Hazy View: Souls of the Vanished (21 page)

“
Why don’t you start by
telling me what happened to Janet and Christopher?”

“
I told you there was an
accident.” Martin started and paused.

“
Yes. I know there was an
accident, terrible what happened to that poor mother and child.
What made you believe that it was your wife and son?”

“
The police officer told
me they tracked her to me.”

“
How did they manage
that?” Andrew asked.

“
They said that they
tracked me through her vehicle registration.”

“
They didn’t use her
license registration?”

“
No, they got the address
off the vehicle’s registration.”

Andrew opened the file and removed
four postcard size photos of the vehicle crushed by a runaway
truck. The vehicle was too badly damaged. It was difficult to
believing that anyone made it out alive.

“
It was really sad about
the mother and child.”

“
What are you getting at?”
Martin felt annoyed with the cat and mouse game.

“
Did you ever go to
identify the bodies?”

“
Yes.” Martin started
weeping softly.

“
Did you see the
vehicle?”

“
No. I didn’t want to.” He
admitted.

“
When you went to identify
the bodies, did you look at them?”

“
Of course I did. Do you
enjoy tormenting me like this?” Martin got up but the officer in
the corner swiftly seated him.

“
No, but this’ll continue
until you tell me the truth.”

“
I’m telling you the
truth.” Martin protested.

“
Let’s concentrate on the
child for just a moment.”

“
What about Christopher?”
Martin looked hard at Andrew.

“
Christopher is now what
five years old?”

“
Yes, your point
is?”

“
The child that had died
in the accident was about eight or nine, according to the doctor’s
report.”

“
Well the doctor was
wrong.” Martin said protesting against the information.

“
Fine, then the doctor was
wrong, it happens. Let’s look at the vehicle.”

Martin picked up the photos and looked
at it. His hand started to shake and he wept softly again. He
dropped the photos on the table and placed his hands over his face
and cried louder.

Andrew waited for a few minutes after
Martin failed to control himself, he and added. “That isn’t Janet’s
vehicle. Hell it isn’t even close.”

Martin stopped crying but didn’t
speak.

“
You don’t have anything
to say?”

“
What do you want me to
say?”

“
What happened to Janet
and Christopher?”

“
There was an accident
like I told you.” Martin insisted.

“
Yes Martin there was, but
Janet and Christopher wasn’t in the vehicle. They didn’t die in
this accident. The people that died were Asian. What happened to
them?” Andrew slammed his hands hard on the table, causing a
banging sound that rang through Martins mind.

“
If they didn’t die, then
they must still be alive.” Martin seemed excited.

“
Who did you bury in those
graves on your property?”

“
Janet and Christopher...”
Martin said and instantly he wept again.

“
A few seconds ago you
told me that they were still alive, where are they?”

“
Where’s who?”

Andrew was more angry then annoyed.
Martin’s fixated on the idea that Janet and Christopher died in an
accident. No matter how much evidence Andrew through in front of
him he still seemed to weep for them. Either Martin’s truly
convinced of the accident or he was playing more games to confuse
Andrew. He was not going to feel sorry for him anymore. Now it was
a clear case of murder and weather he remembered it or not he would
continue to build a case against him. What was he trying to do
proof, insanity?

Andrew was silent. He looked at
Martin, reading his expression.

Finally Andrew asked. “You know what’s
going to happen now?”

“
What, you’re going to
tickle me under the feet with a feather until I tell you what you
want to know?” Martin asked smiling coldly.

“
We’re all going out to
your house and we’re going to open those graves and I’ll show you
that whoevers buried there isn’t Janet and Christopher.”

“
You’re going to disturbed
them?” Martin asked surprised.

“
There’s nothing you can
do to stop it.”

“
I will fight it in
court.” Martin was angry.

“
It’s already too late for
that.” Andrew collected the photos and files and stood
up.

“
What do you mean by
that?”

“
I already have a court
order. You can come with or stay, it means the same to
me.”

Andrew headed for the door.

The officer stepped forward and
handcuffs Martin before leading him out the door and down the
passage to the street.

*~*~*

*X*

Andrew, Helen and Frank were already
in the cruiser when the two officers came out with Martin. Three
vehicles left and follow Frank the three miles to the old Holloway
farm. Martin was in the third vehicle under police watch. Slowly
the convoy of vehicles snaked along the dirt road and onto the
property. The trip once again felt like it took too long for the
short distance they had to travel. They continued pass the house
into the backyard.

Before the group made their way
through the long grass they took equipment from the
trunk.

The officers stripped out of their
uniform shirts to keep it clean. They shoveled ground away from the
homemade graves. The sun was still hot and sweat ran freely down
their skin. Helen didn’t take any offense to their appearance. She
wanted to jump in and help to dig. Martin sat on the ground sobbing
with the two sheriffs standing guard over him.

Hours passed and the digging was
becoming tiresome. Helen refreshed the men with bottled water,
bought earlier. The men was making turns digging.

The more the men dug, Martin begged
for them to stop. His plea fell on deaf ears. His sobbing did
nothing to help his cause. Finally he grew quiet and he mumbled
softly. “Sorry honey, they don’t want to listen.”

Hours after starting the digging on
the two graves the one team hit something hard inches under the
ground. They buck down on their hands and knees. They swept away as
much sand as they could to reveal a homemade wooden box about four
feet into the grave. The box’s loosened and lifted before it’s
placed on the edge of the hole. It didn’t take long to discover
another small box and lift it out. Now laying side by side the two
boxes’ opened and photographed, starting with the larger of the
two.

