Ex-inspector Henry Burrows looked at the picture of a beautiful, smiling, seventeen-year-old girl and a tear dropped from his eye. In his thirty years in the homicide division, Henry had seen his share of gruesome murders, with victims often taken in the prime of their lives. No matter how shocking or how tragic, he was always stoically analytical and determined. Nothing seemed to ever emotionally rattle old Henry Burrows. But, this time was different. This time, homicide had hit home and the victim was his seventeen-year-old granddaughter.

It was Saturday morning, about sixteen hours since the police had delivered the awful news. Henry wiped his eyes as he slowly walked down the hallway to Lt. James Harper’s office. At sixty-nine years old, Henry had been retired for six years. When he was working, James worked for him and, over the years, they had become friends.

Henry knocked on his door as he peered through the glass wall. James, who was on the phone, immediately waved him in. As James finished his phone call, Henry stood, waiting patiently. James had a squarish face and a full head of black hair with just a touch of gray.

James hung up the phone and walked over to give Henry a hug. “I’m so sorry. Jennifer was a great girl.”

“You said you have the boy you think is responsible for Jennifer’s death in custody. We need to make sure he pays for what he did,” Henry said, his eyes welling up.

“Please, have a seat,” James said, as both men sat down in adjacent chairs.

“We can’t let him get away with saying he was temporarily insane.”

“Right now, he’s not saying anything. His parents made sure he won’t talk until his lawyer gets here.”

“Tell me everything you know about this kid.”

James picked up a file and said, “He’s eighteen years old, only child, well-to-do family, mom’s a nurse, father’s a CPA. The kid’s record is clean. According to school officials, he’s not a loner, but not one of the popular kids either. It’s kind of surprising. This is not your typical profile for a mass murderer.”

“You can’t always judge a book by its cover,” Henry said. “There have been a few massacres on high school and college campuses from seemingly well adjusted kids. This boy murdered my granddaughter and three of her classmates.”

“Yeah, but this is different,” James cautioned. “This wasn’t a rage-filled, heat of passion killing. It was meticulously planned and calculated.”

“The question I have is ‘Why?’. Why did he target Jennifer? Why her boyfriend? Their parents looked at the school’s yearbook. Neither parent recognized the boy.”

“If you are looking for why, I think only one person knows that and he’s not talking.”

“Take me to his cell,” Henry said. “I want to talk to him.”

“I don’t think that’s such a…”

“James please, just let me talk to him for a few minutes.”

James paused for a moment before giving in and escorting Henry to holding cell #4.

Emotions consumed Henry as he looked at the boy behind the bars. Henry’s heartbeat quickened and his stomach turned with disgust. He hated the boy inside this cell. He moved a couple of steps closer. He grabbed the cell bars with both hands and stuck his nose between the bars to get a better look at the boy. James remained a few steps behind Henry.

Seeing he had a visitor, the boy sat up in his bed. He had short, blond hair and a youthful face. As Henry studied him, his posture portrayed confidence, bordering on arrogance. However, his darting, blue eyes suggested a deep fear.

“May I help you?” the boy asked sarcastically.

Henry gripped the cell bars a little tighter as he asked, “Are you Mark Davidson?”

The boy nodded before asking, “Who are you?”

“My name’s Henry Burrows.”

Mark looked at James and then back at Henry. “Are you cops deaf? I’ve already told you I’m not talking to the police.”

“I’m not the police. I’m Jennifer’s grandfather. The girl you murdered.” Henry flashed a piercing glare that seemed to shoot straight through a stunned Mark. “I just want to know one thing. Why did you do it? What did Jennifer do to deserve this?”

Mark stood up and walked up to the cell bars and right in front of Henry, who stood his ground. James remained alert, in case Mark became aggressive. “I did not kill your granddaughter. I didn’t kill any of the other kids either.”

“You should be able to tell from my gray hair that I wasn’t born yesterday,” Henry quipped. “Now, we both know what you did. I’m only asking you why. Why did you inject a syringe of arsenic into my granddaughter?”

“Damn it!” Mark shouted as he hit the cell bars with his open right hand. James took a step forward, but Henry immediately waved him back. “I told you! I didn’t do it!”

Henry looked at Mark with disdain. “You’d better watch that temper. It makes your guilt more evident.” Mark simmered with frustration. He locked his fingers together as they rested on top of his head. Henry continued, “Perhaps you can explain why the authorities found you with four dead bodies of your classmates. Your fingerprints and only your fingerprints were all over the murder weapons.”

Mark closed his eyes for a moment before saying, “All I can tell you is that it wasn’t me. I swear.”

“Oh, you swear? The authorities found you alone on a boat with four dead bodies. So, tell me. How did he get away?”

Mark’s forehead wrinkled as he dropped both arms to his side. “How did who get away?”

“Don’t play games with me. You claim you didn’t do it. So, I asked you how the guy who did it got away.”

Mark paused for a few seconds. “I really shouldn’t be talking to you. Just leave me alone,” Mark said before walking back to the bed.

Henry squinted as he tilted his head slightly. He knew something wasn’t right. He just didn’t know what.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” James said as they re-entered his office.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Henry said, stroking his chin.

“Other than saying he didn’t do it, he didn’t tell us anything.”

“Oh no, he told us much more than that. When I asked him how the murderer got away, he didn’t know who I was referring to. I expected him to make up some story about a helicopter or a boat, but that’s not what happened.” Henry wagged his finger. “That tells me something.”

James flashed a perplexed look as his phone rang. He picked it up and listened for a few moments before hanging up. “It seems that Mark’s parents have arrived, with their lawyer. I need to take care of this.”

