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Unraveling Ch. 01

By: Myalyn



"You know, the roads are kind of slippery, don't you think you should slow down?" Holly watched the rain pelting against the windshield.

Her husband's knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel and continued at the same speed he'd been going. 125 km/hr in an 80 zone.

"Jason?" Holly reached over and gently touched his rock hard thigh. "What's wrong honey?"

"Nothing, nevermind." He brushed her hand away and resumed his strange demeanor.

"Well if nothing's wrong, then can you at least slow down?"

Jason checked the rearview mirror as they speedily approached a sharp turn. He continued to watch in the mirror as Holly noticed the turn coming up too fast for her comfort.

"Jason!" Holly cried and covered her eyes with both arms as she felt the car jerk to the right, catching the gravel shoulder.

Suddenly her door flew open and the next thing she knew she was tumbling down a wet muddy hill. Her legs cracked against a small tree and her body was spun around roughly. She continued to roll for what seemed like forever, crashing into rocks and little trees before she finally came to a stop in a swampy area.

The rain continued to pour down, soaking her bruised and battered body.

"Officer, I don't know what got into my wife, she just leaped out of the car on me, I didn't know what to do, I-"

"Where is your wife now?" Officer Brandon McCaul asked suspiciously.

"Oh my God, I left her there! Oh my poor Holly, I can't believe I left her!" Jason sobbed.

"Where did it happen, I mean exactly, near what intersection?"

"I don't know, we were on #62, we'd passed through Rosetown, but I don't remember if we'd passed the burger stand or the clothing outlet. I don't remember, I was just so shocked that she'd jumped." Jason sniffled loudly and rubbed his forearm across his eyes.

Officer McCaul picked up his phone and asked for a search team to try to locate the body of Holly Tansen.

"Can you think of any reason why your wife would have attempted suicide like this? Was she depressed? Did she have any extra stress in her life that she would have considered unbearable, something that would have made her not want to live anymore? Can you think of anything?"

"I don't know, I just don't know. Life was perfect for her, she had a great job, we had a ton of savings that we just used for a down payment on our dream house, we were planning our family-oh, oh no..."

"What is it Mr. Tansen? What have you remembered?"

"We were trying to have a baby. We've been trying for almost a year now and she hasn't been able to get pregnant. Oh Holly wouldn't have killed herself over that, she knew there were alternatives, no, she couldn't have..." Jason broke off into sobs again and Officer McCaul sent him home, saying he'd call him back in when they found the body of his wife.

Four hours later, Holly dragged herself into the nearest police station she could find. She'd managed to climb back up the hill and had hitched a ride with a taxi driver of all people. 

She fell into a seat and just wanted to die, her body ached so much.

"Ma'am, what happened to you, are you okay? Ma'am, what's your name?"

Holly looked up into clear blue eyes, caring eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but all she could do was cry. She just cried, harder than she ever had in her entire life.

The officer that had approached her looked at her torn, muddy clothes, noticing the blood covered shoe and her other foot that was missing a shoe. He immediately called an ambulance and went with her as she was whisked away to the hospital.

"W-who are you?" she asked gruffly, her throat sore.

"I'm Officer Brandon McCaul. I'm the one that found you when you pretty much crawled into the police station. What's your name?"

"H-holly, Holly Tansen." she managed weakly.

"Holly, can you tell me what happened to you? Do you remember how you got to be so muddy and bruised?"

"He was going too fast, I told him to slow down, but he wouldn't, he just kept speeding, and then the car started to go off the road...I don't know, I think he pushed me, I think he shoved me right out of the car! Why would he do that?" Holly started to cry again.

Officer McCaul took her hand in his and held it gently.

"It's okay, don't worry, everything will be okay," he murmured awkwardly, trying to console the distraught woman in front of him. He wasn't sure why, but he felt she needed him more than anything right then, but he didn't know how to be there for her. 

He kept telling her it would be okay, but would it? Had her husband really tried to kill her? 

"I'm sorry, I just-" Holly tried to speak, but her throat was so thick that she couldn't so she just kept crying. The officer with her was holding her hand, and he was saying something incoherent.

