living with the witness
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That night Jensen gets a call. He rushes out of bed, cursing and dressing himself, completely forgetting about his house guest until he comes downstairs and Jared is sitting on the couch. He looks at the other man, wondering what he should do about him. He could take Jared with him, not letting him out of his sight but that would mean the other man would get more information about the case and Jensen really didn’t want that. He could leave Jared here, the system was designed so he could do either one but he didn’t know if that was a smart idea - Jared could still get into mischief at the house when Jensen wasn’t there.
He did trust the system though - if Rosey couldn’t hack it no-one could. But someone could enter his house; Jared was a wanted man after all. And there’d be hell to pay if he got killed on Jensen’s watch.
Jared turns around, smiling at Jensen, “Going somewhere?”
“Yeah, I…eh…got called into the office,” Jensen says, fiddling with his belt.
He stands there, still undecided about leaving Jared there or taking him along.
“Well, go on, I’ll be good.” Jared says, grinning up at him from the couch.
“I doubt that,” Jensen grumbles but he moves for the door anyway.
“Don’t be late, honey, I’ll be waiting up,” Jared says, snickering as Jensen pulls the door closed behind him.
Jensen calls Chris the moment he is out of the house, “They found a body, I had to leave Jared. Can someone stand guard?”
Chris was out of his bed and at Jensen’s house in ten minutes.
***
Fifteen minutes later Jensen is staring at the body on top of the display.
“So why do you think it has something to do with my case?” he asks the detective who has welcomed him.
“Well, they emptied the vault and spray-painted the room with red and blue.”
Jensen cringed, that was the MO of the vandals, alright. They left spray painting at every crime scene. It was enough to tie the cases but not to get a suspect. Jensen could bet that the paint used was the same one they sold at every hardware store in a ten-mile radius. Fuck! He hated when criminals out smarted him.
“What did they take?”
Jensen didn’t really need to ask the question to know the answer. They hit another jewelry store and probably were smart enough just to take the money just like the first time. Jewels would be too easy to trace.
“Money, also this guy,” the detective pointed at the dead guy, “He doesn’t work here nor does he live in Bailey. I know almost everybody and he isn’t from around here.”
Jensen nods, “Did he have an ID?” When the detective shakes his head he added, “Run his print, I want to know who the fuck he is and what the hell he was doing here.”
The man nods and walks away, taking notes of what Jensen just said.
Jensen sighs, that would make four robberies and two murders, probably more if he didn’t get these guys. He looks around the store, checking for anything out of place, careful not to touch anything. He didn’t have his hopes up and didn’t expect the criminals to suddenly get sloppy.
When he finished looking around and telling people what he wanted done he figured that he should get home. There was nothing more he could do here. Besides he had the only real lead they had in this case sitting at home. Maybe it was time to push Jared into talking.
***
“You could’ve gone inside, you know,” Jensen says the moment he sees Chris standing outside his door.
“Nope, I wanted him to think he was alone.”
Jensen nods. Chris wanted to see if Jared would do something if Jensen wasn’t around to stop him. It was a smart move, one Jensen himself might have made if he was put in the same position.
“And?”
“He made a phone call. Other than that, nada.”
“Okay Chris, go home and sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Jensen says, moving to open his door.
Chris stops him, “The crime scene?”
Jensen shrugged, “Another body, no trace. Fucking dead end.”
Chris face tightens, “We’ll get them.”
The house is dark when Jensen walks inside so Jensen is surprised when he finds Jared sitting in the kitchen, staring at the phone. He startles when Jensen comes walking into the room.
“Hey,” Jared says, looking down at his hands.
Jensen walks to his fridge, grabbing a beer, needing to unwind from what he saw and the frustration he felt before talking to Jared.
“You’ve been gone for a long time,” Jared says after Jensen finishes his beer.
Jensen nods to the phone, “You’ve called someone?” he asks.
He feels kind of stupid; he hadn’t thought about the phone when he left. Of course that would be a way he could make contact and communicate. Chris had told him Jared had made a call, but there was no way in knowing who he called. Even if Jensen could find out who Jared called it would be too late. He just hoped hat Jared was smart enough to not call the people who tried to kill him.
“Yeah, eh, my mom. Is that okay? I wanted to let her know I wouldn’t visit her this week but I told her I was in safe hands with you. She seems to believe that,” Jared says, making a face that says he obviously doesn’t.
“Okay, Jared, we need to set some ground rules about this. You can’t just call people,” Jensen says, making a mental note to check his phone bill, just in case.
“Maybe you should have thought about that when you left me here alone, Jensen. I’m just a criminal, right? You never know what I might do. I know you can check the phone bill, but I could invite people over, you can never check that.” He says, putting another beer in front of Jensen.
