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Part Ten

Jarod

“Please, Sir. Would you just calm down.”
The young female doctor looked stern in her white lab coat, but exhaustion was showing in her eyes when she finally released her firm grip around my wrist and led me towards a group of chairs.
“Your wife is still in surgery. You can see her later.”
“How is she?” I inquired, the distress ringing in my voice. ”I need to know whether she’s okay. We’ve had a fight before she left... She practically fled our house.”
The doctor’s voice was calm with a warm sort of confidentiality.
“She has broken bones and a concussion from the accident, but she will be okay.” She took a deep breath, obviously aware of the fact that the I was yet to be told about the most difficult aspect. I felt myself tense.
“There was nothing we could do about the baby, though. I am sorry, but she had a miscarriage.”
I couldn’t help myself with all the guilt and grief that was suddenly washing over me. My words had caused Parker to crash her car and lose our child. She would never forgive me or herself for that. I fell into one of the chairs and rested my elbows on my thighs, burying my face in my hands.
“Sir,” I looked up at the blond doctor. She looked truly sorry.
“Yes?”
“I’m not sure whether I should be telling you this, but... you should be warned. Your wife was crying when she was admitted. She was in so much pain that she was obviously aware of the fact that she would lose the child. She said it was your fault and that you killed the baby.” She furrowed her brow. “She also said that she didn’t want to live if she lost her little boy.” Her face suddenly changed and her eyes grew cold and unforgiving.
“You killed your wife, Jarod.”
I woke up with a start, almost falling off the couch I had fallen asleep on. Panting from the nightmare, I dizzily looked around me, but nothing awaited me but the empty living-room. After consulting my watch I stumbled to my feet and made for the kitchen, gulping down half a bottle of water at once. There was no word from her, although I had tried calling her dozens of times.
I started to pace once again, replaying our conversation over and over in my head. I hadn’t meant to hurt her. I would have never tried to make her feel bad about herself if I hadn’t been that damned worried about her. She didn’t eat enough and she was starting to act oddly. The dreams about Donald and the ensuing sleep deprivation had probably caused her condition to deteriorate. I once again mentally cursed myself for missing her doctor’s appointment. I had been with Zoe at that time, figuring out how to proceed once she had found the first solid lead on my parents.
My wife was a difficult person and she could be extremely annoying on bad days, but she was also loving and willing to make our family work. Sometimes I just wondered whether she was mentally capable of it. Back when she had been released from hospital five years ago, there hadn’t been a question whether we would move in together to raise our child. There had never been talks about another option which, after our earlier difficulties and my initial plan to run with the child once she had given birth, had been somewhat surprising.
Still, we had simply moved along swiftly. I had proposed to her, she had accepted and we had had a very small ceremony. We then had bought our house and Parker had gone to lengths making it into a comfortable home. I hadn’t known that she had it in her, but naturally I hadn’t known all that much about the private side of my huntress.
I had been amazed at how the woman she had been during her amnesia and the old Miss Parker had blended into each other and although she was not the woman I had lived with during my time at the hospital, I had fallen in love with her all over again.
She had stayed home with Sammy the first year while I had opened my practice in town, but had later suddenly confronted me with the fact that she had applied for a job at the DA’s office and landed it. She had been determined to make it all work and I could only be amazed at her strength and the amount of organization she had to put into all of it.
Still, it had been another side of her. The independent one. The one that wouldn’t talk to me before applying for the job, but would only confront me when I couldn’t have objected anymore.
I ran a hand through my hair and walked into the hallway, nervously toying with my car-keys. How long would it take Sydney to get here to take care of Sammy while I went out to look for Parker, I wondered. Checking my watch, I realized that it was well past midnight. Sydney was an early riser and consequently went to bed early, too. By now he would be in a deep sleep phase and I didn’t have the heart to wake him.
I dropped the keys in sudden defeat and walked up the stairs into our abandoned bedroom. Sitting down on the bed, I finally acknowledged that waiting was all I could do for now.

