On the Case of Pat Towers

There were some days that the computer wouldn’t load due to weather being too cold. This was one of those days. We all came to work in one vehicle when it was snowing to minimize the risk of accidents. We soon found out that the computer wasn’t going to load up. On days like this we would usually just wait until lunchtime and if there was still nothing going on we’d go home. But today our work came in with no computer needed. It started with a call from Jeff. Jeff had been hanging out with us a lot and we had become good friends. This was just a little over a month since the Jesse Rathers case. Jan answered her phone.
“Hey, have you seen Jerry? I said something about Wesley that I probably shouldn’t have and he ran away. He usually just goes to the ditch and comes back, but it’s been over an hour.”
“Well I haven’t seen him, but since we’re not doing anything, I can go look.’
“Thanks that would be great. I just hate to go out looking myself ‘cause if he comes back to the house I won’t be here.”
Jan hung up and put on her coat to go out.
“Where are you going?”
“Jerry is missing and since we’re not doing anything I figured I’d go look.”
“Guess that’s okay. We should probably stay here in case anything comes up. Good luck finding your new boyfriend’s kid.”
We didn’t take any offense to that. I knew that Jan was just friends with Jeff. Most of the time we were all 3 together. But I think Jared thought there was a bit more going on between them. Jan walked out the door.
“Well, I hope we don’t need a car.” Jared said implying that Jan had just taken the car.
About a half hour later there was a knock at the door. Jared answered it to find Josh Towers on the other side. Guess his sentence was lightened to nothing. After opening the door he walked in and sat down like he owned the place.
“I guess the computer isn’t working?”
“Yeah, may I help you?”
“Yeah, I got a case your computer doesn’t seem to have. It’s the case of my son Pat.”
“Well we can’t really do much at the moment. We have no computer and Jan’s out in the car looking for Jerry.”
“That kid’s gone missing again? One day they’re gonna decide not to look for him to teach ‘em a lesson.”
“Don’t think that would be too good of an idea.”
“Anyway, guess I’ll go look if it’ll get y’all on the case of my son any faster.”
About an hour later, Josh’s wife came by.
“Did Josh come by and tell y’all about the vandalism? I figured he’d be back home by now. I’m starting to get worried.”
“He came by, but never said anything about vandalism. He was just telling us that he wanted us to work on your son’s case.”
“He was supposed to tell y’all about the vandalism. There are all kinds of pictures cut up and trophies thrown around. All the stuff belonged to Pat. Something tells me the person who killed him still isn’t satisfied.”
“Well he went out looking for Jerry since the quicker he’s found the quicker we’ll have a car.”
“Well let’s get in my car and go back to my house so y’all can at least see the damage.”
When we got there Josh’s car was parked outside to our surprise. He welcomed us in with a smile, which was unusual for him.
“Let that boy go this instant!” His wife exclaimed as we saw Jerry tied to the chair with duct tape on his mouth. I immediately called Jan.
“Well, you can take off the tape. He’s not gonna talk much.” I said trying to lighten the tension a bit.
“This boy’s seen some murder in his life and I believe he’s done a murder to my son. I also believe he damaged my home. I found this pocket knife, which he’s said he’s seen before. I suppose he was going to kill us with it too.”
“You’re crazy! He wasn’t even here when we came home to the mess.”
“Well, it seems a bit too coincidental that he was missing about the right time.”
“And even if he has seen the knife before that doesn’t mean it’s his. We’ve found those to be very popular around his school.” I intervened.
I took the tape off Jerry to let him at least talk all he could.
“Wesley gave knife Eric. E-Eric. Only threaten, never kill.”
If he hadn’t said that we wouldn’t have even noticed the E carved into the bottom corner of the knife. Jan drove up and ran inside. She had already called Jeff and told him what was happening. She took out her cuffs and cuffed Josh immediately.
“Josh, you’re under arrest again. I’m gonna take these pictures by the lab and see if they can lift any fingerprints. But do note it could take a few hours before the results come back.”
“I’ll do that, you stay here with Jerry.” Jared suggested since Jan was much better with Jerry than either of us were.
“Do you have a computer, Mrs. Towers? Perhaps we could look for something on your son since ours won’t load in this weather.”
“Sure, go on into Josh’s office.”
Jan got on the computer. It was nice to see that his computer could actually load in this weather.
“It says Pat was killed in 1993. Jerry wasn’t even born yet. But how would he know about the knife.”
“Perhaps his brother told him.”
“Wesley gave. I get one day.”
“There was a tape, which the manager gave us, but the murder must’ve happened off camera.”
“Well, the rumor is that a kid did the murder. Let’s watch and see if any kids walked in.”
We watched the video for hours and saw nothing but adults walking in and a couple of teenagers. The rumor was a young child did it. A teenager was never mentioned. Finally the kid walked in.
“That’s me and Eric.” Jan said. “Eric wouldn’t have done anything.”
“And it’s just coincidence that his knife was found on the floor” I said, questioning my wife’s statement.
We went to Eric’s school and brought him back to the office to talk to him.
“Someone had to rid the world of that perv. I just did the world a favor. It was either I hurt him or he was going to hurt me.”
Eric was taken into custody, putting his law studies on hold until after the judge’s decision.