Let's Write- Day 28

Well, it is the second day of February.  

Punxsutawney Phil decided TODAY that there will be 

six more weeks of winter. 

Well, not exactly what we were planning on hearing..right!  I always say that it is an oxymoron anyways because what is the difference between 6 more weeks of winter or 6 more weeks till spring? RIGHT!

Hubby's car buried!

SnowPlow taken hostage!

Anyways, it is COLD, WINDY, and SNOW DRIFTS line our driveway, making schools closed, businesses closed and in our case, our cars stuck in the driveway!  Hubby went out and snowplowed last night around 4P and again after 11P and yet, this morning, the snow blower looks like this:

How are we all doing with the Writing Challenge? 

We are coming to the end.  I will be sad to stop this write on command style because I think that it has really taught me to think outside of the box and on the fly, so to speak, with what word is next and how I might incorporate within the story. 

Let's get to it!

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Writing Challenge word of the day:

WINDOW

I stepped back as I realized the ramifications of what had just happened. It had to happen, it had been building up, that much I now knew. It was meant to happen, but not here, not like this.  I grabbed his arm, showing him it was OK, I was OK.  He smiled at me, melting a part of me as he walked over to grab some files off of his desk in the other room. I looked around to see if we had been spotted, found out- but to my surprise, the office was rather dead and those who were present were preoccupied by duties and their own workload. Before I moved, I took one more pass to see if anyone acted as if they knew, without anything suspicious jumping out at me. 

"Captain." I said as I left the confines of the hall in which we had been when it happened. 

"Kat." he said in his jolly way, a smile beaming a crossed his reddened face. "Are we feeling better?"

"Yes Sir." I replied in my matter-of-fact tone that I usually had while in the office. "Feeling better and determined."

He looked at me, his smile fading. "Kat, you know that we are over a month out on this case. You know what the chances are of catching the person who did this.  It is getting grim, I don't want to say that, but it is my duty to be honest with you."

"Yes, Captain. I understand that fact, but there are avenues that have not been investigated yet. There are things that have been missed and information that was overlooked." 

"What are you eluding to? Someone on our department is not doing their job?"

"Right. Me. I have been so emotional, so overwhelmed that I have been skipping steps and missing the attention to detail part of my position."

"Kat, this hit close to home. I am objective to even having you work this case, be involved any more than a family member and this is the reason."

"I understand. I honestly do.  I see it from that point but recently things have been odd, strange and I am kind of disappointed that others did not see the clues."

"Like what?"

"Like, who shot me?  Why is the person's who had grown up in that house, who has direct ties to both myself and my sister, is not a suspect at this point and time."

"Whom are we discussing?" 

"Daniel Greer, for instance." 

"Kat, we have no reason to bring him in.  He was not with his wife at the time of her demise.  His alibi checked out, witnesses of three correlated his same story. Background check does not show anything to throw a red flag.  He is clean."

"How far did you dig?"

He looked at me, starring for a long moment. "Why do I have the feeling that there is more than what we can see?"

As if he were looking at a window, I reached for the arms of the chair to my right. I felt faint. I needed to sit as I relieved a story that I had just told to Mac, I had to account for my personal actions in a life that was far in the past. 

"How far back did you check?"

"We went back five years." 

"Did you come to the records of our marriage? Our divorce decree?"

"Marriage?  Kat, you were married to your Sister's husband?"

"My sister was married to my ex-husband, Sir. I had not known, and surly would have stopped her for reasons that would not be on any log." 

I had his attention now. 

"I had married Danny straight out of high school.  We had been young, to young for married life."  I had to retell my previous life, to be subject to the scrutinizing from my Superior. I sat back, letting him process the information, the details, as I had told them, as I remembered them. 

"Kat." he finally said.  "I am worried about disclosing this information, for obvious reasons! First, the media will have a field day with this. You and I both know this. They will flip this into a lover's quarrel or perhaps a jealous sister's rage."

I stopped in my tracks. I had not thought of this. I had not even processed the repercussions of disclosing this. "I didn't" is all I could say.

"I know. You want to paint a picture of his character, and I get that, but we will have to go about it in another way."

"Where was he when I was shot?"

This was the struggle. I was not dead, so it seemed that that fact was making the department suffer when it came to determining if a person was to be brought in for questioning, or if their deflated alibi was enough.  Once thing was for sure, a sorry story about being at the house where his late wife had tragically died, at the same time that I was shot and bleeding was not good enough, especially since there had been no witnesses to back up his story. I knew what I had to do. Find Mac.

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Channeling a Writer- Day 27

Writing Challenge WORD OF THE DAY:

They say that there are seven deadly sins in life. Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride.  They say that SIN is what separates us from God.  How does one person have more Sins than another? 