Jensen frowns at him. He didn’t think the guy would contact any of the other criminals except if he was part of the organization. But why would his life be threatened if he was? Not that Jensen had any proof of that. He just had Chris’s word that Jared knew more and that he should find out what it was. Then he looked at the beer Jared had just put in front of him. Man, did he need that.
“So how did your call go?” Jared asks after Jensen’s been quiet for a while.
“Not telling you.”
Times like this Jensen missed LA. At least there they had a great protection program even if the person didn’t want to be protected. They would take shifts watching the subject so that the others could have a private life. Jensen was never assigned to those projects; he was more the type to investigate. Chris had asked him to do this so Jensen did. But he did find it strange that Jared didn’t go into the program, or that they didn’t have other ways of dealing with him.
“Why didn’t you go into witness protection?” Jensen asks.
“I told you, Jensen, I’m not talking.”
“Then why are you here? Why should I be keeping you safe?” Jensen says, putting yet another empty beer bottle down. He hadn’t realized he’d been drinking that fast.
“I’ve been asking myself that very same question,” Jared whispers.
“You want coffee?” Jared asks after a while.
Jensen shakes his head, “No. I’m gonna have some whiskey and go to bed.”
“You should have some milk,” Jared says, pulling the milk out of the fridge, “I can warm it for you? They say it helps you sleep?”
“You want to knock me out, Jared? Gotta tell you, it’s not gonna work.”
“If I wanted you out I would have let you have the whiskey.”
***
The next morning Jensen wakes to someone rooting around in his kitchen. He slowly gets his gun from the night stand and moves downstairs. He already has his gun out and is in the kitchen by the time he realizes that it’s Jared.
Jared looks up from making breakfast but doesn’t even flinch when he sees Jensen standing there in only his boxers aiming his gun at Jared. He just turns around to put two plates on the table.
Jensen puts his guns down on the table and sits down, “It’s nice to have a house maid.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it,” Jared says, smiling, “Oh, that reminds me,” He fidgets a little. “I need…I want to see my mother.”
“Okay, we can go see her. Where does she live?”
Jared fidgets again, “Can’t I go alone?”
Jensen takes a deep breath and sighs, “You know you can’t, Jared.”
For the first time since they’d been thrown into this arrangement Jared looks upset. Jensen feels a bit sorry for the man until he reminds himself why Jared is here anyway.
“Look, okay, can’t we…?” Jared starts and Jensen shakes his head, “I know I can’t go alone. Can’t you send another cop with me?”
Jensen considers it. Then he shakes his head. He’s so stupid for almost falling for that one. The reason Chris put him on this case was because there were corrupt cops at the station. Jared probably planned this so he got one of them to watch over him.
“Look, you can send the guy who told you to look after me. What was his name?”
“Chris?” Jensen asks wondering how Jared knew that someone was watching over him when Chris didn’t enter his house.
But Jensen knew that Chris couldn’t be corrupt; Chris put Jensen on this case and told him to watch out for other cops. He could go with Jared to visit his mom. But it left Jensen to wonder, why was Jared so intent on him not meeting his mom?
“Please?”
Jensen looks at him for a long time, “Why?”
“None of your business,” Jared says, crossing his arms.
Jensen smiles at him, “Dude, you want me to do you a favor?”
Jared’s face falls, but he soon recovers, looking angry.
“Okay, never mind then!” he says, shoving away from the kitchen table.
Jensen looks after him; that was weird. Jared was really calm about everything almost every single time they arrested him. He was calm during this whole ordeal of living with Jensen and criminals being out to get him. But this really seemed to get him worked up. Maybe Jensen could use this to his advantage.
Jensen flips open his phone, finding Chris in his contacts.
“Kane.”
“Hey Chris, I need a favor.”
Jensen explains about Jared and his mother and that he doesn’t want Jensen to join him on the visit.
“Why doesn’t he want you to come?” Chris asks after Jensen finishes.
“No idea, he’s okay with you though.”
“Strange,” Chris says and Jensen can hear him thinking.
“I was thinking, maybe we can use this to get him to talk? To trust me, maybe?”
“Yeah, could work. So what do you want me to do?” Chris asks.
“Take him, maybe tomorrow?”
“I’ll be there at 10 am before I go to the station,” and with that Chris hangs up.
Jensen puts his phone down, considers going into Jared’s room to tell him he can go see his mom but he doesn’t want to violate Jared’s privacy. If they want the guy to talk they have to re-establish his trust. If not in the police then in Jensen and walking into his room, not respecting his boundaries is not the way to do it. So he just sits back and waits for Jared to come out of his room.
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