Chapter 5: Wherein Jared and Jensen Indulge in Activities of Dubious Legality
A Scene Contributing to the Delinquency of a Husband, Occurring on Boxing Day Evening
By sunset of the following day, they were forced to feed themselves by the Astor's excellent housekeeping staff. A formidable woman named Helen appeared in all her five-two splendor, demanded to change the linens, and was not to be dissuaded from her anointed task. Jensen's usual hotel staff charm had proven ineffective against a mother of six.
Jensen was, of course, found to be adorable, and Jared would need to watch out for him. If not, Helen would steal Jensen and spoil him rotten. Such good-natured ribbing complete with hair ruffling had made the doorway seem a better strategic position.
Jensen was made of sterner stuff and held his ground until the lotion bottle on the nightstand was discovered. Helen clucked her tongue at such oily lotion, as it was obviously the wrong type entirely for Jensen's freckled skin. She found a far more suitable one in the cart and proclaimed it "lubricious". In the next breath, she began exclaiming over the state of the bed linens.
A hasty retreat to the balcony seemed the best course of action. Breakfast was convinced to appear in the evening, and they were enjoying the spectacular, if chilly, view. Icarus was fascinated with the balcony, as his canine mind had deemed the French doors to be a wall. He was quite impressed with Jensen's ability to break said wall and was far too interested in imitating his namesake to be trusted with the open railing. Jared sat with him firmly under one arm as he ate his breakfast with his free hand.
Jensen busied himself with ripping apart every form of newspaper the Astor had and sorting them into stacks. From what Jared could see, the stacks were useful, wrong and boring, wrong and entertaining, after Christmas sales, theater and clubs, and local news. Jensen finished sorting the last of them with a satisfied sigh. Jared hid a smile behind the last of his toast.
"Well, Morgan put up a reward. Five thousand for news leading to the capture of Sam Anderson. Last seen -" Jensen indicated three stacks. "Well, that depends. Some say he was seen in Leighton's apartment, some say Philadelphia, and my favorites have him in Bimini."
The grin was no longer hidden as Jared offered, "Maybe we should follow up on the Bimini leads personally. I doubt Morgan's budget will allow him to send men. We'd be - "
A sudden thought struck the rest of the sentence from him. Jensen seemed unsurprised by this, although Jared wasn't sure what that said about his normal morning conversational skills. He considered while Jensen sipped his coffee and waited patiently.
"That's wrong," Jared finally murmured, not entirely sure which item he'd come to a conclusion on.
"Bimini? I would hope so."
"No. All of them. Anderson's actually never been seen at all. Or heard from. Not directly. It's all telegrams and phone calls to secretaries, isn't it?"
Jensen joined him in serious thought. "People saw him in September. Who saw him the day he left?"
"Vanessa and Zac said they'd been to see him. Mac must have - he has a document giving Leighton rights to the money."
"And only Leighton's heard from him since?" Jensen asked with a frown. "What about his business?"
Jared shook his head. "The police file said he closed everything down, which was unusual, even for these retreats of his. He's closed the lab before, but never the offices."
"The police surely would have checked his office."
"Yes, but only to see if he was there. They wouldn't have checked paperwork or such to see about his leaving. That was months ago. It's not relevant to their investigation."
"So why is it to yours?" Jensen studied his husband with a growing smile. "You've thought of something. You've seen something they missed. What was it?"
"Anderson," Jared said. "There's something odd. Anderson was screwy, but this? It's - " He trailed off.
" - The wrong kind of screwy?" Jensen suggested. "Like Uncle Peter."
Jared raised an eyebrow. "Uncle Peter?"
"Yes, Mother thought he was having an affair with his secretary because he kept working late."
"Your entire family works late," Jared pointed out.
"Yes, but Uncle Peter stopped working late at the office and started working late from home. He made the secretary come out to the house. Screwy - in the wrong way."
The old familiar feeling of a puzzle about to be solved arrived. "You've got it, I think. People are suspicious and want to know why Anderson is staying hidden. But that's the wrong question. It's why did he go into hiding to begin with? That's where the answer is!"
