by Levine, Nina
I stare at her in disappointment. I don’t doubt she’s telling the truth now. And that truth will get me nowhere. In desperation, I say, “Can we go over that day in detail? Maybe there’s something there that will help.” I really am clutching at straws now.
“Okay, but I don’t think it’s going to help much.”
“What time did you arrive for your shift?”
“Just after two that afternoon. I was rostered on until around eleven that night.”
“Was it a busy shift?”
“Not really.”
“What did you do to pass the time?”
She pulls a face. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“I cleaned the office for a while. I played some games on my phone. I read some of my book. Those kinds of things.”
“Did you get a break?”
“Not really. I just stayed here at the desk and ate some dinner around five.”
“And the murderer checked in at around five thirty, yes?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Just after you ate your dinner?”
She nods. “Yes, I remember she checked in just after my daughter left.”
“What was your daughter doing here?”
Her face lights up when she remembers this part of the day. “She brought my granddaughter by to see me. She was about six months old then and I loved taking photos of her. They’d just been to a party and she was all dressed up so my daughter dropped by for me to take a photo. I know it sounds silly, but these are the kinds of things a grandmother treasures.”
I smile. “It’s not stupid, Amanda. I love that.”
“Let me show you the photos. I still have them on my phone. She’s just too gorgeous to delete, even after all these years.” She rushes out to the office to retrieve her phone.
A minute later I’m looking at photos of not only her beautiful granddaughter but also of a woman whose muffin top and face I would recognise anywhere. Well, maybe not anywhere, but definitely in this instance.
I stare at her. “Was this the woman who checked into the room where the murder took place?” My heart is racing.
She peers closer at the photo and then blows it up. “God, yes, that’s her. She was right there near my grandbaby.” This thought appears to horrify her.
I motion at the phone. “Can I please see?”
She passes me the phone and I look at all the photos she has of that day with her family. It’s the very last photo that gives me what I’m looking for—concrete evidence of who killed Jolene’s mother.
Alanis.
She’s in the background of the photo getting out of a rental car. The photo was snapped when she didn’t have the disguise on fully. The dumb bitch. She planned everything else down to the detail, but she drove without the hat and the scarf in place.
I glance up at Amanda. “Can I please send these to myself?”
She nods, clearly shaken. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know I had those on there.”
I quickly send the photos to my email and then hand her phone back. “You’re going to have to make a statement to the police. Please tell me you’ll do this.”
“Yes. When?”
“What time do you finish work?”
She checks the time. “In half an hour.”
“Right, I’ll stay here and then we can go to the police station, okay?”
We agree to do this together and then I head outside to wait in my car for her. My mind is bombarded with thoughts and my emotions race through me. After all this time, Jolene may be able to go home to her son. She may be able to start piecing her life back together.
And Luke?
I grip the steering wheel. In all the thinking I’ve done over this, I haven’t actually stopped to think about all the repercussions of Jolene being released from prison.
I haven’t considered Luke’s reaction in any of this. I was so focused on Jolene.
Oh, God.
My thinking has been so narrow right from the beginning. All I could think about was getting to the truth. I never reflected on what the truth would actually mean.
39
Callie
I take a deep breath as I knock on the front door of a house I know well but haven’t visited in nearly two months. Waiting for the door to open is nerve-wracking. What if my information isn’t wanted or listened to?
The door swings open and laughter filters into the warm night air as I stare into friendly eyes.
“Callie!” Estelle greets me with enthusiasm at the same time as her arms fold me close to her in a hug. “Come in, my darling!” She ushers me in and leads me to her lounge room.
Luke’s mother always makes me feel welcome. It’s hard for me to reconcile this woman with the one Jolene knows.
George and Tyler stare at me in surprise when we reach the lounge room. Tyler stands and makes his way to me. “Fuck, I’ve missed you,” he says, hugging me also.
This is way harder than I imagined. All the memories of my time with Luke and his family flood my mind, hurting just as much as they did seven weeks ago.
Will this heartache ever go away?
I smile up at him. “I’ve missed you, too, Tyler.”
George nods at me. We haven’t spent a great deal of time getting to know each other, but I think he’s good for Estelle—he seems to calm her. She drinks far less than she used to and I attribute that to George.
“Would you like a vodka?” Estelle asks.
I smile. One of the things I adore about her is that she took the time to get to know me. We lunched every couple of weeks while I was with Luke and became friends—we weren’t just connected by our relationships with him. After we broke up, she checked in with me regularly, but I put some distance between us, unable to face the regular reminder of what I gave up. “No, thank you. I need to talk to you about something and alcohol would not be good for the conversation.”
Lines crinkle her forehead as she frowns. “This sounds serious. Do we need to have this conversation in private?”
I consider that for a moment. “Actually, that would be good, I think.”
She nods and puts her arm around my shoulders. “We can talk in my office.” Turning to George, she says, “Darling, can you please make me a drink? By the look on Callie’s face, I feel I may need it for this.”
