I Didn’t Do It

by Rikke

Thanks: to my Beta reader Flavia

He found himself looking at the sleeping figure next to him. She was beautiful; her long red hair covered most of her face. He carefully moved it so he could se it. Then he quietly stood out of bed and got dressed, grabbed his helmet and keys, and kissed her lightly on the cheek before he left. When he got outside he looked around to make sure nobody saw him leave the house, and then walked the 3 blocks to the place where he had parked his motorcycle.

Chapter 1

"So Bucklin, when did you say the kid would be here," Team seven’s sharpshooter Vin Tanner asked, looking at his watch.

"I don´t know, he called me an hour ago, said he would be a little late, something with the bike I think. That’s what I always say; there is nothing but trouble with that bike, but will he listen?" Buck talked in a steam about all the times JD had had problems with his motorcycle, and how stupid it was that the kid refused to buy a real vehicle. The other members of team seven just shook their heads, they had all heard that song more than one.

"May I ask you Mr. Wilmington, why you couldn’t drive the young man to work?" Ezra Standish asked, not looking up from his paperwork.

"Well you see Ez, I didn’t spend this night at home. I had a date with a blond beauty, and let's just say that she wanted to show me her apartment," Buck said with a big smile, so no one would question what he had been doing all night.

Vin opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by JD, who walked in and sat down with a sigh. "I swear to God, that bike is gonna kill me."

"That’s what I keep telling ya kid, you should buy a nice car, instead of that death trap you’re driving on."

"Come on Buck, I can’t replace my motorcycle with a car. That would be like replacing Mona Lisa with a picture of a landscape. My bike is a piece of art, and you can’t throw art away." JD turned on his computer and started to type. "Beside if I bought a car, you wouldn’t have anything to complain about, now would you?" he said with a big smile and continued his work.

Chapter 2

Later that day JD returned to Buck and his apartment. The guys had gone to Inez’s to get a drink, he would have loved to join them, but had to pick up his bike at the mechanic, he sat down and turned on the TV, when his cell phone rang.

"Hello……..What…….yeah sure…….where………Okay see ya then…….yeah ok bye" he put the phone back in his pocket, grabbed his helmet and left.

He drove for about half an hour, and ended on an almost empty parking lot, the only other car there was a grey BMW with dark windows. When he turned off the engine, the car's door opened and a woman stepped out. She was wearing a warm winter jacket, a big hat covered her red hair and even though it was in the middle of November she was wearing sunglasses. If you didn’t know who the woman was, it would have been impossible to recognize her. JD removed his helmet, and walked towards her.

"Hey, I’m glad you made it." she smiled and kissed him tenderly on the lips. JD returned her warm kiss, and it became more intense and passionately. She removed herself from his arms, and looked at him. "I need to talk to you about something important. Let's go for a walk." They walked a while in silence, then she stopped and looked at him with sad eyes. "I think he know about us"

"Are you sure??" He looked at her with hope in his eyes

"I don’t know, JD. It’s just, when he came home, he started asking me all these questions, and he looked at me so strangely" She took his hand and looked at the ground, not liking what she had to say now. "There is another thing," she forced herself to look him in the eyes. "I haven’t been feeling so well lately, so I went to the doctor the other day, he called with the results this morning after you left." she took a quick break, and tried to figure out what he thought. "I’m pregnant, JD." she felt the tears in her eyes.

JD didn’t know what to say, or think for that matter. It had to be some kind of mistake, he had heard wrong. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

"Say something," she begged.

"Yeah but…… but what…. I’m…I" he was confused, and didn’t know what to do "is it mine?" he finally heard him self ask.

"Mark is sterile, he can’t get children" she looked at the ground. "If he don’t know about us now, he’ll figure it out in a couple of months." The tears started running down her cheeks.

JD didn’t know what to do, so he just took her in his arms and held her tightly. They stood like that for a long time, just holding each other trying to figure out what their next step should be. When it started to get dark, he followed her to her car. "Are you gonna be okay?" he asked as they reached the car. She just nodded. "Hey don’t worry, we’ll find a solution." he gave her a hug, and kissed her lightly on the hair.

