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Date Posted: 16:11:31 04/23/13 Tue
Author: fananicfan
Subject: Part 3 - The Truth Is Everything

As usual this story is finished, it is four parts and an Epilogue. However, real life is getting in the way of review time, but I will post the next part as soon as I can....please be patient with me.



PART THREE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2009

HARM'S OFFICE
RLSO
SAN DIEGO, CA
1007 LOCAL - 1307 EASTERN

HARM'S POV

Though I'm sitting at my desk with next quarter's budget in front of me, needing to make the final decisions on what I should cut, my mind isn't on the task because all my thoughts are on the case.

After finding out Friday afternoon that Mrs. Hollenbeck hadn't visited her husband in the hospital even once, I was sure that we were on the right track with the 'woman scorned did it' theory. However, when interviewing the master chief's wife on Saturday, I didn't get the sense that she was bitter, just tired.

I found her honesty to be refreshing ... but was it an act to fool investigators into believing that she was innocent or was...?

My mind recalls the portion of the interview that makes me doubt that the victim's wife had something to do with his attack and begins to replay the scene.

*******FLASHBACK******

Saturday, April 18, 2009
Hollenbeck Home

"Mrs. Hollenbeck, we find it a little unusual that you haven't been by to see your husband in the hospital. Is there some reason why you haven't been to visit him?" I ask.

"There is. In fact, there are several reasons," she answers.

"Such as?" I prompt.

She lets out a heavy sigh.

"The first one to come to mind is that I have two children, one of whom is mentally deficient. In our day, though I hate the word, he'd be called retarded. He needs special and nearly constant attention. I can't leave him with just anyone while I go off to the hospital for a bedside vigil."

"You said that there are several reasons. We've been told that you knew of his recent deployment affair. Is another reason because you're too angry with him to be concerned?"

"I'm concerned, as you say, because he's the father of my children, and I do call and get updates on his condition several times a day for that very reason." She takes a deep breath. "As for your theory that I'm angry with him, so angry that I'd want to hurt him, I believe that is where your line of questioning is going -"

"You don't think that my daughter is responsible for stabbing him, do you?" Mrs. Hollenbeck's mother asks, cutting off her daughter's response to my question.

"Mother, it's okay. They're just doing their job," Mrs. Hollenbeck states in our defense. Then she gives her mother something to do outside the room so that she doesn't hear any more of our conversation. "Will you please go check on Bobby while I finish up here?"

"Of course, dear, but before I go, I want to tell you gentlemen that the night the man who's married to my daughter was stabbed, she was right here, caring for her children!"

The master chief's mother-in-law certainly isn't a member of his fan club. She didn't refer to him as her son-in-law or even as her daughter's husband.

"I'm sorry about my mother, but she's here when he isn't, which is most of the time," Mrs. Hollenbeck states the moment that her mother is out of the room.

"Did you know about his affair?" I ask.

"Not her name, but yes, he told me about his affair, but I wasn't surprised since it wasn't his first deployment affair and I'm sure that it won't be his last. The first few affairs made me cry, but now I can't bring myself to do it. I'm just numb when it comes to him. I don't love him any more. If it weren't for the children needing their father and the medical benefits provided for Bobby by the military, I'd leave the bastard. However, I'd never hurt him or wish him dead. He's no good to me dead."

"Your mother says that you were here the night that your husband was stabbed. Is that correct?" I ask.

"Yes. My mother lives with us. She helps with Bobby and sees that I get a break when it all gets to be too much, but he was attacked on the night that she takes a cooking class. So she was out, and I was here with the children."

******END FLASHBACK******

Yes, given her situation, I found her story to be believable.

Maybe I want to believe her because, if she did attempt to kill her husband, her children may have a father, but their mother will be in jail.

Suddenly, the thought that Mr. Estes said that the woman whom he saw attacking the master chief called him a bastard connects with the fact that Mrs. Hollenbeck used that in reference to her husband during our interview.

Could she be his attacker?

Then it echoes in my head that she mentioned that he wouldn't do her any good dead...that she'd divorce him if it weren't for needing the support of the dependent health care that the military provides them.

However, that doesn't make sense because Bobby would keep his medical coverage as his dependent child.... but if she doesn't know that ... would she plan an attack that would leave him badly wounded?

In the hospital, the master chief would still be in the service, so she'd be sure that the medical benefits would continue for Bobby.

She might even think that the experience of being attacked would scare him enough that he'd be less likely to stray in their relationship.

I want to know more details about the location of the knife entry points on Hollenbeck. Did any of the wounds come close to any major organs or arteries?

I also want to know if Mrs. Hollenbeck has any training that would give her the knowledge of where to stab her husband that wouldn’t be fatal.

I reach for the intercom and buzz my yeoman.

"Howard, get me Lieutenant Tiner on the double," I order.

"Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir," Howard replies in acknowledgment of his orders, and I terminate our connection.

KEVIN'S DORM ROOM
VIRGINIA TECH
BLACKSBURG, VA
1800 LOCAL - 1507 PACIFIC

MATTIE'S POV

I rap firmly against the hollow door. I'm angry and I don't care who's studying, napping or whatever on the other side. I just want to see Kevin - now!

