Lahat ng Kabanata ng Whispers of the Heart: Kabanata 181 - Kabanata 190

Chief Harding said he would consider my offer and discuss it with Detective Clements this afternoon. In the meantime, he would let Detective Clements know prior to the press conference starting that I would be in the crowd and to be on the lookout for anyone that seemed to be paying too much attention to me.Owen still didn’t like it, even more so now that we were here but I was insistent upon doing this. I wanted to help and I was also considering there might be information at the press conference that we were not yet aware of, either.We left Chief Harding’s office and walked back across the interior of the station to the front doors and quickly made our way toward the small crowd of people that were gathering outside. A news crew was setting up their equipment off to the side and I suddenly second guessed being here.If Chief Harding revealed the victim type, here I was front and center with a news crew that could pick me out of the crowd to try to interview. They would also see and

“What do we do?” I asked, surprisingly not as freaked out as I thought I would be. It was as if some part of me knew from last Friday night at the football game that I was the one he wanted to begin with.The diner was locked, Sheila was on her way to the hospital and I was huddled in a booth surrounded by Owen, Barb and John with Detective Clements and Chief Harding sitting in chairs they had grabbed and pulled up beside the booth.“Honestly, I don’t know.” Chief Harding answered as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Wood Haven hasn’t had a murder in years let alone a serial killer. This is beyond my scope of expertise. Clements, do you have any suggestions?”“No, sir, I don’t other than getting the experts in here as quickly as possible to take over and tell us what to do next.”“So, that’s it!” Owen said, as he banged his hand on the table. “We just sit back and let this maniac come and get Aurora?”“I didn’t say that, son.” Chief Harding answered in an attempt to ca

Owen took Nate and I out for breakfast. Since the diner was closed, we opted to just do a fast food breakfast. I order Nate and I some pancakes and couldn’t help but just sit and watch him. He loved pancakes and sat there swinging his little legs with a smile on his face as he ate, not a care in the world. I wanted to savor this moment and hoped that this crazy cruel world we were living in would allow him to remain this innocent for a long time still.I made sure it wasn’t going to ruin Owen’s plans with us having Nate with us but he insisted that Nate was a part of me and that he knew Nonna would just love him too. His consideration of Nate and the relationship the two shared was one the main reasons I was so quick to trust Owen with my heart. He knew how much that little boy meant to me and I felt like he genuinely cared about him, too.After we finished breakfast, Owen and I took Nate to the park in Urbancrest to run off some energy. Owen wanted somewhere for him to play where we c

By the time we arrived at the house, the yard was swarming with police officers. We had to weave our way through the cop cars, marked and unmarked, as we pulled in alongside them. As we climbed out, Chief Harding made his way toward us with Detective Clements and Special Agent Flemings, that we had met earlier in the week for our additional interview.“Miss Butler, Mr. Marshall,” Chief Harding greeted us with a handshake. “You both remember Special Agent Flemings? He is here to assist tonight to help us determine if this is related to the murder investigations or if this was just an unrelated event.”“And what have you found so far?” Owen asked before I had the chance to, as we shook hands with the other two.“We don’t know a whole lot, actually.” Agent Flemings answered. “I wish I had a better answer but I don’t. Whoever it was, he either didn’t know about the patrol or didn’t expect the patrol to be this early in arriving. Not knowing about the patrol would suggest a stupid criminal,

And just like that, all activity related to the killer stopped. Without any suspects, there was nothing to go on. The TBI came back with a solid imprint of the shoes found outside my apartment. Size twelve wide belonging to a Nike brand that was a very common running shoe. Nothing that stood out, whatsoever. Agent Flemings was disappointed to find my flaws in the shoes, either.We went on with our regular routine the entire month of September with no indication that there had ever even been a killer in Wood Haven. There wasn't even a sense of foreboding or impending doom right now. It didn’t take long before the state officials had to pull out, needing to focus on other cases. A week after they left with a promise to return if anything happened, Chief Harding informed us that he could no longer keep so much manpower focused on just patrol and security so the patrol cars were pulled from the diner and the house. It made everyone nervous that first week but then we just gradually accepte