Consumed Pt. 06

"Who? I don't know a Jason Fielding. Is he still there? I'm on my way over right now, keep him there. Don't let him leave and don't let him anywhere near Chris, got that?" He said, not even waiting for an answer before he hung up the phone and then called the police station.

"Hello, this is Liam Strickland, I need to talk to Detective Mitch Seavers right away, it's urgent." He said, as soon as someone answered the phone.

"Liam, this is Mitch, what's up?" Mitch asked when he picked up the line.

"Mitch, there's someone at Chris's school that's trying to get him out of class. I don't recognize the name. The school said it was Jason Fielding, but I don't know who the hell that is. He said he was picking him up for a doctor's appointment. I'm going to head over there now. I asked the school to keep him there." Liam said.

"Okay, hold on a second. I'm going to put you on hold while I dispatch a couple of officers over to the school. Then I'm going to call the school and see if I can find out more information, so hold on for a few minutes." Mitch said, before putting Liam on hold.

While Liam was on hold, he explained what was going on to the agent and asked her to give him a ride to the school. Just as they were on their way, Mitch came back on the line.

"Liam, I just got off the phone with the school. The guy is gone and they don't know where he is. When the secretary came back from calling you, the lobby was empty. The school is now in lockdown and Chris is safe in his classroom with the door locked. Nobody will be able to get in or out of the school or any of the classrooms, so if he's still there, we'll get him." Mitch said.

"Thanks Mitch." Liam said, breathing a huge sigh of relief. Then a thought came to him. "Should I call Cassie's school as well?" Liam asked.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll also send over a couple of officers to her school, just to be on the safe side. What school is it?" Mitch asked.

Once Liam had given the information to Mitch and made arrangements to meet him at Chris's school, Liam hung up and called Cassie's school. So far, everything seemed normal at her school. He told them to expect the officers and to not let anyone unknown into the school until the officer's arrived.

When Liam arrived at the school, there were two officers stationed at the front doors of the school. Liam thanked the agent and told her he'd call her and reschedule the appointment as soon as he could.

He told the officers at the door who he was, and showed them his identification. Once they got authorization over their radios to allow him into the school, Liam headed straight for the school office. When he got there, he found two more officers, the school secretary and the school principal.

"Mr. Strickland, I'm glad you are here. Don't worry, Chris is fine. I've been in touch with his teacher and he's just fine. They've got half a dozen officers doing a thorough search of the building right now, so if he's still in the building, he'll be found." The principal, Mr. Howard, said.

The two police officers were currently talking to the secretary and taking notes while she gave them the details of what happened. While Liam was listening, Mitch walked in the door.

"Liam, we've got several officers searching the building and we've also quardened off several blocks around the school and will be thoroughly searching that area as well. The officers that are currently talking with the secretary will hopefully get a good description of the suspect." Mitch said.

It took a little over an hour to search the entire school twice and to everyone's disappointment, they didn't find anyone. It took just over two hours to search the neighborhood, and again, they didn't come up with anything.

Parents had already heard about the lockdown and quite a number of them had showed up at the school to pick up their kids. Once the school and neighborhood was secured, the school started releasing the kids. It was at this point that Liam remembered that his mom was supposed to pick up the kids today. Making a quick call, he told his mom what was going on and that she wouldn't have to pick up the kids today.

Before Mitch would give Liam and Chris the okay to leave, he made arrangements to stop by tonight to speak to both of them.

Luckily, there weren't any problems at Cassie's school. There we're still a couple of officers stationed at the door and Liam had to show his identification again, but other than that, everything was fine.

During dinner that night, Liam had briefed Jack on everything that had happened. Mitch, as planned, showed up just after dinner. Liam, Jack and Mitch all sat at the dining room table, while Cassie and Chris were watching television.

"First, I'll update you on where things stand. We ran a search on the name that was given to the secretary and will be following up some leads there, but most likely, it was a false name, so I don't expect anything to develop from that. We've got a sketch of the suspect and it's already being shown on the evening news. Hopefully we'll get some leads. We're a little concerned that the same person that set the fire at your sister's, may now be targeting Chris, and maybe even Cassie. It makes me wonder if maybe Chris has seen the killer. Maybe the killer is worried that Chris could point him out. What I'd like to do is talk to Chris, to see if maybe he remembers someone coming by the house a day or two before the fire. Would that be okay with you, Liam?" Mitch asked.

"Yeah, sure, that would be fine. Anything to hopefully catch this guy." Liam said.

Once they had Chris seated at the table, Mitch started questioning Chris.

"Chris, I was wondering if you can remember seeing anyone at your house before the fire, before you went to your Grandma and Grandpa's for the night. It may have been a few days before the fire. Maybe someone visiting your dad? Do you remember anyone visiting? It may have been someone you didn't know, someone visiting your dad for work maybe?" Mitch asked.

Chris looked a little apprehensive, a little scared. He looked from Mitch, to Liam, then to Jack, and then back to Mitch again before answering. "No, I don't remember." He said.

Not even aware that he'd been holding it, Liam let out a huge breath and his shoulders dropped in disappointment. He noticed too, that Jack also let out a huge breath at the same time.'It's nice to know that he's at least concerned for the kids.'Liam thought to himself.

"Okay, that's okay, Chris. You can go ahead and go back to watching TV. If you do remember anything, you just let your Uncle Liam know and he'll give me a call, okay?" Mitch said.

"Okay." Chris said, as he got up and headed back out to the living room.

Mitch turned his attention back to Liam and Jack. "Don't worry too much. I didn't necessarily expect him to remember anything. What I'd like to do is bring by some photos of some of Adam's clients that we haven't cleared yet and see if he recognizes any of them. Now, just keep in mind that if he does recognize anyone, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but we'll start with this and then see where it takes us." Mitch said.

"Okay, like I said, anything to get this over and done with." Liam said.

"It will take me a couple of days to get everything ready. Probably won't be until early next week. I'll be in touch as soon as we're ready. Do you have any questions?" Mitch asked.

"Yes, do I have to worry about this guy showing up again? What should I do to protect the kids?" Liam asked.

"We'll be posting a couple of officers at the school during school hours and stepping up patrols locally here in your neighborhood. I would recommend keeping things low key for now, take the kids to school, but try to keep them out of public places as much as possible, and if you do take them out somewhere, don't let them out of your sight. If you notice anything out of the ordinary, anything at all, give me a call. Okay?" Mitch finished.

"Okay, thanks Mitch." Liam said, as he walked him to the door.

After Mitch left, Liam got the kids ready for bed. Tonight, again, he would just put them into bed with him. Jack was already making up the couch, so it didn't matter anyway. Hopefully, Chris would sleep through the night. It would be nice to get at least one full night's sleep.

As it turned out, Chris sleeping through the night didn't matter, because Liam just lay awake for hours, contemplating everything that had happened.

They hadn't told Chris what had happened at the school. They figured he wouldn't need the added stress. Liam hoped that word wouldn't get back to him. The school didn't give a lot of details about the incident, only telling parents that there had been a suspicious person in the school and that the lockdown had been a precaution, so he hoped that Chris wouldn't find out.

He also started thinking about the house hunting. He would call the real estate agent tomorrow morning and see if he could meet with her again. He really wanted to find some place for them. Things with Jack weren't getting any better.

All these thoughts and more were going around and around in his head and it was a long time before he finally drifted off to sleep.

To be continued...