Dear James

[toddsmitts]

Dear James



The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.



January 13, 2006

("Over My Head" - The Fray)

Molly Driscoll smiled as the middle-aged man, her first customer of the day, walked in and parked himself on the corner barstool, his usual spot.

"There's my favorite customer." The middle-aged blonde woman said, pulling a mug down and filling it with draft. "So how's the world treating you today, Ray?"

Ray shrugged. "Well, not nearly as good as you do, Molly."

Molly chuckled. "So, you gonna be here for the game on Sunday? I think it's gonna be the Steelers this year. I can feel it."

Ray smiled. "Come on, you know I always see the game here. So you doing anything for the Superbowl again this year?"

Molly shook her head. "I don't think so. Looks like everybody's gonna be watching it at that new place up the street."

Ray gave a dismissive wave. "Ah, forget those traitors."

Molly smiled, then turned to see he door opened again, this time bringing in a blonde-haired teenage girl.

"Hey, mom" The girl said, giving Ray a friendly nod as she passed by.

"Hi, sweetie" Molly said, "How was school?"

The girl, Gina Driscoll, cocked her head and smiled. "Easy and boring. Hey, I told you about that thing at the one who's name we shall not say's tonight. Can I have the car keys?"

"Is there gonna be drinking at this 'thing'?" Molly asked in a serious tone.

Her daughter looked at Ray, and gestured at her mother with a smile. "She serves booze for a living and she worries about me being around a couple of drinks."

Molly nodded. "Who better to know the consequences? Listen, Regina-"

Gina put up her hands. "I'll be careful. You raised me a little better than that."

"Okay" Molly said evenly. "You seen your Uncle Hank?"

Gina shook her head. "Is he coming by?"

"Yeah, he is. Said he wants to talk to me about something."

Gina smirked. "So what brilliant deal is he trying to get you in on now?"

"I'm not sure." Molly looked at the opening door. "Speak of the devil." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, Sis." The forty-year old man entering said with a wave.

Molly forced a smile. "Hey, Hank." She said patiently.

Hank leaned over the bar. "Hey, uh, listen, did you have a few minutes?" He asked quietly. "There's something I wanted to run by you."

Molly sighed. "Look, Hank, this isn't really a good time."

Hank nodded, looking somewhat concerned. "Okay. Is everything..."

The door to the back room opened and a round-faced man of about fifty hurried out.

"Dad?" Gina said with a smile.

"Hi, honey." The man said hurriedly. "Sorry, I don't have time to talk. I'm late for work. I got a double shift tonight." He turned to his wife. "Mol, I need the keys."

Gina frowned. "Mom said I could have the car tonight."

The man looked at his daughter, then turned to Molly, an annoyed look in his eyes. "I really wish you would've talked to me before you told her that."

Gina looked at her parents uneasily. "It's... fine." She said, looking down. "I'll just get a ride with Haley."

Hank leaned over tentatively. "I could give you a ride, Paul."

Paul nodded. "Yeah, okay. Let's go." The two men walked out, Paul giving Molly another cool glance as he did.

Molly could see Ray staring awkwardly in his mug while Gina looked away sadly.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, honey." Molly said gently.

"Whatever." Gina said, walking out. "I'm used to it."

Molly closed her eyes and heaved a sigh.

***

The bar was dark, except for the hint of lights coming in from the street. Molly lay sprawled over the floor of the bar. Her eyes were closed, and her shirt was stained with blood from the wound in her chest.

The detective pulled a marker from his pocket, etching the word CLOSED on the lid, then stacked the box away with the others. He looked at it a moment, as if unsure about something, then shook his head and walked away...

***

The tall, thin man sat on the bed in his cell, breathing heavily.

I thought was ready for this, he thought. Maybe not.

A light clanking noise jolted him out of this thoughts. He looked up to see the bored-looking guard tapping on the bars with his baton.

It's time, he thought.

***

Gripping his bag tightly, the man found his breathing getting heavier as the large door opened in front of him. He squinted his eyes in the sun and stared ahead at a row of trees across the road. He could make out a few birds perched on a branch of one of the trees, before a gust of wind started shaking the tree gently, causing them to flutter away.

He walked out the gates, then looked back around at the prison, not moving for several moments, before he forced himself to turn away.

Come on, he thought to himself, then started walking again.

***

Detective Kat Miller looked up as she saw Nick Vera walking into Homicide.

"Nice of you to join us." She said, leaning back in her chair.

"Sorry." Vera said, massaging the sides of his head. "Alarm didn't go off."

