Martha walked Teegan to his bed.  He may be young, but he acted like a wise old man trapped in a kid’s body.  Instead of confiding in Anne, maybe she should confide in her son. She should give him more credit that she does for understanding life more than a normal nine year old.  He knew about the birds and the bees, he knew about finances and the importance of having a job, he knew how to be responsible, he knew how to respect his elders and everyone around him.  He was a great kid and Martha didn’t know what she did to deserve him.

Martha took a deep breath and started spilling the beans.  She paid close attention to Teegan’s reactions in case she needed to stop.  Teegan nodded and asked questions at the right moments. Martha left out the part about her being pregnant.  She was already telling Teegan a lot of information, adding another member of the family was just too much.

“I am sorry this is happening Teegan, but I am going to fix it.  I can promise you that you are safe. I am not going to ever leave you until this is over with.  I am not going to leave until they find out who is after us and that person is caught.”

“Where is Dad?”  Teegan asked. “I want to talk to Dad.”

Martha figured she was being honest already she might as well continue the streak. “I don’t know where Dad is.  He left about ten minutes ago and he didn’t tell me where he was going. I am sure he will be back before dark. Anything you want to tell me?”

“I just wanted to ask if he killed Mr. Garbel.”  Teegan’s face was back to being expressionless. Martha hated when he kept his feelings to himself, but she knew she had to support him and the way he was.

“Dad did not kill Rich… Mr. Garbel.  It was wrong of me to ask him in the first place.  There are just so many things going on and it is really stressful.  I will apologize and fix it. We just need some time for things to calm down and for the killer to be caught.  Do you want to come with me to Anne’s apartment?” Martha started to get up to walk down to her neighbor’s.

“Mom?”  Teegan was looking at his hands.  “Why have you been getting sick so much lately?”

Martha didn’t want to tell Teegan about the baby.  The last time he never found out and it was lost. She didn’t want to get his hopes up of him possibly getting another brother, or maybe a sister.

“It’s just the stress, Teegan.  My body doesn’t handle it very well.”  Martha tried to smile at Teegan, assuring him that she was OK.  

“I don’t want to go to Anne’s house, she is going to try and make me eat again.  I just don’t want to, but I don’t know how to tell her to leave me alone without being mean about.”

“I will talk to Anne for you.  She did make some protein bars for you if you want to try them.  No pressure, OK?”

“Thanks, mom.  I love you.”

Five minutes later, Martha was headed down the stairs towards Anne’s apartment.  She didn’t know how she was going to tell Anne about everything that was going on.  She wished Jasper were here to help her. Where did he go? Did he go to a hotel like he said?  Martha didn’t have her phone so she couldn’t call him. Should she start calling all of the local hotels asking for him?  Would that make Jasper thing she was more crazy? She would ask Anne for advice.

She got to her front door and knocked.  No answer. She tried knocking again and waited a few minutes.  Still no answer. She just got home with Teegan, how could she be gone already?  Martha looked at her watch and realized that it had been almost an hour since they got home.  Maybe she ran out to get some errands done. Martha turned to head back upstairs.

“Martha?”  Anne was coming down the hallway.  She looked out of breath and sweaty.  Her sunglasses perched on top of her head and she was trying to shove a hat into her bag.  “What are you doing here? Has Teegan tried my protein bars yet? I was trying to get him to eat while we were gone, but he just nibbled on a little bit of popcorn.”

“Yeah, about that.  He wants you to stop bugging him about eating.  He didn’t want to upset you by telling you himself.”

Anne looked disappointed.

“Anyways, I came here to tell you that Jasper and I found Richard. Umm… can I come inside?”

Anne was in tears.  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing from Martha.

“Who would want to murder Richard?”

“I guess it was the person who knew about…” Martha took a deep breath, “our affair.”  The words spilled out like an avalanche. Martha waited for Anne to scold her, to tell her that she was the worst person in the world for doing that to Richard, but she didn’t.  

“Oh Martha, I already knew all about that.”  Anne’s tears suddenly stopped and a grin formed across her face. She turned to look out the window trying to avoid Martha’s stunned reaction.

Martha was shocked beyond belief.  She was sure that no one knew except her and Richard, until recently of course.

“How did you find out?  How did you know?” Martha needed to know how she had messed up in hiding her affair.  She thought she had been extremely discreet.

“Oh, Martha.  It wasn’t hard to figure out.  You going into his office at odd times of the day and coming out looking like a new woman.  I could see it all over your face. It is a shame that he is gone now.”

“Yes, it is a shame.  Do you know if he had any enemies?  Anyone that would want to hurt him? Or hurt my family?  Anne I need to know anything that you know. I need to protect the rest of my family.  Someone is following me in a white rusted out truck. The same truck that was found in the river two miles down the road.  Do you know anything about that?”

“I know as much as you Martha.”

Martha left Anne’s apartment.  She hadn’t gotten any further than before she went there.  She felt like she wasted her time. The only thing she found out was that her affair wasn’t as secretive as she thought.  

She headed back upstairs to lay down.  Maybe play some video games with Teegan to get her mind off of things, but she was going to attempt to make dinner.  Perhaps Teegan would eat if she made him his favorite food. Macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs in it.

“Teegan!” she called up the stairs.  No answer. “Teegan!” she tried again.  Still no answer. Martha headed up the stairs to see what he was up to.  She hoped everything was OK. She had left him alone for a half hour, even though she told herself that she wouldn’t.  She was right downstairs, if anything happened, Teegan would have come to get her.

Taking one step at a time up the steps, Martha started whispering Teegan’s name.  She had an eerie feeling that something was wrong.

“Teegan, are you up here?”  She walked past his room, his door was open but he wasn’t inside.  Where did he go? Has someone taken him? Did the figure come in the apartment while she was downstairs?

Martha’s heart started to pound.  Her anxiety level was spiking again.  She tried to slow her beat down, thinking about the baby. Stress was the worst thing during the first trimester of pregnancy.  Teegan just might in the bathroom with his headphones up too loud. Martha made her way to the bathroom, empty. Brick wasn’t even laying in his favorite spot.  She went farther down the hall and noticed that Carter’s door was open. Martha had closed it the day of his funeral and that’s the way it stayed since then.

“Teegan?”  Martha tried one more attempt and turned to go into Carter’s room.  She saw Teegan lying on the floor crying into his knees. Martha ran into Carter’s room to comfort Teegan.  “Teegan, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Teegan got up and sat in Martha’s lap.  Teegan was shaking uncontrollably.

“Mom, something happened to Brick.  We need to help him”

“Where is Brick?”