James looked down at the broken, eyeless face of his mother, and fought back the wave of emotion that overcame him. He hated to see her like this. She had always been such a strong figure in his life, even she was diagnosed with cancer, and it was hard for him to look at her in this state. He had known on a psychological level that she was not going to live much longer, but he had failed to prepare himself for that eventuality. For it to come sooner than expected, and in such a violent way, meant that he was less ready for this than for anvils to come raining down out of the sky.
Jennifer squeezed his hand as she stood beside him. She knew that he was in an emotional whirlpool, and her heart went out to him. She felt bad for having doubted him when he had come to her at the hospital. It was quite clear to her as she looked down at the woman she had anticipated calling her mother-in-law that he had not been exaggerating anything or making anything up. Whoever could have done this to a sick woman was definitely able to be considered dangerous. It was no wonder that James had tried to get her to flee the hospital with him after he had been threatened.
She cursed herself now for making him feel as if she didn't believe him. She should have known that he would not have just made that up out of the blue. He had always been honest and upfront with her, and now she felt like crap for her actions. After he had come to her and raved like a lunatic about a murderer being after him, she had been intentionally avoiding him. She had taken extra shifts at the hospital so that she came home late and left early. She had even slept on the couch when she got home, instead of crawling into bed and cuddling up next to him.
Jennifer knew that no matter how James had acted on the outside over such things, he was obviously hurt on the inside that she was avoiding him. He was not stupid enough to think that she had suddenly had an increase in workload that happened to coincide with his anxiety attack. Now she wished that she could have taken it all back. She wished that she would have left work with him. She should have taken some time off to help him sort out what was going on.
Unfortunately, there was no going back. She could not change the past no matter how hard she wished that she could. All Jennifer could do now was give him as much support as she could moving on from here. He was really going to need it. She couldn't believe it when she had gotten home late and he told her about his car. That was when she had first realized that he was not making anything up. Shortly after that, the call from the coroner's office came in, and James had sunk to the floor.
She had no idea why anybody would target James for this kind of torture, but it made her sick to think about it. James was one of the nicest people she had ever known. He was not the kind of person that got himself involved with murderers, and he would never dream of stealing from anybody. She did not understand why this creep was playing his twisted game with James like this. Why was he accusing him of stealing and then making his life a living hell?
Surely James had been asking himself these questions all alone in their apartment while she had purposely stayed away from him. She couldn't believe what a bitch she had been. She should have looked at the sincerity in his eyes, and known that she could believe everything that he said. Now as she looked at him, she felt tears rushing to her eyes, not for the loss of his mother, but for the pain that he was going through. She would not allow him to go through it alone anymore.
James squeezed back and looked at Jennifer. He wondered if she knew how alone he felt right now. He had known that she was intentionally avoiding him and using work as an excuse. He wished that she could have trusted him to tell the truth. Now she seemed to believe him, but that was not really all that astounding. If she didn't believe that he had been targeted by a psychopath after his car had been blown up and his mother had been killed, then she never would.
It felt like the killer had already taken her away from him simply because of the rift that he had formed between them. Not that somebody as deranged as the wraith would count that as an acceptable means of taking away everything that he held dear. There was no doubt that he would eventually come for her as well. James couldn't handle the thought of looking down at Jennifer's body the way that he currently looked down at his mother. He had to find some way to protect her.
He heard the coroner clear his throat and he knew that he couldn't hold off speaking any longer. He had been trying to stall. There was a lump in his throat that seemed to block off any ability to be understood. James was afraid that if he opened his mouth, something indiscernible would come out followed by childlike wailing. This was his mom after all. He swallowed and then tried his best to sound like an adult. Crying for his mommy wouldn't bring her back and he knew it.
"Yes, sir, that is my mother." James said shakily. "That is Gloria Harper."
"Thank you." The coroner said softly. He appeared to be in his early fifties, and by the sound of his voice, he had been forced to do this more times than he cared to remember. He was compassionate, and James appreciated that. There were some people that dealt with death so much that they became callous and insensitive to the feelings of others. Obviously he had not allowed that to happen. "I know that this cannot have been easy for you."
"Not remotely." James replied, suddenly feeling weak in the knees and ill at the same time. "Do you have a bathroom that I can…?"
The rest of the sentence never came out. It was replaced by vomit that spewed out of his mouth as he fell to his knees. The coroner had deftly dodged the spray, having anticipated something like that might occur. This was not his first rodeo, after all. Jennifer dropped to one knee beside James and put an arm around him
James had not been eating well ever since his encounter with the wraith, so everything that he had purged out of his system was stomach bile. This was almost worse than if he had eaten as it burned fiercely as it made its way out of his throat. The bitter, burning taste almost made him heave again, but this time he was able to force the feeling of nausea down.
"I am so sorry, let me clean that up." James muttered, completely embarrassed that he had just done that.
"Don't worry about it." The coroner said. "That is not the first time somebody has lost the contents of their stomach after seeing a dead loved one that passed before their time, and I don't think it will be the last. That is why I have cheap linoleum flooring. It is easy to clean up. I will take care of everything in here. You have done your part, now why don't you step outside of this room and see if the detective needs you for anything?"
James nodded weakly and picked himself up off the ground. He knew that Detective Sweeny was waiting out in the main office. He said that he did not need to see the body again, and would allow James what little privacy he could get as he identified her. James no longer felt squeamish about talking to the detective. It seemed as if he finally had some proof that he was not making this crap up. He hoped that the detective would be able to find this guy before anything else happened.
With Jennifer in a fully supportive role, James made his way back out to where the detective sat waiting. Sweeny looked up and saw the look of misery on the young man's face, and knew the pain that he must have been going through. He did not want to make this any worse than he had to. His heart went out to him in a way that James would probably never know. Sweeny had always made himself feel every bit of pain and anguish for both the victims and their families. Death at the hands of another person was never pretty, especially when it was done by somebody as sick as the criminal behind this.
"Was it your mom?" He asked. Sweeny felt lame for even asking the question that he already knew the answer to, but for the sake of formality, he asked anyway.
"Yes, it was." James croaked. "I can't…I can't believe what he did to her."
"We are going to get him, James. I promise you that he will be punished for what he did to your mother." Sweeny said.
"He did it to stop her from talking." James said. "I wish that I had gotten more out of her. I wish that I had called you about what she said as soon as I left. Maybe you would have been able to get over there before it was too late."
"James, it would be too easy to find a thousand ways to blame yourself for what happened." Sweeny said. "But you need to remember that you are not to blame. It is the psycho alone that is responsible for what happened, and nobody else. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir." James said, but it was clear that it was not entirely heartfelt. "Do you need me to answer any questions?"
"No, not tonight." Sweeny answered. "It is late, and you have been through a lot today. Go home and rest. I will contact you tomorrow if I need anything."
James nodded and left the coroner's office with Jennifer. Sweeny watched them go with a heavy heart. This part of the job never got any easier. Still, there was something that didn't sit right with him about the whole thing. Everything revolved around James and he needed to figure out what was going on before anybody else lost their lives. Sweeny scratched the side of his face as he thought about it.