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A Mother’s Tale

~Chapter Nineteen- Guilty Under Sole Circumstances

He hands her a warm cup of coffee, his eyes trained on her as she curls up on the soft cushioned chair. Her pointer finger trace idly around the surface of the mug as she seemed lost in thought, her mind drifting elsewhere.

“Mrs…Jasmine…” Howie whispers out softly, leaning against the front ledge of his office desk. “I have to head out shortly to go home…if you want I can drop you off at your place so as not to be a bother to your husband.”

Jasmine looks over at him smiling softly: “That would be sweet of you. Thank you Howie. I…I should get home too. My Eli is probably wondering where her mother could have went if she wakes up in the middle of the night. Which she tends to do at times.”

“Yeah, ok. I’ll get my keys and you can wait outside of the station.” He smiles, taking the pan of brownies in his arms along with a few manila folders. She nods and steps outside the office, exiting the police station. Inhaling the cool crisp night, she leans against the side of the brick building watching the quiet traffic of cars pass along the side of the rising highway. Standing in the quiet night, she hears the glass doors near by her coming from the station as Howie steps out, heading over to her.

“My car is parked around the back. I’ll pull up over here in a few unless you wanna walk around this station with me. Its up to you.” He smiles, heading towards the left where the parking lot is located.

Deciding to follow along, she walks besides him: “That’s alright, I’ll walk with you. I don’t mind it. I needed to clear my head that’s all. I’m glad you offered to drive me home. It’s really no big deal. I can just call my husband up so you don’t have to go through all the trouble of driving all the way across town.”

“I got no one waiting for me at home, its ok.” Howie smiles as he reaches his black sports car.

Jasmine grins sadly, eyeing the car door at the passenger side: “My son was considering getting a car like this…” She trails off, looking around.

Howie clears his throat nodding as he unlocks the driver’s side, slipping in and leans over to open the passenger side for her. Hurriedly getting in, she locks the car door and settles back in the cool leather interior. She feels the warm leather begin to stick to her skin almost as if in an embrace and she shifts around to try to accommodate herself better. Her eyes fall back on the young officer who buckles up smiling over at her direction as he starts the ignition of the car, pulling out of the lot.

“I still remember where you live surprisingly.” Howie teases, turning onto a highway, boarding it.

Jasmine smiles, leaning back in the seat: “Oh that’s a good thing right?”

“I would hope so. Cause I hate to get lost in the night with a beautiful woman and not be able to bring her back to her husband.”

She giggles, glancing over at the man eyeing him curiously. She couldn’t figure out why a nice man like that was single. She was sure some woman would be in his life. “I don’t understand why a nice man like you remains single.”

“Same here.” Howie smiles, “Guess girls like bad boys and me working on the side of good must turn off some women.”

“Well not all women. Some of us like men in uniform.” She whispers out, resting her head on the cushioned headrest.

“Yeah…guess I gotta find one that likes that. Know of any one?” Howie smirks.

Jasmine smiles, “I’ll look around and let you know. Maybe you can luck out.” She whispers out, tugging on a strand of golden hair that fell out of place.

Howie nods: “Thanks, I’ll need it.” He speeds down the highway passing cars on the lanes besides him.

Jasmine tilts her head taking the man in before her, she had to admit if she was half his age she would have attempted being slightly attracted to him not to say she didn’t already find this man nice on the eyes. She looks over his light blue police shirt and dark tie that was coming undone. She was tempted to lean over and fix it since it annoyed her when her husband left the ties like that. But restraining herself: she settles back further in her seat tugging on the seat belt.

Howie rides in silence and every once in a while would look over to her. “You can put some music if you like so we don’t have to ride in silence.”

She sits up shaking her head: “No its ok. I like the silence at times.” She drums her pink painted nails on her thigh feeling suddenly self conscious of herself as eyes pierce at her. She turns to Howie’s direction who is focused on driving as he turned his head back in time in hopes he wasn’t caught looking at her.

Almost feeling like a teenage girl at the thought of another man looking at her in an appealing matter made her feel young again. She couldn’t really recall the last time she felt that way. Since she had married young, she didn’t get a chance to date many men at all, not that she was having regrets about it. She had made a choice back then and was glad with it. However if it was happening now, she might have waited to jump into the chapel so quickly to get hitched.