“Go ahead,” Henry said. “I just need to look at the police report on the crime scene and access to your computer.”

“You got it,” James said, before handing him a file and heading out the door.

About an hour later, James returned to his office. “I’m sorry about the wait. Shortly after his lawyer got here, Mark was ready to talk. And you won’t believe his story. He sai…”

“He said that Robert Green murdered the other three victims before committing suicide.”

James’ jaw dropped. “My God. How did you know that?”

“Because in the last hour, I figured out what happened.” James was speechless and waited for an explanation. “There were five people on the boat, Mark and four of his dead classmates. The question is, who was the last to die? Susan Tolliver, another victim on the boat, could not have been the last one alive because she couldn’t have committed suicide by stabbing herself in the back. It’s theoretically possible that Jennifer could have injected herself with the syringe, but her body was found in the bedroom and the syringe was found all the way in the front of the boat in the control room.”

“Why didn’t you suspect Max? He died the same way as Robert, taking arsenic orally.”

“I suppose it’s possible Max poisoned Robert, stabbed Susan in the back and then injected Jennifer with the syringe before drinking arsenic to commit suicide to frame Mark. But, Max has the same problem as Jennifer. He was found in the bedroom far away from the control room which is, according to forensics, where the glass that showed traces of arsenic that Max drank from.”

“So, you think this Robert kid is the murderer?”

“I suspected him, so I looked into his background. His family owned the boat and the revolver, which was onboard. Forensics couldn’t find what he drank the arsenic from, but he was found in the control room. He could have drank from a glass and thrown it overboard before collapsing. So, the evidence shows he could have committed suicide. I just don’t know why he would have.”

“According to Mark, he had leukemia. Perhaps he was going to die anyway.”

Henry paused to think. “Did Mark have any idea why Robert did this?”

“He said that Robert told him, just before committing suicide, that he did it for revenge.”

“Revenge for what?” Henry asked.

“He didn’t give any further details. Wait a minute, you really believe Mark? You think he’s innocent?”

“Yes,” Henry said, nodding slowly.

“But we have him as the only person alive on a boat with four dead bodies. His fingerprints were the only ones on the knife and the syringe. He also had prints on the revolver.”

“There was no evidence that the revolver was even shot.”

“No, but maybe Mark used it to force Robert to drink the arsenic and Mark threw the glass out to sea.”

“Good theory, but think about it. If he planned all this out so meticulously, why did he leave his fingerprints on everything? Why didn’t he have a way to escape as opposed to calling the Coast Guard to find him with four dead bodies?”

James stared at Henry for a few moments before shrugging. “I can’t answer that.”

Henry stared at James for a moment. “As much as it pains me to say this, you gotta let him go.”

“I’ve got Jensen in there playing bad cop to see if we can shake him.”

“That won’t do any good. Just cut him loose.”

Before James could respond, another officer burst in the room. “We need you now! There was an altercation in the interrogation room.”

James and Henry raced out of the office and down the hallway where they met Officer Jensen, whose lip was bleeding.

“That punk hit me,” the officer said to James. “I’m pressing charges.”

While James ushered Jensen into a nearby holding room, Henry asked a middle-aged man in a suit, “Are you Mark’s attorney?”

“Yes,” the man said.

“I’m a retired police officer and the grandfather of one of the victims. I don’t think your client murdered anyone. Can we talk? I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

“Sure,” Mark’s attorney said as they walked back to the interrogation room.

“This is ridiculous,” Mark said, seated at the table in the interrogation room. “Why is everyone treating me like some monster? I didn’t kill anyone.”

“And I believe you. You’re no murderer and I can prove it,” Henry said.

Mark took a few moments to realize what Henry said. Henry took a seat at the table. “You’re serious?” Mark asked him.

“Dead serious,” Henry said. “You should not be punished for anything that happened on that boat. I’m confident the police will share my belief. They won’t charge you for murder.”

Mark raised his arms in triumph. “He didn’t outsmart me. I beat him. I beat Luke.”

Henry’s forehead wrinkled. “Luke? Who’s Luke?”

“Oh that’s just a nickname I used for Robert, the creep who murdered your granddaughter.”

“You called him Luke?” Henry said in deep thought. “You did that because you knew he had leukemia. That’s terrible.”

“He deserved it. Look, when do you think the police will let me go?”

“They aren’t going to let you go,” Henry said.

“What? But, you just said…”

“I said that the police wouldn’t charge you for murder, but you assaulted a police officer. You’re going to do time for that.”

“That’s not fair. If the police didn’t wrongfully arrest me, I never would have hit that cop.”

“That may be true, but you’re still responsible for your actions. You said earlier that Robert told you that he acted out of revenge. So, if you didn’t tease Robert so ruthlessly, maybe he wouldn’t have murdered Jennifer and her two classmates.”

“I had nothing to do with Jennifer’s death,” Mark said sternly.

“I know,” Henry said, rising. A swarm of mixed emotions came over Henry as he realized the investigation into his most personal case ever was coming to a close. “Like I said, you’re only responsible for your actions. Because you hit a cop, you will be going to jail.” Henry started for the door.

“This is not fair!” Mark shouted at Henry.

Henry stopped just inside the door and slowly turned around. “I’ve lost a granddaughter, so don’t talk to me about fairness!” Henry paused for a moment, trying to control his emotion. “You should use your time in jail to reflect on how you have treated people, including how you treated Robert. If it makes you change how you treat people in the future, then there would be at least one good thing that came out of this terrible tragedy.”

The Emotion of Henry Burrows is a part of the book Murder in a Snow Covered Town and other stories.