He opens his dorm room door, and the corners of his mouth start to turn up as if he's going to smile at me, but I'm making no secret that I'm angry, and he quickly loses that urge to grin.

"Mattie," he says kindly.

'Is he being friendly or condescending?' I wonder.

"Don't Mattie me! I get that you think that I'm a big lush, but really....you slip these..." I say, waving pamphlets in his direction. "...AA flyers under my front door. Then, when I show up here, you act like you're all surprised and happy to see me. Are you for real?"

"I am happy to see you."

His smile is disarming, and my heart starts to ache because it's at this moment that I realize how much I've missed him.

"Why?" I ask, my anger gone now.

"...Did I slip them under your door?" he asks, pointing towards my hand that contains the now crumpled pamphlets.

I can only nod affirmatively as I'm rendered speechless by the look in his eyes and the caring tone of his voice.

"Mattie..." he begins as he takes my hand and pulls me gently into the room. "...you don't know how many times I wanted to come by to check on you...to see if you'd decided that your drinking was a problem, but I knew that I needed to keep my distance, give you space and time to work this out on your own. Then I realized that, by staying away, you might see that as a lack of support from me, which caused me concern because I thought that you might not ever go to an AA meeting or see a counselor if you thought that you'd be going through recovery alone, and that isn't what I was doing, so -"

"You decided that slipping these under my door would make me angry enough that I'd come to you."

"I know you pretty well, so, yes, I knew that you'd come to see me ... but only so I could tell you that, if you want to go to a meeting, see a counselor, whatever, you won't have to do it alone. I'll be there every step of the way."

My love for him being eclipsed by the feeling that he's judging me, I hiss back, "What if I know that I don't have a problem? What happens then? You'll never speak to me again? Do you need for me to be broken to be your friend?"

"I don't need for you to be broken, as you call it, but I do need the woman I love to be well."

Did he just say that he loves me using the present tense?

"Like with any disease, you don't get treatment until you realize that you're sick." His sincerity as he continues is clear as his eyes stay fixed on mine. "I think if you honestly answer the warning sign questions listed on the back of one of those pamphlets, you'll find that I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to see to it that you get the help that you need to put this demon in the past so that we can move into the future together without this hanging over our heads."

"To-ge-ther?" I stutter out because I can't reconcile the idea of him thinking that I'm an alcoholic and his wanting to be with me.

"Yes, Mattie. I love you, and I want us to be together, but I don't want that bottle that you drown your pain or regrets in to come between us. I'll stand by you if you want help. We'll do it together, but I won't stand by and watch you destroy yourself."

I'm choked up...touched by his words, but it can't be true. I can't be that much like my father. I am not an alcoholic!

"I'm not destroying anything! You are with your insistence that I have a drinking problem. I don't, so why don't you go try to fix some other girl?" I spit out at him in anger with no remorse and no regret before I storm out of his room.

HARM'S OFFICE
RLSO
SAN DIEGO, CA
1540 LOCAL - 1840 EASTERN

HARM'S POV

"Captain Rabb, I think I've gathered all of the information that you asked for, Sir," Tiner says, standing in front of my desk.

"Then take a seat and tell me what you've found," I reply.

"Mrs. Hollenbeck hasn't had any training in the medical field like nursing school, but she has taken a few classes in health, diet and nutrition, and CPR."

"That isn't enough. Her lawyer could easily explain those away by saying that she took them to take better care of her special needs child," I inform him. "What did you find out about Hollenbeck's injuries?"

"A lot actually, Sir. The doctor said that the entry patterns of the knife are consistent with a woman wielding the blade."

"How can he tell the gender of the attacker from the wounds?"

"He says the first indication is the angle at which the blade entered. Women, because they're usually shorter and have less muscle to force the blade into their victim, tend to clutch the handle in their hand and plunge it into their victim in a downward motion," he explains while simulating the action that he's describing by raising his arm, making a fist and then bringing his arm down.

"Also because of strength issues, the blade isn't sunk into the body to the hilt, resulting in wounds that are shallower in comparison to ones inflicted by a man. The doctor also confirmed that Mr. Estes' estimate on the height of the perpetrator was within the range he'd give, based on the location of the wound on the victim's shoulder," Tiner informs me.

"Did you ask the doctor any specific questions about our theory that the wounds weren't meant to kill but rather to incapacitate or scare Hollenbeck?" I inquire.

"I did, Sir. However, he couldn't be as clear on that subject, saying that it was possible, but that it was also just as possible that his attacker meant to kill him, but realizing that she wasn't strong enough to force the knife through his clothing and into him far enough to cause lethal damage, her strategy was simply to "poke him full of holes" - I'm quoting him on that - and allow him to bleed to death."

"With five entry points ..." My voice trials off as I try to process all the information that Tiner's just given me.

"Captain, since we've been able to find no direct evidence that clears our client, we're going to have to present a case that suggests that there's another viable suspect in order to cause reasonable doubt. Isn't that correct?"

"Yes. If this case goes to trial, that strategy will be our best course of action."