It was a new day, a new chapter. I felt so much lighter than I had yesterday. It always seemed that way when you expel something that you have hung onto for far to long.  

Our case was still wide open, that clock ticking as each new day past with nothing new on the table.  It seemed that Danny was an expert as hiding. This fact was something that did not surprise me. He did have an affair while still married to me and was obviously hiding the fact that he had murdered his pregnant wife, who just happened to be my baby sister. 

The results of the pregnancy test came back positive late last night.  The call came through, as I was laying on the couch in the comforts of my home, alone. Mac had left just after midnight, after I had laid the emotional bombshell on him.  I studied my notes for a few more hours before calling it a night, only to be woken by my phone shortly after I had finally drifted. I called Mac, waking him from his sleep. He was a cop, through and through. "Let's head to the station. I will be there to pick you up in a few." he had hung up before I could object. 

We headed in to find the results of a test that I already knew was positive, although I wished it were not. 

"Kat, sit." Stuart, the Lab tech said sternly.

"I am fine. She was, right." was all I could say. I was tied and snappy and tired of these Men always telling me what to do, and when to do it.

"Yes." he said in his serious tone. 

Stuart had been in the lab as long as I had been a detective. He was serious, all the time. It was all business with him and nothing else. 

"There is more.  She tested positive for heroin in the bloodstream. She was in her third trimester, approximately thirty weeks. It was a girl." 

Now, I sat. That was a lot of info and my brain was having an incredibly difficult time processing at this early hour with sleep on my mind. Mac was by my-side before I could even look up. 

"Anything else, Stuart." he said.

"No, that is all the information I have." Stuart said before he walked back through his glass door sanctuary.

"You OK?" Mac asked.

"Yes, I was somewhat prepared. I am just hurting for her. How does someone do this to a very pregnant woman?  I know in my heart, my soul that Daniel is behind this." 

"Daniel?" Mac said, his eyebrows raised. "You know that you have only referred to him as Danny, always." 

"I have severed all ties. He is just a person, a man, who I have no connection." 

Mac hugged me, kissing the top of my head. 

"He is not just a man.  He is a man with many Sins. Don't you forget that, or let down your guard. He wants your head on a platter, whether you want to acknowledge this or not. That goes for anyone else.  We need to build this case around him. It's time."

I knew it was. I had been putting my notes together with Daniel in mind, I was just trying to push through the emotional tie that I once had to this man. He had been my Husband. A person who I thought, in some stupid, childish way, that I would spend the rest of my life with.

"I know Mac, I have been trying. I need some help."  I said to him, reaching out my hand. 

He took it, pulling me to him before he looked into my eyes, piecing my soul and kissed me, deep and passionately. It felt right. For the first time in my life, I knew that I was where I was supposed to be.  It has taken damn near ten years to be right here.

*************************

Wow, thank goodness that finally happened. I mean, we have all been feeling there connection growing. Hopefully they do not get distracted, again, from the case. They need to catch this killer, this animal.

How are you all doing on this wonderful Sunday? 

We are BUSY in our house. My big girl turns SIX on Wednesday and Momma is baking up a storm! (a snow storm, literally!)

I am making cookies for her birthday party at school and since this is my first time with Royal Icing and I am really trying to make these cookies fancy..I am taking my time- step by step. I made my sugar cookie dough the other night and let it chill in the fridge since. This morning I did my cut outs and either tonight or tomorrow I will work on the icing. I want to do this right and not rush through it! (OK, I am a little excited!)

We are also in the midst of the SnowPocalypse!  It is snowing like crazy here in OHIO and we are expected to get 15" throughout the day. 

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow.

I hope that you are all doing good with the challenge. We are already in the HOME STRETCH, I can hardly believe it!

~KEL

Channeling a Writer: Day 26

It's another weekend and I have been busy!  Making changes in 2015 and I am in transition!  I am so ready for this change of career, which will also be a change for my life. OK, not ready to share the details just yet, but it is gaining popularity and will eventually allow me to have my own business. I apologize for having to be so vague, but details will emerge as things really start to take off!

Today I spent the day with my Momma and my crazy children.  We visited some local Antique shops and all I have to say is that it was a little:

 

for me with the girls!  Imagine a 3 yo and a 5 (almost 6) yo trying so hard NOT TO TOUCH...but sometimes they just could not help themselves. For instances, there is this Kimball piano that I have been looking at for about a month now. It is an 1890 Kimball and I am in love with it. It just needs A LOT of work. (the whole "is it worth it" question is haunting me) 

Well, my girls see a piano, and much like there Mother...they have to touch! AGHH...  It ended fine, but for a few moments, when listening ears were apparently OFF, I wanted to scream.

