"How can you think of something like that when your brother is trouble?" he said as he shook his head. He wondered what was going on behind the closed door that his father entered about two hours ago. It was an awful sight to see Adam placed in the back of a police cruiser. His mother was devastated, but extremely angry. She could not believe that Mrs. Hartley would accuse her son of being a murderer. She was also behind the closed door along with James, the family's close friend and lawyer. Jason wished he could have been in there, but there was simply not enough room in the sheriff's office.

Jason was about to make the hundredth trip around the lobby when he heard footsteps approaching from the front doors. But it was not a welcoming site. His eyes met the glaring eyes of Mrs. Lorraine Hartley, Randall's wife. Behind her were her two children, Rachel and Jonathan as well as another older man carrying a brief case and talking on a cellular phone. Probably that hot shot lawyer, Jason thought to himself. All four of them entered the office, but within one minute Rachel and Jonathan were sent out to wait in the lobby. Jason knew both of them very well. Rachel and Jonathan were both his age and went to school together all of their lives. But it was an extremely awkward moment for all of them. For thirty minutes, the three friends sat in the lobby without saying even one word to each other.

"Jason?" Jonathan said with a weak voice. His voice echoed across the marble floor and startled Jason.

"Yeah?" Jason responded.

"I just wanted to let you know that I am not mad at your brother."

Before Jason could even respond, Rachel stood up and slapped her brother. "How could you say that? His stupid brother killed our father!"

"He did not kill your father," Jason said with an even tone. Rachel spun around to face him, her eyes full of rage. It looked like she had been crying for a very long time and Jason knew she was rightfully upset. But no one was going to call his brother a killer.

"If your retarded brother would have left that car alone then my father would be alive today," She snorted at him. Jason was getting angrier by the second, but he wanted to keep his cool.

"If my brother killed your father, then why was it MY father's car that he died in! He did not know until the last minute that your father was even coming for the car," Jason retorted back. It was then that he listened to his own statement. Things had not been making sense and that was a good point. It was his own father's car that was involved in the accident, not Randall Hartley's.

Rachel was about to say something, but the opening of the door stopped her. The next two faces that were seen were the angry faces of Mrs. Hartley and her lawyer.

"This is not the last you will hear from me!" she yelled as she motioned for her two kids to follow her. Since the door remained open, Jason walked over to it and peered in. His mother extended her arm to him and he immediately went over to be with her. Mr. Kramer was on the phone and he did not appear to be very happy at all. The sheriff was sitting on the other side of his desk with James standing right behind him looking over some papers.

"What is going on?" Jason asked his mother.

"Your father is calling the state department. They think they might have stumbled onto to something," She said with a quiet voice.

"Where is Adam?" he whispered back.

"He is downstairs in a holding room," Mrs. Kramer relied. Then she noticed the concerned look on Jason's face. "Everything is going to be fine. Adam is going to be coming back home tonight--- to stay."

Jason felt a lit bit better, but he wanted to know what was going on. He knew that his father was still very upset. He was about to ask if he could go down and check on Adam when he heard his father yell out, " Why was I not told about this!"

Then there was a long pause.

"Well, you had better gather all the information you have and be ready in the morning. I can't believe that you did not tell me. Is that how you repay your employees?" He said and then there was another long pause. "You better be there because we sure will be. If I do not have all the answers when we do get there I guarantee heads are going to roll!" He then put the phone down and looked disgusted as he glanced over at James and then at his family.

"The state department is going to examine the car to add a second opinion to the situation. They said that they appreciate your cooperation in this matter. They will also be looking into the records concerning the fire. It looks like we have a case on our hands."

At first, everyone looked at Carl with confused faces.

"It seems that the state department has taken it upon themselves to not inform me of a few happenings that would have been great to know about before now," He said as he explained his findings. "It seems that someone has been threatening me and my family for about a week now. They have been sending messages and leaving distorted phone threats on my office recorder."

"Why didn't they tell you Dad?" Jason asked. He was totally confused at this point. He knew his father had a lot of enemies and it was not the first time that his father and his family had been threatened. However, he could not understand why the state did not let his father know about something as serious as this.

