Chapter One

Seeing his car in the driveway, Jayme knew Scott was home as she pulled into the driveway, parking behind him. Knowing he should still be at work, Jayme wondered why he was home. The mid-autumn sun was pouring onto the trees, making their colors more vivid. With her hands full of groceries, Jayme managed to open the door, then pushed it shut with her foot.

“Scott?” Jayme called out.

Setting the items on the counter, she put the milk in the refrigerator. Then the cheese and sour cream she purchased. “Scott?” She called out again as she left the kitchen and began to search the house for him.

Thinking it was strange that he didn’t answer, she assumed he may be in the shower. But the bathrooms were empty. Knowing he had devoted all of his time into completing the nursery before the baby came, Jayme opened the door but did not find him there either.

“Scott?” She called out again but there was no answer. She began to think that maybe he wasn’t home.

Opening the door to his office, she immediately noticed everything out of place as if there were a scuffle in the room. As she reached down to pick a picture frame up off the floor, she saw his foot. Instantly, a bad feeling came over her as she walked around the desk and found him laying on the floor. There was a large pool of blood laying beneath her head.

Initially, she screamed and panicked. Then she spoke his name, already knowing he wouldn’t answer. Through all her nursing training, it never taught her how to deal with this, the sudden death of a very close loved one. But by the way the scene was looking, it clearly involved foul play.

Her hands were shaking as she reached to feel for a pulse. His body was cold to the touch and she knew he had been there, dead, all day. His appearance was pale and he was already bloated. She could see the entrance wound where the bullet went in and knew the exit would was much worse. Having been an emergency room nurse for five years already, she realized that she was looking at her dead husband and there was no bringing him back.

Although she was used to seeing gory details of mangled or murdered bodies, this was her husband and she was in emotional shock. Knowing she needed to call the ambulance, she looked away from him and reached for the phone on the desk. Reporting the discovery, Jayme cried to the woman on the other end.

Soon, her house was filling with policemen and detectives, one escorted her out of the house and began to question her. Jayme answered all their questions to the best of her knowledge but there were still unanswered questions. Many of them.

Sitting in one of the police cars, Jayme wrote her full statement of her gruesome discovery. When she finished, she located her cell phone and called her parents. They were shocked and worried about their daughter, who was already seven months pregnant. They feared the perpetrator was still in the area and he would come after her. They insisted on bringing her back home, where she grew up, in Hillman.

As the hours passed through the intense investigation, the sun had set and dipped below the horizon. Jayme’s parents had arrived and she was waiting for the officer to end the investigation so she could gather some belongings to take to her parents with her. Jayme’s parents would not let her drive after the trauma of losing her husband.

After gathering some clothes, she went into the bathroom to gather her hair brush, tooth brush and other items. Looking up, she released her long, curly, brown hair, which had been pulled back and wrapped into a bun. It looked straggly and needed to be brushed. Her cheeks were stained white from the tears that she had been crying since the moment she found him dead.

She quickly changed out of her nursing uniform and slipped into a pair of sweat pants and a hoodie that covered her long-sleeved t-shirt. Sitting on the toilet, she slipped on her walking shoes and tied them. Gathering her things, she carried the heavy suitcase down the stairs and out the door.

“Good heavens, Jayme, you don’t need to be carrying that, it looks heavy.” Her father, Simon, said and took it from her hand.

“Come on, don’t forget to lock the door…” Jayme’s mother, Paige, said and followed Jayme out the door.

Laying across the back seat, Jayme cried uncontrollably. Not only was she devastated over the loss of her husband, she realized she would be alone in the raising of their child. Although she would have the help and support of her parents, they were still an hour away from her home. She worried about having the financial stability.

As they arrived home, Jayme went straight to her old bedroom where she laid on her bed and continued to cry. She felt weak, tired, and nauseated from the devastation she endured. Intermittently, her parents would come upstairs and check on her. It was merely an hour she laid there before she cried herself to sleep.

Hoping it was all just a bad dream, Jayme was hesitant to open her eyes in the morning. But when she saw that she was in her old bedroom at home, she knew it was her tragic reality. Still, she felt nauseated but her stomach was growling.

Stepping down the fifteen steps, Jayme knew her parents were both already at work when the house was quiet and empty. Entering the kitchen, Jayme looked for anything she could eat instantly, without having to cook. Seeing the fresh fruit in the basket, she grabbed an apple, a banana, and an orange and took them to the living room.

Sitting on the couch, she grabbed the small trashcan beside the couch and used it to throw her banana and orange peels away. Watching the news, Jayme saw a story about a woman who had been reported missing that morning. She was from Greenville, a town neighboring Silver Creek, where Jayme and Scott lived.

The woman was a twenty three year old, with two children. It was a woman who worked with Scott and Jayme wondered if the murder and missing persons reports were related. Wanted for questioning, Jimmy, Kelly’s husband, has been unreachable. Showing a picture of him on TV, Jayme knew she had never seen the man. He was rough looking, with an untrimmed beard and mustache. His eyes were hazel but he had a familiar look to him.

The report said the woman had been missing for two days before being reported. It was usual for her to not come home on occasion but never more than one night. When she hadn’t returned home the second night, her husband reported her missing. The last anyone had seen her was at work two days ago. From the time she left work at five in the evening, she hadn’t been seen since.

Despite whether or not the two were related, Jayme found the coincidence very strange. As the story came to and end, Jayme flipped through the channels, looking for something that was more interesting. Settling on a crime drama, she set down the remote and tried to relax as she ate her fruit.

By the time her mother arrived home, Jayme had went stir-crazy, being alone in the house all day. She needed to get out, do something to occupy her mind. Seeing Jayme in her present state, Paige suggested they go shopping. She wanted to splurge on her first grandchild, even if it hadn’t been born yet. However, Jayme, and Scott, had decided to wait until birth to learn the baby’s gender.

Traveling twenty miles farther to a larger city, they visited a store specifically for kids and babies. There wasn’t much that Jayme needed, she already had the crib, changing table and rocking chair placed in her nursery. She was more in need of clothes, diapers, and other accessories.

After her mother spent close to five hundred dollars, they left the store and returned home, carrying the items into the house. However, Paige would not allow Jayme to carry in any items that weighed more than twenty pounds. They purchased gender-neutral clothing, toys and other items that Jayme would need from birth to six months.

Waiting for Simon to return, Jayme and Paige agreed to go out for dinner. Neither felt like cooking. Returning home at just after four, Simon agreed, also, to go to dinner. The three of them climbed into Simon’s car and left the premises.

During dinner, they spoke of Garrett, Jayme’s brother. He lived over six hundred miles from them and was planning on visiting the first week of November, which was just two weeks away. They also spoke about Jayme moving back to her home town. Jayme informed them that they had just purchased the house Scott was murdered in. They had only lived there for six months, just after their wedding.

To Jayme, being home felt like extreme comfort, especially in her time of trauma. There is no where else she would rather be. She knew it would be difficult to return to the house where her and Scott lived. But she knew eventually, she would have to go back, and it would be sooner than later.