Blame

911 Call Transcript

DISPATCHER: 911, what is your emergency?

PARKER: Um, I’m, I’m at my parent’s house and my mom is, my mom is…

DISPATCHER: What’s the address of the emergency?

PARKER: 9208 Woods Court in Asheville. My mom is dead! She’s dead!

DISPATCHER: What’s your name?

PARKER: Mike. Are the police on their way?

DISPATCHER: Yes. Where is your mother?

PARKER: The kitchen. I came over here and she’s dead. Where’s the ambulance?

DISPATCHER: Mike, can you tell me if she’s breathing?

PARKER: No! No! She’s dead. There’s blood, so much blood, blood everywhere. Oh my God!

DISPATCHER: Mike, I need you to tell me if she has a pulse. Can you do that?

PARKER: There’s so much blood, she’s not breathing, oh my God.

DISPATCHER: Mike, listen to me, okay?

PARKER: Yeah, sorry, where are the police? Is the ambulance coming?

DISPATCHER: They should be there very soon. Is anyone else in the house?

PARKER: No, no, I don’t think so. Oh my God. She’s dead.

DISPATCHER: Are the police there? (sirens in the background)

PARKER: They’re here! They’re here!

Line disconnects.

***

The kitchen table seemed smaller without Lillian. The matriarch’s kingdom was the kitchen and the absence of the queen was sorely felt amongst those at the table.

Joe looked at his son and daughter. “We have some decisions that we need to make.”

Rachel looked at her Dad and they both glanced at Mike. His head was down and the pen in his hand was tapping the table over and over.

“Why is nothing being done? They’re doing an autopsy, shouldn’t there be an investigation?” His anger echoed off the walls. The tapping was incessant. “It doesn’t make any sense. Sarah said she had just seen Mom.”

“These things happen, son.” Joe tried to infuse some wisdom into the conversation but even though very little had been said, it felt like the train had come off the track miles back.

“You don’t find it strange that Sarah was the last one to see her? That she just happens to forget her phone charger and asks me to pick it up? A perfect murder, that’s what we’re looking at, it’s a perfect murder!” The veins on Mike’s head pulsated as the tapping of the pen got louder and louder.

“Why would Sarah hurt Mom?” Rachel was stunned. Mike and Sarah had been married for almost ten years. Sure, after they first got married there had been growing pains within the family, but everyone had adjusted. That era was long gone.

“I don’t know! I just know that she was the last one with Mom! I walk into a bloodbath and Mom is dead! Sarah has no alibi. She had been there ten minutes before. Why is no one else concerned?” The anger heightened to the point of rage.

“Son, they’re doing an autopsy because they don’t know why your mother died. The police said they have no reason to suspect foul play.”

“That’s it? That’s it!?” He flung the pen onto the table. “We’re going to let Mom be murdered and no one cares! No one wants any investigation, no interviews, nothing?”

The three sat in silence. Rage, disbelief and shame shared equal parts at the kitchen table.

***

How do you say goodbye to someone that you have know your entire life? Someone who has walked by you in every season? Eve sat in the master bedroom slowly turning the pages of the photo album. Joe was adamant that she takes a piece of Lillian with her. Her thoughts were interrupted when Joe walked into the room.

Eve was not Lillian, but she was the closest person to her left on earth. Joe knew Eve’s advice would be the same as what Lillian would have said. Mike’s behavior was becoming more erratic and out of touch with reality. Was this his way of grieving? Did he need help? Did he need a doctor? Angry voices floated up the stairs, steadily getting louder. Faster and louder. Joe and Eve walked down the stairs slowly while listening.

“You think that I killed your mother?!”

Time stopped. Sarah thought she heard a crack in the earth’s core.

“I know you were the last one to see her! You said so yourself! Everyone knows that you two weren’t exactly best friends.” Even as he spoke, Mike looked down. He scanned the countertop, looked up at the newly painted kitchen cabinets and looked beyond Sarah to the garden. Looking everywhere but at his wife. “You leave your cell phone charger and have me show up to find her dead. How could you? How could you do this, Sarah?!"

“How could you believe that I would kill your mother?”

No response was the response Sarah needed.

Sarah jumped as Eve walked up behind her. “Sarah is going to be staying with me, Mike. You need to clear your head.”

Mike was right that for a moment in time, shortly after getting married, Sarah and Lillian didn’t see eye to eye, but that phase passed very quickly. They had so much in common from gardening to reading to cooking that their shared interests soon outweighed any differences they harbored. Sarah thought about the many years she had been with Mike.

Ironically, Sarah thought, it would be more likely that if she were going to kill anyone, it would be Mike. He was the one who didn’t pull his weight in the marriage. He had gone years without a job to chase his entrepreneurial dreams and nothing every panned out. Mike believed in traditional roles, but when it came time for him to do what he thought men should do, it just never quite happened. And then there was the fertility issue. They had tried for years to have a child, but it wasn’t meant to be. Mike thought Sarah was sabotaging the process. How that was even possible, Sarah didn’t know. The feeling from the accusation of sabotage was the same feeling creeping back in and she didn’t like it.

As she left, Sarah told Mike she’d call him. Mike replied, “Don’t.”

***

That night, Sarah and Eve sat in her living room discussing everything that had happened in the past week. “When I left, she was as happy as could be. She was in the kitchen about to start dinner.” Sarah paused. “Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.”

“That’s because nothing was out of the ordinary, Sarah. This is a horrible tragedy that has been compounded by Mike’s behavior. Mike needs this nonsensical event to make sense and, in order to do that, he needs someone to be held accountable. Someone to blame. What he doesn't understand is that, sometimes, there's no one to blame. But, Sarah, what are you going to do? What do you want?”

