Page 450 of A Matter of Time

“I know you do,” she said softly. “I just don’t understand. I mean, when he’s Caleb, he could never do that. The part of him that is your friend, Jory—he truly loves you.”

I knew that. The problem was that the other guy in his head, who had the personality of his mother, wanted my brains splattered all over a wall.

“They don’t expect him to ever make a recovery. He’s been this way far too long.”

“Meaning what?”

“He’ll spend the rest of his life in a facility like this one.”

“He could get better, realize what he’s done.”

“To then spend the rest of his life in prison,” she said sadly. “He killed six people.”

“Yes.”

“I’d rather have him in a place like this.”

Of course she would. I felt the same. “You should…talk to someone for yourself. This is a lot; you need help too.”

“I’ve already started. I want to try and heal things with Jeremy and Gwen as well.”

“That sounds like a really good plan,” I told her.

We were quiet a moment.

“May I ask why we’re here?”

“To talk to Caleb. He asked for you.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “You didn’t do anything.”

“My goodness, Jory, I covered for him, which allowed him to be free to come after you. That was a⁠—”

“But you did it out of love for your son. I get that. And you never believed he could hurt anyone, just like I didn’t.”

She nodded as she began to tear up. “I should have seen something, noticed something.”

“No. How could you?” I said, leaning over to take her hand, and she gripped mine tight. “Caleb was always the sweetest guy.”

“Yes. Yes, he was.”

“So what were you supposed to see?”

“Well, I will never stop feeling responsible, but at least I know that with him here, he’ll never hurt anyone else.”

I took a breath. “May I ask you something else?”

“Of course.”

“Why were your fingerprints on the knife they found in Caleb’s apartment?”

“He showed it to me once, had me hold it… I had no idea I was being set up at the time. Just like the pictures you found in Campbell’s apartment that Caleb hung there. He framed me and I never suspected he would. It’s not a place your mind goes to when you’re chatting with your child.”

“Of course not.” I nodded.