Hurt/comfort Amnesty Challenge - May: The King's hangman
Author: NYWCgirl
Fandom: Second chance
Pairing: None
Characters: Jimmy Pritchard, Duval Pritchard, Mary Goodwin, Otto Goodwin, Arthur
Warning/genre: Angst, hurt/comfort, serial killers, family
Spoilers: none
Rating: Gen
Author's Notes: This fic is written for the May Amnesty Challenge for h/c bingo. The challenge is to write for a small fandom using one or more of the following prompts: unconsciousness, theft, serial killers, confession in a desperate situation.
Beta credit goes to wonderful Aragarna, who made sure I stayed in canon for this fic.
Word Count: ~2100
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine…
Summary: What will father and son do when a copycat is in town. Will they be able to work together and bring him down?
The story can also be found on AO3.
“What is the matter son?” Jimmy can see how worn Duval is the moment he enters the house.
“It´s this case I am working on. This guy keeps alluding us. Every time we think we get closer, he is gone again.”
Jimmy hand Duval a beer. Duval sits down in the couch and opens it. He takes a large swig before he opens his eyes again. He studies his dad, who is watching him in return.
“Tell me about it.”
“I really don´t want to talk about it.”
“Just tell me, sometimes it helps to tell someone outside the bureau, get a fresh perspective on the case.”
Duval sighs, he knows it is no use to deny his dad, once he sniffed a case, he will keep nagging him.
“The victims were all woman and found in their homes, no signs of forced entry. They were all strangled. No sexual assault. We found semen on the victims, but they weren´t raped. Oh, and they were all victims, before being killed, of several thefts.”
Jimmy gets up and makes his way to the attic. Duval can hear him rummaging through the boxes with his dad´s belongings that were put there after the funeral.
He comes back bouncing down the stairs and Duval startles when something is thrown in his lap. It is an old case file. He put his beer on the table and opens it. He can see his dad´s signature on the documents so it is a case his dad worked. The first date is June 16th 1979. He starts reading and doesn´t notice that Jimmy prepared dinner, until he hears him call out to come to dinner. Unable to put the case file down, he keeps reading while he walks over to the kitchen table where two plates are set.
He looks up. “Gracie isn´t eating with us?”
“No, she called and asked if it was OK to spend the night with Kelly, you know, her class mate?”
“So you said yes, without checking with me?”
“Well, yes, you weren´t home, so she called me. Kelly´s parents were OK with it.”
“You should have told her to call me, or better, you should have called me if she didn´t. She could have called me on my cell phone, she is just taking advantage of the situation. You´re not her dad, I am…”
Duval takes a deep breath before he continues. “I´m tired and hungry, let´s just eat, it smells delicious.”
“It´s chicken casserole.”
Duval digs in and moans, the memories making the food taste even better.
“This is exactly how mom used to make it.”
“She made it after my recipe.” Jimmy smiles remembering his wife making this for their family.
They eat in silence until Duval breaks it.
“This is nice, why couldn´t we do this more before?”
Jimmy’s face falls and Duval instantly regrets his words. He takes a couple of breaths before continuing.
“I´m sorry. Just tell me about the case.”
“You have yourself a copycat on your hands. Our first victim was found in June 1979. She was found strangled by her daughter who came to visit. No signs of break in, we thought she must have let the perpetrator in herself. Because all the houses of the victims were equipped with alarms. It took us eleven victims before we figured out it was the alarm installer. He was called the King´s Hangman. You know, King County…”
“I get it dad, how long was he sentenced for?”
“He got the death penalty.”
“Where was he locked away?”
“His sentence was executed two years ago, maybe three, I´m not sure.”
“So, we´ve got us a copycat. OK, I will call it in.”
“Let’s try to figure out where he might hit next.”
Jimmy turns towards Duval, but he is already talking on the phone discussing what he has just learned.
* * *
Duval uses the bureau to make a list of all known alarm installers in King County and then he has his probie check all the companies that did recent installations. From there, narrowing it down to a list with single women who had an alarm installed is easy.