Suddenly she felt so safe, so secure. Suddenly she wasn't afraid of Jason anymore, she was just pissed right off at him. What in the world was his problem, trying to kill a perfectly good wife?

"Officer? Um, my husband, did he go to the police at all?" Holly asked, as she sat up slightly and rubbed the tears from her face.

"I'm sorry? Um, what's your husband's name?" Officer McCaul didn't want to admit anything before he got her statement, so he could compare the two, and try to determine who was lying. He was sure it wasn't the woman in the hospital bed, crying her eyes out. How could anyone do something so awful to such a beautiful woman? And from what he could guess, a caring, trusting person.

"Jason, Jason Tansen. I doubt if he did. I don't know what really happened, I mean, I could've just fallen out, although I don't know how since I was wearing my seatbelt. I can't imagine him trying to kill me, I can't possibly think of any reason he would want to do something that drastic, but I really don't think I fell out of that car. And he was so out of it. Maybe he just planned it when it happened, I can't see him planning this for months, because it obviously wasn't that well planned out, I'm not dead." Holly felt better now that she'd told the police officer what she knew. She didn't figure Jason would've gone to the police, it would look too suspicious, he never was a very good liar, to her anyway, she always caught him right in the middle of his lies. What on earth was he thinking?

"I don't know, if he did, there are about a dozen different officers that could've taken his statement, I'll have to look into it for you." Officer McCaul stood up and went over to the window. He looked out and noticed that the rain had finally stopped and the clouds looked less angry. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he turned to face the woman he'd already found himself having feelings about.

"So, is somebody going to go and arrest him? He did try to kill me." Holly pointed out as she struggled to sit herself up more.

Officer McCaul was at her side instantly, assisting her in propping her pillows up behind her, and putting an arm around her waist, he slid her back more against the pillows.

Holly put her hand on his as his arm lingered around her waist a little longer than was decent.

"Could you just hold me for a minute? I just need somebody to hold me." She looked up into his eyes, pleading with him to agree.

He didn't move. He wanted to wrap his other arm around her and tell her that she was safe and that she never had to worry about anything ever again, he would take care of her, but he didn't. He just stayed as he was, with his one arm partially around her, and tangled his fingers in hers as she nudged him into doing so.

"I'll stay here as long as you want me to." He whispered and rested his chin on top of her head. She murmured something he couldn't hear, but took it as an agreement to his statement.

"Just don't leave me." She repeated when he didn't answer the first time she'd said it.

"I won't, don't worry."

The next day, Holly woke to find a large bouquet of carnations and other flowers in a green vase on her bedside table. The aroma of the flowers filled her private hospital room and it smelled great, it no longer stunk of alcohol and sterilization. She felt better than she had the day before, and her leg seemed to hurt even less.

She looked around her room to find her breakfast tray already there for her. She wiggled into a sitting position and pulled the rolling table closer to examine her breakfast.

It looked like what should have been two eggs over easy, but they looked a little mashed, and there were two strips of bacon, maybe. She wasn't sure. Of course there were two slices of brown toast and butter, and a hot cup of tea. She decided not to attack the eggs and whatever the meat type stuff was and just ate her toast and drank her tea.

When the nurse came in to take her tray about an hour later, she brought a large manila envelope for Holly. Holly waited until the nurse was gone before she opened it. It only said her name on the front in neat handwriting.

It was the police report from her husband's statement, as well as the statement Officer McCaul had pieced together from what she had told him the day before. She read them over and could not believe what she was reading. First of all, there was no name on her report, it only said 'Jane Doe', and second, Jason had claimed she'd jumped from the car, committed suicide. It also said he'd been crying uncontrollably and seemed to be telling the truth, there wasn't anything in his voice to suggest otherwise.

Her phone rang just then, but she didn't know whether or not she should pick it up. Who could it be, calling her? Nobody knew she was there, except-

"Hello?"

"Holly, it's Officer McCaul, how are you this morning?"

"I'm feeling better, thank you."

"Good, glad to hear it, did you get the envelope I left for you?"

