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A Mother’s Tale

~Chapter Twenty-One- Too Much Into It

He looks through the clothes and frowns, pulling it out of the box confused. “What is she doing with this?” Roger holds up a navy jersey taking out books and other belongings from the cardboard box. Frowning, he dumps the items back in the box picking it up heading to the back porch. Looking around for his wife he hears a soft giggle as Eliez spins around while her mother blows tiny bubbles at her.

Smiling, Roger leans against the threshold of the porch keeping his eyes trained on them. For that one moment, he watched them wondering how life would have been with his family if his wife didn’t suffer from the haunting memories that she created to help herself through the mourning. Stepping into the wooden back porch, the wood creaks under him as he drops the box on the floor, his eyes looking over at them.

“Daddy! Come heyour!” Eliez squeals out, bubbling out smiling as Jasmine looks over at him.

“What is it honey?” She calls out, eyeing Roger on the porch.

“Nothing…just watching you two play. You guys look like you were having fun, hope I didn’t interrupt that.” He smiles, getting a giggle out of Eliez.

“Na, you’re welcome to join us sweetie.” Jasmine smiles, sitting cross leg on the grass as little Eliez run around her mother excitedly.

Roger nods clearing his throat: “I will shortly. Just wanted to ask you something. I found this box in the closet, any idea where these items came from?”

Jasmine blinks, frowning getting up as she makes her over to him, her eyes dropping into the box. “What have you done?” She whispers out. “Do you know how much it hurts to look at those clothes and trophies?” She could already feel the gulp rising in her throat.

“Honey…where did you get these stuff?” Roger whispers out.

She frowns, glaring at him: “Are you crazy? How can you ask that? These are Nick’s.”

Roger sighs, leaning back against the porch, his eyes watching Eliez running towards their direction.

Jasmine sniffs, rubbing her eyes from the oncoming tears: “You should have left that alone.”

“Yeah I’m sorry that was wrong of me…” Roger frowns, absently twirling a silver watch with his fingers.

“Just put this all away. It hurts to look at all this, its too soon.” She chokes out, yanking the watch out of her husband’s hand, dumping it into the box closing the cardboard flaps on top.

“Relax…you stay here with Eli, I’ll put it away.” Roger gently takes her shaking hands in his, pulling her into a hug. “Shhh its ok…we’ll make it through this honey.”

Eliez watches them a few feet down from the yard, her eyes resting on a rolling basketball that came from the box. Her eyes watch the ball tumble down the stairs as the strong breeze pushes it away towards a bush. Giggling, she runs after the ball, seeing it disappear into the bush. Kneeling down, she sticks her little arms into the bushy overgrown bush in search of the orange basketball. Her hands brush against the ball as she frowns feeling something else strange pass her hands. She blindly searches for the ribbon that she felt brush against the hand and pulls it out frowning as she watches a crimson dripping shoelace. Tilting her head, she holds the bloody shoelace frowning as she stands up, walking over to her parents.

“Daddy. Look wah I found.” She holds up the shoelace, seeing the color drain from her father’s face.

Jasmine gulps, frowning at the shoelace and back at her husband. “Is that blood on it? Eli pumpkin put that down! Its dirty!”

Eliez drops the dirty shoelace watching her father as she skips off grabbing her cabbage patch doll walking back towards the bush.

Jasmine eyes her husband as she watches the bloody shoelace oddly, shaking her head as she enters the house looking back at the box.

Roger exhales, eyeing the box and brings it back inside following his wife.
~*~

Howie drums his fingers on his desk top flipping through shots of the crime scene as the door creaks open. Looking up, he sees Officer Winterland walk in as he holds a black and white photo in his hand. “Morning.”

“Morning Dorough. How was the breakfast?” Winterland yawns, scratching his thin strands, plopping on a chair before the desk.

“Pretty good considering I’m looking at these photos.”

“Graphic right?” Winterland booms out, placing his large hands on the desk.

