Homewrecker

63 - 𝓭𝓪𝓽𝓮

One of the several punishments doled out from Amy and David to me and Andi for confronting my mother's drug dealer—which seemed somewhat unfair to us, since Jason and Natalie essentially got nothing but a good talking to—was running errands for Kimberly for her and Jason's upcoming wedding.

We drove around town picking up the bridesmaid dresses, the dresses for Amy and me, met with the florist to discuss bouquets and boutonnieres and when they were needed by, going to the catering business and dropping off the check. We were also told that before and after the rehearsal dinner, we were going to be helping with the decorations for the reception, which the only thing Natalie was required to do as well.

During the rides from here to there, with a binder full of notes from Kimberly and Amy, we were quiet, and I wasn't sure of what to make of that. It wasn't like Andi was still acting angry around me or anything, and she had come with me to meet Jude without me asking, but she wasn't really speaking to me either.

I was wondering about this when we were in the dining room about a week after we were given out our punishments after arriving home—which Amy commenting that she was going to make a phone call to the Denvers' parents after the crossover pulled into their driveway with Natalie inside it after she said that we three had some discussing to do in the police station parking lot—with hot glue guns plugged into the wall.

We were gluing on labels with Kimberly and Jason's names on them with their wedding date in a couple weeks to glass candle jars as wedding favors, then were going to move onto putting foil wrapped candy into white mesh bags for the nineteen planned for the reception.

I was considering maybe saying something, maybe about how I never heard about what Jason and Kimberly were doing for their reception with a silent disco party for half of it, when David walked into the room from outside, warning Danny to dry off first before coming inside from the lake with his friends. Then he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck for a moment while we continued to glue before sighing.

"So, I've just received a call from the police station—hey, hey, hey, watch that. You're going to burn your finger, Bronwyn."

I blinked, glancing down at the candle I was holding and realizing that my glue gun had started drifting dangerously close to one of my fingers while I listened, and pulled it back. "What did they say? Did they arrest him?"

He pulled out one of the dining chairs. "Well, no, they haven't. They haven't dropped him as suspect yet, but they don't have enough evidence to arrest him for Donna's murder. From what the detective said over the phone, he gave them permission to search his camper and truck and they found nothing definitive, still waiting to hear back from the lab. And he's refused a DNA test, and they don't have enough for a warrant."

"So, do they think he's innocent?" I asked.

David shrugged. "I don't know about that, but they don't have enough to make an arrest yet."

"But they're still investigating him, right?" Andi asked him, setting down her glue gun.

"Yeah, they're not just letting him off the hook, but it's possible that this will takes months or maybe even years to follow through. The tornado damaged just about all of the evidence, leads from witnesses haven't panned out, there's nothing directly tying him to her murder. What they really need is a confession, which he isn't giving."

"Do you think I'm right then?"

David looked across the table from me, reaching out to grasp one of the candles I finished almost an hour ago and smoothing his thumb over the date. "I heard how he talked about your mother at our house a couple weeks ago. And I didn't like how he was around you. You wouldn't have to twist my arm to get me to believe he did it."