She walked over to the bed and sat down beside her youngest son. Adam played possum, hoping that she would go away and leave him in his own world.

"Adam, you can't stop living life because of this. You did not kill Randy," Laura said softly. "It was an accident." But Adam did not respond. He just lay there not moving, not wanting to feel the pain anymore.

"You need to eat. You have to keep your strength up. I will make whatever you want, but please come down and eat breakfast with us," Laura said again, almost pleading. Seeing that Adam was not going to budge, she reached out and stroked his medium length curly hair. She had to smile at the site of her younger son. He looked so peaceful on the outside, but she knew that he was torn up on the inside.

"You know, this is hard on all of us Adam. Randy was a great friend. But nothing you can do is going to change what has happened. You could die here in this bed and it is not going to solve anything except to make this situation even worse." She looked down for a response from Adam, but none was to be found so she just continued to stroke his hair.

"I may not have ever told you this, but when I first married your father I dreamed of having a family. I wanted children and after the five years it took to build this house and set a good foundation, I was blessed with your brother. He was so beautiful. I never thought that there would be another face that I thought would be just as beautiful to me until I had you. I was blessed with two sons. Not too long after I had you, I found out that I was expecting another child. It was a total surprise, but I was so happy."

Adam was listening to his mother, but still remained still. He did peek occasionally at his mother who seemed to have a soft smile on her face as she spoke. But then suddenly her expression changed into a deep fret.

"I was not being careful and doing more than I should have at the time. I was bringing the laundry up from the basement when I fell back down the steps. I was three months pregnant at the time and I was rushed to the hospital. To make a long story short, I lost the baby and I had to have an operation that left me unable to have anymore children." Mrs. Kramer looked forward as if she was watching the events unfold before her eyes. A tear formed in the corner of her eye and steadily streamed down her face. Adam felt a lump form in his throat. He felt so bad, but his mother was crying and that killed him. He moved over enough to allow her to stretch out beside him. She happily cradled her youngest son. "The baby would have been sixteen this coming February. I felt so guilty about that and I still do. I should have taken it easy like everyone was telling me, but I didn't. I did not speak or eat for days after that because I felt so bad about killing the baby. Your father was going crazy worrying about me and trying to take care of you two. Then one day Jason crawled into the room and just sat there and looked at me like he was lost. It was then I realized that I had two other children that God had blessed me with and they needed their mother."

Adam snuggled up to his mother. He had been told that his mother had a miscarriage, but he never knew the details and did not want to upset her by asking. He then felt the warm soft hand of his mother reach over and grabbed his face and made him look at her. Her blue eyes were teary, but strong.

"Adam, I believe that things happen for a reason and we are not to question God about these things. We are to accept His strength to make it through these times and have faith that things will turn out for the best. Randy's death was an accident and he would not want to see you beating yourself up about it the rest of your life. Besides, you boys need me as much as I need you. Killing yourself mentally or physically kills me too. Just remember that," Mrs. Kramer said as she got up from the bed and pushed her long brown hair behind her ears. She gently kissed Adam on the cheek and started to walk towards the door.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Adam," she said as she stopped at the doorway.

"What if Dad or Jason would have been driving that car? Would you still feel the same?" Adam asked, peeking from under the covers.

Laura stopped and paused at her son's question. The thought had crossed her mind of someone in the family driving that car instead of Randy.

"Adam, I would still feel the same. You would never hurt your father or brother or anyone intentionally. Besides, things were meant to go this way. If anyone could have prevented this, Randy would be alive," She answered.

"But why does things like this have to happen?" Adam cried. It was apparent that he was becoming more upset by his shaking.

Laura smiled slightly. She remembered thinking the same thing herself at one time not too long ago. She walked back over to Adam's mess of covers that he called a bed and sat down beside him again.

"When I got the message that you were in a bad car accident and that they had to life-flight you, I thought that all the way to the hospital. Why my family? Why my boy?" Laura said recounting the events of that night in her mind. "Then when I saw you in that hospital bed with tubes and hoses, I was very angry. I even blamed myself for it."

"How could you have possibly caused that accident, Mom?" Adam said sarcastically.

"I am the one who encouraged you to go that night. Your father was still a little leery, but I convinced him to let you go to Alyssa's party. I know that things happen when you are solving your cases and I am still not too crazy about you investigating things, but I have to trust you and God or I would go crazy," Laura replied. "But then I saw you getting better and now I feel blessed to have you back again."

"Mom, I am not the same," Adam said with a slight laugh. It was apparent that his comment did hurt to say.

"You are still my son, no matter what," Laura said, warmly hugging her son and the pile of covers that surrounded him. She then got up and walked down to the kitchen where her other two men were eating their breakfast.

"So how is he doing?" Carl asked his wife. The worry showed on his face. Jason had told them all about Adam's explosion of emotions on the beach and they were all deeply worried about him.

"As well as to be expected I guess. I tried to get him to come down, but he just lay in the bed. I think it is going to take time," She replied sitting down to drink some coffee.

"Aren't you going to eat anything, Mom?" Jason asked, noticing that his mother had not ate anything yet.

"I just don't feel like it right now," She said, taking another drink of coffee.

"Laura, you can't kiss the hurts and make them go away anymore," Mr. Kramer said looking over lovingly at his wife.

"Maybe so, but a mother's love is unconditional and until the day that I die, they will be my boys," She said looking back over at her husband. "So did you find out anything yet about the accident?"

"When I went to the scene last night, the were still pulling the car out of the swamp. The deputy said that they were going to immediately have the car checked out by a mechanic from San Diego. The marks on the road made it appear like the car just lost total control. There were no signs that the brakes worked at all and we all know that Randy would have tried to stop it," Carl answered. "He was a good driver."

"Well, he should have been after racing on the area circuit. So did they say anything this morning when you called?" Jason asked.

"I went to the station this morning instead. I just could not sleep. They said that it was brake failure. There wasn't any brake fluid in the system. Anything could have happened according to the mechanic," Carl said sipping his coffee.

"So the brake shoes were fine then?" Jason asked, looking over at his father.

"Yes, the shoes were on fine. It was just the brake fluid lines. They were still in the process of looking at that part," Carl said.

"Then Adam is off the hook. He only messed with the brake shoes. When I left, he had just took the shoes off and was putting them back on because you said that Randy was coming soon to pick it up."

"Jason, you do not know anything about cars," Carl said and looked over at him quizzically.

"I know that Dad, but that is what he told me he was doing and I know the area that he was in. I saw him you know," Jason replied.

Carl's face lit up. It was then that he realized what Jason was trying to tell him. Adam could not have caused the accident because the only thing he worked on was the brake shoes. The mechanic verified that.

"Now all we have to do it convince Adam," Carl said as he got up to go upstairs to his son followed by Laura and Jason. As they reached the steps, a knock was heard at the door.

"I will get it, I bet it is Alyssa or Chuck. They said that they would be over today," Jason said as he went to answer the door.

Happy that his brother had been cleared of causing the accident, he opened the door with a smile. But that smile soon turned into a frown. Standing there before him was a deputy from the Pine County Sheriff's Department.

"I need to speak to Adam Kramer," the officer said.

"That is my brother. Why do you need to speak to him? He gave his statement last night," Jason replied.

"I know, I was there. But now I need to take him down to the station with me. It seems that Mrs. Hartley is not happy with how we are handling things and she has hired some high stakes lawyer. We have to open the case as a possible murder," The officer said with disgust. Anyone who lives in a small town knows how rural people feel about bringing city people into their affairs. So Jason understood why the officer was so disgusted with the situation.

"So what does this mean?"