This Can't Be Love

Chapter 20: Stalemate

Detective Jenkins is covering his mouth and nose with a handkerchief. His face expresses disgust and sorrow, while Fuller stands next to him with a similar look making a phone call. They are staring at Cliff's dead body.

"What are you doing, Fuller?"

"Calling Bethany Lawrence."

"Good. Good..."

"But... She's not answering. I guess I'll just tell the boys in HQ to come see this."

"Call HQ? What are you nuts?!"

"Nuts, Jenk? Take a good look, this is a crime scene! This investigation aint just a hunch any more, we have a full blown case here!"

"Put that phone away, jackass. What are you gonna tell them? How did we in here? Under what authority? With no search warrant! Think about it! What we are doing is just as illegal as whatever happened to this man down here. We're better off just taking care of it ourselves!"

"Okay then, what? What do we do about it, Jenkins? Huh? How do we 'take care of it'?"

"I'm not sure... But we're operating outside of the law already so we should probably keep it that way if we wanna avoid some serious jail time. If we could only find a way to get all this 'accidentally' exposed..."

Jenkins shakes his head and continues to look at the dead body strapped to the chair. Fuller kicks the ground in frustration.

There is an icy downpour outside onto the fallen leaves. The frozen rain, like small shards of glass, shattering upon hitting the pavement. Bethany's car pulls up and parks in front of Aaron's house. She opens the door of her car and extends an umbrella as she steps out into its protection. Bethany steps forth through the walkway and toward the front door of the house. She rings the doorbell and gets no answer. She tries again and gets nothing. She begins to knock on the door while avoiding the cold rain.

Inside Aaron's house, down in the basement, Samantha is sitting on the bed staring at the cooled plate of breakfast a few feet over from her on the coffee table. She has her legs crossed Alti Palti style and her hands extend to the side of her body with her palms firmly planted on the bed. Her head is lowered but her eyes are straight. Although her lips are stiff with anger and her eyebrows lowered, it doesnt seem to resemble a specific emotion.

Samantha suddenly hears the doorbell upstairs and snaps out of the trance. She looks up but remains still and the doorbell rings again. She gets up from the bed and begins to slowly walk, attempting to trace what direction the house's front door might be in.

Loud knocks are now heard and Samantha hears the voice of Bethany calling Aaron's name. Samantha stops and remains perfectly still with shifty eyes until she hears Bethany's call for Aaron yet again. Samantha's eyes become watery and she lets out a helpless gasp.

"Oh my God, mom..."

Outside, Bethany looks in through the house's windows but sees nothing. She steps to the side of the house and tries to see if Aaron's car is in the driveway but sees that it is not.

"He's probably at work... Must have missed him."

Bethany now looks down to a basement window that has been forced shut with wooden panels. Her instincts push her to kneel down and inspect it. She presses her ear up against the wood covering the basement window and hears nothing.

Down in the basement, Samantha is standing on one of the bar stools, with her head up against the same condemned window, caressing it helplessly with tears running down her face. She then whispers to herself.

"Mom..."

Outside, Bethany stands straight again and shakes her head.

"Well, this was a waste of time... I'll meet him at his office."