"I know. I love you," she said as she opened the door, and stepped in to the car, he bent down and gave her a quick kiss.

"I love you to. Call me okay." He watched the car disappear in the dark. His head was full of thoughts, which he couldn’t control. It was the first time he had told her that he loved her, and while he stood there, he realised that it was true. The fact that she was pregnant would have been a great thing if only she was his, but she wasn’t and that was what made it so complicated. He found himself wishing that he had never met her, but then again if he hadn’t, he would have missed out on a lot of things. He finally turned around, and walked to his motorcycle.

It was 10 o’clock, when JD arrived to the flat. He had been driven around in hours, and tried to gather his thoughts, but didn’t succeed. When he opened the door he heard voices from the living room, and found the rest of team seven watching football.

"Hey Kid" Buck said as he noticed JD "Where have you been? We started to get worried."

"I just needed to get some fresh air" he went to the kitchen and grabbed a soda, and then sat down next to Nathan in the sofa.

"Kid did you hear what I just said?……Kid?….earth to JD"

"Ohh sorry what" He had been so caught up in his own thoughts, that he didn’t hear anything around him.

"I said that some girl called half an hour ago. It sounded pretty important," Buck said while looking worried at his roommate.

"Yeah?? What girl?" he asked, even though he already had an idea.

"She didn’t say her name, said that you knew who she was."

JD picked up the phone and dialed a number "…..Hey its JD, my roommate said you had called…Yeah tomorrow is fine…Okay see you then…Yeah bye." He lay down the phone, and felt the others eyes on him. "What?" he asked a bit annoyed.

"JD, are you okay, you look kind of pale," Chris said, the kid looked terrible.

"Yeah I’m fine." He sat down in the sofa, and took a sip of his soda.

As soon as he had sat down, Nathan put a hand on his forehead. "You don’t have a fever. Do you hurt anywhere?"

"I said I was fine, okay," he started to stand up. "I think I’m going to bed."

"To bed? Jesus kid its not even 11 yet," Buck said with concern. Normally JD didn’t go to bed before 11.30. There was something seriously wrong, if he just could figure out what.

"So what Buck, I’m tired okay" he went to his room and slammed the door.

"What the hell is wrong with him" Vin broke the silence after the door. It wasn’t normal for JD to get mad over nothing. He had actually only seen him angry once. Buck had been over him all day and finally he just had enough. Any other would have slammed Buck one after an hour, but JD took his crap for almost a day.

"I don’t know" Buck's voice brought Vin back to reality "but I’m sure as hell is going to find out."

Chapter 3

The next day JD's mood hadn’t really chanced. He was suppose to have meet her before he went to work, but she didn’t show up, and when he tried to call her no one answered the phone. He knew it was wrong to take his frustration out on the guys, but he couldn’t help it. He tried to call her several times, but there was still no one who answered. Every time Buck, or any other for that matter, asked him a question, they got a one word answer. About 3 o’clock Chris decided that he needed a coffee break, so he took Nathan, Vin, Josiah and Ezra with him down to the cafeteria. Buck and JD stayed behind. JD wasn’t in the mood, and Buck wanted to talk with the kid about his behaviour.

"Do you want to tell me what’s going on??"

"What do you mean?" JD said, not looking up from his papers.

"You have been hot tempered all day, which is okay cause everybody have bad days, but you don’t have to take it out on the guys and me."

"I’m sorry Buck. It’s just that I have a lot on my mind right now, and I don’t know how to handle it." He really wanted to tell Buck everything, but knew that would be impossible. "Buck, can I ask you something?" his friend nodded and he continued. "Have you ever had a problem that you couldn’t handle on your own, but if you asked for help, you would destroyed someone you loved?" He looked at his friend with serious eyes.

"Is that what’s wrong?" JD didn’t say a word, he just looked down the table. "I don’t know, maybe once…" at that point Chris and the others walked in the office. "…I’ll tell you about it later"

"What will you tell him about later?" Vin asked as he gave Buck the mug of hot coffee he had brought for him.

"How my last date went. Isn’t that right kid?"