"Yes, and I got the flowers too, that is if it was you that left them." She teased, knowing it had to be him.

"Yeah, well, I figured they might cheer you up. Anyway, I need you to do something for me. I'll be over in a little while, but in the meantime, I need you to try and think of any signs you might have seen in your husband that could be possible signs of planning what he did. If he was usually happy, but suddenly turned not so happy with no reasonable explanation, things like that. I need you to write down anything you can, so that when we interview him tomorrow, we can use those things against him, do you understand what I'm asking?"

"Yeah, but I really can't think of anything. The only time I thought something was bothering him was yesterday in the car, a few minutes before-, before he-" She trailed off, couldn't speak the words that called her husband a murderer.

"I know, I understand. But just try to think, anything even so little that might have seemed out of the ordinary can help us. Do your best, I'll see you in a little while." Officer McCaul hung up.

Holly stared at the phone dumbly. There were no signs, he'd just cracked all of a sudden yesterday. She tried to think of something, anything that should have tipped her off, but nothing.

What about his ex-wife? He never ever wanted to talk about her. What had he said happened to her? Wasn't it a boating accident? She'd fallen out of the boat, couldn't swim, Jason couldn't swim either? She'd drowned. How awful. It made sense why he never wanted to talk about it, but what did that have to do with her? Nothing. Why had she even thought about Pamela? Holly realized she'd never even seen a picture of her. Jason had no pictures, no momentos of his first wife. He'd said he'd loved her more than the world and hated himself for her death, blaming it on himself. Holly shook her head. No, that wasn't possible. Her death was an accident. Holly's accident wasn't one. Her fall from the car was a push or shove. And it was deliberate. Pamela couldn't swim, Jason couldn't swim. It was just an accident. Wasn't it?

Holly stared at the clock on the wall at end of her bed. She watched the minute hand go around and around and around.

"Holly? Are you awake?" It was Officer McCaul's voice.

Holly opened her eyes and looked towards the door to her room.

"Yeah, come on in." She pulled her blankets up to her neck and let them slide back down a little. She felt naked, she felt so stupid and vulnerable. She tried to tell herself that Jason wasn't a murderer over and over, but she just didn't believe herself.

"How are you feeling? Any better than this morning?" Officer McCaul sat on the edge of the seat beside her bed.

"No, worse actually." She answered honestly.

****

Part Two coming soon!!!

PLEASE, OH PLEASE comment on this for me! I need to know if I'm on the right track with my writing... are my characters believable/lovable/real? Let me know what you think! Public or private comments... either way, tell me how I'm doing!

Thanks!!!

Myalyn

Unraveling Ch. 02



Brandon McCaul looked at the woman in front of him, the grown up version of the girl he used to know years ago in high school. She was so sure of herself back then, so smart and caring. How could she have gotten herself into a situation like this? She must have had some issues, but they never showed back in school. He remembered her on stage, acting in the plays; he rememered her at the dances, was never without a dance partner; he remembered her tutoring him in math, how quick she was with problem solving; he wondered what had happened to that perfect girl from years ago...

Her bright green eyes were still there, and her gorgeous thick brown hair. She'd added a hint of reddish streaks in it since then, but it was still the same long hair he'd wanted to touch for so long. Her body had grown too, she'd filled out nicely, her breasts were very full now. He remembered measuring his hand on them from across the room, watching her on stage one night. He figured they'd just overflow his fingertips then, now they would take two hands to cup them comfortably. Her skin was white and creamy, her arms showed a bit more meat on them now than he could remember back then, so she'd added a couple pounds but she wore them well. Her hips curved out nicely and her stomach and waist were still slender. She was just stunning to him, despite the bruises and scratches of her recent mishap.

He'd done some research at the precinct the night before, to find out about Holly Tansen, nee Grace's, past. He'd known from the second he saw her that it was Holly Grace from high school, but he had to make sure. Everything he could do to help her would change everything for him. He finally had a chance with her if his suspicions were correct. He found out that Jason was her first marriage, and that she was no longer working at a job she'd been at for eight years. He'd thought it strange that someone like Holly would just up and quit her job, unless something else was going on that he hadn't discovered yet.

