A Death in the Family

Chapter 12

It was after a dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread they got the news Connor and Henry were watching TV at a few decibels louder than Steve would have liked when the doorbell rang.

"Boys, turn that down!" He yelled from the foyer as he went to answer the door.

When he opened the door there were Sergeant Douglas and Detective Cumberbatch, they looked unusually somber.

"Good evening Steve. Hopefully were not interrupting anything." Douglas began, he looked worn.

"No, just finished dinner." Steve replied. "Come in."

"You might want to bring the boys in for this, they may want to hear it." Cumberbatch offered as he sat down.

"So you got news." Steve asked without emotion.

Douglas gave a wry smile, which had little humor in it.

"You could say that."

A few minutes later Connor and Henry appeared joining their father on the couch opposite the officers.

"So you got him then?" Connor asked, his eyes wide.

Douglas nodded.

"We got him, son."

"Good." Connor looks satisfied.

"So what happened?" Henry asked seriously, "Why did this guy target our mom?"

"We never got a straight confession out of him," Douglas explained, "the nearest thing we can figure is he thought your mom could identify him for something drug related and would possibly report him to the police. So he decided he had to get rid of her."

"That's stupid." Connor grumbled as he slumped down into the couch.

"I know it is," Cumberbatch said sympathetically, "but we never say these types of criminals are the brightest crayons in the box." He sighed.

"So did we ever figure out how Lara knew she was going to die?" Steve asked.

The men looked at each other and shrugged.

"That, I don't have an answer for you," Douglas answered, "that's beyond our professional expertise I'm afraid. We may never know. I still don't know how your neighbor pregnant with sextuplets ties into it either.

Douglas and Cumberbatch left the Dooley residence soon after and a peace that hadn't been there in months descended over the household.

"I'd still like to know how she knew...." Steve muttered as he came back from escorting the officers out. Then he returned to the living room and made a motion to shove his sons out of the way on the couch.

"I'm picking the show this time," Steve said flopping down between them, "and preferably something that isn't going to result in early hearing loss for me."

Finally after several my minor scuffles they decided on one of the Avengers movies, that was a good compromise and something they could all enjoy.

That weekend, Steve bit the bullet and finished cleaning out Lara's belongings. He was finally getting around to "organizing" her studio which he wanted to leave as natural as possible as a tribute to her memory.

When he finally cleaned off the floor he finally got a chance to look at the solitary bookshelf that was in the room. Along with numerous sketchbooks going back to her college days there were several small black notebooks, which Steve only knew to be her journals. Picking up the most recent one he flipped to the last entry. Lara had written about her day and going off to draw in the park, Steve made a noise as he tried to hold back tears, this was definitely her last entry before she had died.

Flipping back several pages, an entry several weeks prior caught his eye. Words seem to jump off the page at him. Steve read it, then read it again. Finally, his voice shaking slightly he called for his sons.

"Boys! Come here, you have to see this!"