Today at lunch I rode my Triumph Scrambler down Holly Springs and turned left onto Fielding Drive. I rode the considerable distance to the end and made my way to the cul de sac where Nancy was found. Houses on the street now, though it is still not built out all the way. On the cul de sac were tradesmen on break from construction so I did not stop.
Life there has moved on. There was no sign of the drama of the trial. I had not gone there before. But, today I just felt like I should. It was a bit of a strange feeling, and I suppose a strange thing to have done anyway.
I looked at the new houses, the construction and I thought this place was meant to be a foundation for the dreams of families moving forward in life, making homes, raising children. The signs remain, calling one to visit the model home, and of course imagine you and your family in it. And yet one night or morning, someone came down this road with the purpose of putting an end to a family, to hide the evidence of the the crushing of dreams.
The person who left that neighborhood not with the idea of moving to a brighter future but rather running from the darkest past had a single hope too - that he might not be spotted and brought to light for what he had done. Back to present and just a few miles away, the community's representatives were convened for the express purpose of dashing that twisted hope.
A criminal gets an advantage twice. First, with an unfair, cowardly attack on the victim made at the time of the criminal's choosing. And second, the high burden the state carries before it can levy the punishment of the law upon him. His disadvantage is that the truth is not on his side, and good people with patience and diligence work to see the truth exposed.
Brad Cooper lied about his actions before his wife was murdered, when she was murdered, and after she was murdered. He is a man afraid of the truth and he sits in a tribunal charged with nothing less than the discovery of the truth. He must be particularly uncomfortable. The verdict, whatever it is, is soon to come.