Officer Tatum stormed in to the precinct. “Did you see the headline? For once, I wish they’d just let me do my job!”
Deputy McComb looked over the edge of the paper. “Why are you griping Bill? Because Carol figured out the big question from last night’s break in?”
The paper headline read “Who’s Joelle?” with Johanna’s picture pasted right beside it.
Bill, exasperated, bellowed, “I figured it out last night. Couldn’t Carol at least wait until one of us make a statement?”
“You know her, she always needs to pounce on any story with a mystery behind it. You really should give her a chance,” McComb commented between the sips of his coffee. “She’s a bright one!”
Bill grumbled to himself as he sat down to finish up the paperwork from the night before. “We still need to figure out who broke in to Miss Lee’s place. I need to follow up on some leads,” he scoffed as he picked up his phone.
Across town, John sat in Gregory’s Diner, reading the town gazette. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. Jojo passed away just a few months after he went to jail. After all this time, his pent up anger about how he thought she left him faded away, and a tear streamed down his face.
I need to make this right, he thought to himself. He headed out to the florist for flowers and found his way to Jojo’s gravesite.
When he arrived at Douglas Cemetery, he drove around to the Langford section, expecting her to be buried with her family. He walked up and down the hillside and eventually found himself in the Smith family section.
He found her stone finally, laying the flowers on the headstone. To the right, he saw a smaller headstone with the name Gloria Smith. It had the same date of death as Jojo.
John collapsed between the two headstones to his knees. He sat there, crying for what seemed like an hour.
He started to gather himself when a hand gently laid down on his shoulder. “Want to go talk about it?” Officer Tatum inquired. “You’ll have to ride with me, but it’s time for lunch. Then we can get this all sorted out with Miss Lee.
John looked up. “I never meant any harm. I loved her so much, it tore me apart, Sir.”
Officer Tatum helped John up. “I know son, love has us do crazy things at time.”
Dawn Renee Writes 