Fox Hollow, PA
A sense of calm overcame Jack as he sat on his porch next to Frank. An overwhelming sense of serenity that was foreign to his body. His mind was no longer ridiculed with grief, worrying about his beloved Catherine, nor panic-stricken and guilt-ridden over Tristan. The women he fought so hard to protect could never be harmed again by the sick man whom Jack had spent his whole adult life worrying about. Though Catherine lost the fight against Kendricks, she upheld the family’s honor and Jack’s trust. Even in her weak condition, she had fought brutally against a man who frightened her to the very inner matter of her soul. Like Tristan, she refused to go anywhere with him, and ran, not out of cowardice, but because the mere thought of going anywhere with Bernard Kendricks made her feel sick to her core. And Tristan, sweet, brave Tristan. Who would have known that she had her Aunt Bridgette’s wild streak in her? Jack certainly didn’t. Her no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense attitude is what kept her alive and it is what saved this family in the end. It wasn’t Tristan who needed saving after all. At first he thought that if he hadn’t shown up, that Tristan and the rest of the family would be dead. But after hearing all that Tristan had gone through, all that Kendricks had put her through, he retracted his opinion. She had fought bravely, and she would continue to do so.
Sergeant DiNolfo had stopped by earlier that day to discuss her progress. She now had enough information to close Catherine’s case, Tristan’s case, and about five other related cases on her desk. She had finally gotten out to Pennington prison to pay Benson a visit. Everything his daughter said was true. Benson was framed from Amos and Earl’s transgressions, and when Benson threatened to talk, he found himself in a six-by-eight cell. Now living at his daughter’s apartment, he is beginning to adjust to his life on the outside. As for Earl and Amos, the last DiNolfo heard was that they were being transferred to a high-security prison in upstate New York after their existing one closed down for a variety of rumored reasons. With many of their cases still deliberating, it would be a while before they found out just when they would be getting out. With Catherine’s case being resolved, she came to let Jack know that the insurance money would also be coming out of escrow. Jack nearly kissed her he was so happy. Jack planned to build a high perimeter fence around the property, purchase the kids a new computer, and put the rest away for their tuition.
DiNolfo was frequently reminded of the first time she heard the name Ernest Finkle. A particularly brutal case from her days in Pittsburgh. A triple homicide at an apartment in downtown Pittsburgh that was leased to an Allison Finkle, a med student from Dayton, Ohio, who was studying at the University of Pittsburgh. She recalled going out to the residence after a report of a disturbance came in and she found three bodies all strangled. They were identified as Allison Finkle, age twenty-two, her father Ernest Finkle, age fifty-nine, and his girl friend, Patrice Daly, fifty-six. They were never able to find the killer, but DiNolfo now had a pretty good hunch as to who did it. Ernest Finkle’s stepson, Bernard.
As for Kendricks, his obsession for Catherine was rekindled when he saw Tristan in his class day after day. The search of his apartment hadn’t produced much; Catherine had only sent him two pieces of correspondence. One asking him to leave her alone, and another, a sympathy card for when his grandmother passed away. He mistook her kindness for something else, and when she rejected him, it was more than he could bear. Then when Tristan showed up in his classroom, his guilt was overwhelming, causing his delusions to run rampant. Tristan is lucky she survived his reign of madness.