Miss Parker


I had been fully prepared to drive my car to some remote location and sob my heart out until my head hit the stirring wheel with exhaustion, but it had never happened. After I had left the house and got in the car, the ringing of my cell phone had startled me and made my hands shake even worse.
I had been about to ignore the call and just mute the phone when I had been faced with Val’s cell phone number. Picking up quickly, her deep voice had managed to calm me down instantly, despite the bad news it delivered.
“Are you home?”
I had rested my head against the window at that question, somewhat overwhelmed by it.
“Sort of,” I had finally managed to choke out.
“Well, good. I’ll be with you in ten. The ME's already there. Something’s happened at the Hanson’s.”
I was instantly alarmed, automatically turning my attention towards the neighbor’s house which looked peaceful enough except for the flashing lights of a police cruiser that I had previously missed in my state of emotional uproar.
“What happened?” I asked, my knees going weak despite the fact that I was sitting down. An image was flashing through my mind like a bolt of lightning illuminating a room and I had to use every ounce of strength I had in me to prevent myself from screaming.
“You okay?” Val’s voice sounded from the other end of the line, confirming that I must have made some sort of sound.
She didn’t have to tell me since I had already seen what had happened but due to the fact she didn’t know that, she did anyway.
“Jeff Hanson has been killed.”
“I’ll be right over,” I said weakly, then hung up. I opened the car door just quickly enough to not throw up in my own car. When I was finished, I fumbled the glove compartment with some difficulty and popped some chewing gum into my mouth with shaking hands.
I got back in the car and drove it to another location in our driveway, disgusted at my own weakness. I had seen far worse face to face actually, when I had still been the head of security at the Centre. When had I turned into a crazed-out mother hen whose first urge was to storm back into the house to check on her daughter?
She would be okay, I decided. Her father was with her. I got out of the car and looked down at myself. Wearing a white long-sleeve along with black sweat pants and ballerinas, I was not exactly a stunning sight.
I decided to head over immediately anyway, for fear of having to face Jarod again if I went back into the house and rubbed my upper arms against the sudden chill. The night was cold for mid-September and there was a bit of fog lingering between houses and obscuring the lake from view. It was a quiet night with no sounds and I suddenly felt as if I was being watched. As if something evil was lurking around, waiting to make its move on me. I paused, then quickened my steps towards the Hanson’s house. Despite all the horrors that awaited me there, it suddenly seemed like a safe harbor. There was a rustling in the bushes near me and I felt like breaking into a run when suddenly something brushed my ankle. I winced in terror and struggled to break free from some invisible restraint, lurched forward and landed on all fours, feeling the pain spread from my wrists to my elbows. The damp earth under my hands was cold and its smell, though usually comforting, hitting my nostrils suddenly reminded me of shallow graves. My breath was going raggedly and my lower arms were hurting too much to support me enough to get up right away.
I could hear the sound of breathing, but maybe it was just the rustling of trees and something brushed my back. Suddenly a sound broke through the silent night and Val’s car turned up to come to a screeching halt in front of me.
“Jesus! Are you trying to get yourself killed!”
She jumped out of her car, leaving the door open as she approached me. Was I hearing the distant rustling of leaves again? She gently pulled me to my knees and took a quick survey of me that faintly reminded me of long-forgotten days on a playground with my mother.
“You okay?” she asked, allowing herself only a faint hint of worry in her voice. This was official business which kept her from fussing over me. Actually, Val wouldn’t fuss over anyone in any situation, but this time it was especially clear that she needed to treat me like a colleague.
“I guess I’m fine.” I rubbed my hands together to get rid of the pieces of my lawn sticking to it.
“What was the matter?” she asked, but I suddenly felt foolish about my being scared.
“Nothing. I was just clumsy,” I said evasively. She was so focused on the task ahead, that she let my little lie slip without properly noticing it.
“Come on. Let’s go in then,” she touched my shoulder in a quick but reassuring gesture and led me towards the house while I looked down myself again and was relieved not to find my white shirt stained.
“You sure little one is fine?” Val asked, a note of clumsiness in her voice, that I found adorable. She seemed to believe that she couldn’t keep up our usual rough banter now that I was pregnant- I probably should set her straight about that soon.
“Don’t worry, Val. It’s just my arms.”
“Ask Jarod to check you out later,” Val ordered and I shuddered involuntarily. Jarod- not the best of topics right now.
I murmured something that I hoped sounded like approval to her and followed her inside. The house looked just as I remembered it from my last visit with colorful paintings and very modern furniture that had recently acquired an air of negligence with dust covering surfaces and minor objects scattered around as if they’d been dropped carelessly by their owner. The Medical Examiner, a tall bald man with kind brown eyes and a lanky body handed us gloves and shoe covers and pointed towards the bedroom.
“It’s not a pretty sight.” He eyed me with some interest as I looked nothing like I usually did and I suddenly felt awkward.
“Miss Parker came right over. I didn’t really leave her much time to change,” Val explained curtly. “Where’s Will?”
“At the scene. Please follow me.”
He stepped aside to allow us access first and I braced myself for what I had already glimpsed earlier. The bedroom was alight with every available lamp switched on. Like the rest of the house, it looked stylish and modern, but clothes covered the floor and an assortment of dirty cups sat on one of the bedside tables. Jeff lay sprawled across the bed, blood having soaked into the covers, his left arm at an odd angle. His eyes were half closed and I could see that the whites had turned red with blood. I had seen my share of murders and recognized instantly, that he had not only been stabbed, but strangled, too. What a brutal way to die. I resisted the urge to cling to the door frame and took my position next to Val. She and Will had been arguing in the past that she was allowed at crime scenes, but he wouldn’t have her interfere with police work since - truth be told - we weren’t qualified.
I was glad that I did not have to go about some gruesome task right now and folded my arms in front of my chest.
“I think we can rule out suicide,” Will said with a hint of that dark sarcasm that seemed to come with the job.
“Where’s Linda?”
“She’s in the kid’s room- We practically had to drag her out of here.”
“Did she call you?”
“No. It seems that he tried to call 911 but didn’t get the chance to say anything. A cruiser came by for a routine check and discovered them in here.”
“Did she do this?” Val asked, her gaze fastened at her brother.
“We don’t know. We haven’t found any signs of forced entry, yet so it might as well have been her.”
“What did she say?”
“She’s in shock. Not talking coherently. It will be a while until the psychologist gets here. I was hoping you could talk to her,” Will said, gesturing at me. I liked him so I had always been gentle towards him. Still, it had never crossed my mind that he might think I was a people person.
“Me?”
“She knows you. Maybe she’ll open up to you.”
I nodded quickly, actually relieved to get away from the stench of blood and walked down the hall towards Donald’s room.

