Her Baby Plays Cupid

Chapter 3 Revelations

Leah's POV cont.

"Jake's cousin. Jake didn’t have anything to do with him. Internal family issues as far as I know. If I remember correctly from what Jake told me, his name is Matthew Jacob Turner. Why?”

“Matthew Jacob Turner? Isn’t that your husband’s name?” Ed asked.

“Not quite. My Jake’s legal name is Jake Matthew Turner. Jake’s mom was always pissed that her husband’s first cousin ‘stole’ the name she and Jake’s dad had picked out for Jake. But what does Jake’s cousin have to do with anything? I don’t understand.”

“We believe he is the one that was the actual target. He is the one that was meant to die.”

What the actual f**k!

“What do you mean, are you saying Jake’s death was a hit? Who?” That was the moment the presence of the Cole Industries lawyer became relevant in my mind. The Cole’s, or their extended family, were involved in Jake’s death. The f**kers!

“Leah,” Jose responded. “For now, we have partial information. We need your permission to conduct a full investigation. Greg has risked his job with the police department by uploading a copy of the dash cam footage from the squad car and his and Jake’s body cams to our server. “

“Of course.” I responded as my eyes swivelled to my husband’s patrol partner. “Greg, please tell me you didn’t leave any trace of you doing that. You know that’s grounds for instant dismissal.”

“Yeah, well, the department isn’t going to have a chance to fire me. Carly and I have talked. After what happened last evening? I’m submitting my immediate resignation. Jose has already offered me a job in the investigations department if I want it. And I do want it,” he added looking at Jose.

“You what, now?” I gasped out. “You worked so hard for your promotion. What happened that would make you throw it all away?”

Jose took control of the conversation, giving a tiny shake of his head in Greg’s direction. “Leah, what we can tell you is that late yesterday afternoon Jake and Greg responded to a fatal car accident. Jeremy Cole’s daughter, Andrea was a passenger. She didn’t have her seat belt on and was thrown from the vehicle. She died at the scene because of her injuries.”

“What does that have to do with Jake getting shot?” I prodded, not understanding how the car accident had anything to do with Jake getting shot.

“The driver of the car Andrea was a passenger in was you husband’s cousin, Matthew Jacob Turner. He wasn't injured other than a few minor scratches and bruises.“

“Isn’t Andrea married to Kaden Jones?” I questioned, having been around when the whole debacle went down with the Jones and Clowater families.

“Yes, she was. Apparently, she didn’t take her marriage vows as seriously as the rest of her family takes theirs. During the acident interview, Matthew Jacob Turner revealed that he and Andrea were in a relationship. She had left behind divorce papers, and her two children. She and Matthew were leaving the city, and everything behind.”

“That still doesn't explain how that resulted in Jake getting shot and killed.” I commented, fully confused what one thing had to do with the other.

Greg reached out and took my hand, giving a slight nod to the man in charge of the video equipment. “I think if you watch this you’ll understand. But Leah, this isn’t pretty. I’m not sure you want to watch it.”

I hesitated; I really did. But I wanted answers. I needed answers. My husband was laying in the morgue. I owed him this. “Jake’s dead. I need to know why he died. Go ahead with the video.”

At Jose’s nod to the tech guy, the screen came to life showing a street scene. This was dashcam footage from Jake and Greg’s squad car. Jake was standing about twenty feet in front of the squad car, too far away for any audio to be picked up.

There was another man standing about ten feet from Jake. He was dressed in all black with a balaclava covering his face. Jake had his arms raised slightly in front of him with his hands out in what I recognized as his ‘let’s keep calm and not do anything foolish’ position.

The two men appeared to have a short conversation, Jake clearly shaking his head ‘no’. What followed was horrible to see. The man brought his right hand up, the glint of metal, a muzzle flash, then another, and another.

