The Mystery of The Arendelle Murders

Chapter 9: The Trial of The Century

Chapter 9: The Trial of The Century

Mid October 2007

Arendelle Ripper Caught At Last

That was splashed in all papers the next day. Jack couldn't go anywhere without seeing that headline or someone talking about that headline. He kept his head down. Murmurs and mutters would follow him wherever he went. It seemed everyone had an opinion about him in Arendelle. Whether it was that he was a poor person that was duped by his wife or how he could possibly not know what his wife was, he didn't care.

The truth was that he had no idea how he didn't know. For thirty years he had known Elsa and he had never once seen this kind of behaviour from her. The way she described killing those poor people sent shivers down his spine. The Elsa he had known was kind, generous and a fantastic woman, wife and mother. Now, he didn't know who he was married to.

He turned into the footpath that led to his mother's and grandfather's house. A sigh escaped him. They had taken care of the children when Jack and Elsa had to go to the police station for questioning. Neither one of them had asked any questions but they would have seen the front page of the paper by now. How was he going to explain this? What about his kids? Their mother was going to go to jail – there was zero doubt in his mind about that. How was he going to explain that they will never see their mum again?

He walked into the house, calling out. His mother responded and the second she saw him; she gave him a big hug. Jack could see the anxiety etched on her face.

"Jack, m'boy," his grandfather, a huge man by the name of Nicholas North, boomed out.

"Good morning Grandad," Jack said, as the man scooped him into a bear hug.

"You need to leave my great-grandkids with me more often," his grandfather said when he released him. "That Leif, man he has a lot of energy."

Jack accepted a cup of tea that his mother handed him and all three adults sat down around the fireplace. There was a long moment of silence as they sipped their hot beverage.

"Where are the kids?" Jack said, finally breaking the silence.

"Upstairs," his mother said, in a small voice, "they're just getting ready."

There was another silence, one only broken by the noises of them all drinking their tea.

"Did you see today's headline, dear?" his mother asked, sounding extremely nervous.

Jack set his cup down. "Did the children?"

"No," his grandfather said. "We made sure not to. We didn't know how you wanted to approach this."

"Honesty may work best," Jack sighed. "How does one approach this topic though? How does one say to his kids that their mother is going to jail for being a sadistic murderer?"

"And you really didn't know?" his mother asked sceptically.

"Why does everyone keep saying that? I didn't know, Anna didn't know, not even her parents knew. No one knew!"

"Okay, calm down," she said worriedly.

"Calm down?" Jack shrieked. All the anger of the past day was finally pouring out of him. "Calm down? How do you suppose I do that? Huh? The love of my life is a sadistic murderer and she is going to spend the rest of her life in jail. She had betrayed not only me but our two children. How can I calm down, Mom? How do you propose I do that?"

The two elders just looked at each other – unable to respond to his question. Of course they too had zero idea on how to do this. There hadn't been a chapter in the parenting book titled 'What To Do When Your Mother Becomes A Serial Killer'. There also wasn't a handbook titled 'What To Do When Your Wife Is Secretly A Killer'. Like what does one actually do?