Her Eyes

Chapter 5: BROKEN PIECES

Then it came, the call he had been dreading all along. He rushed over to the Bates' house only to find the deed already done. His heart began to pound as he laid eyes on the scene. He shut off the engine and watched Norma walk toward her car to let Norman out. She looked exhausted-beat. Alex got out and climbed the steps toward Dylan. He was a little leery about what to expect. He took the gun from Dylan and headed up toward to the dead guy that lay face down on top of the stairs. He placed the gun in the belt of his pants and leaned down, placing two hands on the body and turning it over.

Alex stared at Zack's lifeless body, a sting forming inside him. He looked up and sighed. He never saw this coming. What kind of a cop was he? He turned his upper torso to the family, making eye contact with each member. "We better talk."

After Dylan received medical attention for his gunshot wound, the four of them went to the living room. Norman and Norma sat on the couch across from Alex. Dylan stood in the doorway, distancing himself for them.

"You need to tell me everything that happened. Everything," Alex urged, leaning forward to hear the full story.

Norma looked at Norman uneasily. She ran her hand through his hair and took a deep breath. "A couple of nights after we moved in, I was in the kitchen doing dishes. I was home alone." Her breath hitched. Her eyes welled up with tears. "Keith broke in and..." She struggled to make eye contact with Alex. He could sense what was coming. "He raped me and I killed him. I-I don't know why I did it. I just-"

Alex felt a pain form in his abdomen. "You don't have to explain." He looked away, afraid to make her feel any more uncomfortable.

"Norman and I wrapped the body in some old linens and dumped the body in the bay." She looked up to keep the tears from streaming down her cheeks.

"What about the carpet fibers?" Alex asked.

"We hid the body in the bathtub in room 4, just until I could figure out what to do with it. Some blood spilled on the carpet when we were dragging it. That's why we replaced the carpeting."

Alex recoiled at the thought of the body being right under his nose and him never even suspecting it. "And what about Shelby?" he huffed.

Norma bit her lip before beginning the confession. "Zack was...he was helping us," she admitted, swallowing her words hard.

"I took Keith's belt," Norman interjected, picking up the pieces for his mother. "Zack found it and he took it, so I went to his house to get it back and I found the girl that he was hiding in his basement. He was using her for-"

"I get the picture," Alex interrupted, cringing at his previous partners actions.

"I told her I'd come back for her. I promised her. But he must've known and he moved her. Emma and I found her on Keith's boat. We brought her back to the motel and Zack found out."

"I shot him," Dylan piped up.

Norma looked at Alex with weary eyes. "That's the whole story," she told him. "You know everything now. Everything with Keith Summers...Deputy Shelby." She winced. "You know it all."

Alex stared back at her sympathetically. "All right here's what the story's gonna be." He silently kicked himself for letting a seventeen year old get further than himself in his investigation. "I began suspecting Shelby of being corrupt a while back. This coincided with a violent confrontation between Keith Summers, in which Shelby killed Keith, and he threw the body in the bay. He was hiding the girl on Keith's boat. I was starting to close in on him at this point. Without him knowing of course," Alex stated, acting as if he'd known all along. "I was picking up on little things."

"Really?" Dylan mocked from across the room.

"Dylan," Norma scolded, turning around to face him. She turned back to Alex and gave him an appreciative smile.

He looked up at Dylan, a bit annoyed by his remark. "Shelby tried to move the girl. That led to a showdown right here on the property. I killed Zack Shelby with this gun," he finished, picking up Dylan's gun off the end table.

"Yeah, well then what's this?" Dylan replied, pointing to his arm that was hanging in a sling.

"You got in the way," Alex shot back. He couldn't believe how ungrateful this kid was.

"Shelby said he shot Jiao in the woods," Norman said in a concerned voice.

"All of that happened before I got here," Alex reassured him. "Everyone understand?" Norma and Norman nodded. Alex looked over to Dylan, who rolled in eyes in response. "All right, that's it then." He watched Norma's expression turn from sorrow to utter happiness. She grabbed her son and wrapped her arms around him tight.

Alex got up from the chair and headed out the door. He felt like he was intruding-he always felt that way when he was around families. He reached his car, got in, and drove off. It was over. He'd done his job, and he made a family fairly happy. It satisfied him to know that Norma was happy. He liked that he could fix the broken pieces of her life...if only there was someone that could do that for him?