Holly stared back at Officer McCaul. His face was so calm and yet she could sense a feeling of loneliness or loss of something in his eyes. His perfect blue eyes. For a moment her mind flickered back to years before she'd met Jason, back when she was in school, those eyes looked so familiar to her for a split second and then the memory vanished.

She studied his face, his little crinkles next to his eyes, his strong nose, his full lips...

"Holly?"

Holly snapped out of her daze and blinked.

"Yeah?"

"You okay? You look perplexed." Officer McCaul's voice was so soothing. Reminded her of someone, but sounded deeper.

"Mmmhmm, I'm fine. Just trying to remember things." Holly's voice sounded distant to Brandon.

He wondered if she remembered him. He wondered if she still had the 'secret admirer' letter's he'd sent to her, if she'd even kept the roses on those Valentine's Days.

"Okay, well I had some questions for you, do you think , you're up for it?"

"Sure, I'm fine, really." Holly lifted a hand to brush her thick brown hair of the side of her face. "Go ahead, ask away."

"Well, first of all, I wanted to see what else you may remember from the day before the accident."

"Accident? That's what you're calling it?" Holly gasped in suprise.

"For argument's sake, until we can one hundred percent confirm everything, it leaves no bias that way, that's all." Officer McCaul was very apologetic and reached out to touch Holly's hand to comfort her.

"Okay, well, the day before the accident, um, let's see..." Holly thought for a second, running a finger through the ends of her hair nervously. "Well, if I start from the morning, Jason got up and left for work before I got out of bed, which is normal. I got up at seven and made the bed. Then I went downstairs and put a load of laundry in, and had my breakfast. When the laundry was done, I hung all of Jason's shirts out on the line and then had a shower. After that, um, I guess I sat down at the computer for a bit." Holly scratched her hand where the IV was attached, irritated at the fact that she had to be confined to this hospital bed.

"You left for work after that?" Officer McCaul prompted.

"Um, no, I'm not working right now." Holly's gaze lowered to her hands and she fidgeted nervously again.

"Okay, that's no big deal, what happened next?"

"No big deal? I lost my job! I lived for my job, I was up for a promotion, but in order to get it, I had to stay late some nights and Jason had to make his own supper and he'd call my work to ask where I was and my boss would tell me to go home and look after my husband, and Jason had burnt the butter on the frying pan and it was smokey all over and I thought the kitchen was on fire!" The words spilled from Holly's mouth uncontrollably, they weren't thought out, they were just blurted before she could even stop them.

"He can't cook for himself?" Brandon hadn't meant for it to be spoken aloud, but it just hit him in the face so hard. He had lived on his own for seven years now and he thought himself a pretty good cook. What guy can't cook to save his life? It didn't make sense to him at all.

"No, I have always cooked for him, and before that his mother took care of him. He needed me at home to make supper and he missed me so much that he'd call work to ask how much longer I'd be, and my boss used to tell me just to go. There was no way I was going to get that promotion I was working so hard for, and then one day, my boss called me into his office, told me the position had been filled and that regrettably, he didn't need me anymore. It didn't make any sense at all, I was an asset to the company - he'd told me that himself. How could they not need me anymore?" Holly's eyes filled with tears as her bad memories came flooding back to her.

Brandon moved closer to her and offered his shoulder for her to cry on. She took it without hesitation. He was the only person in her world that she could trust right now, and she needed him to help her get away from her murderous husband.

Brandon's hands rubbed gently up and down Holly's hospital gowned back. The ties were tied loosely and patches of her pale skin peeked through. His fingertips brushed the bare skin momentarily and then on the second pass, lingered a bit longer.

Holly inhaled deeply to try to quell her tears, and a familiar scent filled her senses. She remembered that cologne, but from where? She couldn't place it, but she knew she trusted that scent at one point in her life before and it comforted her that her officer smelled so trustworthy.

"Is there anything else you can think of that happened the day before? Or even a week or so ago, anything that seemed out of place, or not quite right?" Brandon prodded. He needed to get this investigation underway properly soon if he was going to free this poor woman from her murderous husband.