“Yeah…” Howie frowns, “The night it happened. The whole incident with the man…do you think it’s a set up?”

Winterland raises his gray bushy eyebrows at the young officer snorting: “Didn’t we already clear this up. Its not a murder is was an accident. The road was dark and he couldn’t see good driving so he must have turned and went off the road. That’s the only conclusion. You know this already, why do you keep thinking it’s a murder?”

“Its just something isn’t adding right. You know I was watching the news I left recording the other day and I saw something in the background. Don’t know if you saw it, but…” He points to the computer screen, turning the monitor towards the man: “It looks like there were people involved with the crime. Especially this man.” Howie points to the shadow of a man with a pen.

Winterland raises his eyebrows, leaning closer to the monitor: “Well I’ll be damned…I never noticed that before. And did you talk with guy already?” Frowning the relentless young officer wouldn’t lay off the case already. Already Howie’s curiosity was getting to him and he was standing in the way of closing the case. Personally he didn’t want to do anything with this case since he himself took part of it. But Howie starts to put the pieces together of this case he could be trouble with the law himself. A crooked cop is never taken lightly but the law enforcement.

“Yeah I did…Look I sent a warrant out the other day to a guy because I assumed he was the one involved. However…because of the lack of evidence I couldn’t pinpoint him out. I have a note written by him threatening me. I just assumed he was trying to lead me to something more. So I took the liberty of sending some of guys here from the station to check it out.” Howie clears his throat, eyeing the older man.

“A warrant out to who exactly?”

“One of Nick’s friend, he name is Brian. The letter was signed with his signature on it and I called to get it checked out.”

“What happened with that?” Winterland asks curiously studying the monitor quietly.

“Nothing, Brian was stunned and confused about a letter being sent out. He’s innocent on that. Whoever sent it to me was trying to frame him because as the cops further questioned him he almost freaked out saying he couldn’t imagine who would do something like this to him. We took his word on it and the boys left him alone but I can’t wonder what exactly did Brian did that would get him suddenly framed or at least picked out of the group of friends to get exposed like that.” Howie whispers out, lost in thought as he leans back in the leather chair tapping his foot quietly.

“Who knows what’s going on with those kids. I say you’re on to something. Should we call them up and set up some kind of questioning. I know we already did it but some time passed now maybe the stories will differ.” Winterland smirks, placing his large hands over his round bulging stomach.

“Looks like your wife is feeding you well.” Howie smiles: gathering the black and white photos shoving it into a manila folder.

Winterland grins nodding: “Sure is. Betty makes this amazing dish its hard to not eat it all.”

“Heh, well I can’t blame you then. So…I’m thinking of calling the man in again. The one in the shadows on the screen. Cause now things are more detailed and his story will sound different since after all wasn’t he on the phone that night when his friend called so how could he be at the crime scene?” Howie raises his eyebrows, biting his lower lip softly.

“Tricky one there. I’ll start to set it up, you wanna see him now?”

“No no, I have a conference and another leading investigation on some domestic violence.” Howie frowns, staring at the screen, hearing Winterland exit the room quietly. He frowns watching the distinct visible man on the screen frowning: “What are you hiding? What do you really know?” He whispers out, tapping his fingers on the mahogany desk as he leans back in his seat gazing at the frozen screen on his computer.
~*~

Brian whistles shaking his head: “Whooaa…didn’t we tell you to stay out of that part? We figured the cops were on their way.”

“You’re missing the point. I’m on the tape. Meaning…” Damien starts out but gets cut off by A.J. who seems to be causally lounging back on a sofa.

“He’s screwed. Screwed…Let’s all say it together- Screwed.” He states slowly smiling.

The others snicker as Damien rolls his eyes.

“HAHA dude relax you’re all stressing out. They’re not gonna get you we’re your alibi.” A.J. grins as the others nodded.

