Reason for Revenge – Part VII.

His men wrapped up all their picturing and printing and went back to the precinct. Christopher finished questioning the family. After he was done, he took one more look at the area around the pool. He couldn’t believe his men didn’t find anything more than they had found. Since someone could have thrown or buried something in the flowerbeds, he started looking there first. He looked for any dirt that looked like it had been tampered with. He finally came to a patch of dirt that was loose and spread in tiny bits on the concrete. The dirt was so minuscule that not many people would have noticed it. There was a budding pink hydrangea bush next to it, so he lifted the limbs and felt underneath where he found repacked dirt that was still rather loose. It was like someone packed it back in a hurry because they had very limited time. He started digging and not very far down in the earth surfaced a white satin glove that had once been rather dainty until the dirt ruined it. He had a bag in his pocket, so he placed it neatly in and sealed it up. He left promptly and went back to the station to have it analyzed.

Two days later, the funeral of Tabytha Hailman took place. Christopher remained in the background to see if he noticed anyone’s behavior being unusual. After all, now that Tabytha was out of the picture, the three remaining Hailman children received more percentage in the company. He didn’t stay long after it was over and went back to the station. He wanted to analyze all the evidence and his notes again hoping that he had overlooked something the first time. At the Hailman home, several guests gathered to pay their respects to the family after the funeral. It was a very chaotic day because so many people had come to the house feeling such sadness for Tabytha because she was so young. There were people everywhere, everywhere except the patio where the gruesome act had taken place just so few days before. Someone knew that no one would go out there, so they took advantage of this, but they had to be careful. If anyone saw them, they were done for, but they had to get those gloves back. They went over to the hydrangea bush and started digging… bingo… one glove emerged, now where was the other one. There was so little time the other day that it was almost like shoving each glove into the ground separately. They kept digging and digging, but nothing. The other day when the police were here, it didn’t look like they found anything from the view from the inner balcony, but…. maybe they did. They stood up and dusted themselves off with glove in hand, then shoved it down into their pocket and walked coolly back into the ballroom where the family were attending to their guests. Little did they know that there was someone watching their every move. Emma, the maid, now occupied the same balcony where they had stood to watch the police just days before. She watched in disbelief, this killer, this dastardly killer, from the dark earth remove the glove that killed her little Tabytha. Emma had been with the family ever since Tabytha was brought home from the hospital. She had to figure out what to do now. Should she go to the police or should she confront the killer herself, but that might be too dangerous. Too many decisions to make now, she had guests to attend to and too many family members to keep this secret from for now.