JD just sent him a big smile. And not just any smile the "JD Dunne smile", a smile that told the rest of the team that he was back in his usual mood. "Guys, I know I haven’t been in the best mood lately, and I’m sorry that I was so short tempered and blamed you," he said and took a sip of his coffee.

Josiah put a hand on JD shoulder "That’s okay son, we all have bad days."

At the same time two men walked into the office, they walked up to the 7 men and flipped their badges, which showed that they were FBI agents. "Which one of you is agent John D. Dunne?"

"I am," JD stepped forward. "Is there anything wrong?"

One of the agents turned JD around in a rough movement, and handcuffed him. "You are under arrest."

"What?" JD looked at Buck in panic. "What the hell is going on?"

"You are not taking one of my agents, without telling me what the fuck is going on." Chris said and glared at the agent who had handcuffed JD.

The agent tried to be rough, but soon couldn’t stand the glare. "He is under arrest for the murder of Susan Williams, senator Williams wife." the agent took a hold on JD. "Let's go, kid."

JD felt sick, that couldn’t be, he must have heard wrong. Susan couldn’t be, he had talked with her yesterday. As he walked out the door with the two agents, he heard Buck say that they would get him out before dawn, and tried to keep eye contact with his friend, but before he knew it he was out of the door, and led to a patrol car.

Buck saw his best friend and roommate being led away. In the kid’s eyes he saw fear and hurt, he knew there was no way in hell the kid could have done what the FBI accused him off.

Chapter 4

After JD had been arrested, Team 7 went to the FBI headquarters. They practically stormed the chief of commands office. "Hello Jerry," Chris said in as calm a voice as possible. "You got one of my boys, and I want him back."

"Chris, what a surprise. Why don’t you guys sit down," the FBI chief gestured toward the chairs. "I suppose you are here because of agent Dunne."

"No, Mr. Fulton, we are here on a social call," Ezra said ironically. The usually calm and cool gambler had had enough; the FBI had not only accused JD for murder they also believed they had done the right thing.

"Of course we are here because of JD, you have him and now we come to take him back."

"I’m afraid it isn’t that easy, Buck." Fulton said. "You know we wouldn’t arrest him if we didn’t have any evidence. If you would all just come down for a moment, I’ll tell you what we know and then you are welcome to work on the case." Fulton stopped for a moment and then continued. "You know I like the kid, and I would love to believe that he didn’t do it, but the evidence towards him is too strong. So will you let me tell you what we know, or storm the building to find him?"

Chris looked at his men who all gave him a small nod. "Okay Jerry, you get 10 minutes."

"At nine this morning the police got a call from senator Williams, saying that his wife was dead, murdered. When the police arrived, they found Susan Williams strangled with a scarf, a scarf that the senator says that he had never seen before. I’m a personal friend of the senator, so he asked me to come and help with the investigation. We found agent Dunne’s finger prints in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, and we also found black hair on that scarf that Mrs. Williams was strangled with."

The room was silent for a couple of minutes. "I want to talk with him," Chris said.

"Of course, I have made so you can talk with him before my agents," he stood up and walked to the door. "I believe you already know where the interrogation room is."

The team gathered outside the Fulton’s office. "Vin and Ezra, I want you to go visit the forensic. I want to know everything about the girl, and the cause of her death. Nathan and Josiah, you’re going to the senators house, and I want you to look everywhere, and I mean everywhere, for any clues on what might had happen, and on what the hell is going on here." the team split up and only Buck and Chris was left. "You and I are going to talk with JD, he probably knows a thing or two about what is going on here."

Chapter 5

JD sat in the interrogation room, with his head in his hands. He had been there for almost an hour now, and he was starting to figure out what was going on. Susan was really dead, he couldn’t believe it. He felt that something inside of him had died with her. He looked up when he heard the door, and made a sad attempt to smile when he saw Buck and Chris.

"Hey kid you okay? You look like shit," Buck said trying to sound funny.

"I’m fine thanks" he looked at his hands, and then back at his friend. "What’s going on Buck."

"The senators wife was killed this morning. The FBI found your finger prints all over the house. You mind telling us how they got there?" Chris asked as he sat down.