The puzzle needed more pieces, and Jared went to get dressed and go find them. Jensen seemed distracted by the breakfast tray that was threatening to crash to the floor. Jared realized with chagrin that he'd possibly been responsible for the sudden shift.
Undeterred, Jared reached the dressing room but couldn't locate the clothes from the previous day. They were not in the dressing room, bathroom hamper, or the suitcases. The dresser was in process of being cleared when Jensen's strangled cry interrupted. Jensen was standing in the bedroom door, staring in shock at Jared for unknown reasons.
Jared looked around and wondered when the monkeys had followed him in because he had certainly not made such a mess. Clothes that were not the clothes he'd worn yesterday had strung themselves in a path from the dressing room to where he now stood. Icarus, who Jared dimly remembered carrying in, seemed to be eating one of Jared's slippers on the bed.
Helen had gone and left the bed impeccable. At least, Jared assumed it was from what he could see of it before the monkeys had attacked it with clothes from the dresser. Having noted this inexplicable chaos, Jared grew aware of Jensen's continued staring. His husband's eyes, mouth - his entire being - exuded disapproval. Jared's eyes and mouth pleaded innocence to any unauthorized actions.
"Jensen?" he asked plaintively, "Would you please make the room give me the clothes I was wearing yesterday?"
Without ever taking his gaze from Jared's, Jensen walked three steps into the room, knelt, and picked up Jared's jacket and pants from under the bed.
"You're holding your shirt," Jensen pointed out calmly, his mouth beginning to twitch. One day, Jared was going to have to find the words to properly express his appreciation for Jensen's mouth. He looked in his hand and discovered that he was, in fact, in possession of his shirt.
"You really must teach me that trick sometime," Jared groused. "It's not fair to make me throw everything around when you could just pick it up."
He grabbed the jacket before any of the indignant protests could be formed. He found what he was looking for in the jacket and tossed the keys in the air with a flourish.
Jensen smiled and asked, "Where'd you get those?"
"Mimi's purse."
"When did you even see Mimi's purse? I didn't - " Jensen broke off with a grin. "Sugar, I'll teach you how to see the clothes in front of your nose if you teach me how to pickpocket."
Jared gasped and attempted, with some success, to look appalled at the thought. His acting was rewarded with a genuine loud laugh, so he considered the performance outstanding.
"We'll discuss your lust for larceny later," Jared promised. "But first, we're going to work on our breaking and entering skills."
"You clean up this mess, and I'll get Icarus," Jensen stated, moving to retrieve slipper and dog. "We should dress for the occasion."
A Scene of Education and Enlightenment, Occurring on Boxing Day er, Night
An argument could be made that a small white dog with a predilection towards yapping was not the best accessory for a break in. An argument could also be made that formal wear, although admittedly dark, was not the best attire for such endeavors. Jared was not the man to make such arguments to Jensen, however. Icarus was, apparently, a bloodhound of unparalleled caliber, and Jensen wished to go dining and dancing afterwards.
Accordingly, a hired car dropped them off in front of Anderson's lab well after respectable people were out of the district. Jensen and Icarus were thrilled and looked up at the building with great glee. Jared disproved of such rookie behavior.
"Now," Jared began his instruction in his best professorial manner, "Mimi and Anderson were divorced, so Mimi might not have kept the key to the lab. But, if none of her keys fit - that would be when the 'breaking' portion of the exercise comes into play."
"Hmm." Jensen took the keys and walked Icarus to the door. With no seeming hesitation, he fitted one of the twenty keys on the ring and effortlessly opened the door. Jared's legs refused to move for a moment as his husband and dog cheerfully vanished into the darkened lab.
Reasserting control over his limbs, Jared entered the lab to reassert control over his case. Icarus was nowhere to be seen, while Jensen was found rummaging through the main desk.
"Anything?" Jared asked as he approached. "Do you even know what you're looking for?"
Jensen twirled his flashlight and grinned. "Well this is all written in chemistry. So, at the moment, I am looking for something not written in chemistry."
Jared stifled a laugh. "That sounds like proper snooping etiquette. But if memory serves, Anderson had a business office in the back. We'll probably have better luck there."