There are 7 potential targets and there are teams dispatched to every address for a stakeout. The first couple of nights nothing happens and Duval´s boss thinks it is a dead end and they are on the wrong track. After a week, all resources are pulled back to other cases.
Duval goes home, but there is nobody home. Gracie is probably again staying at a friend and Jimmy is most likely at the Goodwins´.
He eats alone, some leftover he found in the fridge and heated in the microwave, takes a beer and heads up to bed as it has been a long week at the bureau, he didn´t get much sleep so he is glad to be able to go to bed early.
He startles awake when his phone rings. It takes him a moment to realize where he is and picks up.
“Pritchard.”
“Duval, you need to get over here. I´m at Moira Sedacy´s house.”
“Jimmy, what are you doing there?” Duval grabs his clothes and starts pulling them on, while talking to his dad.”
“Arthur told me she was the most likely candidate to be killed according to his calculations.”
“What?”
“Never mind, just get over here, I suspect him any moment now as Arthur detected a fault in the electrical system of the house.”
“I´m on my way. And Jimmy?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Yes, dad.”
Before Duval can say anything, the line is disconnected.
He hurried to his car and drove to the address of Miss Sedacy. When he arrived there was nobody to be seen and he took out his gun. Carefully he made his way towards the house and almost had a heart attack when Jimmy stood suddenly next to him.
“Don´t ever do that again.” Duval hisses. Jimmy just smiles like he doesn´t have a care in the world.
The both of them enter the house, but it is all quiet. Duval flips the switch and the lights come on.
“FBI! Anybody home?”
There is stumbling upstairs and suddenly an ear piercing scream. Both men run upstairs, but they only find a terrified Moira. She is clutching her blankets.
“Are you alright?”
“Y…Yes.” She stammers. Peter calls the FBI to come over and secure the crime scene. He notices that Jimmy is nowhere to be seen, as he jumped out of the first story window and is chasing the guy they´re after.
“Can you stay with the neighbors? The FBI will be here within a couple of minutes.”
He runs down the stairs and realizes he is getting too old for this. But then realizes his dad is over seventy and is now running after a serial killer. He gets in the car and drives behind them as they are running down the street. When he is next to his dad, he stops and Jimmy gets in.
Of course it doesn´t take long before the guy jumps over a garden fence, and Jimmy is out of the car in a jiff followed by Duval.
The guy is in top condition, because they can´t seem to be able to close in on him. But after some time it seems that Jimmy is closing in on him and within a couple of yards, Jimmy tackles the guy and Duval draws his gun.
“OK, break it up. Hands where I can see them.” He shouts, but the fighting men don´t hear him or chose to ignore him. It doesn´t matter, he can´t get a clear shot, so he puts his gun away again and tries to get the man under control. Duval thinks he can get a good grip on the guy when he sees something metallic glistering in the moon light.
“Gun!” he shouts and the next thing he has a ringing tone in his ears from the gun being fired closed to his head. He shakes his head without letting go of the man´s other arm, when he notices that Jimmy isn´t holding on to the man anymore. He avoids a slam with the gun to his face and then grabs hold of the arm holding the gun. The guy tries to get an aim at his head, so he is fighting for his life. The adrenaline is pumping through him. Just as he thinks he won´t be able to subdue the man, he slumps down on his chest. Duval is still too worn to realize someone knocked the man out. He finally looks up and sees Jimmy wavering on his feet. He looks pale and sweaty.
“Are you alright?” Duval asks. Jimmy gives him a shaky nod.
“Yeah, cuff him. Make sure he doesn´t get away.”
Duval calls in the arrest and asks for backup and an ambulance.
“I cn´t go to a hsptl.” Jimmy slurs. The man they arrested is still out and Duval realizes that Jimmy´s slurring his words is not good. He turns around to check out Jimmy when he sees him stagger and go down on one knee.
“Dad.”
He crouches next to Jimmy and checks over the wound in his side, he´s been shot, but the bullet didn´t go through. He takes off his jacket and puts pressure on the wound. In the meantime police officers have arrived at the scene.
