Reasonable Doubt

by Tracey V. Bateman

  He’d made a point of staying with Josh after she’d caught him red-handed eavesdropping on her conversation with the boy. Now they were snuggled together on the couch, Josh wrapped up in a blanket and nestled on his father’s lap. A sight that might have melted every defense in Keri’s mind and heart if not for the niggling suspicion that Justin was purposely keeping her away from Josh.

  Suppressing a growl, she dropped the pie onto a cooling rack on the counter.

  “Hey, take it easy,” Raven said, snatching the oven mitts from Keri’s hands. “I’ll get the other pie out of the oven. Go knead for a while. Maybe pounding on the dough will make you feel better.”

  With a huff, Keri crossed to the king-size bowl on the table, removed the cover and punched down the risen dough. She grabbed a handful of flour from the canister and slapped it onto the pastry sheet Raven had laid out next to the bowl. Then she tossed the dough into a patch of flour. The white powder flew up and clouded the air around her, then settled wherever it pleased—namely on Keri’s jeans and her favorite green shirt. “Great!” Keri groused and attacked the dough.

  “For crying out loud, Keri. What’s going on with you?” Raven settled into a chair with a mug of hot chocolate and stared up at Keri.

  Keri scowled. “Don’t you have work to do?” Irritation dripped from her lips, but Raven either didn’t notice or, for once, chose not to take up the challenge.

  “Nope. I don’t have one thing to do at the moment but sip and listen. I just put the apple pie into the oven. Ruth is lying down for her nap, thank goodness, and I’m free as a bird until the pie’s done. So stop snapping at me and tell me what happened in the last four hours that’s gotten you so riled up. My guess is that it has something to do with Tall, Dark and Handsome. But that’s just a hunch.” With a smug grin, she leaned the chair back on two legs and took a swig of the hot chocolate. Keri was tempted to give her the same trip to the floor she’d given Justin the night before, but as much as she’d relish the sight of her perfect sister sprawled on the floor, wondering what had hit her, Keri wasn’t quite that far gone.

  Raven’s eyes narrowed and she gave Keri a studied gaze, as though looking for a crack in her armor. Keri stiffened under the appraisal, defenses alerted. Raven knew how to draw information out of people. That was her job and she hadn’t gotten where she was without being a student of human nature. But Keri wasn’t sure she needed to be interrogated by a reporter. She needed a sympathetic ear. A friend. A sister. Too bad Denni wouldn’t arrive at the cabin until tomorrow.

  “Leave it alone, Raven.” She punched the dough one more time and folded it over. “This is ready. What are we making out of it? Loaves or rolls?”

  “Ruth said Dad wants crescent rolls.” Raven sniffed. “Do you know how to make those?”

  “Nope. Do you?”

  A scowl crossed Raven’s smooth, dark features. Her chair made a thud as she dropped it to all four legs. “I suppose we’ll have to go wake her up, then.”

  “What’s your problem with Ruth, anyway?” Keri asked, relieved the focus of the conversation was focused elsewhere, at least temporarily. “She makes Dad really happy. Something you’d know if you ever showed up.”

  “Don’t start.” Raven’s voice held an edge of warning to it. “I have my reasons for not coming home, and believe me, you don’t want to hear about them.”

  She was wrong about that, but Keri didn’t push. The two had never been that close—not the way they each were to Denni. “All right. I’m sorry. No sniping. Deal?”

  Raven smiled and stood. “Thanks. It’s a deal. And I won’t press you about Justin’s case until you’re ready to talk about it.” She gave Keri a one-armed hug, pressing their cheeks together. “But I promise you, all I want is to help. And I honestly believe I could at least gather facts together. I have Eugene at KCPD. We might be able to get some information that even Justin’s lawyer can’t pull off.”

  Pulling away, Keri peered at Raven. “How reliable is this Eugene?”

  Raven shrugged. “We dated for a few months.” She dropped her arm and cleared her throat.

  A groan escaped Keri. She left the dough on the table and moved to the sink to wash her hands. “How reliable is a man whose heart you crushed up and stomped on?”