"I don't know. Everything was always perfect. I can't think of anything that might have upset him to do this."

"Holly, do you have children?" He asked, remembering what Jason had told him in the police station about them trying toget pregnant.

"No, I don't. I can't get pregnant. We've been trying for a long time now, but nothing's working and we can't really afford to pay the big money to the specialists right now." Holly took a deep breath and tried to relax but thinking about all the things that had gone wrong in her life started to upset her more.

"Okay, would that have made him mad at you? Have you fought about the infertility?" He hated to ask her, he could see what it was doing to her, but if she didn't let go of the secret she was holding onto, he'd never find out the truth.

"No, we never argued about it. We cried a lot. Jason blamed it on me, said it was my long hours at work, stressing me out to the point where a baby wouldn't want to come into my life." Tears started to well up in her eyes again and Brandon reached over an instinctively wiped her tears away.

Holly smiled at him weakly.

"Well, people don't usually just snap like that, there's got to be something that's upset him to the point of trying to kill you." Officer McCaul was at a loss. He didn't know what else to ask her, what else to get her to think about.

"I don't know what to tell you Officer, I really don't." Holly looked up into his caring blue eyes and tried to force another smile. It came out lopsided and she could feel it.

"It's okay Holly, don't worry, I know you've been through a lot. Right now you just need to rest. How about if I come back later and we'll chat again this afternoon?" Brandon stood up, not wanting to leave her, but knowing he had an investigation to finish.

"Okay, sure. I could use a nap right about now." Holly nodded.

Brandon studied her face for a moment before leaving the hospital room.

Holly laid her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes. Sleep would help her mind clear. 

Officer McCaul drove away from the hospital and started typing into his computer. He had decided to go and fire another line of questioning at Mr. Jason Tansen. He had some new thoughts after coming away from the conversation with Holly. He wanted to check out the vehicle for himself too. see if there were any faulty parts on the latch of the door and seatbelt. Brandon really wanted to believe Holly, but he needed to be sure.

Holly's dreams were filled with visions of the accident. She could see Jason's white knuckles as they gripped the wheel. She could see the curve coming up and saw her own reflection in the window. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. But she didn't remember crying. She could see the embankment where she would roll down. Her fingers gripped the sides of the seat as the car started to catch the gravel side of the road. She watched the door open beside her, and she felt her seatbelt come off. She tried to look at Jason, tried to see where his hands were. They were both on the steering wheel.

Holly jolted awake. Did she really just see what she thought she did?

"Oh God." 

Holly grabbed the buzzer for the nurse.

"Yes Ms. Tansen?"

"I need you to hold all my calls and visits from the officer please. I really don't feel very good at all right now."

"Is there anything I can get for you?"

"Maybe some Gravol, I think I'm going to be sick."

"Right away." The nurse clicked off and Holly put her hands to her mouth. 

Holly could feel her stomach churning and she tried to think. What had she been thinking before she started bugging Jason about his driving. What had they been talking about, if anything. What did she have for breakfast that day?

Suddenly Holly realized she could remember nothing from the day of the accident except the accident itself. But even some details there were foggy. Or she kept them foggy. Couldn't make herself remember.

Wouldn't.

The nurse arrived with the requested medication and a glass of cool water for Holly.

"You look very pale, here, let me check your vitals." The nurse reached for Holly's wrist to check her pulse.

"NO, its okay, I'm just having some bad dreams right now. I'll be okay." Holly jerked her hand away from the nurse and she shrugged.

"Okay, if you say so. If you need anything else, I'll be right on the end of your buzzer again." The nurse watched Holly's eyes for a minute and then left. She wrote on a chart hanging on Holly's door.

'Psychiatric treatment strongly recommended.'

****

I know, I know, it's way too short... but it gets you thinking now doesn't it? I'm working on the next part, just trying to get some details sorted out to make them realistic enough... Keep reading, I'll be back with more soon... Hard to keep up with all these stories at once, I get going & forget I have a life.. oh wait, I've got kids, my life is no longer. LOL Myalyn