Unraveling

"You know, the roads are kind of slippery, don't you think you should slow down?" Holly watched the rain pelting against the windshield.

Her husband's knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel and continued at the same speed he'd been going. 125 km/hr in an 80 zone.

"Jason?" Holly reached over and gently touched his rock hard thigh. "What's wrong honey?"

"Nothing, nevermind." He brushed her hand away and resumed his strange demeanor.

"Well if nothing's wrong, then can you at least slow down?"

Jason checked the rearview mirror as they speedily approached a sharp turn. He continued to watch in the mirror as Holly noticed the turn coming up too fast for her comfort.

"Jason!" Holly cried and covered her eyes with both arms as she felt the car jerk to the right, catching the gravel shoulder.

Suddenly her door flew open and the next thing she knew she was tumbling down a wet muddy hill. Her legs cracked against a small tree and her body was spun around roughly. She continued to roll for what seemed like forever, crashing into rocks and little trees before she finally came to a stop in a swampy area.

The rain continued to pour down, soaking her bruised and battered body.

"Officer, I don't know what got into my wife, she just leaped out of the car on me, I didn't know what to do, I-"

"Where is your wife now?" Officer Brandon McCaul asked suspiciously.

"Oh my God, I left her there! Oh my poor Holly, I can't believe I left her!" Jason sobbed.

"Where did it happen, I mean exactly, near what intersection?"

"I don't know, we were on #62, we'd passed through Rosetown, but I don't remember if we'd passed the burger stand or the clothing outlet. I don't remember, I was just so shocked that she'd jumped." Jason sniffled loudly and rubbed his forearm across his eyes.

Officer McCaul picked up his phone and asked for a search team to try to locate the body of Holly Tansen.

"Can you think of any reason why your wife would have attempted suicide like this? Was she depressed? Did she have any extra stress in her life that she would have considered unbearable, something that would have made her not want to live anymore? Can you think of anything?"

"I don't know, I just don't know. Life was perfect for her, she had a great job, we had a ton of savings that we just used for a down payment on our dream house, we were planning our family-oh, oh no..."

"What is it Mr. Tansen? What have you remembered?"

"We were trying to have a baby. We've been trying for almost a year now and she hasn't been able to get pregnant. Oh Holly wouldn't have killed herself over that, she knew there were alternatives, no, she couldn't have..." Jason broke off into sobs again and Officer McCaul sent him home, saying he'd call him back in when they found the body of his wife.

Four hours later, Holly dragged herself into the nearest police station she could find. She'd managed to climb back up the hill and had hitched a ride with a taxi driver of all people.

She fell into a seat and just wanted to die, her body ached so much.

"Ma'am, what happened to you, are you okay? Ma'am, what's your name?"

Holly looked up into clear blue eyes, caring eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but all she could do was cry. She just cried, harder than she ever had in her entire life.

The officer that had approached her looked at her torn, muddy clothes, noticing the blood covered shoe and her other foot that was missing a shoe. He immediately called an ambulance and went with her as she was whisked away to the hospital.

"W-who are you?" she asked gruffly, her throat sore.

"I'm Officer Brandon McCaul. I'm the one that found you when you pretty much crawled into the police station. What's your name?"

"H-holly, Holly Tansen." she managed weakly.

"Holly, can you tell me what happened to you? Do you remember how you got to be so muddy and bruised?"

"He was going too fast, I told him to slow down, but he wouldn't, he just kept speeding, and then the car started to go off the road...I don't know, I think he pushed me, I think he shoved me right out of the car! Why would he do that?" Holly started to cry again.

Officer McCaul took her hand in his and held it gently.

"It's okay, don't worry, everything will be okay," he murmured awkwardly, trying to console the distraught woman in front of him. He wasn't sure why, but he felt she needed him more than anything right then, but he didn't know how to be there for her.

He kept telling her it would be okay, but would it? Had her husband really tried to kill her?

"I'm sorry, I just-" Holly tried to speak, but her throat was so thick that she couldn't so she just kept crying. The officer with her was holding her hand, and he was saying something incoherent.

Suddenly she felt so safe, so secure. Suddenly she wasn't afraid of Jason anymore, she was just pissed right off at him. What in the world was his problem, trying to kill a perfectly good wife?

"Officer? Um, my husband, did he go to the police at all?" Holly asked, as she sat up slightly and rubbed the tears from her face.

"I'm sorry? Um, what's your husband's name?" Officer McCaul didn't want to admit anything before he got her statement, so he could compare the two, and try to determine who was lying. He was sure it wasn't the woman in the hospital bed, crying her eyes out. How could anyone do something so awful to such a beautiful woman? And from what he could guess, a caring, trusting person.

"Jason, Jason Tansen. I doubt if he did. I don't know what really happened, I mean, I could've just fallen out, although I don't know how since I was wearing my seatbelt. I can't imagine him trying to kill me, I can't possibly think of any reason he would want to do something that drastic, but I really don't think I fell out of that car. And he was so out of it. Maybe he just planned it when it happened, I can't see him planning this for months, because it obviously wasn't that well planned out, I'm not dead." Holly felt better now that she'd told the police officer what she knew. She didn't figure Jason would've gone to the police, it would look too suspicious, he never was a very good liar, to her anyway, she always caught him right in the middle of his lies. What on earth was he thinking?

