The Good, the Bad, and the Crazy. //+//A Complicated Love Story//+//

Chapter 32: Branson.

It was about four when we reached the apartment building. We went straight to hers. The door had been kicked in and under the kitchen sink the door was open to reveal a cracked safe.

“What’s in it?” Bryan asked.

“Umm, just a wedding ring.” I said.

“Must have been her mothers. I think Mary mentioned something about that once.” Bryan said.

I stuffed the ring in my pocket and stood up. “Anything else to look for here?” I asked.

“All we got from here is that she can’t be too far. I think she slept here last night.” Bryan folded her arms “Hey, we should check the other rooms first though.” She said “I’ll take this side, you take that side.” She went left and I went right. On the right side there were stairs that led up to a locked door with a big doggy door. But it was still too small for me to fit in. The next room was the living room. It was bare except for a coach, a small table, and a ten inch T.V. I walked across the hall to a small pink room Bryan was standing in.

“What is it?” I asked.

She was staring at the small bed, with one sheet, and the huge whole in the wall, not to mention the scratch marks on the broken mirror. And worst of all, the blood stain on the floor.

“Poor, Mary.” She said.

“Is that recent?” I asked nodding towards the blood.

“No, it looks like it’s been there for a long time. Maybe even since she was a kid.” She sighed then gasped “Oh my god!”

“What?” I asked.

She walked across the room and picked up a bat, with blood on it.

“Do you think…?” She trailed off motioned from the bloody bat to spot on the floor.

I cringed at the thought “Maybe. Come on, let’s get out of here. Did you find anything in the other rooms?”

She shook her head and together we left the apartment.

“Let’s go to mine next, she might have gone there.” She said walking across the parking lot. “I really hope she didn’t though. She might have run into Simon.” She opened the back door and looked around the room “What the hell happened in here?”

The coffee table was shattered and little pieces of glass scattered the ground.

“You clean this up I’m going to go find Simon.” She said heading off in the other direction, then I heard her scream. I ran after her to find her husband lying on the floor dead, a bullet in his chest, the gun laid on the floor nearby.

“Oh, my god.” I said “Do you think he shot himself?”

She shook her head “No, he likes life too much. Someone shoot him. I want to lay down in my room for a minute, come with me in case the killers still here. Oh and call the police too.”

I pulled out my phone as I fallowed her around the body. She seemed, oddly enough, not that affected by the fact that he was dead. Hadn’t he reaped her? More than once? Maybe she shouldn’t be sad, maybe no one should, tears shouldn’t be shed for a man like him.

We walked into Bryan bedroom and she collapsed down on her bed. I told the police over the phone the situation and they said they’d be there soon and not to move or touch anything in the room where Simon was.  I thanked them and hung up.

“Dear, god my pillow is lumpy.” She said trying to fix it. Then she discovered something inside her pillow case. It was a bag.

“What’s in that?” I asked.

“I have no idea.” She unzipped it “Holy crap it’s full of money. And there’s a note.” She laughed and handed it to me.

I read it out loud “ ‘Don’t be stupid, except the gift. P.S. Sorry about Simon.’ This is in Mary’s handwriting.” I said “You don’t think she killed him do you?” I asked.

What if she had? Killing a person would only make her crazier.

“If she did I’m sure it was for a good reason.” Her smiled faded “You don’t think he reaped her before she could shoot do you?”

“I hadn’t even thought about that.” I said “And I don’t want to .”

Just then the police got there and escorted us outside so that they could get a better look at the body.

It was getting darker and the rain was picking up. It was about nine o’clock when I had to sit in the police officers car to keep from drowning in the rain.

Bryan sat next to me and a police officer in the front passenger seat. Just then a voice came on his radio. “There’s a girl about to jump off the bridge. We’ve identified her as Mary Stone. Any extra squads are to report immediately.”

Bryan and I looked at each other. On the bridge? About to jump? Mary Stone?

“We know her.” I said “If you can get me there I promise I can get her down.” I said.

“Really?” He asked.

“Yes but I need to get there now!” I said.

“Okay, buckle up and hold on. Hey, Jim. I got to get these kids to the bridge you cool here?” He asked.

Another nodded and we were on our way.

I called Aaron, Sam, Charlie, Sophia, Kate, and Miss. Catch. I told them what was going on and they met us there.

Even during this emergency where I might really lose my Mary for good I can’t help but think of what the doctors said. What they had told me.