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Things You Won't Say


A ripped from the headlines story of a family in crisis following a tragic ...
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Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Created: 05/20/15

Replies: 19

Posted May. 20, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Discuss this interaction between Mike and Jamie on page 264: "‘When did you stop believing in me?' he asked. She blinked and looked up at him. His gaze was steely, but it flickered away a second after she met his eyes. It was as if he could hardly bear to look at her." Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike? 


Posted May. 24, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Tired Bookreader

Join Date: 08/19/11

Posts: 209

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Doubt is possible considering the previous event; however, the doubt should have remained internal.


Posted May. 24, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
danniellei

Join Date: 04/21/14

Posts: 12

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think Christie had a belief in Mike because it was to her benefit to be in his corner. I think Jamie had a reaction to the tensions in Ferguson. Jamie definitely had more to lose. Maybe the relationship suffered but Mike expressed a bit of doubt in the beginning.....of course,he quickly dismissed it.


Posted May. 24, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
laurap

Join Date: 06/19/12

Posts: 407

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

She doesn't believe there was a gun because no gun was found. As time goes by I think Mike talks himself out of his original doubts, but Jamie is so concerned about what will happen to her family if there was in fact no gun and Mike is indicted or , worse, goes to jail that she can't go there with him. Christie, on the other hand, has little to lose by standing with Mike.


Posted May. 26, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
judithj

Join Date: 04/15/15

Posts: 45

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

All the evidence pointed to the teen being unarmed, including Mike's partner at the scene. Jamie may have felt that Mike was still struggling with guilt over Ritchie's injuries and reacted wrong in the volatile situation. Case in point the night he thought the house had been broken into.


Posted May. 26, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
terriej

Join Date: 07/28/11

Posts: 422

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think Jamie always had doubt with what Mike told her because she didn't completely trust the Christie relationship. It was easy for her to doubt him in something so big because it gave her validation of her other doubts.


Posted May. 26, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
bigred66

Join Date: 03/14/15

Posts: 18

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think Jamie was concerned about her husbands mental state after the shooting of his partner and claiming someone broke into the house as well as misplacing items. I think if I was in her shoes...I may have had doubts as well. As for Christie, she wasn't experiencing what was going on in his home like Jamie was.


Posted May. 28, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
janeh

Join Date: 06/15/11

Posts: 222

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Probably a product of their lack of deep communication over the years. We don't know what else Jamie had seen Mike do over the years of being a law enforcement officer. Maybe she had doubts because he or his coworkers had made other decisions over time that she had secretly felt were questionable...... nothing major .... just little niggling doubts that she would not have handled the situations in the same way. Maybe that's why this time she had doubts about the veracity of his story.


Posted May. 28, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Suzanne

Join Date: 04/21/11

Posts: 281

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Mike also had doubts about what he'd seen or not seen. Jamie never voiced the fact she wondered if there was a gun. After the conflict on pg 264, we really don't know Mike was referring to her belief of his story of a gun.

I doubt if I'd completely believe my husband had seen a gun, the same as believing he'd not have done anything shady with his ex (if there was one) under such circumstances; there's an awful lot of skepticism in my makeup!

I agree, bigred66, "As for Christie, she wasn't experiencing what was going on in his home like Jamie was." She also had her secret reasons and I think she might have been trying to sock it to Jamie somewhat.


Posted May. 29, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dianaps

Join Date: 05/29/15

Posts: 460

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think Jamie's doubts came from the prior events that happened when Mike thought someone had broken into the house. She had felt that he went back to work too soon. As for as Christie's belief in him, she was pretty much unaware of all the facts and she was just out to get what she could from Mike..


Posted May. 29, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
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donnac

Join Date: 03/26/14

Posts: 139

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think Mike was clearly suffering from PTSD and Jamie --whether it's acknowledged or not -- knows that his recent experience has clouded his judgement, has changed him from the man and the cop he once was. I think she realized that when Mike said he thought those kids were going to hurt his new, "stupid" partner he might have had a flashback and reacted with impaired judgement.

I probably would not have been convinced that there was a gun, but that Mike believed there was one.

Christie had her own motives for saying she agreed with Mike that had nothing to do with the facts of the shooting.