Anyways, enough about my family drama! We have business to deal with and let's face it...I am into Sunday right now and LATE.

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Our Challenge Word of the Day is:

com·rade

ˈkämˌrad,ˈkämrəd/

noun

1. a companion who shares one's activities or is a fellow member of an organization.

   synonyms:

   companion, friend; More

   • a fellow soldier or member of the armed services.

     noun: comrade-in-arms
   • a fellow socialist or communist (often as a form of address).

   
   
2. 
   

It has already been a long day.  I spent half of the morning explaining the person who was my sister's husband.  He had that look.  The one I knew I would get if I disclosed that I, Katherine the detective...was weak once in my life. It was the look that I dreaded and I knew Mac would not mean to give me the pity face, I knew he did not mean to look at me in the manner he currently was. It was reaction, human nature and I had to learn to not take it personally. 

"I just don't understand.  If I had known..." was all he said.  I knew how to finish that sentence...'if he had known, things would have went differently when we found Danny in my house that night.'

"I'm sorry." It was weak and I knew it, but it was all I had left to say. I had lied, built up an image of a person that was deceiving. I had nothing left.

"I get it. I do. I mean, you probably never told anyone. Did you, Kat? Did you tell anyone?"

I shook my head. It was so hypocritical of me. I dealt with cases like my own everyday. I had said the whole spiel about her life before his and how can a woman be so weak. I had said that. That bothered me, and I knew I had to walk, pace, while these thoughts, my own words were strangling me inside.

"I hope I am not upsetting you, Kat." 

"No." I said, short and sweet.

"I have never been on this end of things, ya know. I mean, I care for you and someone hurt you. Someone that I was kind to, leanent on had hurt you and I am just kind of in...shock?"

He stood up, grabbed me and hugged me. It was to much for my overloaded system. I choked back my tears until I just couldn't anymore. I did not feel pity for myself, or sorry for myself. I felt disgusted about myself. I broke down, giving all my emotions over to Mac to bear and he let me. He held me tight and let me expel my pent up tears until his nice, crisp blue polo shirt was wet on his shoulders. I tried to back up before he was soaked, but he held tighter, sh-ing in my ear, surprisingly soothing me to a calmer place.

Finally he pulled me to face him. We were face to face and it felt perfectly normal, as if it were something we had done a thousand times before. Like we had been huggers.  I was a bit uneasy. 

"Mac, listen.  I do not feel sorry for myself. I need to you understand that and not feel sorry for me either. Do you understand?"

I was firm, my voice much more steady than it had been previously. I had to make him understand that I was a fool, not stupid. I was not feeling bad about what had happened to me. I was not the victim.  

"Kat, I know you're strong. I don't want you to ever think that that fact is overlooked. But as much as you want to sit here and tell me not to feel sorry for you, you were the victim.  You did not simply let Daniel do that to you, he did it. It was out of your control and you need to understand that. You did something about it, something that shows your strength and that will never change the way that I look at you."

I shook my head. This man, my partner is my career just got me.

"Kat, you are my Comrade." he said smiling. 

I could not help but smile back.  I was his comrade, and he was mind.

******************************

  

~Kel

Channeling a Writer: Day 25

Word of the Day:

PLAY

I had hopped on the Interstate and headed back to the scene of the crime.  Not the first scene, but the scene in which I was shot.  The house was empty.  The cars that were lining the drive had been removed.  Yellow police tape surrounded the hollow shell of a house.  The door stood opened. 

I needed to know more. I needed to get closer and see for myself. Why would Danny's parents abandon their home?  I had so many questions swarming.  My phone started ringing, jolting me from my own thoughts.

"Kat."

"Where you at Stranger?  I stopped by, afraid you slept for two days again." 

I had to laugh. "You voice is thick with worry and I appreciate that. I am fine. I had something I needed to deal with this morning."

"Oh yea. What?"

"Mac, I just need to be with my thoughts right now and work some things out."

"Good old Kat is back. Your at Daniel's parents house then?"

How the hell did he do that?  "Wha. How do you do that?" I had to ask. You know they say Curiosity killed the Kat, at least they do in my department, since I have been visiting the damn hospital so much!

"I will be right there. Sit tight." 

I heard it in his voice. It was a command. I don't want to say that he was directing me like traffic, but yea, he was. 

I sat back down in the car and took out my notepad and pencil. I started to play out the scene, draw the events, as I remembered. I would have to have Mac check them out to see if they matched his play by play. 