After he agrees, we exit the room and make our way to her study. It’s one of my favourite rooms in her house. White reigns in here with splashes of pink throughout. Estelle has stamped her personal space with luxury and feminine touches that make you want to spend hours in the room. It’s uncluttered but the few items she chose to include are perfect—plump cushions on her chaise, candles, art and fresh flowers daily are all items I would choose, too.
She faces me. “What’s going on? You look like you’re wrestling a monster inside that head of yours.”
“I need you to hear me out, okay? Please keep an open mind and know that what I’m about to tell you is the honest truth.”
“Goodness, I think I need to sit for this.” She fumbles her way to the chaise and takes a seat.
I sit next to her. “To cut a long story short, I’ve been looking into the murder of Jolene’s mother after a work colleague of mine told me she didn’t think Jolene was guilty.“ I take in Estelle’s wide eyes, but send thanks to the universe that she doesn’t interrupt. “I’ve spent the last seven weeks investigating it and today I discovered that she is not guilty. Her mother was murdered by Alanis.”
The seconds tick by at a maddeningly slow pace as she processes this information. Her face finally twists in confusion. “I don’t understand. The police and the lawyer, and the investigator I hired, they all said it was Jolene.”
I nod. “I know because the evidence all pointed to Jolene. But I uncovered new evidence that proves it was Alanis. She set Jolene up and did a damn good job of it.” I pull out my phone and scroll to the photos I’d emailed myself from Amanda’s phone. Thrusting it at her, I sa
y, “The woman who checked the murderer into the motel that day took this photo of her grandchild that afternoon. If you blow it up, you can see Alanis in the background. The staff member verified that was the woman she booked in.”
Estelle spends a good minute inspecting the photo. Her hand moves slowly to her mouth as horror spreads across her face. Her eyes meet mine in shock. “Oh, my God.”
“I know,” I say softly, still processing this myself.
“Have you shown this to Luke yet?”
“No.”
She frowns again. “Why not?”
I take a deep breath before I try to explain. “Did he ever tell you why we broke up?”
“He just told me you two had a difference of opinion and then you told me pretty much the same thing. Was it about this?”
“Yes. He didn’t want me to have anything to do with it.”
“And you, being the wonderful Callie that you are, couldn’t bear to see Jolene suffer for something you didn’t think she did. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t think you’d want me doing it either. I mean, you didn’t exactly like Jolene—”
“That’s not entirely true, my darling. I just didn’t feel she was right for my son. From the day I met her, I sensed Luke was blind to her beauty because they simply had nothing else in common. Well, except for mothers who weren’t always around during their childhoods. And didn’t Luke throw that in my face as often as he could. But that’s a whole other story.”
“Jolene told me you two clashed horribly throughout the marriage.”
“That is true. I tried to help them where I could, but she didn’t appreciate any of it. She had a chip on her shoulder when it came to money. I couldn’t understand the problem. I could afford to buy those things, so why not let me do what I could?”
I smile sadly and squeeze her hand. “Because sometimes we all just want to think we can take care of our family by ourselves. We want to feel like we’re enough and can be enough for those we love.”
She presses her lips together and I know she doesn’t really understand that concept. “Well, when you can’t provide for your child, you need to either figure out a way to do that or accept help when it’s offered.”
I nod. “Yes, I understand that, too. But us humans are funny sometimes, aren’t we? We twist things in our mind and come up with some screwed-up ideas.”
“Yes, we do. That is also true. So why haven’t you been to Luke with this?”
“He’s so angry and closed off to anything to do with Jolene. I don’t blame him at all, but because of that, I don’t think he’ll listen to me. He’ll find a way to shut me out and continue living with that burning hate he has for her.”
“Ah, so you want me to tackle him?”
I laugh. “That is probably a good way of describing it. I think his mother would have more chance of having him hear her out.”
“I imagine we’ll have another argument but there’s nothing unusual there.”
“Can you also take this new information to Jolene’s lawyer?” I pass her the file I’ve put together with my detailed notes of everything I’ve discovered. “It may not be enough, but it’s a start. All the research I’ve done makes me think Jolene will need solid scientific evidence to succeed in having the conviction overturned. I’m hoping there’s some DNA evidence they were never able to use that proves it was Alanis.”
“That woman was awful at her job. I have a better lawyer now. He can work on this.” She pauses and thinks about something for a minute. “This was a horrible screw up right from the beginning I fear. The lawyer and the investigator I hired really let Jolene down, didn’t they?”
This is nothing I haven’t thought about. I can’t even imagine placing my life in someone else’s hands like that to then have them make such a life-changing mistake. “They did. But I guess if all the evidence points to someone, and you’re not invested in the case like I was, you perhaps get sloppy and miss things.”
We sit in silence, both lost in our thoughts.
I will never forget this day or the lessons learnt.
