“Oh! Thank you for the cool stuff. I like it.”
“You’re very welcome, honey.” Matt started for the door.
“I’ll be right back, Jer,” Melanie told her. “I’m going to walk Uncle Matt to the elevator.”
“Okay.” Jerica nodded, then turned her attention to the remote control. She jabbed at one of the buttons, and Barney Fife’s grating voice crescendoed to fill the room.
“Thanks for coming, Matt,” Melanie said as they walked down the long corridor toward the main elevators.
“Sure. She … looks good.”
“Yes.”
They walked in silence, but at the elevators, Matt turned to Melanie with an expression she couldn’t quite read.
“What is it?”
He hung his head for a long moment, then looked up to meet her gaze. “There’s something I need to tell you, Melanie.”
“What?”
“You have to promise you won’t get upset.”
“What is it, Matt?” The hallway grew uncomfortably warm.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “They took Joel in for questioning today … from the park.”
She wanted to be angry. She wanted to weep and rail. But she couldn’t fight anymore. She had deep regrets. She still had a million questions. But underneath it all, the peace she’d found during the ride in the ambulance buoyed her.
Laying a hand on her brother’s arm, she willed her voice to remain steady. “Thank you for telling me. I … I’m sorry about this morning, Matt. This whole thing”—she inclined her head toward the hallway that led to Jerica’s room—“was my fault. I … I know I just need to let it go. But Matt … would you let me know what happens?”
He stroked a hand down her arm. “I will, Mel.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to tell Jerica,” she said. “She keeps asking about him. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Joel, but I’d like … to talk to him.”
“Let’s wait and see what develops, okay?”
She nodded. “I won’t do anything stupid,” she said, sensing that he needed the reassurance.
He nodded with a slight smile. “I know, Mel. I trust you.” The bell sounded, and the elevator slid silently open. “See you in the morning.”
She stood alone in front of the doors for several minutes after they closed. Then she went back down the corridor to face her daughter’s questions.
Matthew Mason leaned over the rocking chair to kiss his wife, then stroked the soft down on his newborn son’s head. “You need anything?” he asked.
Karly shifted the baby on her lap and reached for Matt’s hand. “I’m fine. You look exhausted.”
He sighed. “Yes, I guess I am.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles one by one. In the soft light from the nursery lamp, Karly looked lovely. “I’m glad this day is over.”
“Me, too. Do you think this will finally put some closure on things for Melanie?”
He thought for a minute, then sighed. “She seemed to be taking things well at the hospital tonight. I’m more worried about Jerica now. Mel said she keeps asking about Joel.”
“Maybe Melanie should talk to him, Matt … and Jerica, too.”
“I thought about that. You don’t think it would just stir things up more?”
“I think they need to say good-bye to Joel. Both of them. Especially if there’s a chance that he’ll end up in jail.”
He let go of her hand and rubbed his face. Maybe Karly was right. He hadn’t been able to get any information from the Bergen County authorities yet, but he’d left a message on Tim Bradford’s answering machine.
“Well,” he said finally, “I need to go call Don Steele before it gets too late. I promised Melanie I’d let him know that Jerica was okay.”
Pulling the door to the nursery shut, he went down the hall to the den. He dialed Don’s home number and leaned back in his chair, weariness washing over him.
“This is Pastor Steele.”
“Don? This is Matthew Mason in New Jersey.”
“Matthew. Do you have any news for us?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m calling. Jerica is fine.”
“Praise God! We’ve been praying for her … for all of you.”
“Thank you. She’s spending the night in the hospital tonight just so they can keep an eye on her, but she’s perfectly fine.” Matthew relayed a brief account of the afternoon’s events. “Joel got there just before they were going to send the search dogs in and—”
“You saw Joel?” Don Steele interrupted.
“Yes. He’s the one who found Jerica, actually. I … didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but the police were taking him in for questioning about the time I left the park. Apparently the warrant—”
“Questioning? You mean about the … embezzlement … here?”
“Yes …” Matt hesitated.
“Joel didn’t do it, Matthew.”
“What?”
“He didn’t take that money.” Don Steele breathed out a long sigh into the phone.
“How do you know that, Don?”
Don sighed again. “Darlene Anthony—a woman who works as a secretary here at Cornerstone—turned herself in a couple of hours ago.”
“You’re not serious!”
“I am. I’m still reeling from the news myself. I would never have suspected Darlene in a million years. But her mother was dying of cancer, and apparently she needed the money to pay for some experimental cancer drugs. Got them somewhere down in Mexico … saw an ad in some magazine. I guess she was just desperate enough that when Joel left, she saw an opportunity to take the money she needed and pin the blame on him.”
“That’s incredible. So … Joel had nothing to do with it? You’re sure she’s not just covering for him?”
“No. Darlene assured us that she acted alone. Everything she told us checks out.”
“But—if the money wasn’t Joel’s reason for leaving, what was?”
“I have no idea, Matthew. I have no idea.”
