The Lengths Of Love (ON HOLD)

Chapter 12

It's been four days since my life was flipped upside down for the third time in a decade.

I've been trying not to think about Austin, so I tried all sorts of things so my mind wouldn't drift to him, mostly looking through my journal. Thankfully, Jackie managed to convince Melanie to allow me into the kitchen today as long as I had supervision. Hopefully remaking my mom's dishes will make me feel better as it did when I was young.

Since I didn't know if I would be allowed to go to the kitchen, I've been taking another look at my mom's case. The last time my sister was here, over a week ago in the hospital, she told me she tracked down a few of our parent's old classmates. She's just as dedicated as I am to solving our mom's murder and it shows with all the effort she puts forward.

It turns out, Jakob Tuller, the man I believed was stalking our mom had a really big crush on our mom back in high school. Apparently, he went as far as going to her house and refusing to leave until she went out to talk to him. Needless to say, the cops were called and our grandparents threatened to have a restraining order put against him.

I don't know why she didn't go through with it, but I guess she no longer felt it was necessary.

Also, according to some old classmates, he was very angry when he found out our parents were dating. I could only imagine how mad he was when they got married. No one is sure exactly what happened but he disappeared after graduating senior year. Only to show back up 15 years later.

If he was so obsessed with our mom, then why didn't he kill our dad, if he was the one who killed our mom? Wouldn't he want our dad out of the picture so he could finally have his chance with our mom? I guess he could have snapped and killed her out of built up anger for being with our dad instead of him.

If there's one thing I learned from watching crime shows, real and fiction, it's that when someone does something horrible, there isn't always a clear reason why or there may not be a reason, a real one at least. If you allow yourself to replay everything over and over in your head, the why's and what if's, you'll drive yourself insane. At least that's what I read in some book about survivors of trauma, specifically one for people who have family members who have been murdered.

I may have written him off as a suspect too quickly. I cannot allow myself to have tunnel vision like the cops who took over my mom's case. If I do, Uncle Brian may stay in jail for a crime he didn't commit for the rest of his natural life.

Officer's Nunez and Cosgrove were never really involved in my mom's case after they made that one visit to my house the morning I found my mom's body. That didn't mean I never heard from them ever again. They made attempts to get into contact with me and see how the case is going, but their attempts were futile. Shortly after their first visit to my house, they were transferred to new jobs out of state. I never found out why and I haven't heard from them since.

Everyone needs to remain a suspect until I can definitively rule them out.

Flipping through my notes, I heard a knock at the door.

"Is it time to go to the kitchen yet?" I asked, believing it was Jackie.

"What?"

I looked up to see Seraphina, who I haven't seen in a while. "Oh, hey. Sorry, I thought you were Nurse Jackie. She convinced Melanie to allow me in the kitchen today."

"Oh. That sounds good," she said. "I just wanted to stop by since I haven't been here in a while. My sister has been sending me on all these stupid, pointless errands."

If only you knew she wasn't your real sister. "It's okay. You're here now."

"That's right. I even brought a few things." She walked back into the hallway, before carrying in a medium-sized cardboard box. "Ta da."