Sometimes what appears to be the truth is merely a lie parading as an illusion that steals everything from us. And sometimes our flawed heart buys into a truth we can make sense of rather than looking deeper for the real truth.
Jolene was right.
We exist in shades of truth.
40
Callie
“I still can’t believe it was Jolene’s best friend all that time,” Avery says, staring at me with disbelief the next day.
“I never did like that woman, but I didn’t suspect her of murder.” I shiver when I think about the conversations I’ve had with her over the last few months. She didn’t visit Luke often but when she did, she was a bitch to me.
She squeezes my hand. “Jolene would have spent years behind bars for something she didn’t do. You’ve given her back her life.”
“Yeah, but God knows what that life will look like now. Her family has been torn apart and she has nothing. On top of that, her best friend clearly isn’t friend material. Who will be there for her to help her get back on track? If she’s actually able to have the conviction overturned, that is. The next year will be just as hard for her as it has been so far as she fights for her release.”
“Will you continue to help her or is this in the hands of the lawyers now?”
“I don’t know if I’ll be around, A,” I say softly.
She frowns. “Why not?”
“Remember that job in LA, writing for the TV show?” She nods and I continue. “I’ve been working with Josef, sending him scripts I’ve been working on. He’s taught me so much and I’m really enjoying this kind of writing. Anyway, he loved the stuff I sent him so much he showed his bosses and they’ve been in touch with me about a job. They want me to come and work with them.”
Her eyes widen. “Holy shit! Are you thinking of saying yes?”
I nod. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right?”
“Hell yes, it is. But what about you and Luke?”
“It’s been seven weeks, Avery. I’ve given up Harvey.”
“Just because you’ve given Harvey up doesn’t mean you’re over Luke, babe.”
“I know I’m not over him and I’m not sure I ever will be, but maybe this was fate telling us we weren’t meant to be together.” My voice drops to an almost-whisper. “Maybe it was fate’s way of saying Luke and his family deserve another chance. Maybe he can finally have the family he always wanted.”
Her eyes widen. “You’re shitting me, right?”
“No.”
“Callie, be rational. Luke loves you. I see it every damn day at work, from the way he stomps around in his nasty-ass mood to the way he doesn’t even see a sexy woman when she’s standing right in front of him. He doesn’t want Jolene. He wants you.”
“Avery, I’ve always said I would never be a woman who broke up a family. Well, I also don’t want to be a woman who stands in the way of a son having both parents. I want to give Luke and Jolene the chance to explore their relationship and see if they can work through all the misunderstandings they’ve had. If they don’t make it, and he and I are meant to be, we’ll find our way back.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, God, you always did believe in that bullshit, didn’t you? If you love someone, let them go… blah, blah, blah… You do know it’s rubbish, right? If you love them, you gotta hold them close.”
“Sometimes when you love, it’s so deep that all you want is for that person to be happy. Sean is the centre of Luke’s existence, Avery, and I’ll do anything to give him the happiness he has always wanted.” I stand and walk to the kitchen.
Avery follows. “So you’re definitely thinking of moving then?”
I look at her. “Yes, I’m definitely thinking about taking that job.”
As the words fall out of my mouth—the words I’ve avoided saying all day—I realise my decision was made long ago. And I didn’t even
understand it for what it was at the time.
When I decided to prove Jolene’s innocence, I also made the choice to give Luke up. And not just for seven weeks.
41
Luke
My shirt clings to me as I run. The humidity this summer is almost unbearable, but I refuse to give my runs up. They’re one of the only things keeping my mind focused these days. There’s a whole hell of a lot of fucked-up shit swimming around in there—I need running like I need air at the moment.
It’s been three days since Mum broke the news of Jolene’s innocence to me. I fought her at first, didn’t want to hear it. The last three days have almost unravelled me completely. I thought the anger and resentment I felt towards my wife had already done that. It turns out the guilt I now feel is far worse.
I reach my house after nearly an hour of pounding the pavement. Sean is out with Paris for the day so I can take care of something I’m not sure I’ll actually be able to get through. However, it’s something I need to do.
I shower and dress fast. Fifteen minutes later, I’m heading towards my destination, unsure of where this will all end up.
Her eyes slay me.
So much pain and desperation that I’ve refused to see for so long.
“I wasn’t sure if you would come,” she says, unknowingly twisting the knife harder. Her voice holds no accusation, though. She has simply lost faith in the one person who should have been standing by her side the whole time.
I push out a long breath full of regret and guilt. My eyes plead with her to hear me out. “Jolene…” My voice cracks. Fuck. “I’m sorry.” Those two words don’t even come close to saying everything I want and need to say. We use them so easily most of the time, usually when we’re making a shallow apology asking for forgiveness. They don’t feel like enough today.
Her eyes close slowly and she exhales. When she opens them, tears slide down her face. “You believe me?” Again, no accusation.