Helpless
(Chapter Seven: Facing the Fear)
Olivia sat with her ankles crossed neatly. Her black dress looked so elegant for a funeral and each strand of her hair tucked perfectly into place. She didn't speak or make a sound during the service. But Elliot watched her closely as tears streamed from under her dark sunglasses and her body trembled occasionally, overflowing with emotion. He knew she had to have been in immense pain, a pain he himself could only imagine.
Elliot had lost people close to him in his life. He had experienced death. But Kate was her best friend. Kate, was her Olivia. Elliot could not even begin to think of how deeply he would be hurt if her ever lost her. How much pain he would be in if he ever found himself sitting in a cold metal folding chair at Olivia's funeral. That pain, he knew, would be so great that he wondered if he would even survive it. The only thing that could possibly be as bad or worse than losing Olivia, would be experiencing the loss of one of his children. Neither an experience he ever wanted to face.
She drew a staggered breath and though he could not actually see her eyes through her sunglasses, he could tell she stared straight ahead. Elliot felt horrible for her. He had no idea what to do or say to ease her pain. So he said nothing. Instead he reached over and slipped his hand into hers, lacing their fingers tightly together and squeezed it gently.
Olivia raised her head a little and tipped it in his direction. He could feel her eyes staring into his, but he couldn't see them. He longed to hold her tight in his arms and promise her that everything was going to be alright. But the truth was, he wasn't so sure it was. It didn't appear as if anything had changed in the little bit of time since they had left this town. Newspapers still ran stories of the horrible crime, leading with headlines about police having no clue who committed. Worse was the fact that their local Sheriff's Department still considered Olivia a suspect to the crime.
When the service had finished, Elliot walked beside Olivia as she laid roses on the tops of each of the caskets. They turned and with out a word walked toward the car. Just as Elliot reached to open the door for her he heard a familiar voice behind them.
"Excuse me folks," the man called to them.
Elliot turned around first as Olivia raised her glasses to rest atop her head and looked over her shoulder.
"Great," Elliot mumbled.
"Ahh, I thought I recognized the two of you. I'm gonna need you to come with me," the sheriff said pulling the car keys from Elliot's hand and tossing them to his deputy. He sheriff escorted the two of them to his squad car and opened the door to the back seat. "You're not armed are you?"
"No," Elliot replied. "My off duty weapon and our badges are in the glove compartment of the car."
The sheriff nodded and motioned for them to get into the back seat of his car.
"You aren't seriously going to arrest us?" Olivia asked.
"Ma'am, please just get into the car and don't give me any trouble."
Olivia stood stubborn for a moment in disbelief, then gave in and climbed into the car.
"Sir?" The sheriff said looking at Elliot.
"This is ridiculous. We have not done anything wrong."
The sheriff closed the car door and they watched from the back seat as the deputy pulled away in Olivia's car.
"He's just going to take it back to the station. I trust it isn't stolen?"
"No, it's my car," Olivia scoffed.
"Why exactly are you taking us in?" Elliot asked. "You have not even read us our rights."
"Oh, well you are not under arrest. Not yet anyway. I just have a few questions for you folks. We can start with why exactly the two of you are here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Elliot asked. "We were friends of the family. We were there to pay our last respects."
"Even after you were told to stay away?"
They both ignored the question.
"Do you have any leads in the case sheriff?" Olivia asked.
"Now ma'am, you know I couldn't share that information with you."
"So you don't. You could tell me if you did. You just cannot give me details or tell me who it is."
Before long the sheriff had driven past the turn off to town.
"Where are you taking us?" Elliot asked.
"I need a little help understanding exactly what went on that night," he replied pulling into the driveway of the large house that still held the horror of that night.
Olivia stared out the window as the sheriff opened the door to let them out of the car.
"I want the two of you to walk through with me and explain to me how the events took place."
"I don't think I can go back in there," Olivia said quietly.
"Everything has been cleaned up. It would really help our investigation."
