Nightfall

t h i r t y - s i x

'Dean Jackson's lawyer releases public statement'

Reading the mere headline was all it took for the girl's heart to start thumping like a jackhammer. She had to look away, her fleeting gaze landing on a spot near her feet.

It had been three whole days since Dean was arrested. The Feds did a lengthy press conference the day before, detailing the probable cause. If there was a dwindling ounce of hope left in Tahlia, it too was annihilated the second Agent Gallagher's words left his mouth.

Lo and behold, Dean Jackson is the only known child of Moira Jackson, The Westfield Ripper's second known victim.

When Dean once told her he lost his parents when he was young; turns out his words weren't completely untruthful. His father did pass away from leukemia when he was barely a year old. Unable to pay the bills with her odd jobs, Moira had to turn to sex work, leaving Dean with his grandmother. Gallagher and his team speculated his resentment for his absent mother ultimately drove him to work with her very killer.

However, the bona fide incriminating piece of evidence turned out to be the security cameras that recorded Dean frequenting Professor Turner's apartment for about two years now, including the very morning of her murder. Multiple witnesses confirmed seeing him suspiciously hang around the place for years.

As Tahlia continued to dejectedly stare off into the empty space, she had no tears left to spare. First Turner, then Dean. Was everything in her life a cleverly planted ruse?

The more she thought about it, the more she had to admit that it would make sense for Logan to have an accomplice be that close to her to keep tabs. She should have known; after all, what boy would find unspecial Natalia Faith Meyers and her repulsive scars beautiful? It all made perfect fucking sense.

A diminishing part of her brain, yet, couldn't help but wonder what Dean so desperately wanted to talk to her about that night. Judging by the things he was saying, she could only presume he wanted to explain why he shut her out after her ordeal. She blinked, a crease forming in her forehead.

If Dean was indeed Moira Jackson's son, it would seem perfectly reasonable why finding out about Tahlia's connection to the case would be jarring to him. She couldn't begin imagine what that must have felt like.

But then what the hell was he doing with Turner?

She reached for her phone, opening the link to the news clip. It took her to a video, one where a balding brown-skinned man in a crisp charcoal suit stood surrounded by teeming hoards of press. 

"....The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Westfield Police Department are incredulously attempting to pin this on my client, considering there hasn't been a known substantial breakthrough in the case for months. And thus, wasting the taxpayers' money and time by charging him purely based on circumstancial evidence..."

Carefully and with all of her undivided attention, Tahlia intently watched the attorney continue,

"...Mr. Jackson admits to the possession of drugs with the intent of distributing it, which is why he met with Ms. Lauren Turner for 18 months, providing her with prescription sleeping pills. According to him she was the one to contact him first and denies any knowledge of Ms. Turner beyond that.
We will have a date for arraignment soon, where my client will plead not guilty..."

Tahlia shut the video off, tossing the phone heedlessly to the bedside. Involuntarily, she found herself gritting her teeth as she mulled all of this information over. Her right foot restlessly tapped against the cold floor as she sat there in complete silence.