The Secrets of Confessions ✔️

Chapter 22: The Building Evidence

Thankfully, during the time that I'm emailing Arjun, Mason's out getting pizza for all of us. That's good, because Sarah usually does her own thing, and Nathan's probably playing tons of video games, so I know that they're not going to intrude on what I'm going to do.

I know they're not going to randomly barge into my room without a knock and discover that I'm sending emails to a criminal so that I can see if my dad really killed my mom. Thankfully, I've instilled in Nathan's mind that if he ever barges into my room without knocking, he will get hit in the face with whatever's closest to me that I can afford to throw, while I scream, "DUDE, CAN'T YOU KNOCK?"

And that's the exact reason why Mason started knocking ever since I got my own room.

"Alright, so tell me. What do you know about my mom and Cody?" I write, and with that, I send the email, and wait for a reply. Thankfully, he's quick, probably because he's someone who is probably a fast typer or is just really eager to tell me everything about what happened with my mom and Cody. It's not going to be easy, nor do I know if I'm going to be able to see if everything adds up, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

"Alright, so your mom never really was comfortable around Cody. Before I left her, we made a pact that we'd always tell each other whatever was on our minds. After Cody would leave the house with Mason, she would always tell me that she thought he was always checking her out, and whenever he'd look at me, there would always be a little bit of anger in his eyes, like he was jealous that I was married to your mom. I'm not a professional emotion decipherer, but I decided to kind of play along and see what would happen if I saw that Cody was eyeing your mom. And he kinda was."

I can't help but think about Cody having his eyes on my mom in that way. I know my mom was really beautiful, but considering how Cody is one of the last people I'd expect to be in a relationship, this kind of throws me off guard.

"But, there's one thing that I want you to eye on the autopsy pictures. Cody always wore a chain bracelet for some reason. I want you to see if there's a chain imprint anywhere on her body. I know it's kind of circumstantial, but I'll send you a closeup of a picture that I once took of him, which had a really good shot of the bracelet. Don't question it, I was young and considerably a lot stupider. Compare it and see if there's any similarities. Also, see if there was a lot of bruising mentioned in the autopsy report. Cody is the weakest person that I know, both physically and emotionally. Even before I went to prison, I was really muscular. I used to weightlift all the time, and I'd go once a week to the gym. I'd keep on building weights each time I felt I was ready. Cody had very little upper body strength. You probably know where this is going, because I know you're a very smart girl.  Let me know if you need anything else."

Thinking back to the autopsy report, I pull it out. Thankfully there's no pictures, otherwise I would've vomited all over the bedroom floor, and then Mason would get extremely worried, but at least it describes the injuries that were on her body.

Granted, it's not a whole lot better, but it gives me a little bit less nausea in the fact that I don't have to see the pictures of her body in detail. It won't make me as sick to my stomach as I want it to be. I look at the part where it talks about bruising, and surely enough, it says, "Minimal bruising. Slight bruising around the ribs and arms."

Surely enough, it shows that there is little bruising compared to if someone a lot stronger, like Arjun, were to grab a hold of someone and start stabbing them while holding them in place. It just doesn't make sense. Unless you're absolutely scrawny and can't even lift a bag of flour, then you should leave a fair amount of bruising.

The bruising on here is just comparatively minimal. Also, I take a look at the other signs of possible bruising or lacerations that may be on there. Surely enough, another notation is made. "Laceration on the upper chest area. It looks like a chain bracelet."

I gulp a little bit. Arjun may have lied about a lot of things, but he's not lying about this. He's actually scarily accurate. Even then, a little bit too accurate. I'm trying to keep in mind that Arjun still isn't completely out of the woods yet.

I still haven't completely ruled him out of the case as being an innocent person, but I have gotten some things that may have given him some innocence. But, I have to be careful with how I approach him. I never know when he could be lying or not.

I go back to the computer and see what the picture is so that I can draw a conclusion from what I've found. To be very honest right now, I feel slightly nauseous. I never imagined that I'd have to go this in depth with my mom's murder, and yet here we are. I open up the picture to see what it is, and to see if there is a chain bracelet that he owns.

I take a good look at the picture, and surely enough, there's a chain bracelet on Cody's arm. The chains look pretty close together, and it looks kind of similar to the one that made the imprint on my mom's body. But, despite this piece of potentially helpful information, it means nothing.

A picture of a murder suspect wearing a bracelet similar to the one that made an imprint on a corpse is not going to tell me anything about a murder. It's just another piece of circumstantial evidence.

The bracelet could've easily belonged to Arjun, and Cody could've been fooling around with it, and the picture would originate. There's a hundred different kinds of reasons in which the picture originated. The problem with all of this is that it's mostly circumstantial. I can't prove much with all of the evidence.

I'm stuck in a ditch where I need the proper evidence to lift me out. It sucks to have to go on the case with almost all the evidence being circumstantial, but I'm willing to go in depth and find any evidence that isn't circumstantial.

Even if it means digging to the darkest corners of the case and having to drag those demons out and fight them. Even if I have to do that, scared, on the verge of raising the white flag, it won't matter, because it will all be worth it in the end.

The feeling of going so in depth of a topic that I never thought I'd go super in depth about, considering the amount of discomfort that it's brought to my family. I've never had an incident when talking about my mom to Mason in which he doesn't look the slightest bit heartbroken.

Now, that may be because of the fact that lust completely controlled both of them and they broke my parents' marriage as a result, but Mason just seems so emotionally attached to her. In a weird way, I feel kind of bad for him. I shouldn't feel bad for him at all, because he was one of the factors that broke my parents' marriage into bite sized pieces, but he got massively friendzoned after Arjun left my mom.

Unless they kept on being romantically involved, but that's not something that I like to imagine. There's a question that plagues my mind. Is Sarah aware of the attachment on this whole thing? Is she aware that Mason probably still loves my mom? When these questions plague my mind, I slap myself a little bit and keep writing down my thoughts. It was probably just a one time affair, I thought to myself. But, I don't let that thought completely escape me.

There's also one more thing that I have to make sure. Cody has been in a wheelchair for most of my life. I don't exactly remember if he was in one when I was a baby, because my memory wasn't as sharp as it was back then, but if he was, then there's one major problem. How could he have killed my mom in a wheelchair?

It's really hard to do that, and honestly, it would take a lot of effort. Too much effort, to be honest, and it would burn any mid 20s person out. That can mean a lot of things. Either I'm looking at the wrong person, or there was an accomplice.

In that case, everyone now has the possibility of being a suspect.

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Everyone's a suspect, huh? This doesn't make things any easier. So, do you think that anyone could be a suspect? Let me know in the comments.

Hey everyone! How's it going? Also, the Wattys submissions start tomorrow. I'm excited, yet kinda nervous at the same time. I wonder if Phoenix is gonna win, or if it even stands a chance!

But anyways, stay safe everyone. COVID-19 is awful right now.

Hope you guys liked this chapter!

As always, please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work! See you all next Sunday with a new chapter of TSOC! Have a great week!

Love you guys,

Shree