“He is our serial killer, please take him in. The victim is staying with her neighbors. Where is that ambulance?”
“The ambulance ETA is 5 minutes.”
“That is too long, I will take him myself.”
Duval puts an arm under Jimmy´s shoulder.
“Ready, on a count of three. One… Two… Three.” He stands up and pulls Jimmy with him, who sways on his feet. The make it to the car.
“T’ke me to M’ry and Otto, they will take c’re of m.”
Duval looks next to him and can see Jimmy´s eyes starting to droop.
“Stay with me, dad. Stay awake, you can´t go to sleep now.”
“Son, I…”
“What, dad?”
“I love you. I h’vn’t said it ‘nough. B’t I really do, I loved y’r mom, Ellen and you. I…”
“What dad?”
When there isn’t an answer, Duval shakes Jimmy and he can see he lost consciousness. He feels for a pulse, for a couple of seconds, he can´t find any, but then there it is, fast and faint, but it is there. He calls Mary´s telephone and explains to her that is on his way to her with an injured Jimmy. She tells him that he can drive right into the indoor garage where they will be waiting for them.
The moment he drives through the gates of their villa into the garage, Mary and Otto are there with a gurney. Duval pulls his dad out of the car and deposits him on the bed and they are off to the basement where they keep the tank. Duval carries him into it and Mary and Otto cut the clothes of his body. Once they step out of the tank, they let it fill up. And while he stands in front of the glass wall, he can here Otto talking to Arthur. And it doesn´t take long before Duval can see that the wound is closing.
“Mister Pritchard is doing well, his vitals have stabilized.” Arthur clinically reports.
“Thank you Arthur. Duval, do you want something to drink? It will take a while for Jimmy to go through the whole cycle and to wake up.”
“Yeah, … NO, I should be going back to the office, they are probably wondering where we went. Thanks for saving my dad.”
“You’re welcome.” Mary says. Otto is nowhere to be seen.
Duval gets in his car and lets out a breath. It has been a long night, but they caught the bad guy and Jimmy will live. As he drives back to the city, he can see the sun rising.
Fandom: Second chance
Pairing: None
Characters: Jimmy Pritchard, Duval Pritchard, Mary Goodwin, Otto Goodwin, Arthur
Warning/genre: Angst, hurt/comfort, serial killers, family
Spoilers: none
Rating: Gen
Author's Notes: This fic is written for the May Amnesty Challenge for h/c bingo. The challenge is to write for a small fandom using one or more of the following prompts: unconsciousness, theft, serial killers, confession in a desperate situation.
Beta credit goes to wonderful Aragarna, who made sure I stayed in canon for this fic.
Word Count: ~2100
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine…
Summary: What will father and son do when a copycat is in town. Will they be able to work together and bring him down?
The story can also be found on AO3.
“What is the matter son?” Jimmy can see how worn Duval is the moment he enters the house.
“It´s this case I am working on. This guy keeps alluding us. Every time we think we get closer, he is gone again.”
Jimmy hand Duval a beer. Duval sits down in the couch and opens it. He takes a large swig before he opens his eyes again. He studies his dad, who is watching him in return.
“Tell me about it.”
“I really don´t want to talk about it.”
“Just tell me, sometimes it helps to tell someone outside the bureau, get a fresh perspective on the case.”
Duval sighs, he knows it is no use to deny his dad, once he sniffed a case, he will keep nagging him.
“The victims were all woman and found in their homes, no signs of forced entry. They were all strangled. No sexual assault. We found semen on the victims, but they weren´t raped. Oh, and they were all victims, before being killed, of several thefts.”
Jimmy gets up and makes his way to the attic. Duval can hear him rummaging through the boxes with his dad´s belongings that were put there after the funeral.
He comes back bouncing down the stairs and Duval startles when something is thrown in his lap. It is an old case file. He put his beer on the table and opens it. He can see his dad´s signature on the documents so it is a case his dad worked. The first date is June 16th 1979. He starts reading and doesn´t notice that Jimmy prepared dinner, until he hears him call out to come to dinner. Unable to put the case file down, he keeps reading while he walks over to the kitchen table where two plates are set.