"Right. You tie a couple on last night?"

"Maybe." Vera frowned. "Hey, I didn't see you at Louie's wedding the other night. What'd you not get invited?"

"Just couldn't make it." She said, curtly.

"What, you couldn't find a babysitter for the kid?"

Kat looked up at him. "Sure, let's go with that."

Vera shrugged before he noticed the man in a suit walking in.

"Excuse me," the man said. "I'm looking for a Detective Rush."

Vera pointed in her direction.

"Detective Rush?" The man said, walking over to her desk. Lilly Rush looked up at the mention of her name.

"Darrell Gibson, I'm with the Department of Corrections." He said, showing his badge. "Have you had any contact recently with James Hogan?"

"James Hogan?" Lilly said.

Gibson nodded. "I understand you corresponded with him after his incarceration."

"He wrote me a couple of letters. I wrote one back to him, but that was a few years ago." Lilly looked at him. "What going on?"

"James was granted parole three weeks ago. I'm his parole officer. I was supposed to meet with him yesterday, but he didn't show."

"Have you talked to his brother Lonnie?" Lilly asked.

Gibson shrugged. "Anyone I could think of. Guy's off the grid." Gibson sighed and reached into his pocket. "There's one other reason I asked you." He pulled out a photo showing a smiling Molly. "The woman in the photo is Molly Driscoll. She was murdered at the bar she ran back in 2006. I found a bunch of pictures and articles on her at the place James was staying."

"Did James know her?"

Gibson shook his head. "As far as I can tell, no. James lived in Germantown, she lived in Grey's Ferry. He was already in prison when she was killed."

Lilly looked closer at Molly's photo. "So why is James looking into a four year old case of a woman he never met?"

"I was hoping you could help me find out." Gibson said.

Lilly looked down at the photo one last time, then gave Gibson an uneasy nod.

ROLL INTRO

[coldboneslove398]

As always, it's terrific. Keep it up, Todd!

I can't wait to read more

[nomnivore]

Yay, James Hogan! I really liked how they revisited him in Kensington.

Am looking forward to reading more...

[stillmanfan]

Glad you are posting another story.

How often do you usually post the remaining chapters? Once a week or does it depend on how long the story is?

A friend who looks over my stories that I write, felt I was being kinda mean by posting my 'Double Crossed' story once a week and thought I should do it twice a week, which I have been doing.

[zoé]

Very exciting start!
I am SO happy that you brought James back, he was one of my favorite character from Season 1. And the actor is great.
So is it him that we see leaving the prison? This is unfair, because if we were watching the episode we would probably have seen his face

Neat timing details: the superbowl in 2006 (of course, I had to google to see if the Steelers actually did win - they did!), the reference to Two Weddings and the allusion of Vera's bad shape that lead to Flashover.
It's refreshing to have a middle age female victim (there were none in season 7 and is this your first female victim? -the one in TBF does not count-) and a closed case (none since ... Thrill Kill?).

Anyway, the pool of suspect is already large and the relationships between the characters are intriguing. I hope we will soon know who went to prison for it and what the mysterious connection between James and the case is. I have an idea but do not want to spoil it here in case it turns out true!

So, pretty please, could you hurry to write the next part?

[toddsmitts]

(Pardon the long delay. A lot of things up in the air right now.)

DEAR JAMES

Starring
Lilly Rush - KATHRYN MORRIS
Scotty Valens - DANNY PINO
John Stillman - JOHN FINN
Nick Vera - JEREMY RATCHFORD
Will Jeffries - THOM BARRY
Kat Miller - TRACIE THOMS

Guest Starring
James Hogan - SILAS WEIR MITCHELL
Molly Driscoll - MARY MARA
Sherry Stephens - CHRISTINA COX
Lonnie Gable - BRENT HUFF
Tom Eislie - TOM IRWIN
Ray Watts - NICK JAMESON
Paul Driscoll - JAMES KEANE
Hank Connelly - WILLIAM MAPOTHER
Gina Driscoll - KATIJA PEVEC
Darrell Gibson - RENO WILSON

Co-Starring
Troy: CHRIS KERNER




Down in storage, Lilly looked at the photo Gibson had given her, then at the files she'd pulled from the open case box. She glanced up to see her partner, Detective Scotty Valens, walking towards her.

"So why's James looking into this cold job?" Scotty asked.

"Not a cold job, a closed one." Lilly said. "Molly Driscoll, forty-six, found shot to death in the bar she owned." She looked over a photo of Molly's body at the scene. "Ballistics matched the bullet to a gun registered to her husband Paul Driscoll. Never found the gun, but they zeroed in on him as a suspect pretty quick."

