Chapter 26

 

Chapter Twenty-Six

 

 

 

When Harold pulled into the driveway his son Pete was in the front yard playing with Arlo. The dog immediately left Pete and ran over to the car. He ignored Harold and sniffed the passenger seat. Pete followed the dog to the car. 

 

“He’s looking for Mom, isn’t he? Poor Arlo has just about worn himself out running to the front door every time a car passed. How is she dad?”

 

“They’re not pressing charges. Jerry say’s the U.S. Attorney’s Office wisely decided that they didn’t have enough to hold her. They haven’t given him all the particulars,, but he thinks they may have another suspect. They’ve moved your mother to the Washington Hospital Center. She still doesn’t remember anything. Jerry is arranging to have her examined by a psychiatrist. I came home to get some of her things.”

“She didn’t know you?’”

 

Harold didn’t tell Peter he hadn’t talked to Fanny yet. After the call from the Sheriff in Calvert County everything happened at once. Jerry had immediately called the U.S. Attorney and suggested it would be difficult for him to convince a grand jury that the two murders were not connected and impossible to prove that Fanny could have been responsible for both of them. He had convinced them to release her immediately so she could be moved to a hospital. They were assigning a guard to her. Jerry assured her that was for her own protection. “Fanny was at that tattoo parlor when Petulengro was murdered. The killer is going to find that out. It’s for her own good.”

 

“When did you get home?” he asked, changing the subject.

 

“Really, Pop. You didn’t expect me to sit down in Charlottesville with all this going on, did you? I need to do something to help.”

 

Harold put his arms around his son. “I’m glad you’re here, Pete. This has been the longest twenty-four hours of my life. It guess I never fully appreciated how much I depend on your mother. I would be really lost without her, Pete” Suddenly the emotion he had been holding back all day came to the surface. He let the tears flow.

 

Arlo jumped up and placed his front paws against Pete and Harold and howled.

 

“Look. He’s trying to comfort you, Pop.”

 

Harold laughed in spite of himself. “Come on in. Let’s fix ourselves something to eat and go see your mother."