“Besides if you were seen then I wouldn’t be surprised if any of us are caught up in the shot as well. I should have recorded the stupid news when I had the chance to.” Orlando frowns, tapping his foot watching the other five people in the room.

“Doubt it, the officer said he found D in the shot if it was any of us I’m sure he would have said so as well.” Arianna starts out.

“So what now? I mean I had the police stop by my house the other night in case ya didn’t know.” Brian grumbles, shaking his head.

Orlando blinks hearing the others gasps looking around the room.

“What do you mean the cops stopped by your place?” Nick grunts out, leaning against the wall and finally settling down on a sofa, sitting in a weathered blue t-shirt and dark loose jeans.

“Exactly what I said. Seems someone tried to get me a warrant because of some crazed psycho letter he got which get this had my name on it. So someone is setting me up.” Brian frowns glaring around the room.

“Its not us so stop it Rok. We’re in the same deep shit as you, you know its not us.” A.J. leans back on the sofa eyeing the others.

“You don’t all think its Roger now do you. Cause it would be the reason if anyone wants to see us caught.” Orlando crosses his arms before his chest eyeing the others.

“Has to be. Who else would sink that low besides his stupid ass?” A.J. snorts as Arianna shakes her head.

“So I take it the cops left after that right?” Nick continues on with the questions for Brian.

“Yeah they didn’t have valid info so they couldn’t arrest me on the spot but that doesn’t matter now its ok. Now it’s the tape we gotta worry about.” Brian’s eyes shift over to Damien who seemed quiet through the meeting lost in thought.

“D you got anything you wanna fill us in on?” A.J. yawns out, “GAHH its fucking ten in the morning who thought it would be fun to meet up at this time on a Sunday morning?”

Arianna smiles caressing Damien’s cheek: “Hey sweetie you here with us? Alex just asked you something.”

Damien blinks, shifting his eyes over to the man and smirks: “I thought it was important for all of us to get together to have an orgy. Nothing like a group thing to wake us all up.”

Nick snickers, sitting back on the sofa as Arianna giggles. Brian and A.J. smile as Orlando shakes his head smiling.

“At least we’re all here since the incident happened.” Damien murmurs.

Nick nods: “I’m sorry I thought it was the best idea for crazy Carter to lay off my case already.”

“Nick it’s not easy, that woman went through some serious trails when she was young.” Arianna finds herself defending the woman’s insanity.

“What? You think its ok to dwell on the miscarriage for twenty five years and then because you couldn’t move on or think to believe that your kid is gone you create a fictional story using real people? Well we’re not puppets and we don’t know her.” Nick clasps his hands behind his head, feeling the breeze of the air conditioner on him.

“No I’m not approving what she did…its just she’s a mother. For something that tragic it affects people differently and maybe she didn’t get a chance to mourn out with Roger probably pressing her to move on already. So we can’t start going down her throat on that.” Arianna sighs, looking at the men around her.

“Approving? Heh…can you spell that Arianna?” A.J. teases her seeing her growl and flip him off.

Damien glares over at A.J. slumping back on the sofa: “So what now? We already showed the cop the apartment. Now he wants to talk to me cause of what he saw on the tape.”

“We’ll come up with something for you to say, but I think you should see the cop. We don’t need them to get hostile and Officer Winterland is there so he can help you out.” Nick burps softly, smiling at the others.

“Nasty.” Arianna smiles: crawling on Damien’s lap.

“So its settled then? We’ll come up with a story and D will be fine. We got your back…” Nick smiles and thinks ‘Way back…’

“Perfect. So lets get to work on the story then and remember we all need to stick on this same one.” Orlando eyes the others, pulling out a sheet of paper and pen off the coffee table starting to write down some ideas.

Brian looks over at Nick who simply smiles looking over at Damien innocently.

“Relax you won’t get in trouble. I can talk people out of things and I’ll show you how too.” Nick calmly states as they begin to think of ideas of the alibi for their friend.
~**~


**~To Be Continued…~**