Posted May. 31, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
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valeriec

Join Date: 10/20/10

Posts: 33

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think she saw Mike as emotionally weaker after his partner's shooting. He was not perceived as infallible. She it was possible he screwed up.


Posted May. 31, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
pennyp

Join Date: 03/22/12

Posts: 353

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think Jaimie eventually didn't believe Mike because he was so closed off. Her fear of what would happen to her family fanned the fire so to speak. I think Christie and Mike had an entirely different relationship, one of a time when they were pretty young and innocent and didn't have all the burdens that pile up later in life. She also had a more open communication with him.


Posted Jun. 01, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
robinn

Join Date: 12/06/14

Posts: 28

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think Christie is going to stick up for Mike no matter what. She kinda hopes that there is still something there. Jamie cannot believe her husband because she has her doubts and has had them regarding other topics for a long time. The trust is lacking.


Posted Jun. 01, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
pate

Join Date: 03/15/13

Posts: 36

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Police officers have to make split second, life changing decisions every day, very much like the decision Mike made on that fateful day. I think that Jamie felt Mike had perhaps returned to work too quickly and that his judgement had been impaired that day because of it. Even though things are not always as they appear, the evidence at the time of the shooting did not point to the presence of a gun. Jamie had already seen instances where Mike's perceptions of what happened did not match what actually happened , so she probably felt there was reason to doubt a gun actually existed. This was compounded by the poor communication skills the couple had.


Posted Jun. 02, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
LindaSc

Join Date: 05/27/15

Posts: 8

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Jamie's doubts were certainly fueled by other events in the story, such as Mike's own initial skepticism about what he had seen. The stress level between them was high and because they both have problems with communication, it is easy to see how doubts would escalate: Jamie's doubt about the presence of a gun and Mike's doubt about Jamie's trust in him are just a couple examples. Jamie knows a lot about who Mike is after years of marriage, and if she thinks it is possible that he was wrong about what he saw, she is basing that on her knowledge of him. Christie has a different picture of who Mike is, and in her picture it is not possible that Mike made this mistake. So ---- is Christie's picture of Mike the more accurate one?


Posted Jun. 03, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kristenh

Join Date: 10/22/10

Posts: 14

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

It was hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun because there wasn't one found in the beginning and she knew how stressed her husband had been about the shooting of his partner and thought that the stress could have brought on the illusion of a gun.

I would believe my spouse in the situation since I would believe that they would know when they were ready to return to work after a traumatizing event.

I think it was easy for Christy to believe Mike so easily because she didn't have as much as stake as Jamie did if Mike was found guilty of murdering an unarmed boy. She did have a child with Mike but she had a job and would be able to support herself still while Jamie hadn't been employed in quite a while and didn't seem to have too many skills.


Posted Jun. 04, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
angelakuemmel

Join Date: 03/11/15

Posts: 12

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I agree with many of the points raised earlier about the stress from the incident in which Richie was injured, and the consquent PTSD for Mike; but I wish this aspect of the plot had come up for discussion between Jamie and Mike sooner.


Posted Jun. 07, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
arielf

Join Date: 04/22/11

Posts: 34

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

Christie loves Mike and has great belief in him, because this could be beneficial to her long term. Jamie is so involved with maintaining a household, caring for her children, interfacing with her sister, Lou, and how others think about her and her family, that because someone had been killed with a gun and Mike was there, he had to have a gun. I would have given him more support and believed in him.


Posted Jun. 07, 2015 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
jodig

Join Date: 06/07/15

Posts: 30

RE: Why is it hard for Jamie to believe there was a gun? Would you have believed your spouse in this case? Why is Christie so quick to believe Mike?

I think the disconnect between Jamie and Mike that seemed to be deepening over time and was exacerbated by Mike's reaction to Ritchie's shooting was the primary cause of Jamie's doubt about the gun. She was dealing with a lot - the change in Mike, the disconnect between the two of them, all of the typical stuff with running a house and raising kids - I think it was all too hard for her to process and to know what to believe. I would like to think that I would believe my husband. I think Christie is so quick to believe him because she wants to be back in his good graces.


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