"I don't know, if he did, there are about a dozen different officers that could've taken his statement, I'll have to look into it for you." Officer McCaul stood up and went over to the window. He looked out and noticed that the rain had finally stopped and the clouds looked less angry. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he turned to face the woman he'd already found himself having feelings about.

"So, is somebody going to go and arrest him? He did try to kill me." Holly pointed out as she struggled to sit herself up more.

Officer McCaul was at her side instantly, assisting her in propping her pillows up behind her, and putting an arm around her waist, he slid her back more against the pillows.

Holly put her hand on his as his arm lingered around her waist a little longer than was decent.

"Could you just hold me for a minute? I just need somebody to hold me." She looked up into his eyes, pleading with him to agree.

He didn't move. He wanted to wrap his other arm around her and tell her that she was safe and that she never had to worry about anything ever again, he would take care of her, but he didn't. He just stayed as he was, with his one arm partially around her, and tangled his fingers in hers as she nudged him into doing so.

"I'll stay here as long as you want me to." He whispered and rested his chin on top of her head. She murmured something he couldn't hear, but took it as an agreement to his statement.

"Just don't leave me." She repeated when he didn't answer the first time she'd said it.

"I won't, don't worry."

The next day, Holly woke to find a large bouquet of carnations and other flowers in a green vase on her bedside table. The aroma of the flowers filled her private hospital room and it smelled great, it no longer stunk of alcohol and sterilization. She felt better than she had the day before, and her leg seemed to hurt even less.

She looked around her room to find her breakfast tray already there for her. She wiggled into a sitting position and pulled the rolling table closer to examine her breakfast.

It looked like what should have been two eggs over easy, but they looked a little mashed, and there were two strips of bacon, maybe. She wasn't sure. Of course there were two slices of brown toast and butter, and a hot cup of tea. She decided not to attack the eggs and whatever the meat type stuff was and just ate her toast and drank her tea.

When the nurse came in to take her tray about an hour later, she brought a large manila envelope for Holly. Holly waited until the nurse was gone before she opened it. It only said her name on the front in neat handwriting.

It was the police report from her husband's statement, as well as the statement Officer McCaul had pieced together from what she had told him the day before. She read them over and could not believe what she was reading. First of all, there was no name on her report, it only said 'Jane Doe', and second, Jason had claimed she'd jumped from the car, committed suicide. It also said he'd been crying uncontrollably and seemed to be telling the truth, there wasn't anything in his voice to suggest otherwise.

Her phone rang just then, but she didn't know whether or not she should pick it up. Who could it be, calling her? Nobody knew she was there, except-

"Hello?"

"Holly, it's Officer McCaul, how are you this morning?"

"I'm feeling better, thank you."

"Good, glad to hear it, did you get the envelope I left for you?"

"Yes, and I got the flowers too, that is if it was you that left them." She teased, knowing it had to be him.

"Yeah, well, I figured they might cheer you up. Anyway, I need you to do something for me. I'll be over in a little while, but in the meantime, I need you to try and think of any signs you might have seen in your husband that could be possible signs of planning what he did. If he was usually happy, but suddenly turned not so happy with no reasonable explanation, things like that. I need you to write down anything you can, so that when we interview him tomorrow, we can use those things against him, do you understand what I'm asking?"

"Yeah, but I really can't think of anything. The only time I thought something was bothering him was yesterday in the car, a few minutes before-, before he-" She trailed off, couldn't speak the words that called her husband a murderer.

"I know, I understand. But just try to think, anything even so little that might have seemed out of the ordinary can help us. Do your best, I'll see you in a little while." Officer McCaul hung up.

Holly stared at the phone dumbly. There were no signs, he'd just cracked all of a sudden yesterday. She tried to think of something, anything that should have tipped her off, but nothing.

What about his ex-wife? He never ever wanted to talk about her. What had he said happened to her? Wasn't it a boating accident? She'd fallen out of the boat, couldn't swim, Jason couldn't swim either? She'd drowned. How awful. It made sense why he never wanted to talk about it, but what did that have to do with her? Nothing. Why had she even thought about Pamela? Holly realized she'd never even seen a picture of her. Jason had no pictures, no momentos of his first wife. He'd said he'd loved her more than the world and hated himself for her death, blaming it on himself. Holly shook her head. No, that wasn't possible. Her death was an accident. Holly's accident wasn't one. Her fall from the car was a push or shove. And it was deliberate. Pamela couldn't swim, Jason couldn't swim. It was just an accident. Wasn't it?

Holly stared at the clock on the wall at end of her bed. She watched the minute hand go around and around and around.

"Holly? Are you awake?" It was Officer McCaul's voice.

Holly opened her eyes and looked towards the door to her room.

"Yeah, come on in." She pulled her blankets up to her neck and let them slide back down a little. She felt naked, she felt so stupid and vulnerable. She tried to tell herself that Jason wasn't a murderer over and over, but she just didn't believe herself.

"How are you feeling? Any better than this morning?" Officer McCaul sat on the edge of the seat beside her bed.

"No, worse actually." She answered honestly.

****

Part Two coming soon!!!

PLEASE, OH PLEASE comment on this for me! I need to know if I'm on the right track with my writing... are my characters believable/lovable/real? Let me know what you think! Public or private comments... either way, tell me how I'm doing!

Thanks!!!

Myalyn