JD pushed the hair away from his eyes. "She was a friend of mine, why are you asking any way? Thought that was the FBIs job."

"We want to clear your name," Buck said and continued. "Fulton said it was ok if we started our own investigation. Look the feeds can’t keep you here more than 24 hours, unless they charge you, and their evidence is to thin for that, so you will be out of here at this time tomorrow. In the meantime, me and the guys will do our best to figure out what is going on here okay?"

"Yeah I guess."

"Now be a good boy till tomorrow," Buck and Chris stood up. "See you tomorrow okay," Buck said while patting JD on the shoulder. Before he know it Chris and Buck were gone and JD sat back with a feeling of loneliness.

Chapter 6

"Agent Tanner, what are you doing here" the forensic said as he saw Vin and Ezra walk in.

"Hey Ted. You got a young woman brought in here a while ago, we would like to hear what you know about her," Vin said as he shook the man’s hand.

"Susan Williams? When did the ATF start to investigate FBI-cases?" Ted asked, curious.

"That doesn’t matter."

"That’s fine with me. This way," Ted let them to a table and removed the sheet that covered Susan Williams. "Okay, name Susan Williams born Shellac, age 25, as you properly can see on the marks here and here." he shoved with his finger the marks on her neck, "she was strangled and that’s the cause of death, time of death about 7 to 7.45 this morning. And a pretty important thing; she is pregnant. I called her doctor this morning, he told me she was about 2 month in her pregnancy which is pretty interesting."

"Why is that Mr. Johnson?" Ezra asked.

"When the senator was married with his first wife, Victoria Spelling I think. They adopted a child from China, because the senator couldn’t get children, the media blew it up big time. So I guess we can conclude that senator Williams is not the father to the child."

"Thanks Ted." Vin and Ezra walked trough the door. "So what do you think?"

"I don’t know Mr. Tanner, I honestly don’t know."

Chapter 7

Nathan and Josiah had arrived to the senator’s house, and were now going over the bedroom. Nathan studied the wedding picture. "She was very young wasn’t she?"

"Yep. She was 21 when they got married, he was 43. I think it was his second marriage. His first wife moved to New Jersey, with their daughter; that’s her over there," he pointed to a picture on the wall.

"Adopted?"

"Yeah. I don’t think we will find anything in here." He stepped to the window and looked out. "The boathouse over there, maybe we should take a look at that."

The boathouse was dark and dusty. The only light that came in was from a little window in the roof. "Excuse me. Do you need some help?" Both agents jumped in fright.

"Hello there. I’m ATF agent Josiah Sanchez and this is agent Nathan Jackson. We are investigating the murder of Susan Williams, and you are?"

"I’m Thomas. I work here as a gardener, and if you only knew what kind of things I’ve seen in my time here, you would be surprised."

"What kind of things is that Mr Thomas?" Nathan asked. He hated gossip, but this could be important.

"At night when Mr. Williams isn’t home, I’ve seen this young fellow, not more than 17, walking out the house. Looking around like he didn’t wanted to be seen."

"Can you describe him?"

"He’s not very high, and he has black hair a little bit long, and he has this motorcycle helmet, but no bike."

"Thanks for your help Mr. Thomas, " and with that the two agents left. "We need to find out who the young man the gardener talked about is.

"Is it possible that Mrs. Williams could have had an affair with a 17 year old kid?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah, or maybe someone who looked 17."

Chapter 8

Chris, Buck, Vin and Ezra stood outside the examination room, watching two FBI agents questioning JD. Josiah and Nathan would be back later. Chris had called Judge Travis, and he would return from his vacation as quick as possible.

"I gotta say, boy, this doesn’t look good for you," the FBI agent said, while looking through his papers. "Let's try again, shall we? Where were you between 7 and 7.45 this morning."

"I’ve all ready answered that question, about 10 times. I was at the Holly Inn where I had a cop of coffee."

"But the problem is that no one on The Holly Inn remembers you. So you got no alibi kiddo."

"Now son," the other agent interrupted. "Where you suppose to meet someone on the Holly Inn?"