"I don't think so," Elliot said putting his hand on Olivia's shoulder and turning her into his chest. "You accuse her of having something to do with the murders and now you want us to walk through where those people died and do your work for you? Arrest us if you are going to, otherwise leave us the hell alone."
"They have dropped the charges against her. It was all a mistake and we know that. But at the time we had no evidence to prove otherwise. Since that night we have had stolen items appear in pawn shops in the area. We believe these men were local. Or from somewhere not too far from here. We are still unsure as to what their motive may have been. But we're looking into some business transactions that Kate's father was involved in over the last few years. It seems he was involved in some business deals that may have gone bad. Actually, he was being investigated for skimming about five hundred thousand dollars from the company. That was last year alone."
"So it could have been some kind of inside job?"
"We don't know just yet. But it really would help a lot if the two of you could do this for me."
Elliot looked at Olivia, who appeared almost in shock again. She stood quietly and didn't speak a word.
"Why don't you wait here and I will walk him through the house? Then we can head back and pick up the car and go back home."
Olivia just stared at him. Elliot walked around to the door with the sheriff as Olivia watched them walk up onto the porch. She wasn't so sure about going back into the house again, but she wasn't exactly comfortable standing alone out here waiting for them either.
"Elliot, wait." She walked up the steps as Elliot held the screen door for her.
The house was cold and the smell of blood was thick in the air. Elliot reached for Olivia's hand and held it tight as they entered through the kitchen. They walked around the counter and Olivia stared down at the blood stained tile where Kate's body had been found nearly a week earlier. The tape they had used to mark around the body was still on the floor and Olivia felt the tears rising in her eyes.
"Come on. Let, go upstairs. So we can get this over with," Elliot said leading her onward.
They climbed the stairs and stood in the hallway.
"I slept in this room and she had the room at the end of the hall," Elliot began. "I fell asleep laying across the top of the bed watching television. I woke up several hours later when I heard a struggle downstairs. I walked quietly down the hall and down the staircase until I," Elliot paused a moment to look into Olivia's eyes. "I saw them kill Max. Kate's mother was already dead and they were beating on her father. I turned and came back upstairs to get to Olivia."
He walked down the hall toward the room where Olivia had slept.
"She was asleep in this chair when I came in. I was afraid she would scream and I could hear them coming up the steps. I grabbed her and put my hand over her mouth and dragged her into the closet to hide. The men, at least two of them came upstairs and were moving around. They came in here and looked around. One man opened the closet and turned the light on, I am not sure how he didn't see us. When they had gone back downstairs, we crawled out and tried to get to the phone. But they must have cut the line outside, there was no dial tone. They came back upstairs and we hid under the bed. This time they had Kate's father with them. They trashed the closed and made him open the safe for them. Then they shot him. He fell there on the carpet and died. We hid under the bed for what seemed like hours while they cleaned out the safe. After a while I heard their car start and we climbed out and went downstairs. We went out through the kitchen and we found Kate's body there. Olivia knelt beside her to check for a pulse."
"That was when you got her blood on you?" The sheriff asked.
"She was still warm," Olivia said softly.
They walked back down the staircase and out into the drive way.
"We got about here when they pulled back into the drive way. I hid behind that small shed and she was on the side of the house. They had realized when they looked in Olivia's wallet that she was not the woman they had killed and come back for her. They were talking about it when they went back in the house to look for her. When they did, Olivia went over to their truck to see if she could find a cell phone or their keys, but there was nothing. Then we saw a light down that hill in the dark. We climbed over the fence and went down the hill. We walked across the field and I broke into that office to try and call for help."
"Have you ever seen either of these men before that night?"
"No."
They both looked at Olivia who shook her head.
"No, I haven't. And I have not seen them since."
"Well," the sheriff said opening the door to his car, "I appreciate all of the help. We are hoping to piece this all together soon and find the men responsible."
The sheriff drove them back into town and released them. By this time it was so late in the evening that Elliot and Olivia decided to spend the night there and leave out early the next morning.