Jarod

I was woken from a light sleep by the sound of the key in the lock and gazed at the alarm clock on the bedside table which told me that it was a few minutes past one. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and sleepily stumbled towards the door where Miss Parker appeared a moment later. I couldn’t prevent a shocked gasp from leaving my lips when I laid eyes on my wife. She was still wearing her white long-sleeved pullover with sweat-pants but she was holding her arms in a protective way now, trying to cover the stain on the front of her top. Snapping into doctor mode immediately, I approached her and pulled her arms away from her stomach to discover a blood-red hand print there. It was slightly smudged but still not quite dry and the smell of the blood hit my nostrils. Only when Parker groaned slightly, I realized that I was still holding her arms away from her body.
“What happened to you?” I asked, worried, our fight temporarily forgotten.
“Can I please change first?” she asked, her voice uncharacteristically subdued. Although I rather wanted her to explain her state to me right away, I stepped aside and allowed her access to her wardrobe. She quickly pulled the dirty garment over her head and grabbed her pyjama top from the shelves. I watched her naked body and stared at the slight swell of her stomach, realizing for the first time, that the bloody hand print was located exactly where the small bulge was. My protective instincts, though usually more of a nuisance around my independent and strong wife, kicked in right away and I approached her, pulling her into my arms.
“Are you okay?” I whispered into her fragrant hair. “Is our baby okay?”
She had stiffened at first but now relaxed in my arms, leaning into me. When I let go of her, I could see tears glistening in her eyes. I led her towards our bed that she hadn’t slept in since our last fight and pulled the covers over us, though I was still fully dressed. She still didn’t say anything but simply looked exhausted. She was trembling slightly, I realized.
When I tried to cover her stomach with my hand, she winced terribly and sat up again.
“I’m sorry,” she said, running her hands through her hair and staring at a point at the opposite wall. “This is not about you. It’s just...” She closed her eyes briefly. “It’s about Linda.”
“Linda?” I asked, completely at a loss. What did our neighbor have to do with it?
She started out shakily, then her voice grew stronger while she told me about how Val had called her over to the Hanson’s house, where Jeff had been killed brutally. She swallowed, before she told me exactly what had happened with Linda.

