The Pain of Silence

Chapter 6

Back at the Hardy residence Fenton and Laura were enjoying dinner.

"Laura, this is delicious!" Fenton commented.

"I forgot the boys were going out tonight. I made the lasagna for all of us."

"I'm sure they'll be having some leftovers tomorrow, hon. They never pass up your lasagna." Fenton smiled. "Plus, it's a nice quiet evening. We can relax and watch some television together or go for a stroll?"

"I like the idea of us relaxing and watching some television. I'll make some brownies for dessert later. As a little welcome home after your last case."

"I'd like that. Then again, in the morning they'll be gone." They both laughed knowing when their boys came home they'd devour them.

"Fine, maybe I'll make two pans."

Knock knock

"I wonder who that could be?" Fenton stood up and walked over to the front door. He peered through the window. "Hon, you may want to come to the door!"

Seconds later, Laura came into the room. "Who is it?"

Fenton opened the front door and there stood Morgan Tyler.

"Oh my gosh!" Laura caught her friend in a hug. "Where on earth have you been?" Laura let go of Morgan and Fenton took a turn giving her a hug.

"It's great to see you both! It's a very long story, Laura. May I come in for a little bit?"

"I'll take your jacket," Fenton offered and she took it off.

"Thanks Fenton."

Laura ushered Morgan into the dining room. "We're having some lasagna. Would you care for a plate?"

Morgan sat down. "I would love some. Thank you for offering. I'm not interrupting you two, am I?" Morgan nervously asked, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't want to intrude…"

"Of course not! Fenton and I were just enjoying some quiet time. The boys are out with their girlfriends and friends tonight," Laura informed her as she got a plate and scooped a hefty portion of lasagna onto it. "Would you care for some bread? What would you like to drink?"

"Laura, you don't need to do that!"

"Just stay where you are. Eat up!"

"Okay. I'd love some bread and I'll have a glass of milk if you have any. If not I'll take something else." Morgan looked over at Fenton. "So, how's work been for you, Fenton? I noticed online you've solved many cases and put a lot of criminals in jail. Your family must be very proud!"

"It's been good. A lot of tough cases out there. I recently assisted with a kidnapping and a theft. Both were solved in a matter of days. My boys are starting to take after me. They've even solved a few cases and helped folks out. Frank's going to school majoring in Criminal Justice," Fenton proudly announced as Laura brought in a glass of milk and some bread.

"That's how Joe met his girlfriend Vanessa. When she moved into town the boys helped her out and Joe fell in love with her. She's a sweetheart" Laura added.

"That's amazing. You two are so lucky!" Morgan took a bite of her lasagna. "Laura, this is marvelous! The best lasagna I've ever had!"

"So, what brings you back to Bayport? We were worried when we found out you moved. It's been what? Two years or so?" Fenton asked.

Laura could see her friend's happiness slowly fade from her face. "Morgan, is something wrong?"

"Fenton, I do have an answer for you and yes, something is wrong. That's why I am here."

"Is Brooke okay? Or Scott?" Fenton asked.

Morgan sighed and then cringed at her husband's name. "Two years ago my husband decided it was time to move. He was offered a construction job for a company down south so he took it. When he told me about the offer I thought it was a good opportunity for him. At the time I had been laid off at work so we had to go where the money was." She paused for a moment and took a sip of her drink. "Well, two days before we moved we had a small incident where we were arguing and there was some pushing and shoving involved and I got hurt. I tripped and cut the side of my face and blackened my eye."

Laura gasped. "He did that to you?!"

Morgan nodded. "Yes. He told me he was sorry and that it was a mistake. He asked me not to show anyone, practically begging me in fear of getting him in trouble. So, I didn't. He had never done that before so I believed him.

"It turned out all that time, even after we moved, he'd been taking his anger out on someone else." Morgan wiped away a tear that trickled down her cheek. "It was Brooke."

Laura stood up and walked over to her friend, pulling a chair next to her. She placed a comforting hand on Morgan's arm. "Is Brooke all right?"

"Yes, she is. I found out from this." Morgan stood up and walked over to get something from her jacket and brought over a small journal. "It's her diary. In it, she explains all the times her father hit her and threatened her. When we moved, he turned into a total monster." She gave the diary to Fenton so he could take a look at it and sat back down. "She knows I have it and knows we have to go to the authorities. Please keep this information to yourselves."

"We won't tell a soul. Where is Scott?" Fenton asked as he thumbed through the diary.

"Probably looking for us," she said sadly. "We tried to leave over a month ago before we came here and he found us. We just stayed somewhere nearby because Brooke was upset and said she was going to leave town on her own. I couldn't let her do that! So, when he found us he asked us to come back home. He pretended to care and Brooke pulled me aside saying we should go or else he would hurt us both. She was really scared."

"Let me guess. When you returned, he hurt Brooke? Or you?" Fenton speculated.

Laura rubbed Morgan's back as she continued. "He argued with me about taking his daughter away from him and he slapped and shoved me. That's when Brooke came in and fought with him. She was trying to save me, when all this time she was the one keeping everything from me. I feel like I failed her."

"Oh honey, you didn't fail her! You're here now. That's what matters. We'll keep you safe." Laura gave her shoulders a squeeze.

"Thanks Laura. That means a lot."

"I don't mean to pry, but what happened the night you two fought and Brooke came in to help?" Fenton asked her. Knowing this would eventually be going to the police, he wanted to make sure he had the story right.

