Take To The Grave (complete)

Chapter 8 Normal. For a moment

My morning actually started off quite normal. I got up, had a shower, got dressed, brushed my hair, had toast for breakfast, brushed my teeth. I also made myself a cup of tea before fetching my camera. I uploaded the pictures I had taken of... err... from the last couple of days. I put them on to one of my many memory sticks. Call me weird but I collect memory sticks. I have a half a drawer full. They were cheap and held limited information but they were good for storing pictures that were destroyed at the end of the mission. My only expensive memory stick was the necklace that all Kyle's pictures were on. Oh god. I ran upstairs and got the necklace. I hadn't been wearing it for a couple of days. It had been like a weight lifted from my shoulders and yet at the back of my mind was worry that it wasn't were it usually was. Around my neck. I put it on and felt it weighing me down. But it felt so right to have it back in place. I could remember every picture. Every smile. Every place we were at. I hadn't looked at the photos in over ten years. I decided to face my fear and look at them even if it was for the last time. I had to face the facts. Kyle wasn't coming back. No matter how much I wanted him to. No matter how long I had wanted it for. He wasn't. I needed to come to terms with that fact so I could move on with my life. I took off the necklace and pulled off the 'gem' side and inserted the memory stick into my laptop and scrolled though the pictures of us.

We were happy together. There were pictures from when we just moved in and there were boxes around us. We were sitting on the old couch that was given to us. After buying the house out right, from the money Kyle had been left, we had no money to buy anything so we had Kyle's parent's old sofa. It was old and covered with dog hair and the springs were breaking so we went out and brought an old throw and covered the sofa with it. In the picture we were snuggled up together with our feet on boxes. There was only the stuff from our dorm rooms so there wasn't a lot but, because there was nothing in the way of furniture, we had to borrow money to buy a bed as soon as possible. That night we ate pot noodles and slept on the sofa covered by only a thin blanket. I smiled at the memories. I looked through the other pictures. Gradually we decorated the house. We brought more furniture. We went on days out. In each picture I looked bigger as I came closer to giving birth to Lyle. Then there pictures of me in the hospital. Ones of me holding Lyle. There was even one of Kyle crying while holding Lyle. Then they turned into pictures of Lyle, Kyle and I together, on days out, even Lyle's first steps. Then the photos got older and I regained my normal figure and Lyle grew older. The pictures then came to Kyle's accident. I had felt like skipping them but I forced myself to look at them. I looked at them. Some where of the crowd. Then I saw a face I knew.

I enlarged the face. My normal morning ended. It was Dean Jacobs and his son. He had marks on his shoulder from, what looked like, where a seat belt had bruised his skin. He had lied. And I had proof. Although it was ten years ago it was still proof. How could the police have missed this? Jacobs was holding his son's hand at the wreckage while watching Kyle being stretchered out and the police searching the crowd. The young Dan looked like he had been in the accident too. He had scratches on his face and his hair was a mess. The disturbing thing was that he was smiling. Dean looked apologetic, as if he didn't want to do this but had too, but his six-year-old son looked...happy. Almost enjoying and taking in each detail of the scene. It was so creepy that a boy of that age was acting like this. No wonder he was so messed up. He must have been seriously injured in the accident. I needed to find out more.

To: thedragonfly@gmail.com
From: lauramason@gmail.com
Subject: I need another favour

I need to know the Jacobs family medical records from 10 years ago. £150 if you find nothing and ask no questions. £300 if you find something I like.

I sent this and was just about to go back to studying the photos when I received my reply, which was simply and to the point. Just the way I liked them. Just the way 'dragon fly' liked them.