Miss Parker

“Linda?” I asked carefully, putting a lot of effort into trying to make my voice sound soft and calm although I was feeling neither. I could see Linda sitting on her son’s bed in the half-darkness. Someone had turned on the dolphin-shaped lamp on the bedside table that cast a pale glow over her face. Hadn’t I known it was her, I wouldn’t have recognized her. Her features looked distorted with grief and pain and something that should have initially warned me to go near her. Her eyes darted from me to the door and back when I slowly approached her.
“May I sit with you?” I asked, trying to make her look into my eyes but she simply shrugged in a very ragged, eery way. Not sure how to proceed, I tried to pull up a chair, but failed due to the pain in my arms. So I decided to sit on the edge of the bed instead.
It was then that Linda looked me in the eye for the first time and I was startled. Suddenly her clouded gaze had become clearer and I was able to recognize my neighbor in the mess of puffy skin, clinging strands of hair and smeared tears.
“You,” she said, and her voice sounded cold.
“Yes,” I replied, hoping for her weird behavior to simply be down to shock and not to something more sinister.
“You are coming to my house?” she growled in a voice that didn’t sound completely human anymore.
“Linda, I....” I tried, but she cut me off.
“How dare you when this is all your fault!” she hissed like an angry cat, then grabbed my wrist painfully, her split fingernails digging into my flesh.
“Linda, please! I don’t know what you’re...”
“You know damn well, Miss Parker. You killed my husband and you killed my son. It is all your fault.”
Looking down, I noticed that her hands were full of blood and I gasped in shock as she reached out and pressed her hand to my stomach. Panic began to kindle inside me like a fire that threatened to burn me. I felt the wetness of the blood on her hands through the thin fabric of my pullover and struggled to get away from her, but she was strong and I couldn’t use my arms without a sharp pain shooting through them.
“You could have found, Donald!” she accused me. “You could have found my son if you hadn’t been so focused on your damn self.”
Her hand remained in place and my struggling didn’t seem to help the fact that the pressure was increasing.
“Linda, you’re hurting me!” I told her, but at the same time was pretty sure that it was exactly what she was intending.
“You are a selfish bitch who needs to show anyone just how perfect her life is!” She hissed, then added in an eerily calm voice: “You don’t deserve to give birth to this little boy. You know it as well as I do, don’t you?” A mad smile had formed on her lips. “If I can help it, you will never hold him in your arms.”
“Leave me alone!” I increased my struggle, but she lurched at me, rising from her sitting position so quickly that I didn’t have time to react before I painfully came into contact with the carpet. All my training at the Centre didn’t help me now, as I was trying to get a madwoman off me with two useless arms and a mind that was clouded over with worry. So I screamed.
It took both Val and Will to pull Linda off me and I remained on the floor, trying to hide my face from their view since tears were threatening to spill.
“Skinny, get up.” Val helped me up and steadied me with an arm around my waist. “Did she hurt you?”
“I hope not.” She had meant to hurt my child but she hadn’t succeeded. Thank god.
“I’ll go over and get you home, Skinny.”
“No. Please let me work,” I pleaded with her.
“I don’t want you in the same house with Linda. She’s dangerous and you are hurt already.”

