A Girl in Need

Sorry folks, I can't guarantee that there will be sex in this one either, the only reason I can give is that in real life, investigations and relationships take much longer than we see on TV, they don't have to be done in one hour less time for ads. Anyway Pat and Jake will be moving along a little more at least. Many thanks to Yellow Peril for his much appreciated efforts to keep the writer in line

*

Just before I got to the Jacobs' farm, my cell rang. I answered and heard Pat's voice. "Jake, the doctor has just finished examining Gail. He says that he can definitely say she has been sexually active, but not within the last few days. He figures that the swabs will not show a whole lot. That agrees with her statement."

I replied, "Okay. In that case, could you arrange a safe place for her and Paula for a few days until we get the investigation done?" She came back, "That's already being done. They will be safe. When will you be talking to the mother? I'd like to be there." I continued, "That is fine with me, I will probably talk to her tomorrow. I'm going to make the arrest, take him to the office, put him in the cells to think things over, and come back to the farm to search the place. I'll give you a call later. What is your cell number?" She gave me her number and hung up, and I left to arrest Jacobs. I arrived at the farm to find a hive of activity going on. There were two animal transports being loaded with cattle, two police officers in the middle of the yard and a short overweight man yelling at the two officers. I got out of my car and walked over to them. I said to the short man, "I'm Corporal Jake Rogers of the Provincial Police."

He immediately cut in, "Thank the Lord, somebody senior! Can you please tell these people to stop? I need those cattle; they represent all that I have in the world."

I looked right back at him and asked, "Are you Bernard Jacobs?"

He looked at me in surprise and said, "Yes, I am, why?"

"Mr. Jacobs, I have a warrant for your arrest on a charge of sexual assault. I have to advise you that you are entitled to retain and instruct legal counsel and I will provide you with an opportunity to telephone counsel as soon as is practicable. Anything that you say to me can be used in court against you! Please turn around and put your hands behind your back." He was stunned, but turned around. As I snapped the handcuffs on his wrists, he began indignantly spluttering, "This is ridiculous! I'm a minister, and I would never do such a thing!"

I turned to speak to one of the other officers. "John, search him and put him in the back of your cage car." Turning to the other officer, I instructed him, "Tony, stay here and ensure that Mrs. Jacobs doesn't destroy anything. We will take Mr. Jacobs back to town to the cells first, and then we'll come back and search the place. The house is now a crime scene. Nobody is allowed to enter it without our permission and presence." I then went into the house where I saw a woman, an older version of Ginny, sitting at the kitchen table.

"Are you Mrs. Jacobs?" She replied. "Yes, I'm Laura Jacobs."Her face showed signs of old bruising, and she was wearing a sweater over her dress, even though the room was warm. I was suspicious that she was covering something up, so I asked, "Mrs. Jacobs, would you please take the sweater off?" She looked down in shame and replied, "Do I have to?" Feeling sure that my suspicions were going to be proven true, I told her, "No, but I suspect that it will make my investigation a whole lot easier if you do." She removed the sweater, and both arms were a mass of bruises. I spoke softly to her, "Now, you aren't going to tell me that you fell down the stairs are you?" She shook her head. "No, these are from when my husband beats me."

"Mrs. Jacobs, I've just arrested your husband for sexually assaulting your daughters. He isn't going to be beating you again if we can avoid it!" She smiled, breathed a sigh of relief, and exclaimed, "There is a God after all! I've prayed and prayed that this would happen, and it finally has."

I went on to inform her that we were taking care of her daughters, too. "I need to let you know what's going to happen. We took Ginny to the Crisis Centre, and Gail and Paula have been taken into care. Your house is going to be treated as a crime scene for several days, and you will have to go somewhere else to stay during that time. I hope that you will take my advice and go to the Crisis Centre with Ginny. Now, I'm going to ask a police officer to come into the house with you, and watch while you pack clothing only for yourself and the girls. Then, when I get back after taking your husband to jail, we will search the house and seal it until our crime scene investigators can get here tomorrow. After they are done, and I think they will probably only have to process the girls' bedrooms, you will be allowed to come back."