It had been four days since Sarah spoke with Mike. The marriage was not going to survive. “I’m going to talk to a divorce attorney tomorrow. I can’t be with someone who thinks I murdered their mother.”

The divorce papers showed up on Mike’s doorstep three days later.

***

Mike wasn’t surprised when he opened the door and found the divorce papers. It was bound to happen. Sarah was a worthless wife, never tried to make the relationship work and never supported him in his dreams. Constant bickering and nagging had made the marriage miserable.

Everyone thought Sarah was so innocent, that she was sweet, kind and sincere. Little did they know how mean and violent she could become in the right circumstances. When they were younger, Sarah drank a lot and often. After a night of drinking, Mike was careful to make sure he never angered her or he’d end up with a glass thrown against the wall, or worse, in his face.

He knew she was unhappy with his employment situation. She had told him, less than a month before killing his mother, that when his parents died, he should get a windfall. The sooner Mike's parents died, the sooner they would have money. Sarah anticipated killing his parents for their financial security. She killed his mother. How far would she have gone?

The next few days, Mike spent most of his time with the private detective that he hired. The police weren’t willing to consider his story, they thought it was ludicrous. The only way he could prove his theory was with the help of the private detective.

Sarah had called and texted Mike several times. He had no interest in talking to her. She had killed his mother.

***

“Alright, let’s try this again!” Joe’s upbeat attitude didn’t radiate past him.

“Let’s just get this done.” Rachel was exhausted. Every day her phone would ring. Mike would tell her in excruciating detail what he thought Sarah had done and what he had seen the day he had found their mother. Rachel couldn’t hear it anymore.

“I hired a private detective.”

“Jesus Christ.” Joe’s temper flared. “Why? You’re going to lose it all, Mike. All! Eve said Sarah sent you divorce papers. She didn’t kill your mother! You need help. This has gone too far!”

“You think I’m crazy, too?” Mike looked directly at Rachel.

“I think we’ve all lost so much and, if we’re not careful, we’re going to lose even more.”

That night, Mike signed the divorce papers and mailed them the next morning.

***

Sarah and Eve spent a lot of time together not talking. Each cherished quiet company so the arrangement worked out quite well. Sarah received a call from her attorney on a foggy Wednesday morning letting her know that the papers had been signed and he would file the necessary documents with the court. Within two weeks, her life had fallen apart.

***

When the autopsy report arrived, the police called the family into the station. It went without saying that a very clear explanation of the autopsy needed to be provided to this family, particularly one person in this family. Joe, Mike, Rachel and Eve gathered at the station. No one was surprised, although most were unhappy, that Sarah wasn’t present.

The police officer was succinct. Lillian suffered a heart attack and hit her head on the corner of the kitchen counter as she fell to the floor.

***

The three family members sat at the kitchen table. Less than an hour ago, the truth was revealed.

“Can we please move forward?” Joe asked, but was really begging, his children. They could not remain in this realm of uncertainty.

Mike resisted. “They simplified her death. That autopsy report is nothing like what I saw in this kitchen. Nothing.”

Rachel looked down. Then up. Then down again. “I’m not sure what I think anymore.”

The conversation ended as soon as it had started.

***

Mike had never called Eve. Her number was saved in his phone for emergencies.

“Eve, it’s Mike. Do you have a few minutes?”

“Sure.” Eve hesitated, unsure what to say next.

“Do you believe the autopsy report?” Mike no longer sounded defiant. He sounded tired.

“Yes, Mike, I do. You should, too.”

“Everyone says I’m going to lose everything. I’ve lost Sarah.”

“I’m not worried about you and Sarah. What you’re at risk of losing is much greater than a marriage, Mike. It’s your sanity. It’s your faith in humanity and trust in the greater good. Things that your mother taught you.”

Mike paused. “I understand. I really do. I’ve been working with the private detective. Honestly, he’s gotten nowhere. But if I give up my investigating, then Mom’s gone.”

“Mike, she’s gone.”

***

Eve unlocked the door, poured a cup of coffee and waited. Sarah would be home soon. Thirty minutes passed and the door opened. “It was an accidental death.” Details were relayed.

Now what?

“You need to go somewhere that’s not here. Make a new path for yourself. Just be sure you come back and tell me about it.”

***

Six months later, after too many psychiatrist and therapist visits to count, Mike visited his mother’s grave. Mike learned that he had to accept the truth. It had come at the cost of his marriage. He missed Sarah. The cool mountain air of Asheville surrounded him as he stood beside the grave. A sense of peace enveloped him. It was time to move forward.

Mike looked at his phone. Dozens and dozens of messages from Sarah prior to the divorce. He sent one message:

I’m sorry.

***

One Year Later

Sarah kept her promise to Eve. After creating a new path, Sarah returned to tell her stories. The day was cloudy and misty. The mountains hummed in the background. They had agreed to meet at a coffee shop but Eve was no where in sight. Sarah checked her phone and when she looked up, a familiar face approached her.

“Sarah.” Mike didn’t know what else to say.

“You look good, Mike.”

“You too, wow, I can’t believe it’s actually you. Where have you been? What have you been up to?”

Sarah kept it brief, describing her new life in Tucson. She knew that Mike had been on his own path this past year, healing from a tremendous loss that had catapulted a lie that cost everyone more than they imagined.

“It sounds like you’re doing amazing. Listen. I don’t know if you got my text…”

“I did.”

A pause that stretched into eternity.

“Take care of yourself, Sarah.”

“You too.”