She glances over at him to see him look over in concerned: “Is everything ok?”

“Oh yes, just thinking that’s all.” She responds back, trailing a hand through her flaxen locks as he pulls down their exit ramp, taking them down the familiar road of Oakland.

After a few minutes of silence, Howie props his hands on the steering wheel to take her in his glance before finally pulling up to her house. Parking in front of the house, he leaves the ignition on as he glances over to her: “Well home sweet home. You get some rest and hug little Eliez for me will ya?”

“Sure will.” She smiles, unbuckling her seat belt, her hand brisk across Howie’s upper arm as she slides off the belt. Her right hand slowly goes open the side door to get out but before she had the chance to do that, Howie leans over kissing her cheek softly.

“Hope that wasn’t too forward. I don’t want you to think I was trying to make a pass at you. I know you’re married…” Howie trails off, feeling a slight blush creep upon his cheeks.

Jasmine shakes her head softly laughing: “No its ok, its very sweet. Thank you Howie for dropping me off. Hope you enjoy the rest of the batch of brownies I gave you.”

“Oh I will, that won’t be a problem.” Howie smiles: waving at her goodbye, watching her make her way to the front of her house. Sighing, he drops his hand on the lever, shifting it to drive and pulls away from the house. Driving in deep thought, he goes through what just occurred. He felt truly sorry for the woman’s loss and he wished he could help track down the killer. He already saved the taunting letter and had sent cops over to Brian’s house. Since Brian himself seemed shady about the entire questioning process. In fact he was so close to arresting him but changed his mind since he couldn’t fully prove that the letter belonged to Brian. The only thing Brian told him was someone was trying to frame him. Howie already had a list given from Winterland on the possible suspects and he needed to start back at square one.

He goes down the block, looking back at Jasmine’s house before pulling up to a house a few houses down. Staying in the shadows, he looks at the dark house to the right of him frowning, wondering if Nick’s friends knew more than they were telling him. He taps his fingers on the steering wheel looking to see a porch light go on seeing a golden haired young woman stepping out into the porch. He narrows his eyes recognizing the woman as the one in the photo back at Nick’s apartment. Shifting in his seat, he shakes his leg impatiently as the woman wearing yellow pajama pants and a light pink camisole sit on the front swing porch talking on the phone. He exhales, leaning back watching the woman swing on the porch swing seemingly all happy about something.

He couldn’t help wonder if that woman could help him out. He tried to put the name with the face and came up with nothing. Finally coming up with a possible name, he steps out of the car and leans on the hood hidden in the shadows. He watches the woman after a few minutes hang up and call out to someone. The words were barely audible for him to understand from the distance he was at. He sits quietly on the hood, his legs drape over the front bender languidly as he remains focus on the couple across the street from him.

He sees Nick’s friend, the one first questioned crossing over to her as they embrace and laugh about something. Narrowing his eyes, he keeps a watch on them as they lovingly embrace and cuddle. Sighing and finding nothing out of the ordinary, Howie slides off the hood of his car ready to head back into his car when a car racing past him squeals to a stop before the house.

“Seems like a party…” Howie whispers to himself as a man with a goatee and dark hair slide out of a convertible with a pretty petite blonde in tow. Howie quietly goes inside his own car fumbling around looking for a pair of binoculars. Pulling it out, he adjusts the lens, placing it over his eyes as he sees the two couples more clearly now. The long legged blonde that came out of the house first was pretty on the eyes, she seemed bubbly and rather excited about something as the petite blonde goes over to her to talk. Howie watches the man with the goatee and smirks as the two men check out the women on the porch swing.

He tries to come up with names and remember the tall dark haired man name suddenly: “Damien…now what about the girl?” He pulls the binoculars away, pulling out his folder scanning over the names. “She’s Nick’s ex…or girlfriend…wow she got over him fast.” He frowns seeing a shadow lurking near the bushes of the group’s house. Howie focuses the binoculars on the shadow figure barely making out an image of a hooded man. Whoever the guy was his face was barely visible with the hoodie over him.

Howie watches the shadow figure of a man interact with the four young people as if they all seemed to be close friends. Finally the tall man opens the front door, inviting the others into the house. Keeping a close eye on the hooded man, Howie pulls the binoculars over his eyes again to look at the hooded man. He sees the two women and the tattooed man stroll into the house as the hooded man starts to follow in.

