Jamie Brodie 01 - Cited to Death

did get to go home on Monday morning.
    I went home to Pete’s long enough to pack, then went home with my dad to Oceanside. I spent the next week there, breathing in the clean sea air and helping my dad in the garden. Pete came down on Wednesday after SMC’s graduation. The following Monday, June 18, we went home for good.
    Almost four weeks after the fire, Kevin and Abby moved back in to our apartment. I kept paying my third of the rent so they could afford to stay in our apartment until the lease was up. It worked out okay since Pete didn't have a mortgage for me to help out with.
    Alana Wray maintained her innocence for about a week. Then, under pressure from his parents, Andy Mitchell gave in and told the police that Alana had hired him to sabotage my computer and trash my office. It turned out that Alana’s older sister, Andy’s mother, had been estranged from Alana for years, and Andy’s dad hated Alana’s guts. They weren’t about to let their son take the rap for his aunt.
    Better than that, Andy knew the identity of "Ed," who had beaten me up and, as it turned out, had been following me from the time I requested the Welsh article. He’d also been the one who had slashed my tires at Cedars. "Ed" was a cousin of Alana's, Wayne Edward Sobrowski. The police found him easily enough. He refused to talk until he found out that Alana was going to blame him for everything, then he spilled the whole story. Andy didn't get jail time, but he did get two years' probation and lost his job. Sobrowski pled guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated arson and was sentenced to twelve years. Mauro Politano, who'd broken in to the apartment and condo, was sentenced to eight years in prison for the two first degree burglaries and another eight years for felony arson.
    Once Alana learned that both Andy and Wayne had admitted everything and were prepared to testify against her, she pled guilty to the first degree murder of Dan Christensen and the attempted murders of Ben, Pete, and me. She was sentenced to life without parole and shipped off to Chowchilla.
    Diane DeLong did lose her job in the public schools. Liz heard through the grapevine that she’d gotten hired at a private high school in Riverside and had moved to the Inland Empire. Liz also heard that Diane had dyed her Mohawk light blue.
    Life settled back down into a routine of sorts, even though it was a new routine. Most mornings, Pete and I went for a run, down to the beach and along the beach to the pier and back, sometimes farther. Instead of walking to work, I rode the bus. We still spent most of our Saturdays hiking. Pete cooked, I cleaned. Life was good.
    I went back to work on a Thursday. I was sorting through two weeks of accumulated mail – again! – when Ben Goldstein showed up at my office. He'd sent me a get-well card, but I hadn't seen him since.
    I stood up to greet him. "Hey, how are you? Come in." We shook hands and I offered him a seat.
    "I'm fine, thanks." He looked around my office at the walls lined with books and photos. "This is nice."
    "Thanks, I like it. What brings you here?"
    "I wanted to touch base. See how you were doing and what had happened with the case."
    I filled him in on the outcome. "And I'm fine, thanks." I smiled at him. "How are you doing?"
    "Oh, okay, I guess. Now that it's all over, it's finally settling in on me that Dan's gone." He looked at his feet. "I really miss him."
    "Yeah. I can't imagine."
    Ben looked up at me, sideways. “He told me that you and he were involved.”
    "Very briefly. Years ago. When I got his letter, it had been three years since I'd seen him."
    He nodded. "He said he was a different person before he met me."
    "Yeah. I - um - I was in his office after he died and saw the picture of the two of you. Looked like you were on an island, somewhere? He looked different in that picture from when I'd known him."
    Ben smiled sadly. "That was a great trip. That was where we really came together as a couple." He sighed and looked out my office door into the distance. "I still can't believe what happened."
    "Yeah. Me either."
    He looked back at me. "I'm leaving town."
    "You are? I guess that's a good idea?"
    "Yeah, it is. The lab is finished, obviously, and I've kind of lost my taste for research." He laughed grimly. “Word has gotten around here about what happened, and even though there's no speculation that I was involved at all, everyone knows I'm innocent, I just think it would be better for me to