x Two of a Kind x - 1. Chapter One

It was three in the morning and Tom had been on the road for over eight hours. He had just a few more hours until he’d reached his destination. Then he would be able to head home and see his little girl. Tom was considered to be one of his company’s best truck drivers and he was used to driving for long periods of time and had mastered his ability to fight off sleep. It had been quite some time since Tom had seen another car on the road, which he really didn’t mind because then that meant he wouldn’t have to worry about other drivers slowing him down. The radio was playing “Electric Feel” by MGMT as Tom sang along. His voice had gotten dry so he took a sip of his coffee and looked down to make sure he had securely placed it back in the cup holder, so he wouldn’t spill it like he had done with his first coffee. When he returned his attention back to the road, he quickly noticed a person stumbling into the middle of the road. Within seconds his foot stomped on the brakes, while his hands turned the wheel vigorously to the left trying to avoid colliding with the person.

Once the truck safely came to a stop, Tom hopped out of the driver’s seat. He was rushing to go confront the person who he had almost killed. When he was just a few feet away from the person he froze in shock. Right before him stood a boy no older than fourteen, fifteen years old. He was completely soaked in blood. The boy was so out of it as he stood there, Tom was sure that the kid didn’t even realize that he was almost hit by his truck. “Hey kid!” Tom yelled as he slowly began to walk closer to the boy, trying not to scare him. It was at that moment that the boy turned and Tom could see the boy had his hand to his stomach covering a wound that was releasing a lot of blood. All of his clothes were torn up and he didn’t have on any shoes. Tom instantly made eye contact with the boy and even in the night lighting he could see the boy’s eyes were watering and just moments after tears begin to fall. “Please…Help…me” the boy said barely loud enough for Tom to hear and then he collapsed to the ground.

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Jillian Hoff had woken up to the sound of her phone going off, she knew she needed to pick it up but made no effort to. Maybe it was an 800 number she thought to herself, she knew she was only giving herself false hope. As she started reaching for it the ringing had stopped, a smile slowly crossed her face. Crisis evaded she thought to herself as she turned and snuggled closer to her sleeping husband. Just before she returned to her deep sleep her husband’s phone went off. “Shit” she groaned as she watched her husband reaching for his phone.

“hey…no, it’s ok…yeah…ok, here she is.” Marcus Hoff said into the phone before handing it off to her. “It’s Lee” Marcus mumbled. Lee Campbell was a detective that Jillian had worked long side with for over the past thirteen years on many cases. They have been friends for even longer.

“hello” Jillian answered “this is Jillian Hoff speaking.”

“Hey Jill, sorry to wake you but your needed here at the hospital. As soon as possible” Said Detective Lee.

“Hey Lee, is this about the Warren case? if so we are aware of the situation and are waiting to get the judges ok. Stephanie is on call right now so...” before she could finish lee interrupted “No, this is a new case and chief wants the head social worker working this case. Be prepared Jill this isn’t one of our normal cases”

“ok, Lee I’ll be there as soon as I can”

She had quickly left the house after pinning her hair up into a pony tail and threw on some clothes. The drive to the hospital wasn’t a long one. When she walked in the hospital she could sense that something was up. Jillian has worked many hard and terrible cases but for some reason something told her this one wouldn’t be like any other. Never the less she would be as professional as she could, it was her job. As she approached the front desk she was greeted by many familiar faces, she greeted them back and from the corner she could see Detective Lee walking towards.

“She’s with me” Detective Lee told the ladies, and the ladies nodded.

“So what do we know so far lee?” Jillian asked as they approached the nearest elevator.

“Around three in the morning a truck driver called 911. Saying there was a boy who was walking along the side of the road, who was badly injured. When the authorities arrived that’s exactly what we found. The boy had many cuts, bruises and a minor stab wound on the left side of his abdominal.” Detective Lee said taking a deep breath as the elevator arrived and hit the seventh floor button.

“The boy must have a high pain tolerance to be walking around with a stab wound. Have there been any other 911 calls last night, that might have reported any disturbances or confrontations?” She asked but Detective Lee shook his head ‘no’.

“It gets worse.” Lee said as he leaned against the wall of the elevator. “As protocol we always scan the surrounding parameters of each case. Just a few miles up the road we came across a car that had crashed into a tree, a little off the road. We have strong reason to believe that he came from that car. when we went to investigate it, we found a body of another boy, in the passenger seat. He looked to be just a few years older than the other boy on the road, and could possibly be his older brother. He is also being treated as we speak.” They got off the elevator and walked down the hallway.

“We traced the license plate back to a man named Albert Saiber. We did a background check on the man and found he is the father of the two boys Henry and William. Henry is the youngest son he was found on the road. While William the other older son was the boy that was found in the car. We also got their home address and sent a squad car out to the house.” Detective Lee said as they stop in front of room 714. “This is Henry's room; William is next door. Why don’t you go in and I will follow in a few minutes. I’m just going to check up on the squad car I sent out.”

When Jillian enter the room, Henry was sitting up in his bed looking out of the window. He had one cut on his forehead and a few small ones scattered around his face. Under his injuries she could see the boy had lightly tanned skin. As she watched him she couldn’t help but feel bad for the boy, he was about the same age as her daughter Norah. She vowed to herself that she’d help him as much as she could. Henry had dark brown curly hair that fell just a little below his ears. It wasn’t until she had softly knocked on the door that Henry had noticed that she was even there. His body instantly tensed up and his green eye stared at her.

“Hello, Henry my name is Jillian Hoff. I’m a social worker, I’m here to help you.” she said and gave a small smile, he didn’t say anything but continued to stare at her.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked moving forward, he remained quiet. “Do you remember what happened...your brother”

“Is he dead?” Henry asked cutting her off. “…No” she responded and what confused her was that for a small second Henry looked disappointed, but it quickly changed. “Can I see him?”

“yeah as soon as the doctors are done examining him” he nodded and then turned to look out the window again.

The room fell into a silence, it wasn’t until Detective Lee knocked in the door till it was broken “Jill can I speak with you for a second?” he said looking between her and the boy. It wasn’t until they were in the hall hat Lee began speaking again “This case has just changed into a homicide. When the police arrived at the home, five bodies were discovered throughout the house. Three males and two females, One of the Females is there step mother Karin Saiber. It was a complete mess there were large amounts drugs scattered around too.”

“What about their father?”

“He is missing, but there is evidence that he was there. We put a warrant out for their father. These boys maybe in danger” he said as they both looked back at Henry. Who had laid down facing the window.