He pulled her into a tight hug as soon as he was close enough, biting back his emotions. She resisted at first but soon accepted his embrace, relaxing against him.
“Sarah...” Nick spoke softly, the words flowing out of his mouth as if someone else were controlling his thoughts. He felt his girlfriend’s back tense up at the sound of a name that was not her own. She tried to pull away but he held her tight in the hug, “It was so hard seeing you tonight. I never could have imagined that would happen. I knew coming here would be a bad idea.”
“Nick what are you talking about?!” Lauren questioned urgently, trying to get her hands in front of her to push him away, “Who is Sarah?!”
He walked them back until Lauren was pressed up against the wall and he pulled away slightly to see her better. One hand wound into her hair while the other continued to hold her against his body, “I miss you so much, Sarah. Every day that goes by I think about you. I’m just trying to find a way to get back to you.”
Tears were falling from Lauren’s eyes which were flitting back and forth between him and the door, “You’re really scaring me Nick,” she whispered, a small sob escaping her throat, “please just let me go.”
She watched as in an instant his expression changed. It went from disheartened, and sad to suddenly angry and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. The hand that was in her hair slid down to cup her face and his thumb ran over her cheek, through the tear tracks that had stained her skin.
“I can’t let you go,” he spoke strongly, “I’m sorry. I love you, but I can’t just let you slip away again. I can’t go through the pain of having to watch you go.”
“What are you talking about?!” her voice was shaking and full of fear. Her breath was coming in frantic pants and she threw her arms around wildly trying to get herself free. She felt his hand slide down her face until he was gripping her neck and tried to cry out but soon his hold became too much and the most she could get out was a desperate squeak. Soon things began to go black and she let it take over, the last thing she saw being Nick’s empathetic face.
“I’m sorry Sarah,” Nick said as he picked up Lauren’s listless body and brought her into the bathroom where he laid her down gently in the tub. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, feeling a shallow breath against his cheek. He had tried to get her back by dating Lauren but when it came down to it they were two very different people and although Lauren was lovely she could never quite step into the shoes of the woman who was truly his soul mate.
He grabbed her shirt at the collar, easily tearing it down the middle. He drew his hand down the centre of her chest to her firm stomach, knowing that at least this time he wouldn’t have to worry about having a hangover in the morning.