She smiled in relief. "It will be such a pleasure to do that. I've wanted to leave for years, but never could get up the courage to do so. I don't have anywhere to go around here, and my parents are both dead (not that they would have done anything, anyway). Now I have a reason to leave and, just maybe, have a real chance of happiness with my girls!"

I called Tony in and told him what I wanted him to do, then John and I took Bernard back to town. We sat him down in the office interview room, where I told him, "You are being charged with sexually assaulting your daughters, Ginny and Gail. If, during the investigation, any other offences are revealed, you will be charged with those also. Do you understand what I have said?" He nodded, indicating that he did.

I briefly took down his information before escorting him into the cell block. In front of the cells was a desk with a phone. I told Jacobs to give me his belt, shoelaces, tie and all his valuables including his keys. I noted everything, other than the keys, on a property envelope and slid them inside. I kept the keys, knowing we would need them in the search. Then I gave him a list of our local legal eagles and told him to call the one of his choice, tell them what he was charged with, and take their advice. I then left, closing and locking the door. I could still see him, but not hear him while he was on the phone.

As soon as he finished, I went back into the cell block. I photographed him, took his fingerprints, and then locked him in a cell. I made quite a production of it. Nothing unnerves a prisoner as much as thinking you must have a pretty good case. It is especially unnerving if you act as though you don't care whether he talks or not. With that in mind, I told Jacobs, "I have a warrant to search your house and farm for evidence of the sexual offences, which I am now going to do. If evidence of other crimes is found, then I will be questioning you about that, also. In the meantime, you will stay locked in the cell here, and my advice is to think very carefully about your options." I then had Joe call in a guard, and Tony and I went back to the farm

On our arrival at the house, I saw four packed bags on the kitchen floor, and Tony and Mrs. Jacobs were sitting at the kitchen table. I showed Mrs. Jacobs the warrant to search the premises, and then I explained to her that we would be making a preliminary search now, but our crime technicians would be in the house the next day. I then asked her, "Is there any place that your husband keeps private?"

Pointing to a door off the kitchen, she said, "That is his study. He won't let me in there, even to clean. I don't have a key to it. Nobody is allowed in unless he is there." I had taken his keys when I put him in the cell, and it was just a couple of minutes before I found the key and had the door open I looked around the room, and saw a desk with a laptop computer on it. I had seen a computer in the kitchen, so I asked, "Mrs. Jacobs, do you have any access to the computer on the desk in here?"

"Please, would you call me Laura? I am beginning to get very annoyed at being called Mrs. Jacobs, and don't want to hear it any more. To be honest, I didn't even know that he had a computer in there. The only one we have access to is the one here in the kitchen, and Bernard never used it. I thought he used a typewriter to type his sermons. I didn't even know he knew how to use a computer!"

I called John and Tony into the kitchen and told them we were going to search the study. John was to handle bookcases, while Tony was to search the closets and, as the room had a wood floor, check for loose boards. I started in on the desk. I booted up the laptop, and when the screen came up for the user, I just clicked on the Bernard icon. There was absolutely no problem getting in as he didn't even use a password. I took a quick look through the drawers of the desk and found a digital camera. The first thought that came to mind was,

He's been taking pictures

. On his computer desktop, I found a folder marked 'Pics'. I clicked on it and the folder opened up to show a series of nude photographs of young girls! They included photographs of all three of the Jacobs girls. Also there were some of Laura, many showing bad bruising.

His email program opened up without any problem. It would be a gold mine for the Child Pornography Task Force. There were all kinds of emails with pictures attached. The computer would provide a door to at least one circle of producers, maybe more. That would be up to the Task Force. I wouldn't even pretend to know how to track all those emails down, but I was sure they would. I shut the computer down and, as I did so, Tony excitedly said, "Come over here, Jake, I've found something." He had found a loose board, and under it we found nude, compromising photographs of his wife and the three girls, as well as a book. The photos were numbered, and in the book was the information of when each photo was taken. We seized this material and, taking Laura and the clothing along with us, we headed back to the office.

