Meet The Jensens'

Sam Night is an investigative officer working to solve the case of a mother, Martha Jensen, who was murdered in her home with her son in the room.

The door to his office creaked open, he switched on the dim flickering lights revealing his newly decorated workspace. There were boxes still in the corner full of photos from college, trinkets from his travels, and books to fill the empty shelves, He sauntered over to his desk and sat in his chair. He pushed his feet off the floor and repelled him toward the window; he tugged on the strings to the blinds and the new morning sunlight poured into the room and stung his eyes.

He picked up the small wooden block with the metal plate on the front that read OFFICER NIGHT. He had such a generic name “Night” he didn’t mind it much though; he’d only had this job for two months and all the other detectives already knew his name. I mean that didn’t really matter either. Sometimes they would invite him out for drinks on the weekends and he would never go with them. He hadn’t ever been a party go-er. Not even in college.

He always spent long nights in the library studying. He was his class valedictorian. He was the same way when he went to the academy. he spent long hours studying the Miranda Rights and exercising. He was valedictorian there too.

“Sam?” Another detective broke Sam of his daze. The man, only slightly older than Sam, sat on the edge of Sam’s desk.

“Do you have anything for me Jason?” Sam pushed his thigh off his desk.

“Oh uh yeah.” Jason dug in his pocket and uncrumpled a piece of paper. “Martha Jensen was stabbed in her home with a kitchen knife while her son Andrew slept in the other room.”

Sam was startled by hearing his name for the first time in a long time, He’d changed his name the day he turned 18. If he didn't the bureau wouldn’t have permitted him to work on this murder case, for all they know he is just a kid who caught wing of the case in college and has been obsessed ever since.

“No Jason, that's wrong” Sam said looking at the confused detective “The boy was the only known witness of the murder he had walked in as the man was exiting through the back door.”

“Oh woops”  Jason hopped back on the desk. “I don't understand why you are so obsessed with this case; the father Richard was already convicted for the murder. he was convicted like 15 years ago.”

“16 years ago.” Sam leaned back in his chair. “The kid didn't see his father murder his mother. He said he  saw a strange man do it.”

“Yea but it was concluded that the boys description of the man couldn't be trusted because it was dark in the house and the statement was given while he was in shock.” Jason crossed his legs and looked at a bird that was outside the window. Jason was concerned for Sam. Jason didn't have anyone else at the bureau. Sam had only been here two months and he already had more respect than he had and he’d been here five years.

“Thank you Jason you've helped me a lot these past few months.” Sam ran his fingers through his already thinning hair and let out a small sigh. “I know Richard Jensen is innocent and Andrew grew up without a father because of that wrongful conviction.”

“Well hey, that's what friends are for!” Jason hopped of his desk and skipped through the door. “I'll find more evidence and bring it to you!” he shouted as he traveled down the hallway.

Jason nearly skipped all the way to his office. He jumped into his chair and pulled the handle to make it as tall as possible; even though he was 33 he was still the shortest guy in the office and could barely reach the shelf that held cups for coffee in the break room. he remembered the joke some guys at the office pulled when he walked into the break room and found a stepping stool with a note that said “FOR JASON”  on it, it’s still in the break room closet. His mother always said he would grow up Tall and strong but all he was left with was a height of 5’4 and the muscle build of a newborn deer.

 Jason just continued to type away at his computer looking up all the information he could about the Martha Jensen case.

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Sam decided to call it a day early and went home to his apartment a few blocks away from his work. His apartment closely resembled his office, barely moved into. The walls were bare and the small kitchen only had a few plates. His apartment only had two bedrooms, one was where his bed and dresser were, the other held all his research. newspaper articles wallpapered every side of the room. he has a whiteboard with crime scene pictures taped up. Everything about his mother’s murder was framed up in a memorium on the walls.

His desk was neat, unlike his desk at his office, the only family photo he had  sat on the edge of the desk. He picked it up and looked at the faded photo. It was the last family trip they had taken before his mother was murdered. In the photo Sam, well Andrew at the time, was on his father's shoulders and his father's arm was around his mother, they were all smiling and laughing. They had been in egypt visiting the pyramids, Sam remembered how much fun he had there and tried to think of the last time he had any fun.

Sam changed out of his tacky suit and put on a t-shirt and jeans. He folded some notes up from his desk and put them in his back pocket. He grabbed his keys off the table and jogged to his car.

He drove 40 minutes to the prison where his father had been held for the past 16 years. He visited his every Wednesday  for the past nine years, his grandparents never drove him up here to see see his father since his grandfather had knee surgery he had to use a cane to walk for pretty much all of Sam’s life.

Sam entered the building and waved at Jessica who sat behind a small booth encased in glass with a small hole cut in the front.

“There you are Sam!” She said waving at him and patting down her frizzy hair. “He’s been waiting for you all day, take a seat and Marcus will bring him out for you.”

