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“A Mother’s Tale”

~Chapter Four- In- depth Data

She sets down the last plate, her eyes scrolling over to the young officer taking a nice heap of scrambled eggs and sausages. Smiling, she slides into a chair across from him, watching him devour the warm breakfast set aside for him.

“Mmm…man. This is incredible Mrs. Carter…

“Jasmine.” She cuts him off.

He moves his jaw munching on the food, taking a swig of orange juice before speaking. “Jasmine.”

She nods, “Yeah why make it so formal, we’re a small community and you’ve done a lot staying outside instead of being at your home with your family.”

“Well…I live alone ma’am. Got a rented apartment down on Millbury. Beautiful place really, well at least for me considering the prices are rising all around.” He gazes down at his plate, stabbing a piece of pancake and shoving it into his mouth.

“Ohhh you live alone?”

“You sound surprise.”

“Well just a bit. I assumed a man of your status would have a nice family by now that’s all.” Jasmine quips up, brushing back a lock of golden hair off her chin.

“Oh well…I just haven’t found the right misses I guess.” Howie shrugs, rolling the sleeves of his blue officer shirt up to his elbows.

“I have some spare clothes from my husband, if you like you can wash up and get into those since it’ll take a good hour or so to get to Millbury from here.”

Howie smirks, “Thanks, that’s quite the offer. I wouldn’t want to impose however and it would feel just a bit awkward if I walked out of here with your husband’s clothes.”

Jasmine lets out a soft chuckle, “No really its fine. He never wore those clothes since I got it a size too small for him. So I’m sure giving it to you would be fine. The clothes are there to be worn and it was never used. You can take that as a gift along with the breakfast for staying here at the night.”

Howie nods, “That’s really nice of you…” He cuts himself from calling her by her last name and smiles, “Jasmine. Thanks.”

“Very welcome. You can use the bathroom to freshen up, its up the stairs first door to your right.”

“You really don’t have to worry about me. I just feel like I’m invading going to your bathroom and stuff.”

Holding a plate in her hands, she gazes at him sternly, like a mother berating her child and points to the stairs. “It’s fine. I don’t mind. Go ahead, I’ll clean up here.”

“Thank you.” He whispers out, stepping out of the kitchen and jogs up the first few steps reaching the next level of the house. He looks down the neatly decorated hallway to see a soft beige carpet covering the entire length of the sturdy hallway. The shiny mahogany walls gleam in the early sunlight breaking into the one lone window at the end of one side of the hallway. He quietly makes his way down the right side of the hallway seeing a small crack of a door open, the sunrays bursting through the open slot of the door. He reaches the first door to his right, opening the bathroom but his eyes remain locked on the cream colored door across from him. He can hear soft shuffling coming from that room and smiles, stepping up and peering in to see Eliez sitting in her child size drawing desk, attempting to draw something with a crayon on a sheet of white paper.

He watches her for a few more minutes, her back to him as she continuously keeps at her drawing.

Eliez hums a song under breath and scribbles on the paper lifting her head up and turns it to him gazing at him curiously. “Want to see?” She refers to her drawing, a smile spreading across her snowy cheeks.

“Sure. Can I come in?” He asks as she nods her head and smiles.

He goes over to her and makes his way to the desk, peering down to look at the stick figure and a small scrabble of what she tried to write out below it. His eyes trace over the misshapen letters whispering out: “What does that say?”

“It says Nick.” She bubbles out, nibbling on her lower lip, her big azure eyes taking him in.

“Nick, oh. Is that him?” He points to the stick figure drawn with a sad face.

Eliez nods quickly, putting her small chubby pointer finger onto the drawing. “He’s sad. He miss mommy.”

Howie gulps, scratching the back of his head: “Eliez, do you remember the last time you saw your brother?”

Eliez pouts, placing a finger on her lip as she bubbles out, “Terday.”

“You mean yesterday or today?”

She frowns not understanding the concept of time, “He left and say bye to me and mommy.”

“Ok…that’s ok sweetie. I didn’t mean to ask about that.” Howie gulps, feeling horrible for asking the young child to recall the last she saw her now dead brother.

