Twisted Soul – Installment 5

Twisted Soul

By

D.M. KURTZ

Installment 5:

Priorities

February 4th, 2015

“Hey, big brother, it’s me, again. Sorry that I’m calling again but… I just, I miss you, you know?

*sniffle*Danny is… he started drinking again. He went into Ashton’s room and… He was just so angry. I’ve never seen him like that before and… God, I just don’t know what to do anymore. I just… Three years, today, you know?

*whispers* Why did it have to be my Ashton? I miss him SO much…

God, the house feels so empty, and I… I’m so alone. Please, just… come home, Jess. I need you, here, ok? Just… Come home.”

Jess couldn’t control the quivering of his lower lip as the message ended. He blinked back the tears that had begun to well up when his sister’s broken voice had filled his ears from the phone’s tiny speaker. She’d been so strong, during and after, so this vulnerability was new to him; it slipped past all of his training and struck a chord deep in his heart.

As much as it had wrecked his own spirit, he hadn’t truly considered just how difficult that verdict must have been for Sasha. Out of all the parents of the victim’s of Randy Jameson, she had been the most involved with the trial. With Jess’s finances at her disposal, she’d seen to it that the best of the best had represented the prosecution, not that it had mattered in the end. Jess still recalled her bitter, angry ranting from his living room the day that that piece of trash had been released to the asylum.

His crusade was noble and just, even righteous, but it was also lonely. Jess had always been anti-social, so the isolation didn’t really bother him, but it was clear to him then that his sister was not so comfortable being alone. Perhaps he’d pushed too far out, too quickly. What good would it do for his nephew’s murderer to meet his end if Sasha lost her sanity before that time?

Jess wiped his eyes with the back of one hand and let the phone clatter into a cubby on the center console. He tilted his right arm upward and glanced at the expensive Ashford watch clasped around his wrist. With roughly eight hundred miles of open road between himself and his ironically named home town of Central City, he knew he could be there for his sister in twelve hours. Maybe less, if he sped excessively. He smirked and pushed back the notion. He still needed to be careful. A spotless record was one of the keys to his remaining undiscovered, when the deed was finally done, and that was much more necessary for the well-being of his sister than his arriving a few minutes sooner.

He ignored a grumbling stomach as he slipped his car into drive and let the Denny’s fill the rearview mirror. Coffee he would soon need, but dinner would have to wait.

Hang on, sis. Be there soon.

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