The next day dawned in a haze of grey mist, the threat of rain hanging in the air. It was such a big change from the bright and warming sunshine that had followed me since I began this job, I couldn't help but feel it cast an ominous shadow of the days proceedings to come. I shivered much more heavily at the chill in the air as we left the Travelodge that morning, both adorned in our funeral garb, and I was thankful that my trusted leather jacket was black and fitting to wear for the day ahead.

“You ready for this?” I asked Jesse as we stood facing his car, almost reluctant to climb inside.

“No.” Jesse shook his head. “Not even close. But don't really have much choice now, do I?”

That was true, his mother had given the marching orders and all who would attend must obey. The funeral wasn't until twelve, but Maura expected Jesse and Eric, and any other close family to be at her house by half past ten. The coffin was going to be brought into the house for the family to say their own personal farewells before they would all head on to the church.

I'd never understood the appeal of an open coffin funeral, or even just a moment before the actual service. What was laying inside was just a body, a cadaver with nothing left of what made it the person it had been in life. Their soul would have moved on, hopefully to somewhere nice – I wouldn't be the first person to knock life in Hell, but I wasn't the one on the receiving end of the eternal torture offered in all the brochures. Wasn't it better to remember a loved one as they were in life and not as a cold, dead corpse, lying in a wooden box just waiting to be buried, or burned?

Maura had been hoping that I wouldn't be there for this 'touching' family moment – as a matter of fact so had I, but Jesse was obviously expected to be there, whether he wanted to be or not and he wanted me at the funeral with him. Maura's big idea had been for Jesse to come along with the family in the cars hired from the funeral directors that would follow the hearse, and I could take Jesse's car straight to the church after dropping him off. Then, of course, once I was there I would take a quiet pew in the back and mind my own business until the service and interment was over. It was a good plan really, and poor Maura had sounded so organised and determined, until she learned that I didn't know how to drive.

Jesse, on the other hand, was relieved by my lack of a drivers license. I think the thought of being stuck in a car with Eric and his mother, following the slow procession of his sisters dead body was a little too much to bear.

We arrived and the house was abuzz with activity. People I'd never met before milled around the large kitchen, the Reverend was just making his departure as we got there, needing to head to the church and make the final preparations for the service, but having come to offer his support to the family in person on his way through.

Jesse wandered off in search of his mother the instant we arrived, wanting her to know he'd turned up on time and save himself any reprimand. While I, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the mass of people all consumed in their own thoughts of grieving that they were all fairly oblivious to my presence, headed out into the garden to appreciate a moment of solitude; distancing myself from a situation I so did not belong in.

I caught sight of Eric for just a moment on my way to the door. He cast me a scathing look just as a flock of primped and perfumed ladies breezed through the kitchen carrying floral displays in their arms. Taking the moment of distraction as they passed, I slipped out through the door before Eric had the chance to say anything insulting or disapproving to me. I wasn't quite ready to face him yet.

Outside I sucked in a great lungful of fresh air, for once appreciating the chill as it helped to clear my head and order my thoughts. My only problem was I wasn't sure I really liked how they looked, all neat and logical.

How was I going to handle the day ahead? The intrigue and excitement that had started to breed inside of me the previous day had quickly started to wane the longer I thought on it. My brain had been buzzing with ideas and speculation for most of the night, I'd gotten very little in the way of sleep as the cogs in my mind wouldn't stop turning over the information I'd managed to dig up about Eric the previous afternoon.

I'd lined up all of the 'evidence' I'd gathered and realised that much of it were merely circumstantial things, was it really enough to give this man, as unpleasant as he was, motive to kill his wife, a woman he supposedly loved? Somehow, I'd started to think it wasn't.

The trouble was, I was simply convinced that it must be Eric. If he wasn't the guilty one, wasn't the intended target for Jesse's vengeance, then who in the hell was? Why had I been sent here on this fools errand if the case was going to be impossible to solve? More and more my mind started to wander back to Frank and his cryptic message, his promise of information; perhaps it would have been worth setting the Whisperer loose after all.

Still, as I saw it, I had one last chance to figure out the truth, or as much of it as I could, and that meant getting close to Eric. Easier said than done.

“Nice place to escape the chaos, isn't it?”