She eyes him and giggles, clapping her hands: “I know a secret. Shhhhh…”

Howie raises his eyebrows, kneeling down to her level. “Ohhh…is it a nice secret?”

Eliez frowns and shakes head: “Bad…bad bad bad.” She taunts out, scratching out the stick figure on the paper violently with her black crayon.

Howie frowns, his gaze never leaving her small hands. “Why did you mess up the picture?”

“Its bad! Its bad! It looks bad.”

Howie gazes at her wishing he could get her to speak what she wanted to see. Her reaction to her brother’s death was strange. She didn’t seem upset nor even noted if he was around. “Can I ask you a question Eliez?”

The little girl raises her head to gaze at him, her clear bright eyes blink quickly as she sneezes and smiles. “Ok.”

He takes a small hand of hers in his and gazes at her: “Its ok to be sad for Nick. Nick is sleeping. He’s taking a big sleep now.”

Eliez giggles and shakes her head: “Noooooo. Nick doesn’t sleep. He never sleeps.”

Howie sighs, standing up looking around her cozy room full of big dolls as lilac colored butterflies on the bright yellow walls surrounded her room. “Its ok. You’re right. Nick isn’t sleeping.” And he exits the room, going to the bathroom across it.

Eliez smiles and turns back to the ruined drawing seeing nothing but black ragged circles over the barely visible stick figure.
~*~

She looks out the den window pulling him over to it: “Look, she got a cop at her place.”

Damien brushes the pale white curtain aside to get a better view across the street a little further down the block. “Yeah…she probably got him to stay over in case of anything.”

“Isn’t she married?” Arianna whispers out, pinning her dark flaxen hair up in a small clip. Long tendrils fall out of the clip as she gazes out the window.

“Uh yeah why?”

“Nothing.”

“Heh what are you thinking?” Damien stares at the police car.

“Well she doesn’t know. So…that’s a good thing. But do you think that cop has any clue?”

Damien snorts: “I doubt it. I never seen him around this part of the town so he looks clueless if anything.”

“What if they start questioning me?” Arianna frowns, getting off the sofa. “I don’t need the 5-0 down my back about Nick’s sudden death.”

“Whoa hey relax baby. They won’t do that. If you don’t wanna say anything to them then don’t. They can’t go after you.” Damien calmly whispers out, holding her elbows as he pulls her to him for an embrace.

She smiles and takes his hands: “So we’re safe then right?”

He nods and kisses her as she smirks.

“Easy tiger. Wouldn’t want to start up what we did from last night.” Arianna smiles.

Damien snickers, letting go of the curtain from his hand and leds her to the breakfast nook.
~*~

He pulls up to the familiar driveway, a smile dawning on his face as he parks and turns off the ignition. Sighing, he cracks his knuckles and exits his silver Chrysler convertible. Jogging up the porch steps, he pulls out his keys and slowly enters the house, his eyes scanning over the empty living room.

“Jasmine.” He calls out to hear no response. Narrowing his eyes, he makes his way down to the bottom of the staircase slowly ascending up.

“Jasmine honey I’m home.”

Jasmine sits besides her daughter listening to Eliez go on and on about a magic tree she wants to draw tomorrow for school not hearing the sound of her husband’s voice yet.

Roger walks down the hallway and sees a young man stepping out of the bathroom dressed in what looked like Roger’s own clothes carrying a bundle of clothes in his arms. Narrowing his eyes he walks up to the man and grabs him by the collar: “You better have a good excuse wearing my stuff.” He growls out pinning the man against the wall.

Howie blinks and frowns: “You must be mister Carter. I’m officer Dorough from precinct 15. I was told to keep watch for your family until you came home.”

Roger releases the man from his grip and smirks: “So what’s with the attire? I thought you cops wore uniforms.”

Howie drops his head and whispers out: “It was lent to me until I can get home. But I promise I’ll have it washed and cleaned as soon as possible and I’ll deliver it back to you sir.”

Roger smirks, eyeing the man. “Very well. And by the way, I don’t fit into those. Though you can imagine what it must be like to come home and see a man with his wife alone. It makes you wonder.”

Howie quickly nods: “Totally understandable. But to keep you informed I didn’t enter this house until about an hour ago. So no worries sir.”