JD hesitated and then said "Yeah… I was suppose to meet a friend there but sh.. my friend never shoved up."

"This friend of yours was Susan Williams right?" the other agent asked.

JD pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Yes."

"You know what I think?" not waiting for an answer, the agent continued, "I think you killed her, and I also think I know why you did it. Do you want me to refresh you memories?"

JD looked up with fire in his eyes. "I didn’t kill her," he looked at the mirror in the wall, knowing that the guys was behind it, hearing every word. "I didn’t."

Buck looked JD right in the eyes, even though JD couldn’t see it Buck knew he felt their presence. Buck felt his rage against the two agents grow for every question they asked, and it was only Chris’s stern glare that held him from storming into the examination room and tear them apart. Nathan and Josiah had joined the small group of men, and now all six agents waited for agent Thomson to continue.

"This is what I think happened: You had an affair with Mrs. Williams. Yesterday she called you at home, saying she wanted to talk with you about something important. You arrive at her house early this morning, and she told you that she didn’t wanted to see you again, because she loved her husband and couldn’t continue lying to him. You got furious and strangled her with your scarf, then you went to work like nothing had happened. You got motive, opportunity and no alibi."

"You know that sounds right. I couldn’t have put it better myself." JD looked down at his hands and then back at the agent. "But I’m an agent damn it. If I would kill anybody, I wouldn’t do it so clumsy, and I sure as hell wouldn’t put my finger prints all over the place. But if you really think I´m such an idiot its fine with me.

"Anything is possible," the agent said dryly. "We’ll continue tomorrow," and with that the two agents stood up and left the room. JD buried his head in his hands, feeling completely lost.

Chapter 9

"How are you holding up kid?"

JD looked up when he heard Buck's voice. "Buck? What are you doing here? What time is it?"

"Now take it easy son, one thing at a time," he pulled out a chair and sat down. "Are you doing okay?" JD just nodded but kept quiet and Buck continued. "Are you up for talking a bit?" Another nod. "What happened?"

JD looked at his friend like he hadn’t heard the question. "Where are the guys?"

"They went home, its pretty late and we all need some rest so we can look at this with fresh eyes tomorrow."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to make sure you’re okay and I would like to hear the story from your mouth and not from some agent who judged you the moment he laid eyes on you. Now kid was Susan Williams just your friend like you told Chris and me, or is it true like agent Thomson says that you were having an affair with her?"

"Agent Thomson is right she wasn’t just my friend" JD looked at his hands and then up at Buck "I loved her Buck" a single tear rolled down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away.

"How did you meet her?" Buck asked. He knew it wasn’t the best question he could ask, but he wanted to know.

"Do you remember when Mrs. Travis and the judge held that charity party last year?" JD asked not really wanting an answer. "Well I was really bored so I went to the terrace to get some fresh air and there she was all alone and we just started talking. You know like strangers do when they meet." He took a short break and looked at the mirror. "Her husband, the senator was at some kind of meeting in Jersey and before I knew I woke up in his bed. We started having this affair nothing serious just plain sex once in a while but then it became more; I don’t know when that happened, it just did." JD ran his hand through his black hair and led out a sigh. "Good I can’t believe this is happening."

"Did you know she was pregnant?" Buck asked in a low raspy voice.

"Yeah she told me yesterday that’s why I’ve been a little distracted."

Buck didn´t know what to say, he just sat there for a second. When the silence finally became too much he said "listen kid I know you didn´t do this and so does the guys but we need some help here, help only you can give us. Now I´m going to ask you some questions and I need you to answer as truthfully as you can okay?"

"Yeah sure."

"Can you think of any occasion where Susan Williams has talked about being scared or nerves about something?" JD just shocked his head. "Did you know if she had any enemies?"

"No we never really talked about things like that."

"This morning can you think of any place you have been where people can back up your alibi?"

"Come on Buck Don’t you think I’ve been going through this all day?" JD started to feel a bit annoyed. "I can’t think of anything. I woke up, I took a shower, skipped breakfast, went to the mechanic, then to the Holly Inn where I was suppose to meet Susan and when she didn’t show up I went to work."