"What else they got on him?"

"Paul wasn't getting much work, the bar was struggling. Money was tight. A lot of testimony they were arguing about it."

Scotty shrugged. "That's nothing."

"He also bought a two hundred thousand dollar insurance policy on his wife less than a year before the murder."

Scotty raised his eyebrows. "That don't look too good."

"No sign of forced entry." Lilly continued, reading the report. "Nothing missing besides the gun, so it wasn't a robbery."

"So someone she knew."

"Witnesses put him at the bar earlier that night. No one to corroborate his alibi." Lilly turned to another page. "Says he took a plea deal after he found out his daughter Gina was set to testify against him at the trial."

"Be tough to get twelve strangers to believe you when your own daughter won't."

Lilly nodded solemnly.

"Not really anything to reopen the case on." Scotty said.

"I know, but I wanna know what James' interest in this case is. It might help knowing more about it."

Scotty shrugged. "Maybe he knew the vic, the doer."

Lilly shook her head. "They grew up in different neighborhoods. Gibson said the husband's doing twenty years at Rockford. James did his time at Frackville."

"Maybe we wanna look into both sides,"

Lilly nodded. "I'll start with James' brother Lonnie."

"I thought Gibson already talked to him."

"Just don't wanna leave any stone unturned. Maybe he'll have something to say."

Scotty looked away with a smirk. "I'm sure James would be glad to know you're taking such an interest in him."

Lilly just rolled her eyes.

***

"How you doin', Lonnie?" Lilly said, shaking his hand as she and Kat walked into his house. Lonnie looked pretty much the same since Lilly had last seen him. He was still well-dressed and sporting a noticeable scar on the right side of his face, a leftover from a fight he'd had with James years ago.

Lonnie Gable shrugged. "Well enough, I guess. Got married again. Think this one might actually stick."

"So you put James up in a place after he got out?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah." Lonnie said. "Covered half the rent, helped him find a job. I know the guy's given me a lotta grief over the years, but he's still family. It's not easy to just forget that."

"I know the feeling." Lilly said.

"And you haven't heard from him in the last few days?" Kat asked.

"Well, I got work, a wife." Lonnie sighed. "Plus I uhhh... started going to AA meetings recently. Don't have a lot of time to check in on him everyday."

"Did James ever mention the names Molly or Paul Driscoll?" Kat continued.

Lonnie shook his head. "No, nothing like that. Actually he wasn't saying much of anything. It was like he was depressed for at first. He just sat in his apartment, never went anywhere. He missed a meeting with his P.O. early on. I had to smooth things over with that guy. It wasn't easy."

"You and James ever get into it?" Lilly asked, glancing at Lonnie's scar.

Lonnie shook his head again. "No, it wasn't like before. I mean I thought somebody'd be happy get out early, but with James, it was like someone took the wind out of his sails..."

***

("Rain" - Creed)

James finally opened the door after Lonnie knocked a second time.

"Your phone's off the hook." Lonnie said.

James nodded. "Yeah, I... I didn't want to be bothered."

Lonnie walked in, looking at James' bed-head and five o'clock shadow. "You been sleeping all day? It's after three."

James shrugged passively. "I just didn't feel like getting up."

"You missed a meeting with your P.O." Lonnie said with a frown. "I managed to reschedule, kept him from doing anything rash, but this guy can send you back. You don't want to let him down."

James slumped down into a kitchen chair. "Whatever."

"Look, I'm trying to help you, but you gotta work with me here!"

James was quiet for a moment, then looked up at Lonnie's scar. "I never said I was sorry about that." He said, gesturing to it.

Lonnie sighed and shook his head. "Look, you wanna come over, have dinner with us?"

James kept looking at Lonnie, then lowered his head again. "No, I'm fine here."

"I don't get it." Lonnie said. "I thought most guys in there dream of getting out, getting a second chance."

James looked up again with a frown. "Yeah, most of them do."

"Yeah, but you earned another shot, and it's like you don't care one way or another."

James got up from the chair and walked back towards his bedroom. "I didn't earn anything."

Lonnie closed his eyes and sighed...

***

"I didn't know what to say." Lonnie said. "He was just stuck in a rut."

"It's a bit of a transition, going back to a normal life after being locked up for a few years." Kat said.

"It was different than that somehow." Lonnie said. "It was like he felt like he didn't deserve it."

Lilly and Kat both nodded.