He looks up. “Gracie isn´t eating with us?”
“No, she called and asked if it was OK to spend the night with Kelly, you know, her class mate?”
“So you said yes, without checking with me?”
“Well, yes, you weren´t home, so she called me. Kelly´s parents were OK with it.”
“You should have told her to call me, or better, you should have called me if she didn´t. She could have called me on my cell phone, she is just taking advantage of the situation. You´re not her dad, I am…”
Duval takes a deep breath before he continues. “I´m tired and hungry, let´s just eat, it smells delicious.”
“It´s chicken casserole.”
Duval digs in and moans, the memories making the food taste even better.
“This is exactly how mom used to make it.”
“She made it after my recipe.” Jimmy smiles remembering his wife making this for their family.
They eat in silence until Duval breaks it.
“This is nice, why couldn´t we do this more before?”
Jimmy’s face falls and Duval instantly regrets his words. He takes a couple of breaths before continuing.
“I´m sorry. Just tell me about the case.”
“You have yourself a copycat on your hands. Our first victim was found in June 1979. She was found strangled by her daughter who came to visit. No signs of break in, we thought she must have let the perpetrator in herself. Because all the houses of the victims were equipped with alarms. It took us eleven victims before we figured out it was the alarm installer. He was called the King´s Hangman. You know, King County…”
“I get it dad, how long was he sentenced for?”
“He got the death penalty.”
“Where was he locked away?”
“His sentence was executed two years ago, maybe three, I´m not sure.”
“So, we´ve got us a copycat. OK, I will call it in.”
“Let’s try to figure out where he might hit next.”
Jimmy turns towards Duval, but he is already talking on the phone discussing what he has just learned.
* * *
Duval uses the bureau to make a list of all known alarm installers in King County and then he has his probie check all the companies that did recent installations. From there, narrowing it down to a list with single women who had an alarm installed is easy.
There are 7 potential targets and there are teams dispatched to every address for a stakeout. The first couple of nights nothing happens and Duval´s boss thinks it is a dead end and they are on the wrong track. After a week, all resources are pulled back to other cases.
Duval goes home, but there is nobody home. Gracie is probably again staying at a friend and Jimmy is most likely at the Goodwins´.
He eats alone, some leftover he found in the fridge and heated in the microwave, takes a beer and heads up to bed as it has been a long week at the bureau, he didn´t get much sleep so he is glad to be able to go to bed early.
He startles awake when his phone rings. It takes him a moment to realize where he is and picks up.
“Pritchard.”
“Duval, you need to get over here. I´m at Moira Sedacy´s house.”
“Jimmy, what are you doing there?” Duval grabs his clothes and starts pulling them on, while talking to his dad.”
“Arthur told me she was the most likely candidate to be killed according to his calculations.”
“What?”
“Never mind, just get over here, I suspect him any moment now as Arthur detected a fault in the electrical system of the house.”
“I´m on my way. And Jimmy?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Yes, dad.”
Before Duval can say anything, the line is disconnected.
He hurried to his car and drove to the address of Miss Sedacy. When he arrived there was nobody to be seen and he took out his gun. Carefully he made his way towards the house and almost had a heart attack when Jimmy stood suddenly next to him.
“Don´t ever do that again.” Duval hisses. Jimmy just smiles like he doesn´t have a care in the world.
The both of them enter the house, but it is all quiet. Duval flips the switch and the lights come on.
“FBI! Anybody home?”
There is stumbling upstairs and suddenly an ear piercing scream. Both men run upstairs, but they only find a terrified Moira. She is clutching her blankets.
“Are you alright?”
“Y…Yes.” She stammers. Peter calls the FBI to come over and secure the crime scene. He notices that Jimmy is nowhere to be seen, as he jumped out of the first story window and is chasing the guy they´re after.
“Can you stay with the neighbors? The FBI will be here within a couple of minutes.”