On the way, I dropped Laura off at the crisis centre, along with the bags of clothes for her and Ginny. I explained to the counselor what had happened and, after arranging with Laura for her to come to my office the next morning, I left her in good hands. As I left, Laura put her hand on my arm and, with great emotion, said, "Thank you for giving me and my daughters a new life." I didn't think a lot about it at the time, as she was facing a tough road ahead by the time everything was over with. I thought it was likely that bail would be granted, and we would have to watch him very carefully at that point! Still, there was no way that she was going to have to face any problems with her husband for at least 5 days, and maybe more, after he went to jail.

John had been stationed at the Jacobs' house to provide security. We would have an officer there to protect the scene for at least two days in order to let the crime scene techs do their thing, so I made arrangements for off duty officers to work extra shifts to relieve John and protect the evidence. Just because a major occurrence happens doesn't mean that the normal work of the detachment stops till that major case is done. It just means that our resources are stretched that much thinner, and we get longer hours and overtime. I also called our crime lab in Sunbury and arranged for investigators the next day. Hopefully, with it being a holiday weekend, they could get the examination done fairly quickly.

I placed some of the photos that we had seized and the laptop computer on the desk in the interview room, and had Tony bring in Jacobs from the cell block. We sat him in front of the desk, securing him to it with handcuffs. Tony sat behind him where Jacobs couldn't see him. He took out his notebook and started making notes. I told Jacobs, "I warned you earlier that anything you said to me could be used in court against you. I gave you the opportunity to, and you did speak with a legal representative. While searching your private study under the authority of a search warrant, I found these photographs!" I showed him the pictures of his daughters and wife. I also showed him the pictures and emails of his daughters and other young girls that I had found on the computer to which only he had access.

I continued, "I have already told you that you are to be charged with sexually assaulting your daughters. You will now also be charged with assaulting them and your wife Laura. I will be forwarding this computer and any other electronic media we seize from the house, to our unit dealing with child pornography and, I can tell you now, you will likely also be charged with the possession, production, and distribution of child pornography, as will those with whom you corresponded. Do you have anything to say about all of this?"

He replied, "My lawyer advised me to say nothing until after he has seen me at the jail next week."

My answer to him was, "That suits me just fine, and I feel our case is strong enough that we don't need any statements from you to help us prove it. Now we will be asking that you be remanded in custody for a bail hearing." Our local Justice had already arrived, and he then came into the room, taking my seat. He handed me a bible, and I swore that the evidence I was to give was the truth. I gave my evidence to him and asked that Jacobs be remanded in custody until a bail hearing, as his release at the present time could result in interference in gathering evidence.

Jacobs was asked by the Justice if he had anything to say. His answer was 'No', so the Justice signed the remand warrant. I took over again and told Jacobs he would be taken to the Provincial Jail in Sunbury, where he would be held for a bail hearing sometime during the next week. I also informed him, "You will likely be held in protective custody, as people charged with these kinds of offences are not held in very high regard in jail. You had better do some serious thinking, and you had better have a serious talk with your lawyer about your future course of action!"

I told Tony that he was going to be working overtime, and sent him and a constable from the evening shift to take Jacobs to Sunbury. As I had already arranged, he was also to take the rape kits to the lab and turn them over to a technician so that work could start on them. They set out on what would be a long run. With all the paperwork being done, I could relax a little now. I called my boss at home and filled him in on what had happened, so that he could handle any questions. He thanked me and told me to take the holiday weekend, and have the other NCOs cover for me. Then I would be reassigned to work day shift until the case was complete. I didn't have much choice in the matter; nobody else would want this case, anyway.

I called Mom at my place to tell her the kind of case I had going, and let her know that I would be a while yet. Knowing the way I felt about kids getting hurt or assaulted, she asked, "Are you ok with things? How about if I take the kids over to my place? They love going there, and you know your Dad is in his element when they are there. We can keep them for the whole weekend, and then they will be there for our barbecue on Monday. Your sisters and the kids' cousins will all be there so they will have a ball. That way, you can work if you need to and not have to worry about them."