Jensen shone his light towards the back of the lab and was pleased to announce that Jared was brilliant. Jared was not inclined to disagree and led the way. Jensen called for Icarus, who barked to indicate that he had no interest in back offices.
Both men used their flashlights to locate the wayward dog. Icarus was scratching at the floor by one of the smelting units. Jensen rolled his eyes and went to pick him up but stopped as Jared started moving his light over the floor.
"What is it?" Jensen asked as he scooped up Icarus.
"Our pooch is a bloodhound," Jared announced proudly. This floor's newly poured. See? This patch of concrete is newer than the rest."
Jensen looked around and produced a length of rebar but didn't hand it over when Jared reached for it. "No. Take the gloves, scarf, and coat off. Lay them neatly on the table and then I will allow you to show off how manly you are."
Jared agreed with a smile and once the outer layers were off, even rolled up his sleeves for the best show. He was awarded with the rebar and he swung it into the flooring. After a few strikes, a hole appeared. The slab was covering a cavity underneath.
Jensen and Jared jostled for a view of what was in the hole. Jared protested, as it was his effort, and he should get the first view.
"Get over it. It's my first - "
Jensen's head snapped back and almost collided with Jared's, who would have protested more if he hadn't seen what caused the reaction. Jensen was already on his feet and moving to the back office so Jared had to hurry to catch up.
Jensen reached the office and grabbed the phone, not giving Jared a chance to speak.
"Lieutenant Morgan please," Jensen requested before finally making eye contact with Jared.
"Morgan? It's Jensen Ackles. Jared and I are in Anderson's lab - what?" Jensen was momentarily startled. "No, we had a key. Look. We found a body -"
A Scene of Exhumation, Occurring far too early on December 27th
Packing crates were found as far away as possible from the ragged hole in the floor. Jensen had arranged himself on them and was holding Jared tightly to him. Jared, in turn, held onto Icarus while New York's Finest finished off Jared's demolition work to reveal the skeleton underneath.
A pile of cloth made its way into Jared's line of vision.
"Well, it's a skeleton because whoever put the body in covered it with lye," the pile said in Morgan's voice. "They knew what they were doing, and they threw in a cane and a suitcase, too."
When neither commented, the pile was tossed into a police box, and Morgan sat heavily next to Jensen. "That's what's left of the suitcase. All I've got is a belt buckle with initials 'DWR' on it."
He nudged Jared, who looked him reluctantly in the eyes. Morgan's face was sympathetic but determined. "Years ago - that case you worked. The fella that wanted to kill Anderson was Roseberg, wasn't it?"
Jared continued to pet Icarus, realizing that Morgan wasn't going to let him ignore the case now that it was unpleasant. He sighed and admitted, "Yeah, he claimed that Anderson had stolen some chemical equation from him. It was a bogus claim, Anderson proved it in court. Roseberg got sore and threatened him. I helped track him down, and last I heard, he was in jail."
Morgan took up the tale, "So he gets out, comes here, Anderson kills him. Leighton knows about it; she's cheating on him and possibly blackmailing him. So he kills her. Our friend, Lea, catches him at that and gets bumped off, too."
Jensen held on tighter as the coroner came over to inform them the skeleton was previously an adult male and probably Caucasian. The coroner was very soft-spoken and accustomed, no doubt, to dealing carefully with survivors.
"I'll know more when we get it cleaned up. But there's this -" An evidence bag was displayed. "Bullet from a 38. Judging from it's position under the remains, I'm guessing it was in the torso when he died and is your cause of death."
"Same caliber that killed Leighton Meester," Morgan noted.
The coroner nodded and continued. "He's also got older shrapnel in his knee."
Morgan looked back to Jared. "I've got no other story to tell the district attorney. Anderson's all I got."
Not getting a reaction, he looked up to Jensen. Jensen's arms tightened around Jared once more, and Jared was almost sorry he couldn't see his face, as the expression on it made Morgan take a step back. Jared stood up, and Jensen followed.
"If you don't mind, Morgan," Jared said, "I'm going to take Jensen home. This whole incident has put us terribly behind on our drinking."