Lonnie looked down for a moment. "Look, there's one thing I didn't tell his P.O. At this point, I didn't think it would do James much good."

"What's that?" Lilly asked, looking concerned.

"A little over a week ago, James bought a bus ticket, went up to that prison up at Muncy."

"The women's facility." Kat said, looking puzzled.

Lonnie nodded, the disappointment showing on his face. "There's only one person I can think of him going to see up there."

Lilly shook her head. "Sherry."

***

Sitting in the prison visiting room, Sherry Stephens was a far cry from the upscale doctor's wife she'd been the six years earlier. Her hair had grown out somewhat and her lack of make up seemed to make the scowl on her face, directed at the Lilly and Scotty, even less pleasant.

"I don't know where James is," Sherry said plainly. "And frankly, I don't care."

"No love for your old ex?" Scotty asked, with a smirk.

"He's the only reason I'm in here." Sherry said. "I lost my life, my husband because of him."

"Actually, I think smothering an eighty year old woman might have something to do with it." Lilly said, with a condescending tone. "'For better or worse' doesn't usually cover murder."

"Did you just come here to gloat?" Sherry asked.

"We know James visited you here last week, Sherry." Scotty said. "What'd you talk about?"

"Nothing." Sherry said coldly. "Whatever he was looking for, he wasn't going to find it here with me..."

***

("Sober" - Pink)

Sherry glared at James through the window. James just swallowed awkwardly.

"So how are you getting along in here?" James asked, picking up the phone.

Sherry's eyes narrowed. "Are you seriously asking me that?"

"I heard your husband left." James said calmly. "I'm sorry."

"You got a lot of nerve acting like you give a damn." She said icily.

"I do." He continued. "Look, I know a lot's happened between us, but that doesn't mean I don't care."

"So you testified against me in court because you cared?"

James shook his head. "Look, Sherry, we both had to own up to what we did."

"Well I'm sure that sounds great coming from your side of the glass."

"What do you want me do, Sherry?" James asked, starting to sound frustrated.

"Short of dying a horrible death, I don't really care what you do."

"Look if you think I've been having it easy since I got out, you're wrong." James said. "I don't know why they let me out. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life. The only real friend I ever had's still locked up."

"We're not 'friends'!" Sherry said.

"I wasn't talking about you." He said seriously. "But I was still hoping we could make peace."

Sherry looked at him for a moment. "Well let me settle that question for you. As long as I'm in here and you're out there, there's not going to be any peace."

James looked down, lost in thought. He looked up a moment later, suddenly looking like a new man.

"You're right." He said, sounding surprised. "It's what I should've been doing all along,"

"What?" Sherry asked, confused.

"I gotta go. There's something I gotta do." James said. "Thanks."

"Go to hell, James." Sherry said, irritably.

James managed a wistful smile. "At least you finally said my name..."

***

"He just got up and left after that." Sherry said. "I don't what he was talking about."

Scotty leaned over to Lilly. "He said his only friend's still locked up. Think that might mean something?"

"Worth a look." Lilly said.

"Are we done?" Sherry asked impatiently.

"Yeah, we're done." Lilly said, nodding for the nearby guard to take her away. "You might wanna make sure you fluff your own pillows though."

Sherry gave Lilly an icy stare as the guard walked her out of the room.

"You still looking into James Hogan?" Lieutenant John Stillman asked warily as he and Detective Will Jeffries walked over to Lilly and Scotty's desks.

Lilly nodded. "Get this; we finally found the link between James and this case. That friend Sherry told us about, it was Paul Driscoll."

Stillman looked confused. "I thought he was up at Rockford."

Scotty nodded. "Yeah, now. But he served the first two years of his sentence at Frackville. Talked to a C.O. on James' cellblock. He said the two were real tight."

"Well that would explain why James' parole officer missed the connection." Jeffries said.

Stillman shook his head. "Still not enough to reopen a closed case. Doherty's never gonna sign off on this if that's all we got."

"It's not." Kat said, rushing into the office, holding a crumpled paper. "I just talked to Lonnie again. He went to check out James' place again, found this crumpled up under the bed." She handed Stillman the paper, who looked over the not written on it, while the other detectives looked over his shoulder.



Dear James,

I know you've been looking into the murder of Molly Driscoll. You'd better keep your nose out of things that don't concern you, or you'll pay.



"Somebody doesn't want him giving this case a second look." Kat said.

Scotty nodded. "Reason enough for us to give it one."

Lilly sighed uneasily. "We just better hope whoever wrote this hasn't made good on their threat."