I made it! 20% done! And amazingly still going strong. And while I napped today, I came up with another idea for the novel. Again, I will post it after my writing for those who are interested in following the process more than the words. But for those just along for the ride, here are the next 960 words!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A copy of the Tribune was neatly folded under my arm, and reading it had managed to completely alter my mood. There on the front page was the story of last night\u2019s murder. As if that hadn\u2019t been bad enough, my name had been mentioned. The blood on the wall. The photographs. All was in the article. That was not standard practice, and it meant that someone at the precinct had leaked all that to the press. But why? This was only going to make it more difficult to capture Jack. On the one hand, I know he\u2019d enjoy the press, enjoy knowing that he was bringing terror to another city. But, on the other hand, there would be no surprising him now, or using certain aspects of the crime scene to implicate him. This was an absolute disgrace, and I intended to have a chat with Captain Alistair about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After several minutes, I was finally let in and escorted into the building. It reeked of sadness and desperation from the moment I entered. I surrendered my gun and handed the clerk my newspaper as well, and then I was led through the labyrinthine corridors framed with pea-green walls and sickly fluorescent lighting. I was brought into a square, windowless room, the only furniture two chairs and a sturdy table, all bolted to the floor. I took a seat at the far end of the room, so that I could keep an eye on the door. It was an old habit, but it had served me well and saved my life several times. And then I waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you hear someone say the wheels of justice move slowly, you can take that as a true statement. One thing I\u2019ve learned throughout my lifetime was that, everywhere I went, the legal system was one of the slowest and most bureaucratic forces on earth. That was not necessarily a bad thing. When it comes to determining if a man is guilty of a crime, it is sometimes better to weigh everything slowly. But, it also had the deleterious effect of keeping many an innocent man in judicial limbo for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, Carter was escorted into the room. The cuffs were removed, and he took the seat opposite me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other than newspaper photos, I had never actually seen Carter. I took stock of him now. The last seven years had not been kind to him. His prison uniform hung loosely on a sickly frame. His dark skin looked dry and gray. He had a lot less hair on his head than he\u2019d had seven years ago, but his thick, curly beard made up for the loss. His eyes were sunken, and he had the look of a defeated man. Even his slouching posture in the chair contributed to that appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, what you want? You call me in here just to stare?\u201d While his tone sounded combative, his body language told a completely different story. I leaned forward and placed my folded hands on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHello, Harold. We\u2019ve never met, but your case is the reason I ended up here.\u201d Other than Harold raising one eyebrow, I got no reaction to that. I continued. \u201cMy name is Leon Smith. I\u2019ve been tracking a serial killer for some time, and Marla Walter\u2019s death fit his profile. So, I came here to investigate. But, before I could even start, you had already been arrested and charged with the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harold made a sound somewhere between a snort and a grunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey found enough evidence to convict you, and just like that the case was closed. And here you are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harold shrugged. \u201cWhy you tellin\u2019 me what I already know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause,\u201d I said, leaning in closer, \u201cI know you didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYeah? Well, that makes two of us. And only two of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard about the murder last night.\u201d Another raised eyebrow. \u201cAnother girl was killed last night. Same hotel. Same room. Same method. While you were safely behind these walls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carter shot up in his chair, his spine rigid. \u201cNo. I ain\u2019t seen none o\u2019 that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s true. And this might be your best chance to appeal your case. After we\u2019re done talking, I would recommend talking to your lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carter huffed. \u201cYou think I can afford a lawyer? Public defender is all I could get, and look where that got me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He might not be able to afford a lawyer, but I could. One more thing to add to my list. \u201cAll right, don\u2019t worry about it. I\u2019ll see what options you might have. In the meantime, is there anything you can tell me about the murder? I tried to find the case files, but they appeared to have been\u2026misplaced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carter shrugged again and slouched back in the chair, defeat again evident on his face. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you anythin\u2019, man. I wasn\u2019t there. I had nothin\u2019 to do with it. One second, I\u2019m home watchin\u2019 TV, next thing I know, cops are bashing down my front door and arresting me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sighed. I had a suspicion that Carter would have had nothing to do with Marla\u2019s murder, so he most likely would have no information, but I had had a slim hope that there might be something. \u201cWas there anything strange or different that happened before you were arrested? Anything out of the ordinary?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNah, man, I was just livin\u2019 my life, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYeah, I know.\u201d I stood up to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWait a second.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sat back down and stared at him as he appeared to travel back in time in his mind. I waited, holding my breath, not wanting to disturb him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was somethin\u2019 strange happened the day before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SPOILERS AHEAD!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so, I realized the major theme of the novel is learning to work with and trust others. Leon’s flaw is that he feels he needs to do everything by himself. He will come face to face with the antithesis of that in Jack, who has finally decided to team up with someone to defeat Leon. We have a second person helping Jack. And that person will be none other than the photographer who took all the photos of Leon. Jack will have shared everything with him and the photog will turn out to be a huge fan of serial killers, Jack the Ripper in particular. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I made it! 20% done! And amazingly still going strong. And while I napped today, I came up with another idea for the novel. Again, I will post it after my writing for those who are interested in following the process more than the words. But for those just along for the ride, here are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[176],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":958,"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions\/958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jacksontejada.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}