It Can't Be

           Chester Butterfield spent Saturday afternoon with his 4-year-old son, Jacob like he did every Saturday. Chester’s wife had been brutally murdered less than a year ago, and these visits to the park were Chester’s way to continue with some normalcy since the funeral.

           “Push me on the swing Daddy!”, little Jacob called out with his arms raised high into the air. “I want to go REALLY high!”, he exclaimed excitedly.

           “Alright, Jacob. Hang on tight.”, Chester expressed as he pulled Jacob backward on the swing. The joy on Jacob’s face made every sad moment before this day, a little bit easier to handle. “Are you ready? Here we go!”

           Jacob yelled out with glee as he swung back and forth. A high-pitched giggle rang from his mouth amid the screams. Chester caught sight of a silhouetted figure standing on the far end of the park. The details of his face were washed out by the blinding sun setting behind the figure. The man stood perfectly still staring in the direction of the park. It appeared as if his hands were inside the pockets of the black hoodie that he was wearing. As the sun set lower, Chester kept focused on the silhouette in the distance until Jacob called out to him once again.

           “Daddy, why did you stop pushing me? I want to swing some more!”, Jacob exclaimed.

           Chester returned his attention to Jacob and began to swing him once again. When he looked up again, the man had disappeared. With the sun now getting low, Chester decided to tell Jacob it was time to head back home.

           Back at his house, Chester had gotten Jacob ready for bed and tucked him in. Each night before he closes his eyes, Jacob says a little prayer…

           “Dear God, please make sure my mommy doesn’t forget me. When I get up to Heaven, I want her to remember me. Tell her that Daddy will make sure I don’t forget her either. Thank you, God. Amen, and good night.”

           Chester went back downstairs, wiping the tears from his eyes as he recalled Jacob’s innocent, yet moving prayer. He went into the kitchen and finished up the dishes from earlier in the evening, and entered the living room where he sat down with a cold beer. Chester wasn’t really in the mood to watch television, so he just leaned back on his recliner and began to scroll through pictures on his phone instead.

           The first fifty-or-so pictures were of Jacob during their outings and at bath time, but then he had reached the pictures of his wife, Beth. The very last picture he had of Beth was from last Autumn when she and Jacob were playing in a massive pile of red, yellow, brown, and orange leaves that they had just raked up from the back yard. He could picture the whole scene in his mind with vivid detail. Beth’s long, auburn hair cascaded down past her shoulders. Several leaves had taken up residence in her flowing locks. She would pick up Jacob from under his arms, lift him high into the air, then quickly bring him plummeting down into the bed of colorful leaves. Jacob laughed so hard, that he began to snort between laughs. That was such a wonderful moment. If only it could have lasted.

           Later that same afternoon, Chester and Beth took Jacob to the park to play. Jacob pretended that he was a superhero and flew down the slide face-first with his arms stretched out. Chester played the villain who stood at the bottom of the slide and was knocked over by the superhero.

           Jacob had to go pee, so Chester agreed to take him to the public washroom near the parking lot. When they returned, however, Beth was gone. He called out her name, but there was no reply. He searched the perimeter of the wooded area surrounding the south end of the park, and that is where he found Beth’s purse and one of her shoes. He immediately called the police and told them what had happened.

           The Crime Scene Investigation team arrived within the hour and began collecting evidence and taking statements from Chester and any other bystanders who may have noticed something out of the ordinary. But, regardless of their efforts, there were no witnesses, and the only evidence other than the shoe and the purse were signs of a struggle and footprints leading into the trees behind the park. After that, all trace evidence was undetected.

           Chester scrolled through a few more pictures until he finally set down his phone on the end table next to his recliner. He was just beginning to doze off when his neighbor’s dog began to bark. When he looked towards the living room window, he was startled to see a shadow on the other side of the glass. At that moment, a car drove past and revealed the mysterious figure in the shadows.

           “It can’t be!”, Chester exclaimed. “They told me that they captured the guy who killed Beth. He’s in prison, isn’t he?”

           When the man realized that he had been spotted, he quickly rushed away from the window and disappeared into the shadows of the night sky. Chester pulled out his wallet and dug out the number of the detective who had handled Beth’s murder. Detective Harry Magnone answered on the third ring.

           “Hello, 53^rd Precinct. Detective Magnone speaking.”, he answered.

           Chester filled the detective in on what just happened and enquired about the status of the man who killed Beth.

           “I will look into it, but I can assure you, Mister Butterfield, that Louie Deluga is still behind bars and won’t be up for parole for another five years at least. I will send one of my guys over to check for fingerprints and footprints in the morning, okay Mister Butterfield?”

           Chester agreed and hung up the phone, somewhat relieved that Beth’s killer wasn’t back on the street. He decided that his mind must be playing tricks on him.

           Two days had passed and Chester received a call from Detective Magnone. The footprints discovered outside of Chester’s living room window matched the footprints that were at the scene of his wife’s disappearance. No fingerprints were found though. The detective tried to assure Chester that the footprints matching could be a coincidence and not to read into it too much. “There are hundreds of people with the same style and that size of a shoe in this city.”, Detective Magnone tried to assure him.

           Regardless of the detective’s reassurance, Chester still felt as if things weren’t quite right. He decided to do a little investigating on his own by searching for details about Louie Deluge. First, he searched online for the name. The first thing to pop up was several articles about the trial and his conviction. Any social media profiles that he once had were now shut down, but a bootleg copy of a video that he had posted online was still going viral on a site called “Banned, but not forgotten,” a collection of bizarre and risqué videos that would be removed from most online video formats.