"Well, Sir, I hate to say it, but I don't think that we'd have any trouble with making a case that Mrs. Hollenbeck had finally had enough of her husband's affairs and decided that, if he wouldn't stop, she'd make him stop."

"I do think that we could sell that scenario in court and probably get an acquittal for our client," I say, agreeing with him, convinced that there is evidence that we could use to support our theory.

"You don't want to accuse the master chief's wife in court, though, do you, Sir? he asks curiously.

"No, I don't. Given what she said about medical benefits and that he was no good to her dead, I'm not convinced that she had anything to do with it. Then there's the fact that her mother gave her an alibi."

"Yes, Sir, but we discussed that. She could've stayed at home until her mother left, and then got a neighbor to watch the children while she stepped out. She wouldn't have been gone long. Remember, you had me drive between the Hollenbeck residence and Chief Kane's apartment and back. I made the trip in less than an hour. Even with adding the time that it took to stab the master chief, she wouldn't have been gone longer than ninety minutes. She would've been home before her mother returned to the house."

"We did discuss that in one of our meetings," I say before starting to put more thought into a possible third scenario.

"Tiner, what if Hollenbeck wasn't attacked by a current scorned woman, but one from his past?" I suggest.

"That's possible, Sir." He pauses before asking, "Captain Rabb, are criminal cases always hard like this one with so many possible answers, and you have no way of knowing which one is right?"

"Not all of them, Tiner, and this one may get really easy in the next couple of days when the master chief wakes up if he can tell us who attacked him."

HOLLENBECK HOME
SAN DIEGO, CA
2008 LOCAL - 2308 EASTERN

MRS. HOLLENBECK'S MOTHER'S POV

I answered the phone so I know the person on the other end is a nurse from the hospital where that good-for-nothing husband of hers is being treated.

I watch my daughter's face as she listens, but they reveal no clue as to what she's learning from this call.

Unable to read my daughter's thoughts, I wait to hear the news.

She shows no emotion as she places the receiver back in the cradle.

"Did he die?" I ask.

"No," she says softly.

She spoke only one word, but I detected a hint of some underlying emotion. I think it's safe to assume that it's either regret or relief.

"What did they say?" I ask, my curiosity not allowing me to let her tell me at her own pace.

"As I requested, the nurse called because there's been a change in his condition. He's out of the coma and, though he's still sedated to some degree and may not know I'm there, he's asking for me."

I see it in her eyes as she repeats the quote from the nurse, 'he's asking for me', and it unnerves me.

"You aren't seriously considering going to see that man, are you?" I ask, not masking my displeasure at the thought that she'd go to him.

Her eyes are glazed over and her face is expressionless.

"Do I have to remind you that, just a few short weeks ago, he stood in this living room and told you that not only had he had another affair, but that he was in love with her and that he was leaving you?"

My blood boils as I think of the way that she cried after he left that night.

"Mother, he's my husband," she states as if his sins had been washed away by the blood that he'd lost.

"You aren't seriously going to take that man back, are you?" I snap at her.

"Regardless of anything that he's has done to me..." She points down the hall towards the bedrooms. "...he is their father. I can't - I won't turn my back on him when he needs me."

I don't like the way that she dodged the question that I asked her.

"He calls your name and, just like that, you're on your way to his side? Why?" I ask, trying to get an answer from her.

"I know that Daddy cheated on you and that makes you especially sensitive to my situation. So I'm truly sorry that you overheard his confession about his affair with that woman, the one that's now accused of stabbing him, because now you don't see him as anything other than the man who hurt your daughter. I can know that he hurt me but look past it for my children's sake, and right now, their father needs someone, and he's asked for me," she explains. "The children are asleep, so will you please check on them in a little while? I won't be gone long."

"Of course, I'll watch the children." That's all I say in response as she begins to gather up her purse and keys to leave for the hospital.

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Replies:

[> Great chapter, things are really coming to a head. Post when you can, we all know how real life is. Take care and thank you for keeping Harm and Mac alive with your storytelling. -- Can Sheshe, 18:01:31 04/23/13 Tue [1]


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[> Great chapter interesting twist. Poor Kevin. Can't wait for more but I'm a patient person. -- Beth, 18:03:06 04/23/13 Tue [1]


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[> I'll be waiting patiently for the next part. -- Debbi, 20:19:02 04/23/13 Tue [1]


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[> Very interesting twist, Tiner is really starting out in the thick of it. We will patiently wait for the rest of the story. -- JoyZ, 23:27:56 04/23/13 Tue [1]


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[> Really interesting twist to the case, and the scene between Kevin and Mattie was so touching.... Beautiful writing as always. -- Dee, 02:25:55 04/24/13 Wed [1]


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[> interesting turn of events will be waiting here for more when you can post so no worries Fananficfan -- Bev uk, 14:52:03 04/24/13 Wed [1]


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[> Great chapter! -- cd, 19:00:23 04/25/13 Thu [1]


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[> I can always almost see the characters' expressions when you 'air' their conversations. Will also be here when you have more wonderful stories to tell. -- carramor, 21:50:43 04/26/13 Fri [1]


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