Author's note: The "present" scenes of this story take place in a virtual "eighth season" for the show, which would be around the year 2011. A line of dialogue in the "present" scenes that appears in italics means that character is "flashing" to appear for a moment as their younger self, as they often did on the show.

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

("For What It's Worth" – Buffalo Springfield)

September 19, 1968

With unseasonably warm temperatures lasting well into the fall, the campus of Whitman College was much busier than it normally would've been at that time of year. Most of the students were relaxing or studying. A few were tossing footballs or frisbees. A small number, however, were gathered in protest groups. One student was defacing a campaign poster of Richard Nixon, before his work attracted the attention of a campus security guard. The student grabbed his gear and ran, he and the shouting security guard startling a brown-haired young man as they rushed past him.

The young man, a slight-looking, unassuming student, looked past at the pursuit for a moment, before shaking his head, and resuming walking in the direction he'd been heading before. A few moments later, however, he was stopped by another interruption, this one much more familiar.

"Hey, Ben," the slightly taller, more athletic-looking young man shouted, running over to him. "Ben!"

Ben acknowledged his approaching friend with a nod and a skeptical smile. "Hey, Jakey. What are you doing? I thought you had History this afternoon."

Jake dismissed his friend's question with a wave. "Ah, it's fine. I'll copy the notes off someone next time. I was thinking I'd stop by Kappa House. Maybe they'll finally let me pledge."

Ben chuckled. "Just try not to start any more fires."

Jake frowned. "That was an accident."

"Right," said Ben, rolling his eyes. "Why don't you do something useful with your time? Didn't you say you were going to apply for that DJ gig on the campus radio?"

"Turns out it's not a paying gig." Jake shrugged. "Then again, I get to play whatever I want. I'll think about it. In the meantime the Kappas are throwing a huge party on Saturday. You coming?" Jake gave his friend a sly smile. "I hear a bunch of the sororities are gonna be there."

Ben chuckled and shook his head. "I can't. I gotta study for most of the weekend, and the rest of the time, I'm gonna be looking for a part-time job."

"You still hard up for money?"

Ben sighed. "Well, a couple of the textbooks I needed were more expensive than I thought. My folks sent me a little, but they can't afford much."

"I'll get my parents to send you some. They're always good for it."

"I'm not gonna borrow money from your parents!" Ben said, looking at Jake. "I can manage on my own."

"Okay, I'm just trying to help," Jake said with a shrug, looking at his watch. "I gotta go, but you should try to come out though, have a little fun."

"I've been to parties with you, Jake. You've never settled for 'a little fun'."

"Hey, I'm just saying these are your college years, man." Jake gave Ben a pat on the arm, before running off. "You can't play by the rules all the time."

"Yeah, well, you break enough rules for the both of us!" Ben shouted, with a smirk, to his departing friend, who chuckled, gave him a wave, and then headed off in the direction of a blonde co-ed he'd spotted.

Ben shook his head in amusement, before heading over to one of the campus billboards, one that often had a few postings for employment. Most of the items posted there were old ones, since the last time Ben had checked it. However, he watched an attractive young brunette, whom Ben had seen a few times around the Dean Patterson's office in psychology department, possibly one of the secretaries, walk over to the board with a stack of bright yellow papers in hand.

Pulling one of the pages from the stack, she pinned it to the board, gave Ben a friendly nod and smile, which he returned, before walking off.

Ben turned back to the board and pulled off the paper she'd just posted on the board, the headline having caught his eye.

"Hmmm," he said, frowning in thought, as he read the contents of the page…

It was pouring rain, as Ben walked, barely keeping upright, down the gravel shoulder of the deserted road. His face was deathly pale, his hands shook, and he tried in vain to keep blood from seeping from the wound in his stomach. Practically stumbling already, he was only able to make it a few more steps before collapsing to the ground and rolling into the muddy ditch. The cold rain, unmoved, continued to trickle down around his lifeless body...

The short, middle-aged detective frowned and shook his head as he placed the box, marked PHILLIPS, B., on the shelf with the others. The few leads he'd had with this case all seemed to lead to a dead end.