Roger nods sternly: “Right.” His eyes turn to his daughter’s room and smiles, “How are they?”

“Well your wife is mourning as expected. Your daughter…well I’m not sure what’s going with her. I think when you talk with her you’ll understand.”

“Does she know about his death?”

Howie shakes his head: “No.” He held back the conversation he had with her for fear the father would get upset on the news.

“Well good to know. Thank you for your services…” Roger gazes at him.

Howie nods adjusting the loose green t-shirt and loose fitting jeans, feeling beyond awkward at the moment. “I’ll guess I’ll be heading out then.” Pulling out a business card, he hands it over to Roger. “If your wife knows of anything else she can call the station here and it’ll take her straight to Winterland or myself since I’m working on the case.”

Roger eyes him and looks away knowing Howie didn’t know the whole truth on his son’s murder and how it came to be. “I’ll make sure to keep this number at hand.”

Howie simply nods and whispers out a goodbye as he excuses himself and steps out of the house.

Roger runs a hand through his dark hair, stepping into his daughter’s room.

Eliez was humming a nursery rhyme to her mother who held her close to her chest. Eliez’s eyes turn quickly to the door as Jasmine breaks into a bright smile at the sight of her husband.

“Roger you made it!” Jasmine jumps up, holding her daughter in her arms as she rushes over to him.

“Of course I did. I manage to take an earlier flight than expected to and got here as fast as I could.” Roger smiles kissing the top of Eliez’s forehead and embracing Jasmine. “I wanted to surprise you and by the looks of it I did.”

Jasmine gazes at him warmly touching his gruff face: “Looks like you need to start shaving again.”

Roger smiles, taking Eliez from her arms and bombards the little girl with kisses.

Eliez giggles: “Stop stop!” Shifting her small body around from her father’s tender kisses.

Jasmine watches this happily and gulps recalling the last image of Nick and Eliez before he left the house yesterday. Sniffing, she rubs her eyes and gulps, sliding into the kiddie chair of Eliez. She smiles seeing Eliez tell her father her great adventure about finding a raccoon with a sandwich on the tree last night.

Jasmine rested her hand on the small child desk, feeling a sheet of paper beneath her. Curiously, she picks up the sheet and frowns, seeing massive black circles over the barely visible stick figure. She tries to read the name below the now destroyed picture but her daughter’s writing was not yet developed and the letters seemed more of a bunch of squiggles than anything else.

“Baby bear, what is this picture you made?” She calls out to a giggling Eliez who seemed fascinated at her father’s facial structure.

“Eli honey. Look over here.” Jasmine calls out. Eliez snaps to attention at the sound her name gazing at her mother.

Roger smiles brushing a hand through his daughter’s hair as he sits on the edge of Eliez’s bed.

Eliez looks over to her mother and waits: “Huh?”

“Care bear what is this you drew? I can’t see it. I’m sure it was a nice picture.” Jasmine states, watching her husband smile, holding his little girl on his lap.

Eliez studies the ruined drawing for a minute before responding: “Its Nick.”

Roger frowns, turning to the picture as Jasmine gulps putting the drawing down.

“Do you miss him baby?”

“Mommy he’s not here. Nice man said he’s sleeping but no. No. No, no. Nick no sleep.” She bumbles out, reaching for her cabbage patch doll and smiles. “Molly knows too.”

Roger clears his throat, feeling the tension in the room: “What does Molly know?”

Eliez simply smiles and eyes her father: “You know daddy.”

“What is she talking about?” Jasmine frowns, standing up nervously, tossing the drawing in the wastebasket.

Eliez wiggles her plump legs and slides off her father’s lap, skipping out of the room holding her doll’s hand to let the doll drag on the floor.

“I don’t know.” Roger replies, “Maybe she knows more than we think.”

“I think so too.” She frowns stepping over to her husband as tears begin falling down her cheek quietly.

Sighing, Roger wraps his arms around her, kissing the top of head, rubbing her back in circles to calm her down. He closes his eyes at what his daughter said to him knowing she was doing a good job in maintaining the secret but he didn’t know for how long before others begin to figure it out as well.
~**~

**~To Be Continued…~**