"Now everything is starting to make sense," Jason said snapping his fingers.

"What is making sense? I can see the car being rigged to wreck a part of this, but your house fire was ruled accidental because of spontaneous combustion due to oil rags," the sheriff said tilting back in his chair.

"Yes, but Adam said that all of his oil rags were clean and stacked in the barn. So it was not his rags so someone must have planted them there. An easy thing to overlook since Adam does work on cars. But Adam just washed his rags the day before, besides, Adam's rags are still in the barn where he left them," Jason pointed out to everyone.

"Not to mention one of the threats stated that "things were going to get a little hot under the collar"," Carl responded. "They are getting all of the threats together and we will be going over them in the morning."

"But why didn't they tell you?" Laura said with a tense tone. It was plain to see that she was upset over everything.

Carl took a deep breath. He was also upset by that fact. "The state department gets many threats a day about its agents. So many sometimes I guess they just do not pay attention to some of them. They knew that I wanted to be closer to home to help out with Adam and they knew that we needed some family time. My supervisor thought that instead of "worrying" me more, he would just conduct his own investigation into the matter. He unfortunately did not know about our fire or accident so he did not realize that the threats were becoming reality."

"He should have told us," Laura fired back. "Look at everything that could have been done and possibly prevented if we had only knew."

"In the department's defense, I do not think that knowing about this would have saved Randall necessarily," the sheriff pointed out. James nodded in agreement. The accident was simply one of those things that would never be completely understood. There would be too many "what ifs" to fully know if the accident could have been prevented. It was not a secret that everyone in the room thought about that thought at the same time.

"So what do we do now?" Jason asked.

"Well, Adam is free to go. I doubt that Mrs. Hartley has a case, but I think she will pursue her civil suit against Adam. I will let you know if I hear anything else and I appreciate your full cooperation," the sheriff said as he got up to shake hands with everyone.

"James and I are going to the main office tomorrow to go over everything. I will brief you on things when I get home," Carl said. He knew his son was eager to work on the case, but he wanted to handle the state department himself. "You and your brother will be staying at the house with your mother tomorrow. You will need to get some things gathered and be ready in case I call you and need to follow my directions."

"I thought you said we could help you with the case?" Jason asked. He did not like the sound of things. It sounded like they were about to get sent somewhere for their own safety.

"You will be, but your safety is more important to me than anything and I do not know what I am dealing with right now. We must be very careful," he replied. "The threats are obviously not a joke."

"What about tonight? I am afraid to be in my own home," Laura said shuttering at the thought that someone had possibly set fire to her home.

"Two of my auxiliary deputies will be on their way to your home as soon as I call them to check things out and stay until the state department's people can get there. So do not worry Mrs. Kramer, we have things covered," the sheriff reassured. "I will also have my deputy drive you home since your car has sat out there all this time. We do not want to take any chances."

Soon the family was reunited with the sheriff's apologies. Adam was told about the recent findings and he knew that his father was right. He could not have killed Randall, but he still felt guilty. He wondered if he would ever be able to shake that feeling. The feeling of "what if he would have checked that area", would Randall be still alive and running his hardware store. His face showed the stress of the past few days events and his stone face could be seen by his brother from the street lights as they walked to the police cruiser. Jason then thought to himself about Mrs. Harley and Rachel. Would they accept that Adam was not responsible? More than ever, would the town accept that Adam was not to blame for this horrible chain of events. Emerald Beach was a small town and news traveled fast. Jason had heard the rumors. No one thought that Adam intentionally killed Randall, but it seemed that they did think he was responsible. Jason was afraid that no matter what the sheriff said, Adam was still guilty in the eyes of the community. He did not know how things were going to go there. He remembered the look of rage in Rachel Hartley's eyes and the glare of her mother as they walked from the city building. The Hartleys were not going to give up that easily. They want to see someone suffer for their pain and it did not matter who that person was at that time.

While everyone was busy wondering in silence what the future held for their family and who would possibly do such horrendous crimes, the night was hiding the secret. In the shadows, a figure was watching... scheming... waiting for the right opportunity to make the last strike to take the Kramers down.