Morgan cried harder now. "They went into the living room continuing to argue, then he pushed her and she fell." She paused to control her tears. "She fell into a glass coffee table and it shattered. It cut her arm," she pointed to her elbow all the way to her wrist. "My baby almost died because of him! She's fine now, but the doctors said if she had been much later than she was getting to the hospital, she probably wouldn't have made it because of the blood loss. There were cuts in other places too, from the glass. It was so terrifying."

Laura felt tears form in her own eyes. "I am so sorry. What happened to Scott after that? He wasn't arrested?"

"The problem was that he said she tripped when they were arguing. I had been just seconds behind in the other room trying to calm down from our argument and walked in when I heard the table shatter. I was only able to tell them about what I heard. So basically no one's stories matched."

"What about Brooke's story?"

Morgan frowned. "That's where things fell apart. She was hospitalized for a few days and when she gave her statement, she said there had been an argument but she'd tripped on her own."

"Why would she say that?" Laura asked.

"He threatened her when she woke up. I didn't know of the threat until just last week when I found her diary. It had fallen in her laundry basket and was open and yes, it was honestly open. It was near the bottom under some clothes, so it must have fallen off her desk."

Fenton looked in the diary towards the end, looking for the possible entry. "She wrote that he threatened to kill you?" He was shocked that Scott turned out to be such a madman. He wasn't good friends with the man, but from the few times they'd run into each other he seemed to be fine.

"I told her I found her journal and mentioned I saw something about her getting hurt by Scott and she just broke down crying. Thankfully he was at work and that's when we planned to leave. She didn't go to college like she wanted. Instead she had gotten a job waiting tables at a nice restaurant to save money. She had planned on leaving one day with me. I had a job and thankfully had my own bank account as well and was able to save some money. So, we closed our accounts out and opened new ones here in Bayport. We're moving back home," she announced.

"Okay, I think we should head straight to the authorities with this information, Morgan. That way they can search for Scott before he finds you." Fenton stated. "I just want to make sure that I have this straight. Brooke was the only one harmed this entire time? You weren't? With the exception of when you moved he hit you that once?"

"Right."

"Okay. Where are you staying? Just so we know where to find you if we have to. I don't want to stress you out tonight, so I'll get things started for you."

"The Comfort Inn. I'll give you our cell phone numbers before I leave and the room number. You have no idea how much this means to me. To us," she corrected herself.

"Where's Brooke right now? At the hotel? Laura asked.

A smile crept back onto Morgan's face. "She's with some friends tonight. I'm picking her up later. We ran into Tony Prito at the mall. If there is one person that girl missed the most, it was Tony. She was so upset when we moved. She didn't have many friends after that. She told me it was because she always intended on [leaving and coming back here."

"I'm glad to hear she's with him. Frank, Joe and their girlfriends are with Tony tonight. She's in good hands."

"May I ask one more question?" Fenton glanced up from the diary. "Why didn't you go to the authorities before coming here? That would have saved you the worry about making sure he was behind bars before you moved."

"I knew that was coming." Morgan sighed again. "Well, I wanted to talk to someone I could trust. He's friends with some people in law enforcement and I couldn't be a hundred percent sure if I could trust them. I didn't want him finding out and hurting Brooke again. In fact, she wanted to leave and then tell the authorities. Just so we were both out of harm's way."

"How long have these problems been going on?" Fenton asked, and then thought to look in the beginning of the diary. He saw the first page started well over a year ago.

"When she finally told me about everything, she told me he started hitting her over three years ago. It started out very small and then escalated. She said it was just before we moved that things started getting bad. Look at these." Morgan reached into her purse and handed Fenton some photographs. "She took a couple pictures of things that happened to her when I wasn't around. Some are bruises and some are scrapes. I took photos of her when she ended up in the hospital. She was sleeping. I showed them to her a few days ago, for when we went to the police."

Laura covered her mouth in shock. "Oh my gosh!" They were looking at some graphic photographs of dark bruises along Brooke's arms and legs. Then came the photo of Brooke's arm that was cut open from the glass. There were stitches going about eight inches down her arm. "Poor Brooke! Maybe we should have you stay with us, Morgan. Or someone we know! In case that man comes looking for you!"

"I agree," Fenton said. "We need to think of somewhere he won't think to look. Let me check around. I bet he'll check all the hotels around here if he suspects you came back, which is a likely possibility. I want to get you two to safety, immediately." He turned to Laura. "Honey, I am going to take this information to the police in a little bit. I'm going to get some more information from Morgan so we can work on this."

"Good! I don't get why Scott would have done this. This is so awful!" Laura exclaimed.

"I don't know what happened to him. Everything was great and then it went downhill so fast. He started drinking a few years ago. I don't know…"

"Why don't you two go ahead and eat? I'll be right back." Fenton excused himself and departed to his office.

"Eat up, Morgan. If it's cold I'll heat it up," Laura said and settled back to finish her dinner, even though her appetite had disappeared. She wondered if Scott knew where Brooke and Morgan were or if they were safe for now…

Scott Tyler sat in front of the computer, tapping his fingers impatiently. He was growing annoyed as he looked through the last few days of history that were still stored in the files. His wife had forgotten to erase them. He hoped the answer to his wife and daughter's disappearance would be in there somewhere.

Shortly after, he had his answer. He found information on the town of Bayport and his wife's friends from when they lived there. That must be where they're headed!

He knew he had to put a stop to them both before they landed him in jail.

He stood up, and grabbed his jacket and the keys to his truck.

A couple of minutes later he was in the truck, starting the engine. Before he backed out of the driveway, he opened the glove compartment, checking to make sure his gun was still inside.

He was going to have to bring them back, or silence them once and for all.