“Thanks Jess.” Sam took his seat in his usual booth at the far end of the rows of people talking to their family and friends.

His father was escorted out in handcuffs. His face was sad and his eyes were hollow and dark. His gray hair, that used to be black and full as Sam’s was , had nearly completely abandoned his head. he took a seat and picked up the phone hanging on the wall. Sam did the same.

“Andy, it’s so nice to see you. have you heard anything?” He had a smirk that almost resembled a smile on his face.

“It’s Sam now. Don’t call me Andy.” Sam did not return the smirk.

“Sorry Sam.” his father corrected himself.

“I do think I found something.” he scrounged around in his pocket and pulled out the folded papers. he unfolded them and began to read, “The shoe treads that left the muddy footprints in the kitchen. we had clarified them as size 11.”

“The same size I wear.” he glanced down at the small pieces of cloth that replaced his shoes so many years ago.

“Yes well they ran the tread marks across all shoes in your closet and couldn’t find a match. But they assumed you threw the shoes out to dispose of the evidence.”

“Okay so how does this affect the case? They didn’t believe me when I said I never owned that type of shoe.”

“Yes well since the treads didn't look worn out yet we can assume that the suspect bought the shoes around the time of the murder.” Sam flipped the paper over. “So I pulled up a list of people who bought the shoes then cross referenced that with my suspect list.”

“And what did you come up with?” he had hopefulness in his eyes. Something sam had not seen in a long time.

“I came up with nothing, but it's still a good start.” Sam gave his father an apologetic look.

“Oh, Sam I think we shoul-” he was interrupted by a buzzing in Sam’s pocket. Sam fumbled with a small flip phone for a moment before flipping it open.

“What Jason?”

“Sam! You’re not gonna believe what I found!” Sam had to hold the phone away from his ear a bit because of Jason’s shouting.

“What?” Sam didn’t sound nearly as enthused as Jason did; Jason was always finding stuff that he thought would be crucial to the case when it turned out to be something Sam already knew.

“Okay so I cross referenced the list of people who bought the shoe that left the tracks on the floor with a list of people who lived anywhere near Martha’s house that matched the description the kid gave?”

“So how many people?” Sam was still unenthused about Jason’s information.

“200 people Sammy! We are closer than ever!” You could nearly see Jason jumping for joy around his office.

“Alright Jason email me the list of people with profiles and i'll compare them to my suspect list.”

“Will do!”

“And Jason?”

“What?”

“Don’t call me Sammy.” He flipped the phone closed and returned it to his pocket.

He picked up the phone that his father held the other end of.

“So what did Jason have to say?” His father seemed to have more faith in Jason then Sam did. He’d never even met him before; Sam thought about bringing Jason Down here to meet his father but for fear that his father would slip up and call him Andy and ruin the whole case, he didn’t.

“He just has a new list of possible suspects for me to go through.”

“This is great news Andy!” his father’s dull eyes had a small spark of light somewhere deep behind them.

“No!” Sam shouted and tightened his grip causing a few heads to turn and his knuckles to whiten. “Andrew died along with Martha Jensen!” And with that he hung up and walked out the doors of the prison. Leaving his father to look at the empty chair where his son once sat.

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Sam sat at his desk bent over a stack of papers. He’d already looked through 50 men and none of them matched the description he gave for the man who murdered Martha Jensen. He decided to call it a night. As he stood to walk away from the desk his hip bumped the desk sending his stack of suspect photos scattering across the floor.

He bent down and began to gather them when he spotted a familiar face. he crawled toward the photo and lifted it into the light.

He dropped all the other photos and ran back to his desk.

He stayed up all night, string connected all his clues forming a spider web that trapped all his thoughts.

Tears streamed down his face as he looked at the room, baffled by how he had been so blind. All the pieces fit so perfectly together. Between sobs Sam glanced up and looked at the framed picture on his desk. He sat on the floor trying to pull himself together. He grabbed his keys and his gun off his nightstand and walked to his car.

Sam drove for a little over an hour ignoring his frantically buzzing phone that sat beside the gun in his passenger seat. All the calls were from Jason.

He arrived at his destination and sat outside the all too familiar dark gray house with a bright green door and matching shutters. He reminisced back to all the  time he used to spend in that yard, trampling the flowers and climbing the tree out front.

He grabbed the gun and hid it from sight in his belt. He approached the door and climbed the few stairs to the small porch with dark oak railings. He had been waiting on this moment for a long time. Finally confronting the man who ruined his life. He didn’t realize how much impact this person had on his life till now. He knocked on the door and took a step back, he wanted to fully see the man who had single handedly destroyed everything his family had spent ten years building up.