           The video, which Louie had titled “The Cat Didn’t Come Back”, showed in grizzly detail, the brutal torture of a cat. Louie was explaining his methods as they happened. Chester wasn’t able to watch the whole video. It was too horrible. He noticed the date on the video; it was exactly three months before Beth was taken. He wrote down the web address in a notepad and closed the page.

           The next step was to search the Hall of Records for his birthdate. With the help of one of the staff members, he had discovered something that had not been considered in the past. It turned out that Louie Deluge had an identical twin brother named Donnie. There did not seem to be any current information about Donnie in the archives, so Chester asked Detective Magnone to look into the possibility that Donnie may still be around. His suspicions were correct. Donnie Deluge was indeed still alive and lived in a run-down trailer in the worst part of town. Police had already been sent to his home to check it out.

           The police had surrounded the trailer with guns aimed and ready in case the situation became out of control. One officer took charge of the scene and called for Donnie to exit the trailer with his hands raised. A yell came from inside. “You’ll never take me alive, pigs!”

           The police tactical squad began to move in when they were suddenly thrown back with tremendous force. The trailer had exploded into thousands of pieces, causing most of the police officers to be injured and disoriented. It was hours before they were able to sort through the remains of the explosion. Several components for incendiary devices had been discovered and human remains were scattered among the ashes.

           Detective Magnone stopped by to tell Chester the news and Chester’s reaction surprised the detective.

           “That’s too bad,” Chester said without emotion.

           “Too bad?”, the detective repeated. “What do you mean by too bad? This guy that has been stalking you and who’s brother had kidnapped and murdered your wife is now dead, and all you have to say is that it is too bad?”

           “Don’t get me wrong, detective,” Chester retorted. “I’m happy that he won’t be bothering me anymore, but I’m also disappointed that he took the easy way out. I would rather have seen him rot in prison like his brother.”

           The detective gave Chester an understanding glance, patted him on the shoulder, then turned and walked away.

           Chester sat and watched the news that evening after Jacob was in bed. They showed footage of the burned-out trailer belonging to Donnie Deluge and interviewed some of his neighbors.

           “He was a quiet man,” stated one neighbor. “I can’t believe this happened in my neighborhood,” said another. Chester had to shake his head at the stereotypical responses that neighbors give after a violent crime is committed.

           Jacob’s baby monitor chirped to life and brought Chester back to reality. Jacob began to cry out for help. Chester jumped off of the recliner and raced up the stairs to Jacob’s room. When he opened the door, he saw Jacob being pulled through the window; a black leather glove covering his mouth. Chester wasn’t able to make out the face, but as he reached the window, he could make out more of the features. It was Donnie. He was still alive somehow. Donnie looked back over his shoulder and gave Chester a sinister grin before running off into the darkness.

           At that same moment, while searching through the scene of the explosion, Detective Magnone had discovered a hatch under the wreckage which led to an underground passage. The detective climbed inside and followed the tunnel until he found a ladder leading up to another hatch. He climbed the ladder and opened the hatch. It opened into a small shack approximately 100-feet from the area where the trailer was. That was when he made the realization that Donnie could still be alive. He notified the forensics team to quickly make a positive I.D. on the skeletal remains that were found around the explosion site. He then had police sent to the home of Chester Butterfield. As police arrived at Chester’s home, they had seen him running at top speed out of his front door and down the street. The officers joined the chase and called it in.

           One of the police officers caught up to Chester and asked him what he was running for. Chester told him that his son. Jacob had been kidnapped and that it was Donnie Deluge who took him. An all-points bulletin was issued and soon, police from all over the city were in search of the kidnapper before something happened to Jacob.

           One officer heard the muffled voice of a child coming from a backyard and went in to investigate. The gate to the yard was ajar. When he rounded the corner, he saw a small aluminum tool shed and a 16-foot fishing boat. He approached the boat first. The cover seemed to be intact, so he moved to the shed. He heard movement inside, but he knew that if he forced his way into the shed, he would risk the safety of the boy, so he pretended not to notice, looked around the yard, and then left. As the officer rounded the front of the home, the front door had opened and an elderly man had peeked out. When he saw the officer, he opened it further.

           Without causing too much commotion, the officer asked if he could use their house to catch a suspect that he believed was hiding in his shed and suggested that the elderly couple should go to the neighbor’s house until it was safe. The officer shut off all of the lights in the home and waited in silence by the back door. He had already radioed in his location and informed any attending officers to arrive in silence so they don’t spook the suspect. Officers entered the yard from behind the shed and took up positions on either side of the door, ready to make a move. The opportunity presented itself less than an hour later. The shed door slowly opened and the suspect emerged from the shadows. Jacob was bound with duct tape around his hands and feet and a gag of tape was placed over his mouth, but he seemed to be unharmed so far. When Donnie was far enough ahead, the two officers made their move from behind. One grabbed the boy and the other tackled Donnie to the ground. At the same time, other officers ran into the yard from the house and through the gate. Donnie was finally in custody. Jacob was taken to the hospital to be examined and Chester met him there.

           At Donnie’s trial, not only were they able to dig up enough evidence to put Donnie in prison for kidnapping Jacob, but the skeletal remains in his trailer belonged to a missing girl from a few months ago, so he also faced murder charges. The case of Beth’s murder was reopened and new evidence was added. Detective Magnone discovered proof that Donnie and Louie were partners in the kidnapping and murder.

           Chester finally had closure. The truth about Beth’s death had finally come to fruition, and her soul could finally rest in peace. Chester and Jacob continued their weekly trips to the park, but now they had more of a reason to go. Chester had donated money to have a new swing set installed with a plaque dedicated to the memory of Beth Butterfield.

The End.