Somebody Knows Something
was the quote everybody gave Junie Unash when she covered a new homicide or an old cold case. "Whoever did it will be unable to live with the guilt and will come forward," or whoever knows who did it will decide to come forward even though being Silenced is always a risk. That, or the witness was high at the time or selling drugs or committing adultery so "No Way" ratting out the killer is a good idea. Still. The stories had to be told, and the loved ones left behind never stopped hoping "Someone" would say "Something" to bring "Closure" to the family.
Baby Doe Found in Dumpster
was a headline everyone hated reading as much as Jooney Unash hated writing it. What kind of woman or girl delivers a baby all by herself, wraps it in a garbage bag and dumps it in the trash?
source: Iowa Cold Cases
Surprisingly, one was a straight-A student in small town Midwest. She gave birth in secret--Junie always wondered how anyone got away with waddling around hiding a basketball-sized belly under a baggy shirt--and had the baby in the school bathroom during Prom. And then she went back to the dance.
You couldn't fabricate a story like that. The truth was too unbelievable.
Junie liked doing the Crime Pages even though the sordid details could get her craving a stiff drink if she tried to picture being the parent or sibling who learned their missing loved one was found dead in a ditch.
Jury Finds Mother of 3 Not Guilty
of infanticide: that one was even harder to fathom than the panicky teenage girl on Prom night. How did Karen Pike react when police found her four-day-old baby boy in a cardboard box dumped in a rural ditch, killed by blows to the head?
She reacted by hiring the best lawyer in the state, Albert Churchill, and despite reams of evidence, he planted a "reasonable doubt" in the minds of Joe Blow Citizens randomly called to jury duty.
"25 Years Ago Today"
the 20-point Times New Roman headline screamed; "Justice for Baby Jason!"the readers wrote in. Some cases were more than 50 years cold. Most were never solved in spite of the Journal's efforts to remind citizens that "A loved one from us has gone; a voice we loved is stilled; a vacant place is in our hearts that never can be filled," and therefore someone should come forward no matter how long it's been. To bring "closure" to those left behind; to get those killers behind bars.
Junie culled details from the court proceedings against Baby Jason's mother. Already, readers were weighing in, all clamoring for Karen Pike's head on a spike. The whole town knew it was her. And it wasn't just Jason. Her firstborn, a girl, had died of "undetermined causes" at three days of age. What coroner thirty years ago just gave up finding the cause of death?
"Would you please take down that story,"
came a message in Junie's inbox. Charles Pike, the only surviving child of the baby-killer mother. Junie blinked in disbelief.
"Why would I do that?" she typed.
"Everyone just talks down and bad about my mother. And that's not gonna help in the way you want these stories to help. It just makes people mad at my mother. Thanks. Chaz."
Well of course they talk bad about her. She killed your little brother. Junie resisted the urge to send that thought.
"Every time this story gets posted everyone starts hating my mother again," Chaz wrote. "If she's so evil how am I the middle child still alive. Every five years you guys repeat the Baby Jason story. And I keep getting Messenger messages from people asking if it's any relation of mine. Pike isn't that common of a name."
So change your name, Junie thought.
The father, the inexplicably loyal husband, was a veteran of the U.S. Marines and had been overseas each time the two babies died. Was he as delusional as his son, incapable of believing a post-partum mother could kill her own baby?
"It takes me back to a dark place in my childhood that does need to be brought up at all," Chaz wrote.
Easy for him to say. Your mother is still above ground, and if these stories torment her, we'll never stop writing them.
"I totally feel for you Chaz and am sorry this news item causes so much pain," she finally typed. "Your mom was tried and acquitted, which means someone else could still be charged if new info surfaces. That's the purpose in keeping these cold cases alive in the minds of the public. Don't you want to find out who killed your baby brother?"
Of course he didn't. He knew. He knew deep down but was in denial. To protect his sanity, maybe. God knows his mother had no sanity or dignity to protect.
"Nothing good comes of your We Remember posts,"
Chaz persisted. "It just reminds me of so much. Like the guy that saw me riding my bike everyday after school and would say 'Heeey, nice to see your still alive, Chaz," and I had no clue what he meant till I was older. Makes me sick."
You're, not your.
Junie sighed. Next, bad guys who got away with murder would be writing in, begging her to stop saying they were Suspect Number One and their reputations were already smeared so let up now, you're embarrassing my grandkids.
Well, poor Chaz was innocent, a kindergartner when his baby brother was clubbed in the head, and she felt sorry for him, but there were people who'd gotten away with murder walking among them. They didn't deserve a free pass to stay out of jail. If the only punishment was a bad reputation and being the subject of gossip, let the gossips have their say.
And if she allowed herself to look at baby pictures and tiny little shoes, complete innocence, cuteness, and dependence on others to survive, she would be sick. How could anyone harm a child or an animal or any human being?
source
"Chaz, I'm sorry," she typed, "but the story is already laid out, people have already commented online, and the paper version is in production. I can't stop the presses. And I can't rewrite history."
"No, but you can reap what you sow," he replied.
To Be Continued