Page 5 of If She Remembered
"According to neighbors, quite the opposite.They describe Jake as devoted, Carol as supportive.When he lost his job, she immediately offered to let him move back home while he got back on his feet."
They moved into what was clearly Jake's room, the former craft room Carol had converted for his return.Kate noticed immediately how different this space felt from the rest of the house.Where Carol's rooms showed years of accumulated comfort and personal touches, this room had the temporary quality of recent occupation.
"She converted her hobby room for him," DeMarco said.Kate could see evidence of this right away, noting the faint rectangular marks on the walls where different decorations had hung.
"Sewing and quilting, according to the neighbors.And she swapped it all out so Jake could have his old room back.”DeMarco gestured toward the neatly made bed.
Kate examined the small desk positioned under the window, which held Jake's laptop and a stack of resumes.Everything appeared organized and purposeful, suggesting someone actively engaged in job hunting rather than taking advantage of the situation.
"This doesn't feel like a man planning to murder his mother," Kate said, returning to the hallway.
"That's what's bothering me about the whole thing," DeMarco replied."If Jake wanted to kill her so he could get his inheritance, why move back home first?Why put yourself at the very scene of the crime?”
They walked back downstairs, and Kate took another look at the living room from this new perspective.The family photos suddenly seemed more poignant, showing a relationship that had clearly been important to both mother and son.
"Unless something changed recently," Kate said."Something that made waiting no longer an option."
"Financial pressure from losing his job?"DeMarco guessed.
"Possibly.Or maybe something about living here again, seeing his mother's daily life, triggered something we don't understand yet."Kate paused by the front window and looked out at the quiet street."Where is Jake now?"
"The local PD arrested him this morning after the coroner called with the preliminary toxicology results.He's being held pending formal charges."
“On what grounds?”Kate asked.
“Purely circumstantial.”
Kate didn’t agree with this approach, but she did understand it on a technical level.She considered the timeline.Jake had been living in the house for just over a week, found his mother dead last night, and was arrested this morning.If he was guilty, it represented a remarkably compressed timeline for planning and executing a murder.And he had a story for the day she died that would be easy to check out.
"I noticed the camera doorbell when we came in," Kate said."What about the security system?"
"That's another interesting detail," DeMarco replied."The house has a basic security system, but it was disarmed when Jake found his mother's body.According to the security company, it hadn't been armed for several days."
Kate turned from the window."Several days?Was that typical behavior for Carol?"
"Jake told police that his mother had started leaving it disarmed since he moved back home.Said she didn't want him to have to remember to disarm it when he came and went for job interviews."
This detail struck Kate as significant.If the security system had been consistently disarmed, it meant anyone with knowledge of the house's routines could have gained entry without triggering alarms.But it also suggested Carol had been making accommodations for Jake's presence, adjusting her own habits to make his temporary living situation more comfortable.
"So if Jake isn't the killer," Kate said, "the real perpetrator could have gotten in and out fairly easily while no one was home."
"Exactly.No forced entry required, no alarm system to worry about.Just knowledge of when the house would be empty."
Kate considered this scenario, but it felt unnecessarily complicated compared to the simpler explanation.Jake had motive, opportunity, and access to his mother's daily routine.He knew when she took her medications, when she would be alone in the house, and how to make her death appear natural.The jurisdictional complication that brought the FBI into the case didn't change the fundamental facts pointing toward Jake as the perpetrator.
"Have you run background checks on Jake's employment situation in Baltimore?"Kate asked, returning to the bedroom to take another look at his job search materials.
"He has a clean record, good employment history until the layoffs.His former employer confirmed he was well-regarded and that the termination was purely economic, not performance-related."
"I want to talk to him," Kate said."And I want to see the full coroner's report when it's available.This case may be crossing state lines, but that doesn't make it federal if the motive and means are purely local."
"Agreed.But something about this whole situation feels off to me, Kate.”
“Like local PD making assumptions and lazily arresting the son?”
“Well, that, too.Yeah.But what I mean is that either Jake Bennett is an exceptionally cold-blooded killer who planned this entire scenario, or we're missing something important about what happened here."
Kate took one final look around the living room, noting again the care with which Carol Bennett had arranged her life and her home.Everything suggested a woman who had found contentment in her domestic routine, who had been genuinely pleased to support her son during a difficult period.
