Nothing But The Truth

Part 3

Charles explained how he had not been in town when the murders happened as he was away with his work. When he came back, he found his family all dead in his house, and when police arrived at the scene, they immediately decided he was the culprit. They didn’t even check fingerprints, Charles said. He was arrested immediately and “tried and tested”- as Zoe thought, Charles was convicted even with an alibi. Charles explained why this was: a long time ago, the mayor of the town he used to live in in San Francisco had fallen in love with the woman who was going to later become Charles’ wife. She rejected him because he was not a nice person inside- he’s never shown his evil side to the people of the town, but she saw him for what he truly was. However the mayor still pursued her, even after she was married to Charles.  He stalked her and bothered her. Eventually they moved to North Carolina but even then, shortly before the murders, the mayor tracked them down and continued to threaten them. They didn’t think he could do anything from all the way in San Francisco, but they were wrong. When Charles went on the business trip, he was relaxed. The mayor’s texts and emails didn’t mean anything to them anymore as they were far away from San Francisco now. When he returned, his family were dead.

After the trial, he was locked up in a cell. He was told he had a visitor.  He had no idea who would want to visit him, but he soon found out: it was the mayor. He shook hands with the guard and told him to leave Charles so they could speak privately. His polite manner made the guard go away, plus the few hundred dollars the mayor pressed into his hand made sure he wouldn’t bother them. The mayor smiled sweetly and kept that fake persona right until the guard was out of sight. Then he barred his teeth at Charles and hissed. He said “you’ve finally got what you deserve”. The mayor went on to explain how he had bribed all the officials with his thousands of dollars to make sure Charles was definitely convicted of murder: he told him that he had killed Charles’ family, after torturing and dehumanizing them. “I wish I could kill you now” said the mayor. “Goodbye. I’m glad I met you. Hope you live through this” the mayor said before sniggering and sauntering off.