Chapter 3
"It was all my fault, of course."
Mrs. Spider looked even smaller in the interview room than she had at the hospital. She had refused a lawyer, accepted a cup of coffee, and was now sat staring into it.
"But you weren't there, when Mike was killed."
"Of Course not." She snapped, lifting her head to gaze at him with exhausted eyes that were the same color as Jess, but faded as though they had been left in the sun for two long. "But if I'd have been stronger, If I'd have had the courage to leave Bill sooner," she swallowed. "Maybe they'd both still be alive...
Green Fields of France Eric Bogle
She sees the study light as she was heading upstairs. She knows that her husband, soon to be her ex-husband, mind you, is out; there is only one person who it could be.
The door opens silently.
"Don't you think," She asks the outline at the door, "that you've had enough?"
"No." The misery and the pain in that one syllable actually hurts her. She nods stiffly.
"I saw Sarah earlier." The words are out before she can stop them, but she has to know. To be sure what she is doing is right.
"So?"
"Care to explain how she got that black eye?"
The outline stands up. Charlie is taller than his brother, with her features, like Jess. But Jess has her eyes, the bluey green stars that speak of their Scottish ancestry. Charlie's eyes are ice blue, like her husband's.
At that moment, as he towers over her, the similarities have never been clearer.
"What are you saying?"
A life time under those blue eyes starts her backing up, trying to get away. But a mother's love makes her stay.
"I'm trying to help you, Charlie. Please," she adds, as he heads for the whiskey bottle. "You're hurting everyone, including yourself. You're becoming just like..."
the eyes that fix on her are dangerous, and her heart flees to her mouth, stopping her from saying anymore.
"Say it!" the voice snarls, so close to his father's that she is forced to obey.
"Just like your father."
A life time of dodging blows means that the glass misses her head by inches. She can't help it. She flees from her own son.
"But Charlie and Sarah had broken up." Kat said, confused.
Mrs. Spider nodded. "Nearly two weeks before we had that conversation." She shook her head. "I should have realized it, but Charlie was acting so strange." She lifted her eyes to look at the Detectives. "My husband beat me every night of our marriage, ever since he got back from Korea. I thought... I thought that history was repeating it's self."
She wiped the tears from her eyes. "I was a fool."
"You think that Mike was violent towards Sarah?" Vera asked, uncertainly.
Mrs. Spider nodded. "And they killed him for it."
"Who?"
Mrs. Spider's expression had changed. "You're the detective!" she said, vigorously. "You figure it out."
Jess was sitting on a bench in the park. A scruffy black and white mongrel ran towards her, a ball clasped in his mouth.
She looked at as Lily and Scotty approached.
"I've been waiting for you."
Scotty nodded. "We spoke to Roxanne." He said softly. "She said you had something to tell us."
Jess nodded.
"Children are strange creatures aren't they?" she said, throwing the ball again. "When they see something that scares them, they'll keep quiet about it, no matter what."
Scotty nodded.
"You saw something?"
Jess shook her head.
"Heard something."
Carolina in my mind James Taylor
She has to find that knife. Matt might claim that he didn't care, but if she loses Charlie's knife after the fight she'd had to keep it...
Mike and Doug's room is just across from hers and Roxanne's, next door to Matt's.
The boys are out at the swimming hole, and the girls are on a hike. Each thinks she is with the others, so if she's careful, she can find the knife, and join up with the girls as they get back, and no one will know she's gone.
Carefully she kneels down beside the white over cover of the bedspread and lifted sheet. On her hands and knees, she crawls under.
Nothing! Only dust and the carpet. But she is so sure that Mike has it. She is about to pull herself out, when she hears the door open.
"...Need to talk about last night." Doug's voice. And Sarah's answering. The girls must have got back earlier.
"I'm sorry Doug, but I can't talk about it now."
"But Sarah! Oh, Hi Mike."
Pleasantries were exchanged. Jess isn't sure why, but something has changed in the room, like when her father came home from the pub. She doesn't know the name for the feeling, but she shuffles back further under the bed, and fights to stop the shivering, as she hears the door close and Doug leave.
"Where were you last night?" Mike's voice; harsh and demanding and painful.
"I told you I went for a bathe."
"That's all?"
"No." She can hear her mother in Sarah's voice, one whose given up, who isn't' even trying to fight anymore. "Doug was there too."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Her father would have yelled, but Mike sounds so reasonable that in a way it's worse.
"I guess I thought you might be...angry."
"Why should I be angry?" Mike's voice asks. "You're just friends." It is an order rather than a suggestion.
"Of course." Jess can hear the panic in Sarah's voice.
"You like me more than him, don't you?"
"Yes, of course."
"100%?"
She can't see Sarah, but she knew she would be nodding.
"So much for Mike being O.K. with it." Scotty muttered. Jess nodded.
"I doubt he even knew."
TBC