The voice drew my attention back, dragged it up from the mire that was my thoughts, and I looked up into the face of Jesse's father. He was seated at an elegant garden table – intricately patterned wrought iron with four matching chairs – and my lack of observation, not having noticed his presence already, surprised me. Such distraction wasn't good, not good at all. But, despite my surprise, I plastered a smile on my face and took up a seat opposite him. I'd come looking for quiet and solitude, but for some reason I didn't much mind the idea of Patrick's company. He wasn't like the others, and he reminded me a lot of his son.

“I can see why you like to escape out here,” I said, remembering Jesse said he would often slip outside to his shed, or his workshop as I suppose it acted, “though I'm surprised you were allowed to today.”

“To be honest, I'm not sure Maura has even noticed yet. I slipped out while she wasn't looking. I'm not so sure all the drama, all the activity, is quite appropriate today but, well, it keeps her distracted, and I'll take my moment of reflection where I can.”

His face wore a muddled expression. The sadness he felt was obvious in his pinched brow and down turned mouth, but his eyes held something else, something hopeful. Perhaps he hoped that once this day was over things might return to some semblance of normalcy. His wife might finally stop ignoring her emotions and living in denial, and come back to him. She'd not been there at all during their time of need, but surely she couldn't stay lost forever.

I couldn't help but feel that my own part in all of their chaos would only cause yet more drama and more pain for each of them, and I actually felt a little bad about it; for the man sitting opposite me and for his son especially.

This crisis of conscience was starting to feel all too familiar to me, and I needed to learn to ignore it. As much as the human part of me wanted to take hold, wanted to ignore my calling and perhaps even try to put down some roots somewhere, I still had a job to do, and it was for the greater good of the whole world. As small and insignificant as one life might seem on the surface, every act creates ripples that continue to grow, causing bigger waves in the grand scheme of things, and every small act leaves a mark. I knew all of the semantics, I'd learned it from the very beginning of my training in the job, it was just getting harder and harder to keep following the rules unquestioningly as the years and the cases continued to drag on.

“Yeah, I guess that's what we all have to do,” I eventually replied, casting Patrick a sad smile.

It was at that moment that Jesse chose to come bursting through the back door, frustration reading clearly all over his face.

“Dad, Mum is looking for you. She's kinda on the warpath,” he said, looking with some regret at his father. He really didn't want to send the man back in there, but also knew better than to not pass on his mothers message.

“Looks like my moment of seclusion is over,” Patrick said, forcing a smile onto his lips as he headed in to brave the storm, stopping and looking back at me for a brief moment. “Oh, and I just wanted to say thank you for being there for my boy.” He clapped Jesse on the shoulder and squeezed for a moment as Jesse smiled, “We're not much of a comfort to him as a family right now, it's nice to knew that he has a friend he can lean on.”

“Not a problem,” I muttered with some guilt creeping through into my tone. I wasn't a friend, I've always had an ulterior motive to my closeness with anyone, and yet some part of me still swelled with pride at being appreciated, it wasn't a feeling I got to experience very often. My job was really a duty, and usually fairly thankless – and there I was again, trapped in my own internal conflict. I really needed to get in under wraps or all Hell was going to break loose, literally.

“Let's get out of here. I don't care how early we get to that bloody church I just need to go now, can't stand that insanity any more.”

“Do you not want to see your sisters body? Say good bye?” I asked.

Jesse shook his head. “No, my sister is dead, seeing a body isn't going to change that. And saying goodbye is what the funeral is going to be for.”

His words actually brightened my mood slightly. It was comforting, in a strange way, to know that he felt the same about such matters.

“Well, okay then. Let's head to the church, at least we'll get the pick of the pews.” I smiled, my words light hearted in a hope to ease the situation onwards and make the car ride there a little more bearable, and maybe ease Jesse onto the subject I wanted to broach with him while we had some privacy.

The letter I'd picked up from Eric's yesterday was practically burning a hole in my jacket pocket, it was good ammunition and a good jumping off point to reach deeper into the evidence I'd been gathering and the suspicions that had been brewing in my mind. Jesse liked Eric even less than I did, he'd actually had a chance to get to know him, the seeds for vengeance were already growing for sure. But it might also be the best way to figure out how to get close enough to the guy to slip him some potion and finally learn if he really knew the truth about his wife's demise.

Oh how I was hoping that he did.