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it!” she said.
    “It’s a picture.”
    “Oh no…what’s it of? Is it bad?”
    “I don’t know how he did this…it’s me…well, at least my face…it’s me they’re pulling out of the pool last night. I’m dressed in the dummy’s clothes and I’m dead.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 10
     
     
    Jaxon felt like an idiot. He had made a horrible, rookie mistake and was kicking himself for it. Kicking over and over again. How could he have been so stupid? In his twenty five years as a policeman he had never screwed up so bad.
    He downed his twelfth Bud, crushed the can in one hand with a vengeance, and grabbed another one out of the cooler he had sitting by his chair.
    His doorbell rang.
    He didn’t want any visitors so he stayed where he was and ignored it. It rang again and then knuckles rapped on the wood of the door.
    “Come on, Jaxon. It’s me. I know you’re in there.”
    Sally. He was surprised. She never came to his place. He got up, opened the front door and was greeted with a twelve pack of Bud held out to him by his partner.
    “Thought you could use this, but I see you’ve already started.”
    He looked at the beer he held in his hand, shrugged, and then held the door wide, gesturing for her to come in. She handed him the twelve pack and walked past him into the small apartment he shared with his dog, Reverb. He closed the door and followed her into the living room. She sat and grabbed a cold beer from the open cooler.
    “What brings you to my lovely abode?” he said. “Surely not the company.”
    “I thought you might like to hear the latest on the kid.” He didn’t answer so she went on. “And I thought you could use my company.”
    “I don’t need you trying to boost me up. I’m fine,” he said.
    “Yeah, you look fine. How many have you had already?”
    He ignored the question and said, “So, what’s the latest on the kid?”
    She took a drink of the beer and set it down. “Preliminary cause of death is asphyxiation,” she said. “But not from drowning. The ME wants to wait on the autopsy to confirm it until the family is notified.”
    “So, the body was moved?”
    “That’s what it’s looking like. He died somewhere else and was put in the pool. Now, as far as notifying the family, they haven’t been able to positively identify the body. We’ve run fingerprints and come up with a big goose egg.”
    “What about the FBI fingerprint database, IAFIS?”
    “We haven’t hit it yet. That’s next.”
    “Dental records?”
    “Yes, but nothing has popped up yet. And no one has reported a missing child. At least not within the local and surrounding states.”
    “So he’s still a John Doe?”
    “Yes.”
    “We need to widen the search. If he was killed elsewhere and dropped in the pool, he could have come from anywhere. Let’s start working national databases and see if we get any hits.”
    “Already started it boss. I submitted the query in the computer system before I came over.” She smiled, took another drink, and waited as silence took over the conversation. “You know, it was an honest mistake.”
    He shrugged.
    “How else were we going to find someone to positively I.D. the body?” she asked. “It’s normal procedure. Do your best to I.D. the body on your own, contact the family and have them do the positive I.D. You know it’s the fastest way.”
    He popped another beer and took a long pull on it as she sat and waited. “But I went about it all wrong,” he finally said. “I could see it in your face, as soon as I made the abrupt announcement their son was dead.”
    “It’s your way. Not my place to question.”
    He gave her an exasperated look and she turned away. When she turned back her expression was one of patience, as if with a small child who needed a lesson. “Look, I wouldn’t have done it that way, no, but that’s me.”
    “You should have stopped me.”
    “What? How was I supposed to do that?”
    “You should have been the one