C is for Cathecting

The problem with murder when it comes to parents, is to get them past their misplaced guilt. Clayton ran into it on other cases too, not just murder. Even after Clayton reassured them there was nothing they could have done; that Margie, like most twenty-five-year-old women had a mind of their own, it didn't help ease their pain. They felt responsible in some way.


The guilt they placed on each other made it all the more difficult for the Websters to stick to the questions. Why hadn't Alice told Jack that Margie went off to the book club? If Jack hadn't stifled their daughter so she would have been more open with them--and on and on. It took Clayton an hour to get any honest answers from either of them and that was only after he called in his investigator, Pepper Black.

Pepper closed the door to interrogation room number two where she left Alice Webster with a box of tissues and a female guard. Clayton could see through the glass that Alice would need another box very soon.

"Get anything useful?" asked Clayton.

Pepper sat on the edge of Clayton's desk where he was waiting. She slid her pad across to him. "She didn't approve of Margie going to the book club either. Not so much the club as the guy running it, Malcolm Sinclair."

"Same here. Jack thought the guy was filling her head with crazy ideas. He didn't say exactly what though."

"Alice said she only saw Malcolm once," said Pepper. "Jack didn't know about it--still doesn't. She met them for lunch. Says Margie desperately wanted Alice to like him. It was some special occasion for them that Alice didn't understand. Malcolm ceremoniously gave Margie some flowers, but said the guy showed no affection to Margie whatsoever--didn't even smile."

"Sounds a bit odd. So what's your take on Margie and this guy?"

"It sounds like a cathectic relationship."

"Come again?"

"No doubt the guy has some sort of attachment to her but it's not love." said Pepper. "Margie took it as such, wished it to be so. But Malcolm's feelings for her seem cathecting not loving. We mix the two. You say you love your car, but can you? Of course not. It's inanimate."

"So this guy Malcolm, he found her important for the purpose she served, to him anyway."

"That's how I see it."

"That's something like what her parents implied when I first got them in here. Said his attention towards their daughter wasn't on the up and up so Jack insisted she drop the book club."

"Obviously she didn't take her dad's advice."

"Suppose we better have a talk with Mr. Sinclair to see what he was up to last weekend," said Clayton.

Pepper had a cat that ate the mouse look on her face. "Better yet, I haven't read a good book in a while. Know of a club around here I can join?"

***

Today's words - C for Cathecting - is brought to you by Dennis, Buffalo Creativity Club
and Ceremoniously- Jeri Amrhein. 

If you would like to catch up, here is my 2013 A to Z Mystery Recap. 

This post is part of April's Blogging From A-Z Challenge and Camp NaNoWriMo. The rest of the A-Z bloggers can be found pinned in the links section of my sidebar. Hope to see you tomorrow!