Jarod

“She assaulted you?” I gasped in disbelief. Linda and my wife had never been best friends, but that was the last thing I would have expected our neighbor to do to someone who had come to be by her side during a difficult time. Parker nodded and rested one hand on her forehead.
“Are you sure you are okay? You’re not in any pain right now?”
“No, no I’m not. My arms are a bit sore but as long as I don’t try to lift heavy objects or fight off attackers I will be fine.”
“I could drive you to hospital so they can check you out, have an ultrasound done...”
She looked quizzical for a moment, then settled back into the pillows.
“It’s okay. The baby is fine.”
“You sure?”
“Jarod!” She silenced me with a glare. “I told you it was fine. I would much rather like to sleep now.”
“Okay.” I sat on the edge of the bed for another moment before I went into the bathroom to change into my nightclothes. When I returned, she had curled up into a ball, the covers almost touching her nose. I slid into bed beside her and finally acknowledged how much I had missed her presence here. Sleep would come a lot easier now that I knew she was beside me, I thought. But not before I had gotten something off my chest.
“Parker?” I rested my hand on her side and she blinked, shaking her head slightly. I hated to wake her up, but I needed to get this done.
“I’m so sorry about what I said earlier,” I finally managed to choke out and instantly felt better although I was still afraid of her reaction. “I should be more patient. I know you are doing what you can and I will always love you. I even loved you when you were chasing me at the Centre. I know you hated me, but...”
“I didn’t hate you,” she said softly, but didn’t elaborate further. She opened her arms for me and I pulled her into me, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Buried in her familiar scent, I fell asleep.

Miss Parker

As I watched my husband sleep, I remembered the one occasion that I had been forced to admit to myself, if only for a moment, that I loved him. Even when I had never gotten tired of telling anyone who would listen just how much I despised him, I had known that I didn’t.
Truth was, one night Jarod had been careless. He had stayed in a hotel room near Blue Cove and I had incidentally been still at the office when the call had come in.
Holstering my gun, I had sped off to the destination immediately and after pausing briefly in front of the motel room door to listen to the sound of cartoons playing inside, I had crept in, intent on having the moment of surprise on my side.
Once inside, I had found myself faced with Jarod’s sleeping form on the bed next to the playing TV. He had been curled on his side, much as I was right now, and his eyes had been closed. It had been obvious that he wasn’t merely dozing but fast asleep, snoring very slightly.
I had been frozen at the door, gun in hand, my eyes on him. He had looked peaceful, wearing only a t-shirt and boxers, a sock still on the one foot that peeked out from under the covers. The remote control had slipped from his hand and lay on the bed next to him, accompanied by the obligatory PEZ- dispenser.
I had stared at him then, the ruffled hair, the innocent look of sleep on his face and had slowly lowered the gun, then secured it and put it back into the waistband of my skirt. I had approached him without making a single sound - an ability that every predator should possess, and leaned over him, inhaling his scent.
He had smelt fresh, a bit like washing powder but with a sweeter note. I had found that strange at the time since I would have appointed a much more masculine scent to him. Still, it was oddly fitting with his youthful innocence that his imprisonment at the Centre had caused. I had had handcuffs in my pocket. All it had taken for me was to tackle him, cuff him and draw my gun again. Overpowering him in his sleep would have bought me the freedom I was aching for. But it would have also meant that I would have to sacrifice his in a more than unfair battle.
Instead of cuffing him, I had very faintly pressed my lips to his warm temple and enjoyed the sensation of his skin, then tiptoed back out.
“I’ll get you next time.” I had told him in a whisper, but I had known even then that I wouldn’t. Even then I had loved him so deeply that it hurt. I had just never told anyone. Him telling me how cruel I had been and how impossible I still was, hurt me more than I would have ever been able to admit, but being here in his arms made it all up.
I turned away from him and adjusted his arms around my middle so they were resting over our child. Linda had scared the hell out of me. She knew something, seemed to be aware of my innermost fears and I could not tell why. Who would have told her? Who could know me that well?
But she didn’t know that her son visited me every night in my sleep and I knew that from the moment I’d close my eyes, I would feel his presence staring down at me from the side of the bed, silently beckoning me to come and find him, but not telling me how in the world I was supposed to do that.


TBC










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