He runs down the stairs and realizes he is getting too old for this. But then realizes his dad is over seventy and is now running after a serial killer. He gets in the car and drives behind them as they are running down the street. When he is next to his dad, he stops and Jimmy gets in.
Of course it doesn´t take long before the guy jumps over a garden fence, and Jimmy is out of the car in a jiff followed by Duval.
The guy is in top condition, because they can´t seem to be able to close in on him. But after some time it seems that Jimmy is closing in on him and within a couple of yards, Jimmy tackles the guy and Duval draws his gun.
“OK, break it up. Hands where I can see them.” He shouts, but the fighting men don´t hear him or chose to ignore him. It doesn´t matter, he can´t get a clear shot, so he puts his gun away again and tries to get the man under control. Duval thinks he can get a good grip on the guy when he sees something metallic glistering in the moon light.
“Gun!” he shouts and the next thing he has a ringing tone in his ears from the gun being fired closed to his head. He shakes his head without letting go of the man´s other arm, when he notices that Jimmy isn´t holding on to the man anymore. He avoids a slam with the gun to his face and then grabs hold of the arm holding the gun. The guy tries to get an aim at his head, so he is fighting for his life. The adrenaline is pumping through him. Just as he thinks he won´t be able to subdue the man, he slumps down on his chest. Duval is still too worn to realize someone knocked the man out. He finally looks up and sees Jimmy wavering on his feet. He looks pale and sweaty.
“Are you alright?” Duval asks. Jimmy gives him a shaky nod.
“Yeah, cuff him. Make sure he doesn´t get away.”
Duval calls in the arrest and asks for backup and an ambulance.
“I cn´t go to a hsptl.” Jimmy slurs. The man they arrested is still out and Duval realizes that Jimmy´s slurring his words is not good. He turns around to check out Jimmy when he sees him stagger and go down on one knee.
“Dad.”
He crouches next to Jimmy and checks over the wound in his side, he´s been shot, but the bullet didn´t go through. He takes off his jacket and puts pressure on the wound. In the meantime police officers have arrived at the scene.
“He is our serial killer, please take him in. The victim is staying with her neighbors. Where is that ambulance?”
“The ambulance ETA is 5 minutes.”
“That is too long, I will take him myself.”
Duval puts an arm under Jimmy´s shoulder.
“Ready, on a count of three. One… Two… Three.” He stands up and pulls Jimmy with him, who sways on his feet. The make it to the car.
“T’ke me to M’ry and Otto, they will take c’re of m.”
Duval looks next to him and can see Jimmy´s eyes starting to droop.
“Stay with me, dad. Stay awake, you can´t go to sleep now.”
“Son, I…”
“What, dad?”
“I love you. I h’vn’t said it ‘nough. B’t I really do, I loved y’r mom, Ellen and you. I…”
“What dad?”
When there isn’t an answer, Duval shakes Jimmy and he can see he lost consciousness. He feels for a pulse, for a couple of seconds, he can´t find any, but then there it is, fast and faint, but it is there. He calls Mary´s telephone and explains to her that is on his way to her with an injured Jimmy. She tells him that he can drive right into the indoor garage where they will be waiting for them.
The moment he drives through the gates of their villa into the garage, Mary and Otto are there with a gurney. Duval pulls his dad out of the car and deposits him on the bed and they are off to the basement where they keep the tank. Duval carries him into it and Mary and Otto cut the clothes of his body. Once they step out of the tank, they let it fill up. And while he stands in front of the glass wall, he can here Otto talking to Arthur. And it doesn´t take long before Duval can see that the wound is closing.
“Mister Pritchard is doing well, his vitals have stabilized.” Arthur clinically reports.
“Thank you Arthur. Duval, do you want something to drink? It will take a while for Jimmy to go through the whole cycle and to wake up.”
“Yeah, … NO, I should be going back to the office, they are probably wondering where we went. Thanks for saving my dad.”
“You’re welcome.” Mary says. Otto is nowhere to be seen.
Duval gets in his car and lets out a breath. It has been a long night, but they caught the bad guy and Jimmy will live. As he drives back to the city, he can see the sun rising.