Fiction

Forbidden Love Part 2

A Sunny Alexander-Johnson and Henry James Series By P.G. & Sharon Barnett

My name is Sunny Alexander-Johnson, and I’m Henry James, and we’re writers for Dark Sides of the Truth Magazine.

Charlie Alvarez had been right about one thing. After spending several hours wading through the evidence and only managing to inspect the contents of two boxes, it was definitely going to require us to spend some quality time with the Austin police department.

Gloria Salitos was approaching her eighteen birthday the day she went missing December twenty-first of two thousand. The case data, along with photos, presented a strikingly beautiful young woman who was friendly and outgoing to everyone she met.

A journal found in her room, along with several photos she’d slid into the edge of her mirror, validated that she’d made arrangements to meet a young man, Jason Bowers, at the Stateside on Congress avenue. Written in Gloria’s own hand was a passage that clearly put her and Jason Bowers together that night.

I love JB with all my heart. When we make love it’s like the world stops. We’re meeting again tonight, but I have to be strong. This love of ours is forbidden. Papa would never approve. But I don’t know if I can stay away. The love I have is too strong. Tonight I will tell JB it’s over.

Witnesses put them leaving the theater that night together. The earliest showing of The Patriot was at seven, and all the witnesses and the videotape show Jason Bowers and Gloria Salitos stepping outside at precisely ten minutes after ten.

Simple deduction made Jason Bowers a definite person of interest.

Except he wasn’t.

“Okay Henry, this isn’t making any sense. Clearly, the initials JB mean Jason Bowers, and all the evidence points to him as the last person who saw Gloria, so how is it he could he have an airtight alibi?”

“Charlie’s report is a basic regurgitation of facts from the three previous detective’s works. We need to go back to the initial detective’s report. I’m guessing these boxes are lined up accordingly from beginning to end. So let’s look at the first couple of boxes.”

After rummaging through the first two boxes, we pulled the mass of information dated around the time Gloria went missing and began the laborious task of scanning voluminous amounts of factoids and witness testimonies. Both of us were looking for the Jason Bowers interview.

“Here it is, princess. So the kid didn’t deny anything. He admits to being at the movies with Gloria. When they confronted him with the fact his DNA was all over Gloria’s car, he admitted to several times being in the car with Gloria. He told the detective’s he was Gloria’s best friend and even showed them the ticket stubs.”

“And then what?”

“Huh?”

“After that, what happened?”

“Hang on. Okay, he said he left Gloria and drove home. Spent the rest of the evening playing video games.”

“So, how do the police know he actually went home?”

“Parents and their neighbors validated he pulled up and parked at ten forty-five that evening.”

“Wow, Henry, sounds like the Bowers had some real snoopy neighbors.”

“According to this report, Jason had a bad habit of parking his car in front of the next door’s neighbor yard. One of the neighbors knocked on the Bower’s door and asked him to move it.”

“What time was that?

“Eleven twenty.”

“So his parents went up to his room, had him move his car, and then he went back to playing video games?”

“Yeap, the parents remembered checking in with him when they got ready to turn in around midnight. They remembered forcing him to stop playing and telling him to go to bed.”

“But he could have slipped out the window or something and met with Gloria. She clearly stated she needed to break it off with him. Maybe they planned to hook up later at a predesignated place.”

“Possibly. But look at Charlie’s report when he interviewed Jason Bowers again. Everything checks out. Even twenty years later, Jason, his parents, and neighbors’ testimonies are rock solid. Everything. If the kid did something, I’d like to know how.”

“So would I?”

“You two still here, huh?”

We turned to see Charlie Alvarez leaning against the door frame. He looked as tired as we both felt at the moment.

“Hey, Charlie, this Jason Bowers kid. Does he still live in Austin?”

“He does. He works at Grayson and Dillion and Pace law firm.”

“He’s a lawyer?”

“Yeap.”

“We’d like to talk with him. Do you think he’ll lawyer up and call himself?”

“Funny Henry. Keep in mind he ain’t no kid anymore. When I spoke to him last, he still exhibited the same concern for finding out what happened to Gloria as I was. He’s been extremely cooperative with anyone from the department that’s reached out to him. I suspect he’d have no problem speaking with you two.”

“Henry, I’m pretty much done for the evening. I need to get home. Tonight’s my night to cook, and you know how the twins get when they’re running on empty.”

“Heard that princess. The last time we had them for a sleepover, your mother and I spent the entire weekend in the kitchen practically.”

“Tell you two what. I’ll give Jason a call and set up a morning meeting with him. You two meet me here first thing tomorrow morning, and I’ll drive you out there. Don’t know what you’re expecting to discover by talking to the man again. Especially when four other detectives, including me, took a shot at him.”

“You just never know Charlie. Henry and I get pretty lucky sometimes.”

“We’ll see, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up, Sunny.”

“We never do Charlie. After all these years, we’ve learned to roll with the flow. Trying to force an answer to a riddle just makes it harder to find.”

“Guess it does. It certainly has on this one. I’ll see you two at eight tomorrow.”

After Charlie walked away, we returned the clutter of several manila folders we’d been rummaging through to their respective folders, gathered our things, and, after turning off the lights, left the room.

As we waited for an elevator car in silence, we were pretty confident we knew what the other was thinking, and after stepping in the elevator and pushing the button for the lobby, we decided to confirm each other’s suspicions.

“What we’re looking for isn’t in those boxes, Henry.”

“You read my mind, princess. If it was, those detectives would have already found it.”

“Exactly.”

“I think there’s something in those boxes that may lead us to the start of figuring this out Sunny, but somewhere out there is the answer, the real answer to finding Gloria.”

“Or at least finding her body.”

“You just had to go there, didn’t you, Johnson?”

Read On — Forbidden Love Part 3