Take the shot

Chapter Five

After waiting around anxiously for the victim and the detectives to arrive back, the elevator finally opened.

Instead of my mom and Sonny walking in, in came Olivia with an evidence bag in her hand, inside of it my journal.

"Is that it?" I asked her as I ran up to her.

"Jesse," she said cautiously, "there's something you need to see. We'll wait for your mom in the other room," she said.

"Olivia what's wrong?" I asked.

"I need to have your mother present before I show you what we found," she told me, "and that's all I can say before your mom gets here."

"But-" I began to say, but she already walked into the other room.

Something was very wrong, and I didn't know what it was. I just tapped my foot anxiously on the ground and waited for my mom and Sonny to come back.

Seconds began to feel like hours to me, and I couldn't stop staring at the clock as it slowly ticked. If my mom wasn't even on the case, why did I have to wait for her?

They eventually walked through the elevator, and I immediately saw my moms eyes scanning for me. Behind her was Sonny, his hand on the shoulder of a young girl, that I recognized from school.

"Is Olivia back here yet?" She asked me as she slammed down the papers with information on them.

"Yeah she's inside. She says she need us right away, she has my book. She said she can't discuss it without you, I don't know why. Your not on the case right?" I asked her.

"I'm not, but Carisi needed a hand with Gloria, and we found out something that needs to be shared with Liv now," she said, her voice rising in nervousness.

"Come on let's go," I said, and we walked to the room where Olivia was waiting for us.

"Rollins, Jesse, please take a seat," she said as she walked in. There was something about her tone and use of words that told me that something wasn't right.

"Olivia, what did you find?" I asked her.

"We found your book in your desk in your homeroom chance. This guy most likely has a class in that room, we'll be checking on that later. Your book, it was in a paper bag in the desk. I understand that you've had the book since the beginning of the year?" She asked me.

"Um yes. My mom bought it for me for my birthday and I just started using it this year," I explained, "why?"

"It seems that whoever this guy is, he's been following you since the beginning of this year. We found some notes about you that he placed inside of the book. Some of them very vulgar. He wrote you a letter on the back page," she said, nervously handing me the book.

"Wait!" She said, "use gloves. Don't want to mess up any possible fingerprints."

"Oh okay I'm sorry," I said.

"No need," she responded.

She handed me some blue gloves and I opened it to the back page.

Jesse, good morning. I've been meaning to talk to you for the longest time now, and be your friend. I know I must've scared you on Wednesday, but I couldn't help it. It was the only way for you to look at me. You have written some beautiful things in this book, and when you read this, I very much expect a response from you. I showed you respect, and gave you the chance to me with me, which means you need to show me respect. We don't want anyone to get hurt. You can meet my on Saturday behind the bleachers, and then we'll see where it goes. Love ~ William xoxo  PS. - Keep our visit a secret, it'll be more romantic.

"What the Hell is this!" I yelled, "what kind of - of - of - FREAKSHOW would do this!" I screamed.

"I know this is hard, but there's more," she told me.

"You don't know anything!" I yelled at her, "I don't deserve this!"

I jotted up, and shoved the table a bit in the process.

"Jesse!" My mom yelled.

"Just leave me alone!" I screamed at her.

"Jesse wait, you need to see the rest before you do or say anything," Olivia explained.

"I - I - I'm sorry, I don't know," I said, inhaling a sharp breathe.

"It's okay. Just take a drink, and when your ready to continue, we will, alright?" She asked with caution of another panicked outburst.

"Okay," I agreed, "I'm okay now. You can start again."

"Are you sure?" She asked me.

"Um yeah. I am. I need to hear it now," I responded, not realizing I was holding my breathe.

"The thing is, Jesse, your not the only one who was assaulted or received a letter from the attacker," Olivia explained carefully to me.

"What are you talking about?" I questioned, not understanding what she meant.

"Gloria, another sexual assault victim from your school, revived an letter from her attacker the day after her assault as you did. These similarities give us a lead that you have the same attacker. But this makes us sure," she said, sliding over another book, similar to my own that had the disgusting letter in it.

"What's this?" I asked as I slowly examined it. It was also a journal. Maybe a notebook for school. But it was overall very worn out and used, and journals should be.

"Read the back," she told me.

I furrowed my eyebrows and picked the book up.

I turned to the back page and saw a letter written with the same handwriting that was is mine.

It read,

Gloria, good morning. I've been meaning to talk to you for the longest time now, and be your friend. I know I must've scared you on Thursday, but I couldn't help it. It was the only way for you to look at me. You have written some beautiful things in this book, and when you read this, I very much expect a response from you. I showed you respect, and gave you the chance to be with me, which means you need to show me respect. We don't want anyone to get hurt. You can meet me on Sunday behind the bleachers, and the we'll see where it goes. Love ~ Justin. PS. - keep out visit a secret, It'll be more romantic.

I re-read it over four times before I spoke up.

"This looks all too familiar," I whispered, flipping back and force from my note and Gloria's.

"They're the same," I concluded.

"Yes," she said, agreeing with my statement, "but this does tell us that he didn't really mean the things he said to you from the heart. All be did was delete the names and dates and that's all. What we are going the do is ask Gloria to write back, saying that she needs them to meet on Saturday instead of Sunday. It'll go two ways- if he says yes, he'll ask you to move your day and or time. If this happens, we know for sure that this is our guy. What can also happen is that he'll let you both go the same day, and you'll meet each other, and see who the guy is. You'll be wearing wires and cameras so we will too. Right now, this is our lead," she said, pointing to the identical notes.

She looked at me again.

"We've got him Jesse. We just need to catch him."