Part Two - The Crime

The next morning (We've now made it to Wednesday, October 18th) Jack and Jill were getting ready for work when Jill spotted something shiny on the floor of their office. She walked in to take a closer look and noticed it was a butter knife. Still not catching on to what was happening she picked it up and carried it across the hall to the bedroom.

Jack, what is this butter knife doing on the floor of our office?

I don't know, maybe the dogs... wait. Where are your checks?

They are locked in the drawer of the desk right over.....

It was at that moment that Jill noticed that the drawer was cracked open. She walked over to the drawer and noticed that it had apparently been pried opened. She took out both boxes of checks and dumped them on the bed. The first thing she noticed was that the last book of checks was missing from her big bank checking account.

Lots of things flashed through her mind as she tried to contemplate what to do next. Jack had already gone downstairs and was attempting to call Jon & Jane on their phones with no luck. Finally Jill got out the phone book and had him call the Sheriff's office. She didn't feel it was an emergency situation that required 911 but she still wanted an officer there to take a police report.

About an hour later (yeah... their kind of slow in these parts) an officer showed up to take their statements. Jill was kind of expecting some sort of CSI stuff but instead she got Barney Fife. He looked at the drawer and then noticed that there was a file on the floor. The file, they determined, was the ultimate tool that was used to break into the desk. Since both surfaces were uneven the officer informed her that they could not get finger prints from either of them.

Then Jill walked over to the fire safe. Things on top of the file cabinet had been moved. She informed "Barney" of this but he assured her that they couldn't have broken into that safe and that it was also not a finger printable surface. After examining the room "Barney" gathered both check boxes for possible finger printing and then wrote down all of the details they had about these two.

While they didn't know their last names Jill felt confident in the fact that they knew enough details about them to allow them to be found. It was during this information mining process that the truth about Jon started to come out. Jill knew that he had been in jail from January to April. What she didn't know, that Jack apparently did, was that he was a convicted felon.

During this revelation period Jack also informed the sheriff that Jon had shown him a loaded .38 that he kept in his vehicle. Finally, another piece of information leaked out. Jack thought it was possible that Jon was wanted for some offence in another county. He told the sheriff that Jon had told him that he had paid someone off or something and that the charges had been dropped but he was not 100% sure whether this was true.

After taking all the information down "Barney" informed them that the theft of checks is actually a very minor offense. Since they (and by they he of course meant Jack because Jill did NOT give them permission) gave them permission to enter the house all they really had them for was 5th degree theft. Basically the value of the book of checks and the damage to the drawer. MINOR amounts.

So, he told them that until they used the checks they probably would not be getting any follow up calls. Once they used the checks a detective would probably call them to begin a fraud report. Jack & Jill thanked "Barney" and he headed out to his squad car to begin writing his report.

It was at this point that Jill decided she should probably find out if any of the small bank checks were missing. Since there was not a pad in there saying what the last check should be she called the company she ordered the checks from. They were very helpful and told her what number should be her last check. It was, of course, missing.

Luckily "Barney" was still in the driveway so they headed outside to give him the remainder of the information. Jill then quickly packed up her things for work and began the process of closing bank accounts. She went to small bank first because it was closer and because that's where all of her money was.

They were VERY helpful and nice about the whole process. They took down a list of items that were outstanding, made a copy of the officer's card along with the police report number, and then set up her new checking account. They told her that if any of the stolen checks came into the bank they would make a copy of the check before they returned it and promptly give the copy to the officer and to Jill.

From there she headed off to big bank. The process at big bank was just as smooth but Jill did not get the feeling that they would be as helpful. They did close her account and open a new one and they did change the automatic withdrawal information for her home equity loan. What they would not do, however was make copies of the checks and send them to her. It was up to her to contact them. All they would do was send the checks back marked lost/stolen.

Finally at about 11:30 Jill finally made it into work for the day. Although she was not productive in the slightest and spent most of the day talking with people about what happened or fretting over it. As she was sitting at her desk around 3:00 her cell phone rang. She was very surprised when the man on the other end of the phone identified himself as a detective who wanted to talk to her about the theft.

After all, the officer that morning had told her that she would not hear from a detective until the checks had been used and as of that morning when she was in both banks none of them had. After he identified himself Detective T. told her that he thought he knew Jon's last name and that if it was the same Jon, he was looking for him for something else.

He asked Jill if she would be available the next day to look at a photo line up and see if Jon's picture was in it. As luck would have it, she had already made arrangements for someone to come and fix their broken garage door the next morning (so they could lock up their garage and house like Fort Knox) so she was going to be home for a few hours.

He told her he would call her before 10:00 to stop by and then told her the most disturbing piece of news.

If Jon shows up at your house this evening do not speak to him. Call 911 immediately. If this is the same Jon we have been looking for you should consider him dangerous. Please don't take any chances.

Nothing like making a girl feel safe huh?