He pulled up shortly after I had exhausted my brain. He hoped into my car with coffee in hand. Why I didn't marry him right then and there is a mystery.

"What are you working?"

"I am confused as to where Danny's parents have gone? Why the hell is the house standing vacant?  It is not as if shots were fired in the house, they were clearly fired out of the house."

"Daniel's parents are deceased." 

"What, no there not." 

"Yes, they apparently died together in 2009."

I looked at him suspiciously. "How did they die, um, together, you said?"

"Drug overdose." 

"OK, double homicide then." 

"No, prescription dosage matched what was initially prescribed for both. It was considered natural death."

I laughed out loud.  I knew I had to tell Mac, whether I wanted to or not, he had to know the real story, not the one I sugar coated to tell the world.

________________________________________________

Have a Great Thursday!

~Kel

Life at Gray Gables: Let's Talk Recipes

Life at Gray Gables: Let's Talk Recipes: 1/29/2015 As we are getting ready to enter February , one of my things for the New Year (I dare NOT say resolution) was to bake and cook m...

Channeling a Writer: Day 24

Word of the day:

I woke up in my own bed.  It felt great. Like I was back to the old me.  I didn't have any haunted dreams of Charlotte or images of her in my mirror, with my morning ritual. Thank goodness. 

I was ready to go, heading out to my garage when I remembered that I had to turn off the security system that Mac had been so kind to have installed while we were at the hospital.  It was an added feature for the property is what he claimed, but I knew it was because the lunatic was out there, somewhere and if he could break in before, who would say he would not again, especially now that he had a gun.

I was alone.  It was calming and yet, very unsettling also.  The quiet surrounded me and left me uneasy as I got into bed the night before and caused the TV to be turned on, volume low for the remainder of the nightfall.  My car smelled still.  It had been sitting for the entire month, in the stag-net garage.  Luckily, it fired right up and out of the driveway we headed. 

I knew that work needed me. I knew that Mac needed me, but I had a mission to complete.  Research always calmed my nerves and these days, it was no different.  I had spent a good three hours late last night pulling information from the internet based on ideas and notions that I was collecting. I had kept a little steno book in my purse, at the bottom, since this who things began. I did not want to forget a detail, although details on the body were starting to go, but I knew I could not ask the guys in the Morgue to take pictures of what was left of my sister without sounding like a total wacko.  I had documents to back up things I saw and pictures that I had drawn, freehand and not well, with areas of concern.  That was all I had. 

This was not just a person after all.  Not that I think like that on a case. I am not that cold.  I take my job seriously because I know that the person who had been the victim lost their life in an inhuman manner and it was my JOB to find out why, who and where.  Char just hit a little closer to home because instead of just being a person, it was a person who I literally had grown with. I still tried to put this out of my brain, to push it all aside and focus on finding Danny.  I know knew what no one else could possibly.

We had been married young. To young in my own opinion.  We had thought that we knew it all, as most young people do.  You think that the person you are giving your life to, your soul to will be the one forever. It sounds great, until you want a career. I wanted to do something exciting, something that sang to me. It was not what Danny had in mind.  I remember telling him I signed up for Criminal law at our local college. The look on his face should have given me warning.  He told me that I was a slut and trying to pick up men. I was appauld by his behavior, his outburst and had no idea what he was talking about. I had just signed up to better myself, not replace him.  He had been so upset that he hit me, several times, bruising my ribs, my chest and my legs. I had noticeable bruises all over my body.  I remember being crouched in a ball, thinking to myself that this was insane.  I cried and thought that I had done something wrong.  I reached out to him to ask him what I had done. I was such an idiot. He treated me as if I had done something too.  That was the first time he laid his hands on me, the first time that I became an abused spouse. 

I had started the courses, even taking him to the community college with me to check it out. It wasn't until he met the girls who were also in Criminal Law, that he eased up on me.  I passed four semesters, with straight A's and he had been proud of me, not laying a hand on my in any way, shape or form.  I think that this should have been a sign.  

To celebrate he took me to France. It was so odd and cold.  He really did not look at me once on the trip and once we landed, I was on my own.  I was a single tourist in a different country.  He stayed behind, in the hotel room or went to some meetings, since it was his work that had paid for our travels.  I hardly saw him, day or night.  It was then, during this trip that we had gone our separate ways, I had went out to a little cafe around the corner from the hotel. I was getting into my Private Investigator courses and studying in my loneliness.  My mind was wondering about , as to what he was doing and why he was not showing me any attention.  Home was one thing, but he took me on this trip to a romantic place, I thought we were here to make babies.  It was in this thought process that I saw him.  His dark hair disheveled on his head.  He was with a woman, a tall blonde, a good foot taller than he was, they were getting into a limo.  She was carrying roses and he had his hand on her bottom.  He held the door open for her to get in, kissing her, deep on the mouth.  He even managed to look around to make sure no one saw him.  It was this day that my heart shattered.  I had already known.  Since the day he beat me, I knew it was about him, his fidelity.  He was having an affair and he was the only one that was aloud to. 