  “Hey! Who said I’m the one who ended things?”

  Keri sent her a dubious scowl. “You expect me to believe he broke things off with you?” Men just didn’t do that to Raven. Her black hair and dark eyes gave her an exotic appeal that guys couldn’t seem to get enough of. The aloof, standoffish air she exuded seemed to serve just the opposite of the intended effect. And her trim figure only upped the ante. No. He definitely hadn’t broken up with Raven.

  Raven sent her a sheepish grin. “Oh, all right, I broke it off, but we’ve remained friends. I promise. No grudges.”

  “Sure. No grudges on your part. He probably has a candlelit shrine built to you in his basement. Thanks anyway, Rave. I think we’ll have to pass on your excellent source.”

  “No need to be sarcastic. I’m just trying to be a good sister and friend and use my resources to clear an innocent man.”

  Unbidden, a short laugh flew from Keri’s lips. Then she cringed, knowing there was no way Raven could let that pass.

  “You think he’s guilty?” Raven’s voice rose a pitch in incredulity, and she put her hand on Keri’s, turning her none too gently to face her. “You can stand there and honestly tell me you think that man in there sitting with Dad and holding his sick son in his lap is a murderer? Are you crazy? Where are your cop instincts?”

  Keri’s temper flared. “How many times do I have to tell you people that it isn’t my job to decide whether or not he’s guilty? I don’t want him to be a killer. But it’s not my decision.”

  “You know what I think? I think you’re fighting your feelings for him so hard that you can’t see straight. I think you’re falling in love all over again—with Justin and with those boys he brought with him.”

  Tears sprang into Keri’s eyes. “Maybe. But it doesn’t change anything, Rave.”

  Raven dismissed her with an airy wave. “Give me a break.”

  “Hey, in your line of work, you have the luxury of breaking a few rules and it only makes you better, more respected. If I break the rules, I’ll lose my job and very likely spend time in jail for obstruction of justice.”

  “He isn’t even charged yet, Kere Bear,” Raven said, reverting to Keri’s childhood nickname. “Search your heart, Justin isn’t guilty.”

  “I just wish I could be certain,” Keri whispered.

  “Work with me. Let’s prove it. Let’s sit down with Justin tonight. Find out the facts of the case and let me make a couple of phone calls.”

  The idea had merit. If Raven could help…

  “So you agree? We’ll sit down with Justin after his boys are in bed tonight?”

  Keri nodded. “If Justin agrees.”

  “Fine. We’ll get to the bottom of this and clear Justin in no time.” Raven walked toward the kitchen door. “I guess I’ll go wake up Ruth so she can make the crescent rolls.” Her voice dripped with disdain.

  “You should try to get to know her, Rave. I think you’d like her if you gave her a chance.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Raven’s flip, over-the-shoulder answer pulled a sigh from Keri. She hoped her sister would get over it soon so Dad would set a wedding date.

  The roar of Dad’s truck motor interrupted her thoughts. Glancing out the window, she frowned as the blue pickup drove down the trail behind the house and into the woods. Surely Dad wouldn’t leave the cozy fire to bring up more wood from the pile in the woods. Curiosity drove her into the living room. She stopped short at the sight of Dad, sitting between Josh and Billy—the three of them enraptured by yet another John Wayne Western.

  “Hey, Dad. What’s Justin doing in the truck?”

  “He noticed the woodpile’s getting low and offered to drive down and fill up the back of the pic
kup. Said he had some praying to do and could use the time alone. With all the unexpected weather, we’re going to need the extra wood, anyway.”

  Praying time? Justin knew every inch of those woods. He knew that four miles along the creek there was a road that would take him away. Nearly dizzy with panic, Keri tried to collect her thoughts.

  “Come and watch the movie with the boys and me, Keri-girl.”

  “Wha—?” she asked distractedly. “Oh. I can’t.”

  She shot through the living room and grabbed her jacket. She fished through the pockets and found her keys.

  “Where’re you going?” Dad asked, disapproval thickening his tone.