Stopping a few before entering, Howie sees the hooded man point towards his direction before disappearing inside. Blinking, Howie gulps wondering if they knew he was here. He slowly steps to his car door ready to head out before they got to curious.

Damien smiles and nodding his head, he moves aside to let Nick into the house. “Thanks for the warning…” He whispers out, jumping off the porch and going around his house.

Nick whispers calmly, once inside the house and smiles, gazing at Arianna. “Look at you. Aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

Arianna rolls her eyes, tugging on her pink camisole as she lies on her back on the sofa. “Xavier…” She snickers, saying the name.

Makenzie clears her throat watching them talk. A.J. pokes her, blowing her a kiss.

“Babe you want something to drink? D got a whole keg of liquor.” He smiles, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

“Oh no you are not drinking. I’m not dragging your drunk sorry ass home with you wasted.” Makenzie snorts, crossing her arms across her chest.

A.J. smiles resting his head on her lap: “Kenzie sweetie I’m just messing with you. I wouldn’t do that to you. Come here, give daddy some loving.”

Makenzie snickers, letting him wrap his arms around her as she watches Nick and Arianna whisper quietly huddled in the corner about something. Already Makenzie could feel something was up and she hated feeling out of the loop on things like this.

Damien whistles quietly walking around the house and through a wooded path going around the street. Smiling: he approaches the other end of the street: spotting the cop from before hand. “Well…well…well…guess Nicky boy had it right…wonder why the cop is doing around here?” He murmurs out.

Creeping up behind the police officer, he leans over whispering in the man’s ear: “Nice view from here?”

Howie blinks, startled turning around to see the young man. “Uh oh hi there.”

“Hey…so…did you get anything there?” Damien shrugs, leaning on the hood of the car.

“Look…sorry I didn’t mean to be spying on you. I just wanted to come talk to you but you seem to have company over. So I’ll stop by later.”

“Talk? I thought we already did that.” Damien whispers out, narrowing his light eyes at the man.

“Nothing wrong with some conversation. Perhaps you know of something going on with your friend. I’m sure he must have told you.” Howie leans over the threshold of the driver’s seat.

Damien shrugs, leaning back on the hood of the car: “I have a lot of friends, where are you going with this?”

“Look kid…if you know something…you would tell the police right? I mean if you were in danger you would tell me right?” Howie eyes the man who seemed to have quieted down. “You would tell one of us right? You’re not in danger of anything, I mean its not like you’re gonna get in trouble.” Howie stops, watching Damien shift uncomfortably from foot to foot.

Damien clears his throat, rolling his eyes: “You kinda ruined the moment when I was with my girl. Just to let you know, we knew you were looking…”

Howie blinks: “Oh sorry, didn’t mean anything by it. I… I’m gonna go.”

“Yeah…you do that. And hey if I know something from one of my friends I’ll make sure to pass it along to you.” Damien smiles waving off the cop as Howie slides into the car, pulling away from the scene, racing off down the road.

Smirking, Damien shakes his head and heads back inside to inform the others.
~*~

She closes her eyes, bringing her arms up to cover herself from the splashing bubbles. She looks over at Eliez laughing from the bubbles in the bathtub and smiles.

“Honey I don’t know why you made that mess when I left. And now it’s all late in the night I have to take you a bath again.” She pinches her little girl’s cheeks.

Eliez smiles: flicking the bubbles off her little chubby hands smiling proudly at her mom. “Me nice now. No more mess.” She speaks out clearly, her bright light eyes shining. “Finish. I wanna go to sleep now.”

Jasmine nods, wrapping a big fluffy white towel around her child’s body picking her up heading to the little girl’s room. Eliez cuddles her arms around her mother’s neck as she stands on her bed, her mother quickly dressing her up in her little purple gown and undies.

“Ok sweetie, I’m getting tired, I’m gonna go wash up and you get some sleep ok.” Jasmine smiles watching Eliez lie back crawling under the covers.

“K mommy night night.” She whispers out waving to her mother as Jasmine steps out, heading back to the bathroom to wash up. Eliez lies on the bed blinking, whispering out softly to herself: “Nick where are you? I see you.” She whispers out, yawning as she rolls to the side, closing her eyes for sleep.
~**~


**~To Be Continued…~**