I grabbed my things from the coffee shop and headed back to the room.  He had not been there. His clothes were still as they were when I had left that morning.  I sat down and made a plan.  I was leaving. 

He walked back into the room a few hours later. I was watching TV and acted as if nothing was wrong. I acted as if I had not seen a thing.  He acted suspicious as hell.  

"Where have you been all day?" I asked in a casual tone. "Those meetings are taking away from the romance of this city." I said, as I got up to rub my hands on him. 

He just looked at me as he backed up.  He had rage in his eyes.  I felt his hand before I realized.  I was in a ball on the ground, trying to protect myself.  That is when I saw it.  He reached for something shiny.  It was a gun and I was it's target.  I had just learned some self defense moves in class and although I was not sure I was prepared to use them, I knew that I was going to. 

Somehow I fought him off, before the gun exploded.  I got my hands on it and I told him what was going to happen next.  He was going to shoot me. He had messed with the wrong bitch, was all I could think. 

It was when we returned home that the court filings were proceeded and we were divorced.  We parted ways cordially, happily, much to his demise.  I had the gun and I was not going to let him forget that I had fought him for it and was prepared to use it if he EVER laid a hand on me again. 

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~Kel

Channeling a Writer- Day 23

Writing Challenge:  

and the word of the day is...

hal·low

ˈhalō/

verb

1. 1.

   honor as holy.

   "the Ganges is hallowed as a sacred, cleansing river"

noun

archaic

1. 1.

   a saint or holy person.

It felt as if I had relieved this day over and over again. The air was still, the car quiet.  The traffic on the road was just as it always was, zipping through life on autopilot. 

"Feel good to finally be heading home."

"Understatement of the year, right there." I said, a smile crossing my pale, makeup less face. 

"Can you try to be more careful now?"

"Hey." I said, knowing he was joking.  As hellish as this past month had been for me, he had been living it by my side.  I was grateful and ashamed all in the same.  I had dragged him into this mess, this drama. He was a simple guy, he liked to live a quiet, carefree life. I seriously doubted that hospitals were a part of it!

"Your still pale.  I can honestly say that I am still worried. I don't know what the hell to think." 

I was grateful for him finally breaking the ice. I could tell that he had been holding things back at my sacrifice. 

"Speaking of that.  What happened with Danny?  Did he shoot me?"

I watched Mac wriggle in his seat.  Was he really not going to answer my question. 

"Please don't shut me out.  I am a detective too. I am going to find out, if you don't tell me." 

"Kat, listen.  There was a lot that happened when you were...shot.  The uniforms were running the show and there is reasonable cause that the shooter was Daniel, but..."

I looked at him.  I felt empty inside. I knew where he was going, what he was telling me, in his round about way.

"Wait...Kat, look at me." he said, his cold fingers grabbing my chin, forcing me to look into his piercing blue eyes. "I am not saying that there are not leads, I am saying that on that day, that day no one was caught."

So here is Danny...Daniel or what ever the hell he wants to be called...sitting here as a Hallow, a damn holy person, living his life, knowing he got away with it. He has gotten away with it all so far.  I felt the anger growing. I felt my blood boil inside my veins and I knew that this was it.  Last straw had been pulled and it was time for me to step up my pathetic ass and be the detective I had trained to be, the one I had given my life for.  This was the moment when it all made sense.  I was going to get him.  I knew.  I knew deep down that this was his handiwork.  I had left some information undisclosed to maintain a partial opinion.  It was time to let the cat out of the damn bag and show the world the Danny that I had grown to know. The one that had transformed before my eyes two short days after I became his wife.  The moment that I knew of the mistake I had made, and that I am sure Char learned shortly after her own nuptials to this Sadistic wolf in sheep's clothing.

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Whoo, that felt great!  I have direction and I find it amazing when that happens! 

Hi yall!  It's Wacky Wednesday in our house!  We are getting better...slowly but surely and having a funtastic day today.  

We are at 1 week till my oldest girl is SIX! That is exciting news!

How are we all doing with the writing challenge? 

Today's word was fun because I almost made the mistake of writing how Hollow Kat was inside - thank goodness for Webster, right!  Hallow...NOT Hollow!!

Our stories should be getting good!  We have 7 words to go!  

Brace yourselves!!

Until Tomorrow!  

~KEL