  “I’m going to…” She glanced at the boys, then turned a hard gaze on Dad. “I’m going to help Justin with the wood. The snow’s starting to come down heavy.”

  “It is?” With a little squeal, Billy hopped off the couch and ran to the door. He flung it open and stood in awe, staring at the beauty of the fluff falling from the sky. “Hey, look, Josh,” he said with a giggle. “The angels have dandruff.”

  “Grow up,” came the weak but obviously disgusted reply. “Are we going to watch this movie or not? It was just getting to the good part.”

  Billy’s face crumpled. Compassion made a trail through Keri’s heart. She chucked his chin and smiled down at him. “The angels have dandruff, huh? Maybe we should toss them up some shampoo to take care of that before it’s too deep to walk through. You think?”

  “Not until it’s deep enough to make a snowman, okay?” Billy’s attempt to reach past his disappointment in his brother’s response and find pleasure in the anticipation of building the snowman further melted Keri’s heart.

  “Only if you let me help you build it. Deal?” She stuck out her hand.

  He took it and grinned. “Deal.”

  “Okay, back to the movie with you. I need to go and help your dad.”

  Mac’s loud unhappy snort filled the room. “Seems to me when a man says he needs to spend a few minutes alone with his Lord, a person ought to give him the courtesy of letting him do it.”

  “Sorry, Dad,” Keri said, opening the door. “Not this time.”

  Keri fired up the Jeep, tapping her foot impatiently on the floorboard at the slowness with which it warmed up. Finally she gunned the accelerator and followed Justin’s barely discernable tracks. Her pulse quickened as she noticed the blue truck a few hundred yards into the woods. Next to one of the stashes Dad had made this summer. He’d made several stacks of wood in various places on the property so the logs would have a chance to dry out before they needed to burn it. “Nothing starts a flue fire quicker than green wood,” Dad insisted. So he’d cut down a dozen trees in an effort to ensure that the only fires at the cabin were the ones he built himself.

  Knowing she couldn’t park too close or Justin wouldn’t be able to turn the truck around, Keri killed the motor fifty yards from where he sat on the wood pile. He didn’t turn around as she approached on foot. The truck was running, and Keri could only guess that he hadn’t heard the Jeep over the pickup’s motor.

  As she drew closer, she heard him singing, hands lifted in surrender to his Maker. Recognizing the words, her throat clogged. “When peace like a river attendeth my way/When sorrow like sea billows roll/Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say/It is well, it is well with my soul.”

  Dad was right. Justin needed time alone with his God. Slowly she backed up, then turned to leave.

  “Don’t go, Keri,” Justin called after her. “Please.”

  She turned back to face him. “I’m sorry to intrude. Dad said you wanted to pray. I thought—” She dropped her gaze in shame and avoided eye contact as she walked back toward the woodpile. “I—I’m sorry. I just can’t seem to keep myself from thinking the worst of you.”

  Justin rose and met her halfway. “Look at me.”

  She obeyed his gentle command, tears pushing into her eyes. “You must really hate how suspicious and cynical I’ve become,” she whispered.

  Reaching forward, he brushed her cheek with his knuckles. “I could never hate anything about you.”

  As though of their own volition, her eyes closed at the gentleness of his caress. Warmth engulfed her despite the cold and snow, and she would gladly have stayed out here with him forever.

  “Open your eyes.”

  She met his gaze, warm and in no way condemning.

  “You weren’t wrong.”

  “Wrong about what?” Her voice trembled as she voiced the question, unsure she wanted to know the answer.

  “I was tempted to keep going and go back to Kansas City.”

  “What stopped you?”

  “You. I couldn’t bear the thought of what you might think of me, no matter my reason for going back.”

  Indignation sprouted in her chest. She plopped her hands onto her hips. “You were just going to leave Billy and Josh?” She couldn’t believe it. Not even in her cruelest accusation would she have said Justin would do that, even when faced with the reality that he’d considered it.

  He shook his head. “I wasn’t leaving for good. Last night Bob told me that someone broke into my house. I want to go home and search the place. Bob thinks it might have been the killer looking for something.”