Mom's idea sounded great, so I quickly agreed. I talked to the kids as well, and it sounded like they were jumping for joy. When Granddad and Grandma were around, they lacked for nothing. They would be spoiled absolutely rotten, but the way things were, I couldn't have been happier. Tommy and Anne still missed their Mom so much, as much as I did, even after two years. Not for the first time, I wished that I had been more observant. If I had, then maybe Jenny would still be here with us. I knew I shouldn't blame myself for her death, but I still felt that I was at least partially responsible.

Just then, contrasting pictures slipped into my mind. First I remembered Jenny;

dark haired, slim, petite, blue eyed with a fairly small chest,

her need (or lack of) for a bra had been a standing form of humor between us. Then I thought of Pat,

reddish blonde hair, fairly tall, a nice chest and shapely body.

I gave my head a shake. I had to; it was the first time I had even thought of another woman since Jenny's death, and here I was thinking of a woman I had just met who may not even like me, let alone think of me in any personal way.

Thinking of Pat, I called her cell. "Hi, how are things going?"

"Fine, just getting my paperwork all cleaned up before I leave for the day."

"Were you able to locate a foster family for the girls?"

"Yes they are with Mr. and Mrs. Brooks at 450 Acacia Avenue, Clearville; they have acted as foster parents for us before."

"Laura Jacobs is at the Crisis centre with Ginny and she will be at the office here at 11 in the morning to give us her side of the story. Can you be here?"

She sighed, "Yes. I usually do my shopping Saturday morning, but I can get my aunt to look after Sean and do the shopping as well. He loves going around the stores. It looks like this is going to be a real dirty case, though, especially when it gets to court. Doing these interviews, like I did today, sort of leaves me with a dirty taste in my mouth. I just can't believe what people will do, even to their own children, yet I see it so often! All I want to do is go home and put my arms around Sean, cuddle him in to me, and try to protect him from this world. Trouble is, by the time I get home today, my aunt will have him fed, bathed and in bed asleep. He doesn't take long to go off on school days."

"Pat, you're preaching to the converted. After 12 years, I still get that feeling, that rotten taste in the mouth, the need to go home and wash that dirty feeling off my skin. I always do, and that is why my Mom has taken my kids for the weekend - to make it easier for me to function. Thinking about this gives me an idea; I owe you big time for the statements you took today. If we can, how about we pick up some takeout food, take it back to my place, and crack a bottle of wine to see if we can relax a little. How does Chinese food suit?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," she said. "I haven't eaten all day, and I need something solid. I had better check with my aunt first, though, she may have plans for the evening. She is doing me a really big favor and I don't want her to feel that I am taking her for granted. I'll call you back shortly. Bye for now."

Within 5 minutes, Pat had called back to tell me that her aunt was staying home with Sean, and that supper sounded really good, so I told her I would meet her at my place in about 30 minutes. Then I called the Golden Dragon and ordered some food. Theirs was the best Chinese food in Clearville, at least in my opinion. I walked back to the washroom and, while I was washing my hands, I looked at myself in the mirror.

Jake, what are you thinking about? You have only known this woman for a day, yet you are taking her to your home to eat? Where are you going with this?

I began to think that, maybe, life was giving me a kick in the pants, that, just maybe, I was beginning to get out of the blue funk that I had been in since Jenny's death. I wondered what Jenny would think if she could see me now. Then I thought

, The Jenny you married would be only too glad to see you begin to live a little. She wouldn't want to see you being miserable, lonely and closed off for the rest of your life.

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PAT

I got cleaned up at the office before I had to go out to head for Jake's place, and I just hoped I could remember the way back there. I felt a little scared and, yet, a little excited, too. Jake is a good looking guy, well muscled yet careful and considerate. It showed in the way he had handled the case. He was a pleasure to work with, yet I could sense a melancholy feeling in him, a deep sorrow, as if he were still deeply in love with his dead wife. He smiled with his face, but not with his eyes; there was something being held back inside.