"Wait a second." Buck said going over what JD had just told him. "You said you went to the mechanics, what time was that?"

"About six o’clock I think. Maybe 6.30, I had to order a new gearbox. Why?"

Buck gave JD a big smile and said, "It takes at least an hour to drive to the senators house right?" JD nodded. "If you were at the mechanics at 6 o’clock you would have stayed there for about 15 minutes cause we all know that Charlie loves to chat. That means that you in principle would have been at the senators house at 7. 15, you would have taken at least 10 minutes to kill her, that makes the time 7.25 maybe 7.30. You where at the office quarter past 8 which means that you in no way would have had the time to kill the senators wife."

JD smiled at his best friend. "You’re right, when can I get out of here?"

"Well first we’ll have to talk with Charlie so he can confirm what you and I just found out, you know how the feds are," Buck took a small break looking at JD who’s smile had vanished by the thought of spending the night in jail. "Don’t worry kid, you’ll be out before noon tomorrow." he stood up and prepared to leave.

When he had reached the door JD spoke up. "Hey Buck."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Hey. What else are friends for hah?" Buck closed the door behind him and walked down the hallway.

+ + + + + + +

As soon Buck had said goodbye to JD, he drove the 2-hour drive to Chris ranch. When he arrived he found Chris on the porch going through the FBI´s reports. They went inside where Chris grabbed a couple of beers. Buck sat down and quickly told his boss what he had found out talking to JD.

They sat in silence for a while when Chris finally spoke up. "If you break the speed limit it’s possible to make it to the senators house in half an hour."

"I know, but yesterday the police held a speed limit control on the Washington road, I know that from personal experience."

"The Washington road isn’t the only way to the senators house is it?"

"No but it’s the fastest. The other roads takes over an hour even if your driven too fast."

Chris smiled and was about to say something when the phone rang. "speak… Vin?….just wait a second will you?..…" He took the remotecontrol and turned on the television. "…………Okay what channel did you say?" he switched the channel and a male reporter showed up on the screen:

"I’m standing outside senators Williams house where the senators wife Susan Williams was found murdered early this morning. The FBI has not been very talkative in this case and we can´t get any statement from the chief in command but we have from a reliable source that the FBI has a young man in custody whom they believe is the killer. According to our source the young man is an ATF agent, who is…"

"How the hell do they know this?" Chris turned of the TV and looked at Buck, then he remembered Vin in the phone. "Vin are you still there?…Good. I want you to call around and find out who informed the press about this… I don´t care if it´s in the middle of the night then you just have to wake some people…and Ez call up the guys and ask them to meet us at the office at 7." Chris hung up the phone and looked at Buck. "What time is it?"

"4 o’clock"

"I´m going to town to wake up Mary, you wanna come?" He took his keys and walked out to his car with Buck on his tail.

Mary Travis opened the door with an angry expression on her face. "What? Do you have any idea what time it is?……. Chris?" the anger turned into surprise when she saw the two agents "What are you doing here?"

"Can we come in?"

"Yeah, sure," the blond reporter said. "What’s going on?"

"Have you heard of the murder on Susan Williams?" Buck asked vhile he sat down and then quickly stood up again.

"Yeah the FBI thinks she was killed by an young ATF agent." She looked at Buck, then at Chris and then back at Buck again. The men’s faces were like stone and she quickly put her right hand to her mouth. "Oh my God they think it’s.." She stopped herself, couldn´t get the name over her lips.

"Yes Mary," Chris continued. "They thinks it’s JD." He paused for a minute and looked at Buck. "We need your help Mary, we need you to find out who gave the press that piece of information. We need you to find out who told the press that there were an ATF agent involved, can you do that?"

"Yes of course, I’ll start right away, but it will take some time."

"Just not to long okay," Buck sounded pleading. "We need to get the kid out at fast as possible."

"I´ll do everything I can, I promise."

"Thanks Mary, I’m sorry but we have to go." Chris kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Say hello to Billy for me."

As soon as the two agents had left the house Mary Travis ran to the phone. "Hello Ron. I need your help with something……"

Continue

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