Jake staggered under the impact, slowly falling to his knees, then face first on the pavement. The shooter calmly walked back to his vehicle, a second man appeared from the direction of the cruiser, they got in the car which then drove away. Neither man paid the least bit of attention to Jake now bleeding out on the ground. Nor to Greg who rushed to Jake’s side, turning him over and applying pressure to the wound close to Jake’s heart.

Greg was shaking beside me as he watched the video. Watched as he was screaming into the radio on his vest “Officer down, GSW, Officer down. Send an ambulance, NOW”. Greg had been screaming so loud that the audio was picked up on the cruiser’s dashcam and audio recorders.

The tech guy shut off the video, but the images of the bullets hitting my husband were burned into my mind. Within a minute the video from Jake’s body cam started to play, this time the audio was clear.

“Your partner won’t be hurt if you do what we say. Understood?” The man’s voice was raspy, as though scraped raw from years of cigarette smoke and alcohol.

“What do you want? I’ll do what you say, just please don’t hurt my partner.” Jake’s voice was calm and controlled. “What do you want?”

“Andrea Cole,” uttered the masked man. “You touched what does not belong to you.”

“My partner and I responded to that accident, yes. Unfortunately, she died at the scene of her injuries.” Jake’s voice was still controlled but I could hear the confusion.

“You touched what doesn’t belong to you, Mr. Turner,” the man sneered. “Her father isn’t happy with you.”

“I’m not following you. I only checked to see if she was breathing." Jake explained, confusion lacing his voice.

“Don’t play dumb. My boss read the police report. Matthew Jacob Turner. We know you were f*****g the boss’s daughter. We know you’re a f*****g homewrecker. Gary recognized you. How do you think we found you so fast?”

“Gary? Recognized me? Gary who?”

“Doesn’t matter who Gary is. If he says you die, then you die. What matters is that you messed with a married woman from the Moretti family.”

“That wasn’t me. That was my cousin, Matthew Jacob Turner. My name is Jake Matthew Turner. Check my ID. You’ll see I’m telling the truth.” Jake was now pleading, knowing if the man refused to check then Jake was as good as dead.

“Yeah, likely story asshole. How convenient. But you don’t get to walk away. Gary’s orders. You die so your friend over there can live.” The masked man raised his weapon and fired. The video jerked as Jake’s body staggered under the impact, then the ground rose up to meet Jake as he collapsed onto the pavement.

Greg’s voice could be heard screaming, “NOOOOOOO” before the video cut off.

The only sound in the room was the sobs of Greg, Carly, and me. The videos, especially the bodycam video, had given hints, but not why or how the Cole’s had messed up in targeting Jake. If anyone should have died, it should have been Jake’s cousin.

“Who the hell do the Cole’s think they are? By the sounds of it, Andrea was just as guilty as her lover! And how did they get a copy of the accident report? And how the hell did they not read the report closely enough to realize the name difference? And who the hell is Gary?” I choked out, my throat tight with emotion.

The numbness was giving way to anger. An anger that was burning through me, seeking to take revenge on those that destroyed my life. All because someone was too f*****g stupid to do a proper investigation.

Jose responded to my questions but not in the way that offered a direct response to specific questions. “You know who and what the Moretti’s are. They have connections everywhere. The chief of police is married to one of the Moretti women. A cousin of Elio Moretti, I believe. My assumption is that they called the chief and that is how they got hold of the police report. We don’t know the identity of ‘Gary’, but I promise you, we will find out.”

“For now though, while we investigate further, there are things you need to deal with. We’ll help you with arrangements for Jake.” Jose stated.

A thought ran through my head. “Jose, do you think the chief will try to paint Jake as a villain in all this? Try to sweep his death under the rug? Or make it look like he was involved in something shady?”

Greg growled in anger at the thought of that happening. “He f**king well better not. Jake did nothing wrong! Damn good thing I have Jake’s bodycam and the cruiser’s dashcam. The department won’t get access to either of those things. I’m not going to let them smear his name or reputation. F**k them!”

Something was telling me that Greg knew more than he was telling me.