For the remaining two hours that she was at work all Jill could think about was the fire safe. Why hadn't she opened it when "Barney" was there. What if they had broken into that too? As soon as she got home from work she headed straight upstairs and moved everything from the top of the fire safe. It opened, no key needed and she saw that it had been damaged.

It looked as if they had taken the file and pried it open because there were large groove marks in the plastic around where the lock was. At this point she could tell that there would be no way to repair it and it would need to be replaced. She also noticed that her passport and birth certificate along with Jon's birth certificate were missing.

Jill immediately went downstairs and called the number on "Barney's" card. A receptionist answered and told her that an officer would call her back. When the officer called he took down the newest missing items and said he would add them to the police report.

That night Jill's phone rang. It was Jon & Jane. They were returning her phone call from earlier that day. Not wanting to give away that they knew what was up Jill played dumb and just said she had called because Jane had left her brush and Jon had left some tools at their house. They told her that they would probably not be around for awhile but that they would be in touch later. She wanted to keep the lines of communication open so that hopefully these people could be caught but it was VERY hard to play dumb when she just wanted to jump through the phone and ring their necks.

The next day Detective T. called Jill around 9:00 to tell her that he and another detective would be over within the hour. Jill told him that would work fine. When they got there they briefly asked her what happened and then they looked in the office. They agreed that none of the surfaces were fingerprintable and so their best bet was if there were finger prints on the check boxes.

After that they asked a few questions about what Jill knew about Jon & Jane they brought out two photo lineups. Each one contained about eight people and they told her to look over them and let them know if she saw the people who had been at her house. The first one was of the men and Jill had NO trouble picking out Jon. His face just jumped out at her.

The second lineup was of the women. This one was a little bit harder. She had not really paid all that much attention to Jane as she had only talked to her a couple of times but she picked out a girl who looked like her. The difference was the girl in the picture looked younger, had a thicker face, and different color hair.

After she had identified both of them the Detectives informed her that she was, in fact, correct on both people. It was at this point that some more details about Jon started to emerge. Apparently he was wanted for felony kidnapping, adults not children, and he was a fugitive from justice. They asked if Jack would be interested in trying to get Jon to a central place so they could arrest him.

Jill informed them that Jack had already mentioned that possibility to her and also told them about the conversation that she had with them on the phone the night before. When the detectives left they repeated to her that if either of these people showed up she should call 911 immediately. She told them she would and that Jack would be in touch if he could arrange a meeting.

After the detectives left Jill headed to the D.O.T. Since Jane now had her birth certificate and passport it was possible that she could go to the D.O.T. and get a new license with her picture but Jill's information on it. So, trying to curb off any identity theft, Jill went and had her license number changed and a flag put on her account so that no one else could get a copy of her ID.

Then when she got to work she had to try to get ahold of someone to cancel her passport. The first piece of information she found stated that she had to mail in a form stating that it had been canceled. Jill knew that could take weeks to process and she wanted something with MUCH more speedy results. So, after a little more looking she located a phone number.

When she called the phone number no one answered. She left a message and waited. Two hours later she had still not received a return phone call. So, she began calling every 10 minutes until FINALLY someone answered. By noon she had her passport canceled. One more hastle off her list.

That night Jack received a text message from Jane saying that Jon had been arrested for kidnapping and that she was going to rehab. She requested that Jack leave her alone and stop calling. Then about 15 minutes later she sent another text message saying that Jack needed to stop being such a nark and calling the police on them.

Jack immediately called Detective T., who did not answer, probably because he was on the phone with Jill. See earlier that evening Jill had noticed one more item that was missing. Her old 35mm camera which had been sitting in a case on top of the fire safe was no where to be found. She quickly checked her digital camera and noticed that someone had taken it out of the case and placed it back in a different manner but at least it was still there.

So Jack called Detective D. who told him that as far has he knew Jon had not been arrested but he would check in on it. He also told Jack that there was no way for Jon to know that Jack and Jill had called the police and that they were most likely just feeling him out. He told him to play dumb.

So he sent a text message back stating that he had no idea what she was talking about and why would he have called the police on them? He got no response. Later that evening Detective D. did call him back and confirm that Jon had not been arrested and that they must just be trying to feel them out. He told Jack to let him know if they heard from Jon again.

On Sunday October 22nd as luck would have it Jon called again. He called Jack's cell phone from a restricted number and did not give any details about where he was. All he would say was that he was staying with family and trying to lie low. He gave Jack some song and dance about how the charge that he thought was dropped wasn't and so he was trying to hide out. (As if he thought if he hid long enough everything would just go away.)

Jack played everything off really well and tried to set up a time to meet with Jon but he didn't really fall for it. He just told him he would call him back later. As it turns out Jon did try to call one more time later that week. Jack missed the call but returned a text message to the phone number only to find out that Jon had been there but had left.

After that... the lines of communication went dark.