The box was empty.

They open the second.

Empty.

Not bothering with formalities and
niceties Andrew knelt down in front of Martin. Andrew pointed at
the homemade boxes still looking at him.

“
Why don’t you tell the
truth now? You can now see that there’s nothing in the boxes. Why
don’t you stop tormenting yourself?”

Martin said nothing.

An officer stood by with a camera
recording the excavation. Martin might claim that they tampered
with the boxes. He now turned the camera on Andrew as he continued
the questioning.

“
Do you mind if I told you
what happened?”

Martin said nothing.

“
You went home one night
after a trip to the bar, didn’t you?”

Martin didn’t move, he said
nothing.

“
You and Janet were
fighting. Shouting and screaming about something you must’ve
heard.”

Martin looked up and said
nothing.

“
Christopher woke up
because of all the noise didn’t he? Tell me what happened
next.”

Martin seemed to think. He still said
nothing.

“
Something happened,
didn’t it? You were so angry.”

“
No, the vehicle
accident…”

“
There was no accident.
You killed Christopher and Janet and dumped them somewhere in or
near the lake.”

Martin sunk his head into his hands
and wept.

“
What happened,
Martin?”

“
She was cheating on me
with you!” Martin finally admitted.

“
Who was cheating,
Janet…?”

“
Christopher isn’t my
son.” Martin trembled.

“
I have a forensics
report. Do you want to know what it says?” Andrew pulled the
forensics report out of the folder and showed it to
Martin.

Martin stopped crying.

“
You know the day we were
looking for the missing child in the forest. Do you know what I
found?”

“
Nothing you told me that
you found nothing.”

“
I didn’t find the child,
but I did find blood, human blood according to the report. I also
found a child’s slip on shoe just like those Janet loved to buy for
Christopher. According to forensics they compared the blood with
hair samples found in the shower drain in your old
house.”

Martin grew slightly pale. He said
nothing.

“
You wouldn’t believe
this. The blood I found and the hair sample was a match. There was
also vomit inside the child shoe. After Christopher died you picked
him up and that forced stomach content out. You put his shoes on
after that, which transferred vomit into the shoe.”

“
What does this have to do
with Janet and Christopher?”

“
Just listen. According to
the report, they tested your hair from the drain to Christopher’s
hair and guess what. Christopher was your son, I have it right
here.

Martin almost fainted.

“
The forensics officer
sprayed the house with luminal. It’s an agent that reacts with
protein in blood, even after it’s cleaned. When he put an
ultraviolet light over it, it glowed up like a god dammed Christmas
tree, what do you think of that?”

“
What your blood sample
glowed, meaning what.” Martin asked confused, forensic tactics was
never something he understood.

“
Not the blood
sample.”

Martin felt weak and drained. Andrew
did more than he could ever expect and found the truth. As hard as
he tried, he couldn’t remember what happened on that
night.

“
If it wasn’t the blood
sample then what…?”

“
Blood splatter in the
main bedroom, the passage and lots of splatter on the stairs,
indicating that Janet fell down the stairs injured. Do you want to
tell us what happened that night?”

“
Someone came into the
house and killed them?”

“
Well why would you drive
them away with your service vehicle and dump them into the
lake?”

“
I don’t know can’t
remember.”

Andrew stood up and turned to Frank.
“I think it’s time we get him back to the station and get him ready
to transport him back to Hazy View. He needs to stand trial for his
crime.”

The officer took Martin by the arm and
led him back to the vehicle. Martin didn’t say anything. He walked
without fuss.

*~*~*

*
XI*

Returning to the Sheriff’s office
Andrew felt drained and tired. He could see Martin wasn’t in the
state of mind to recall something that had happened three months
ago. There was something about the way Martin was acting, it made
Andrew feel a little uneasy.

He couldn’t recall the events and took
the accident as the most logical reasoning. Perhaps he blocked it
from his mind. Andrew’s convinced that Martin was no longer acting
or trying to mislead the investigation.

With all the alcohol abuse the lack of
sleep, he had slipped into a metal disorder. His priority was to
get him back to Hazy View and get him certified fit to stand
trial.

Andrew sighed deeply as he got out of
the cruiser. He walked into the office with Frank and Martin in
front of him. Weather it was the heat or trying to put together the
mind of a madman, Andrew felt mentally and physically drained. He
couldn’t drive around the corner never mind across the
country.

At the counter in the reception area
they separate. The officers took Martin back to the holding cells
where he would spend the night, alone and in darkness. Andrew
followed Frank to his office and almost fell into one of the
chairs. Helen was in shock and only entered the office minutes
later. It was the first time she’d seen anyone in Martin’s
state.

Martin was, according to her, truly
convinced that his buried wife and son was at the bottom of the
yard. He believed it was them who had died in the accident. How
Martin had come to hear of the accident and obtained the accident
report and death certificates would perhaps always remain a
mystery. It wasn’t importance anymore. It was proven that it had
nothing to do with Janet and Christopher’s deaths. Even Martin had
to admit that he made a mistake. Clearly he would fight it to the
end or until he snapped out of this mental block. Only he could now
explain the details of what happened the night Janet and
Christopher disappeared. The same question ran through Andrew’s
mind repeatedly. What did actually happen the night Janet and
Christopher disappeared? Accept for the vomit the technician found
none of Christopher’s blood or body fluids. This meant that at
least he had no injuries when he died. How did he die? Janet was
bleeding before she fell down the stairs.