  “Was anything taken out of the house that he knows of?”

  “Nothing of value for sure. The police think I came home to make it look as though someone broke in. As if that would throw suspicion away from me.”

  “So what were you planning to do?”

  Justin shrugged. “Search for whatever the killer was looking for, I guess. Whatever it was is still there somewhere. If there’s anything out of the ordinary, I’m the one who’ll find it.”

  “Raven has some connections in Kansas City. She thinks she might be able to help prove your innocence. I haven’t told her much. I don’t know much, to be honest. But in any case, I felt you should be the one to tell the story.”

  “I don’t want the boys dragged into the media.”

  “According to Raven, you’ve all three been plastered across the TV screens for days.”

  Justin let out a stiff growl. “I have to prove I didn’t do this thing before they arrest me. It’s only a matter of time before the police find out about the cabin. All they’d have to do is talk to Aunt Toni. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to draw them a map.”

  “You two don’t get along?”

  He shook his head and gave her a sad smile. “Not really. She tolerated me at best, until I graduated. Then she paid my way into college with the money Mom and Dad had designated for that and told me not to bother coming home on holidays.”

  Keri dropped the log she was about to toss and pressed a gloved hand to his arm. “Oh, Justin. I’m so sorry.”

  With a sad half smile, he patted her hand and even through the gloves, Keri felt the electricity of his touch.

  “By that time,” Justin said, “I knew not to expect any kindness from her. She gave me what she had to and didn’t care what I did as long as I didn’t interfere in her life.”

  “That must have been so awful for you. After living the first fourteen years of your life with wonderful parents and friends, to suddenly be all alone…I can’t imagine what that must have been like.” Her teeth chattered.

  Justin’s gaze perused her. “Get in the truck and warm up. I can finish this up.”

  “No way. We’ll get done a lot faster if I help. The snow’s getting heavier. There has to be a good five inches on the ground as it is. I’ll be all right.”

  He gave a grudging nod. “Okay, but less talking and more tossing. I don’t want you getting sick.”

  She smiled. “I won’t.”

  They tossed wood until the truck bed was filled, then Keri pulled the Jeep around and took the lead back to the cabin. In the joy of working together with Justin, she had temporarily forgotten that she had to somehow get Josh alone and find out what he knew. Now, that need seemed even more pressing than b
efore.

  The pieces of the puzzle somehow didn’t fit if Justin had killed Amelia. But what about Josh? The nightmares? The questions? The way he clammed up as soon as Justin came into the room? The fluctuating emotions?

  Oh, how she hoped whatever Josh wanted to get off his chest was as simple as catching Billy stealing a comic book or penny gum from a convenience store. But her best instincts told her that whatever was causing his nightmares was linked to the secret he couldn’t seem to tell.

  Oh, God. Please don’t let it be that Justin did this thing. I couldn’t bear it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Justin felt as if he was already on trial. He glanced at the group sitting around the kitchen table. They stared back at him, waiting for him to make them believe in his innocence. A jury of four.

  Gathering a slow, unsteady breath, he grabbed his mug, took a swig of bitter decaf, then set it back down. “The police figure she was killed sometime between eleven at night and three in the morning,” he said. “Rick had called me around seven and asked me to take his place at the mission because his wife needed him at home.”

  He had been only too happy to get out of the house that night. News of Amelia’s latest fling and the fact that the boys had seen her drunk had thickened the air with tension all day. She was silent and unrepentant, on the defensive, but spoiling for a fight. He was angry the boys had seen her drunk. If not for their housekeeper Mrs. Angus offering to stay the night, he would have turned Rick down for the first time since taking the position as assistant director of the mission. Amelia had already gone to bed when he left, so he knew the boys were in good hands and would be properly cared for in his absence.

  “So your relationship with your wife was rocky, to say the least?” Raven’s question hung in the air for a moment while Justin tried to decide just how far to go back in the story. Would it really help for them to know about how he came to marry a woman like Amelia in the first place? He glanced at Keri. Her face was drained of color, but she gave him a tremulous smile and a nod.