He heard small taps traveling down the inside of the house, growing louder as they approached the door. His emotions ran wild. Why hadn’t he presented his new information to the bureau? Why had he traveled all the way here? What was he proving to himself? No, Sam thought, he had every reason to be here. He was here for his mother, for his father, and for Andrew. In this moment the line the distinguished Andrew and Sam vanished, the little boy who loved his mother and didn’t treat her as a clue, returned and filled him with warmth and he felt happy. Happier than he had been in a long time. He wasn’t Sam Night anymore he was Andrew Jensen again.

Sam stood up tall prepared for what was about to happen. The door creaked open, causing all of Sam’s confidence to diminish into nothing.

“Hello Andrew, long time no see.”

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Jason was bewildered, he had wondered why Sam never invited him over but he didn’t expect this. He pressed his hand against one of the newspapers taped to the wall. The headline read LOCAL WOMEN MURDERED IN HOME FATHER TAKEN INTO CUSTODY.

He walked over to the desk and picked up a framed photo. He studied the family, he knew the women and man, Martha and Richard Jensen. But  the boy, who he assumed had been there son Andrew, looked strikingly familiar. Sam never really wanted him to dig to far into the boy’s case. He always did that on his own.

Jason put the picture back down and looked at the newly composed file in the center of the desk. He opened it cautiously and recognized the face paperclipped to the front. he looked at the address and ran down  to his car. He kept calling Sam till the message box was full then he threw his phone into the back seat.

He made a sharp turn into the driveway and jumped out of the car with barely enough time the put the car in park. He nearly fell up the porch steps and quickly knocked on the door.

He was preparing to kick the door in when Sam answered it. “Jason, what the hell are you doing here?” Sam’s tone was strict but his soft green eyes were full of sadness.

jason didn’t answer him and just pushed past his through the door. Sam closed the door and followed Jason.  He followed a narrow hallway till it emptied out into a living room.

There was an older women sat on a sofa in the middle of the room.

“Andrew is this one of your friends? Gosh if I knew we were gonna have visitors I would’ve cleaned up and made some brunch.” She was smiling at Sam, and she called him Andrew.

All the  pieces finally aligned, it explained everything, his obsession with the case wasn’t because he just thought Richard Jensen was innocent it was because he knew he was innocent because he saw who really murdered his mother. Jason glanced over at Sam’s face, he was looking at him probably checking to see if he noticed the Andrew remark.

“Yeah, Grandma this is Jason. A friend from work.” Sam walked over and sat beside the women on the small sofa. He motioned at a chair on the other side of the room, so Jason walked over and sat in it.

A man walked in the room his cane barely missing the small dog that walked under his feet.

Jason recognized the man as the man from the file on Sam’s desk.

“Well hello!” the man wobbled over and shook Jason’s hand “So nice to have company, Andrew never visits us anymore.” the man took a seat in the chair next to Jason’s.

“Yes well it’s nice to meet you but I’m here to get Andrew to go with me back to work.” Saying Andrew while looking at the person he had always addressed as Sam was difficult for him. But he had to get out of here with Sam, or Andrew, without making a scene.

“Oh Andrew, you skipped work to come see us.” The women grabbed Sam’s hand and looked lovingly into his eyes.

“Yes, I thought I was just spending too much time in the office and I needed a break.” Sam looked at the women as if he’d never seen her before in his life.

“Well, Andrew we are having some trouble in the office and we need your help right away.” He stared at Sam so hard he was surprised lasers weren’t flying out of his steely gray eyes.

“Andrew go back to work, come visit us this weekend.” the man sat loosely in the chair with the small dog in his lap.

“Alright.” He glared at Jason. “I’ll see you this weekend.” Sam stood up and walked out of the room without another word.

“Goodbye, it was nice meeting you.” Jason reached over the small dog and shook the man’s hand and gave a happy glance at the woman before trotting after Sam. He caught him just as he opened the door to his car.

“Oh no, get in my car i'm drivin.” Jason tugged on his arm, not strong enough to move him. Sam didn’t fight him and just got in the car.

On the way back Sam explained everything only pausing to wipe an occasional tear from his pale cheek. jason listened and didn’t speak a single word he just kept his eyes on the road ahead.

“Alright.” Jason took a sharp left into the police station parking lot. he dropped the profile from Sam’s desk into his lap and looked at his friend with stern but caring eyes. “Let’s go.”

Author's Note

Hey guys, this is just a quick project we had to do for creative writing and i wanted to keep working on it without it being schoolwork so if you have suggestions or want me to post a part two lemme know :)

Reviews

[Barbara Tennyson]

“NoCOMMA, Jason, that's wrongCOMMA,” Sam said looking at the confused detectivePERIOD “The boy was the only known witness of the murder RUN-ON SENTENCE. Put a period after murder. Begin a new sentehce here: He --with a capital letter-- had walked in as the man was exiting through the back door.”--

LOCAL WOMEN MURDERED IN HOME FATHER TAKEN INTO CUSTODY. --Women is the plural form: woman is the singular. Also, since the son is not mentioned in the headline, it's HUSBAND --not father.

Needs a lot of editing: there are many other goofs.