I have had some new thoughts, and wondered what the consensus might be. Let’s suppose, for a moment, that Mark is not guilty of hiding, harming or killing Dylan. Why would he talk the way he does? Having recently experienced someone who, when asked a direct question, responded with something other than a direct answer, including but not limited to mentioning something about themselves which, in their eyes, showed how smart they were (as when Mark made mention that he knew where Elaine worked, and implied she was foolish because she was trying to hide it), I started to wonder why someone would do this. Why, instead of answering a question, would you respond with explaining something that you think makes you look good?
The thought occurred to me that someone might do this because they felt as if they had to prove they were smart, in other words, they felt not as smart as the person asking the question. Then the thought occurred to me that if someone asked a question of a person about something that they really ought or ought not to have done by society’s standards, they could feel guilty and try to justify themselves or shift blame to someone else (like Mark does). If he does not feel guilty about hiding, harming or killing Dylan, what would he feel guilty for? And I came up with several things.
- He might feel guilty for insisting his son stay with him that night. If he had stayed with his friends, he would probably not be missing. (causing the “Dylan might have walked to his friends house” word salad)
- He might feel guilty because, perhaps, he didn’t really try to wake Dylan up. Perhaps he didn’t WANT to drive Dylan all the way to his friend’s house (causing the “convenient bus” word salad), so he never really tried to wake him up(causing the “Dylan won’t get up unless he has to” word salad). Instead he planned on getting home and coming up with some other reason he couldn’t get Dylan to his friend’s house (causing the “his friend’s were important to him” word salad).
- If he texted Dylan as he says, and Dylan never responded, he might feel guilty that he didn’t head back immediately or call the house phone.
- He might feel guilty for taking a nap and not looking for his son. (Causing the “I didn’t think much about him not being there” word salad)
- He might feel guilty about not having any plans for Thanksgiving. Or because his real plans were simply to spend the day with Dylan with no celebration or fanfare. (causing the “we didn't have any set plans" word salad)
- He might not have locked his door, and felt guilty for that.
- He might not have reported Dylan missing (looks like he didn’t) and feel guilty for that (causing the “went to the Marshalls office” word salad)
He had visitation custody of Dylan and Dylan disappeared during that time; he might (I would hope *WOULD*) feel guilty for that, and try to make himself look like an attentive parent (causing the all the “Elaine wasn’t there for bonding” , “I need to know he’s safe and where he’s at”, “It’s him and me”, “I wanted to eat in a sit down restaurant” word salad).
To wrap up this incredibly long post, that doesn’t come close to covering what he could feel guilty about, could his whole way of speaking just be him feeling guilty or trying to justify what many comments (at various places) have pointed out as being less than an attentive parent who wanted to make sure his son got to see his friends? Especially if he really had no intention of getting Dylan to his friends at all, and he feels guilt that this may have contributed to Dylan’s disappearance, but is not willing to admit it.
Just trying to look at it from another point of view. These are all only my thoughts and opinion, so don’t ask for links.