Sorry, kid, he thought to himself. Maybe somebody else'll have better luck.

Finishing up his paperwork, Detective Will Jeffries couldn't help but steal the occasional glance at the silver-haired, well-dressed man in his early sixties standing at the entrance to Homicide. Eventually, his burly looking colleague, Detective Nick Vera, took notice.

"Something interesting about the guy waitin' there?" Vera asked.

Jeffries look at Vera. "That's Jake Gillespie. Big name in the Philly music scene. Owns half a dozen stations in Philly and Pittsburgh, including a couple of my favorites. I'd love to pick his brain."

"Hmm, maybe you should ask if he's single," Vera said with a hint of a smirk.

Jeffries gave Vera a mildly annoyed look, as he stood up and head over to the entrance – just as the slender blonde woman, who'd been approaching Jake from the other end of the squad, arrived.

"Can I help you?" she asked, not noticing Jeffries' disappointed look.

"Jake Gillespie," the older man said, with an easygoing smile. "I have some possible information on an old case."

"Detective Lilly Rush," she said, before finally looking over at Jeffries. "This is Detective Will Jeffries."

Jeffries smiled. "I really like the lineup you got going on WIAF."

"Well, country always seems to sell, even in the big cities," Jake said with a shrug. "Never cared for it myself."

Lilly smiled in amusement, offering Jake a seat at one of the desks, as Jeffries stood there, taken aback.

"So this case you mentioned?" Lilly asked, as the three sat down.

"Ben Phillips, college student in 1968," Jake said, looking wistful, "and the best friend I ever had; all the way back to the third grade." He sighed and shook his head. "They found him stabbed in the northeast end of the city. Nobody ever seemed to find anything."

"But something new turned up?" Jeffries asked.

"Turns out it was practically under my nose all along." Jake said, with a hint of surprise. "Ben's dad died in the nineties. His mom passed away last week. Our families were still close, so I volunteered to clean out the house, put it on the market. She kept everything he ever had. I was going through a box of his old college papers, seeing if there was anything worth holding on to," Jake reached into the travel bag on his shoulder, pulled out a faded, creased, yellow paper, and handed it to Lilly, "and I found this."

"Need cash?" Lilly said, reading the page, "Subjects needed for an intensive, well-paid, three-week study. Interested parties apply with the Psychology Department."

"Those were posted all over campus," Jake said, nodding his head, "some kind of experiment, real hush-hush kind of thing. There were a lot of rumors about something going wrong, and them having to cut it short early."

"I think I remember hearing about that," Jeffries said. "Something about military funding."

"Yeah, that's the one. Had to do with law enforcement. They did it off campus, at this old hospital on the edge of town," Jake said, looking at the page. "At least those were the rumors, anyway," he quickly added.

"Ben never said anything to you about being involved with this?" Lilly asked.

"Well, the truth is, after we got to college, we didn't get to see each other as much as we wanted. Our priorities were pretty different." Jake chuckled. "I was more interested in girls and parties. He was the boy scout, more interested in studying or taking odd jobs to pay for school. His family wasn't as well off as mine. This is just the kind of thing he would've signed up for, but I don't think the cops back then knew about it. They certainly never said anything about it to me. Maybe they just didn't know where to look."

Lilly gave Jake an slightly awkward smile. "Unfortunately, Mr. Gillespie, some rumors aren't much to open a forty-three year old case with."

Jake sighed. "Look, after they shut down that experiment, everyone seemed to close ranks, students and professors. I mean what could they possibly need to keep quiet about?"

Lilly and Jeffries look at each other, as Jake continued.

"And that place where they supposedly held the experiment? It's just a stone's throw from where they found him. It was in the middle of nowhere. There was no reason for him to be out there. He spent evenings in his dorm room studying."

"Mr. Gillespie…" Lilly said, setting the paper down on the desk.

Jake put up his hands up, though his tone remained calm. "I'm just trying to get justice for my friend. He would've done the same for me." He picked up the paper and handed it back to Lilly, giving her an earnest look. "Maybe it's time for the truth to come out."

Lilly looked at Jeffries, who nodded in approval, before looking back at the paper…

COLD CASE