A minute later, Matthew hung up the phone. He found the number for Tim Bradford that Melanie had given him at the park today and punched it into the keypad of his phone, his thoughts spiraling at a speed too fast for him to follow.
Thirty-Five
The classroom was empty and quiet. Joel moved the eraser over the blackboard in wide arcs, wiping away the morning’s English assignment. But his thoughts were miles away from the halls of King’s Collegiate, reliving the events of yesterday, remembering how it had felt to see Melanie and Jerica again.
Suddenly the ancient intercom over the door crackled to life, and the school secretary’s voice broke through the static. “Mr. Ellington?”
“Yes?”
“There’s someone in the office to see you. Are you free?”
“Yes. Who is it please?”
“A Matthew Mason?”
Joel’s breath caught. Melanie’s brother. “I’ll … be right there. Thanks, Shirley.”
He ran a hand through his hair. What could Melanie’s brother want with him? Melanie must have told him about what happened at the park yesterday. Had something happened to Jerica? She’d seemed fine when they put her in the ambulance, but he hadn’t heard anything since then. And how had Matthew found him here?
Joel hurried down the hall. He stopped short in the office doorway. The man standing at the front desk was the man from the park yesterday, the one from the street in front of Port Authority a hundred yesterdays ago. “What … is this?” he asked warily, his defenses alert.
The man stepped forward and extended a hand. “I’m Matthew Mason. In all the excitement yesterday, we were never officially introduced. Your brother said I could find you here. I hope this … isn’t a problem.”
This was Matthew Mason? Joel’s mind raced to make sense of it. This was the man he’d felt so threatened by?
His thoughts flew to Melanie. “Is Jerica all right? And Melanie? Has something happened?”
Matthew smiled. “Everything’s fine. But … we need to talk. Is there someplace—?” There was a note of urgency in his voice. His gaze darted meaningfully to the secretary and two student aides who were working in the office.
“Yes … sure.” Joel turned to Shirley, who had been watching the exchange with interest. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, Shirley. I don’t have a class till fourth hour.”
The woman nodded and ostensibly busied herself with something on her computer screen.
Joel turned back to Matthew. “Let’s … go outside,” he said, inclining his head toward the front entrance just beyond the office.
He held the door open for Matthew and led him across the fenced-in grounds to a small courtyard at the far end of the campus. A group of benches were scattered around the edge of the square.
Matthew put a foot up on one of the benches and rested his hand on its weathered back. Taking his cue from him, Joel remained standing, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that this man he’d thought was Melanie’s new love was in fact her brother. What did he want that was so important that Tim would have sent him here?
Matthew cleared his throat. “Ellington … I don’t know what your game is. For a year now I’ve thought you were a con man and a thief. Now at least I know that you’re no thief, but I have no idea what to believe about you.”
“What are you talking about? I assume you know that the police took me in for questioning yesterday … at the park. I can only tell you what I told them. I did not take that money. I have no idea who was responsible, but—”
“Wait— You haven’t heard, then?”
“Heard what?”
“I talked to Don Steele last night. The secretary at the church turned herself in. She took the money.”
“Darlene? Are you talking about Darlene Anthony?”
“Yes, that was her name. She told Don that you weren’t involved in anyway.”
“Darlene stole the money?” Joel’s mind reeled.
“She took it to pay for cancer treatments for her mother.” Matthew went on to relay what he knew.
Joel found it difficult to make the meek woman into a thief, but then, if anyone understood what desperation could do to a person, he did. “Does Melanie know?” he asked finally.
“Yes. I told her this morning. But I don’t have to tell you that this turn of events begs the question, Ellington. If you didn’t take the money, why did you disappear?” Anger had crept into Matthew’s voice, and it rose with each word. “You wrecked my sister’s life. And yet a year later she is still obsessed with you, and her little girl apparently aches for you so badly that she’d do what she did yesterday just to find you.”
Matthew took his foot off the bench and kicked a pebble across the cement. “I don’t know what you did to inspire that kind of loyalty and love. But I want you to hear me and hear me well. It’s time for my sister to move on. And I don’t think that can happen until she talks to you. Until she knows the truth.”
Joel felt lightheaded. Melanie still loved him? He held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Please … Matthew. You’re telling me that Melanie still … has feelings for me?”
Matthew hesitated. “I think you have some hard questions to answer before this discussion goes any further.”
Joel paced along the edge of the concrete, trying to make sense of all this. If what Matthew said was true, there was no reason to hold back the truth any longer. He’d had enough of lies, enough of deceit. It was only fair that Melanie know the truth now.
He sighed and took a seat on the far end of the bench. Matthew sat down on the other end, waiting, his expression skeptical but open and earnest, Joel thought.
Joel released a short sigh and met the man’s gaze. “I’m not even sure where to begin.”
“I’ve got all day,” Matthew Mason told him, draping an arm across the back of the bench.
Jerica was released from the hospital the next afternoon with no more serious instructions than to take it easy for a few days. When they got back to Matt and Karly’s house, Jerica went out into the yard to play with her cousins. Still a little nervous about Jerica’s state of mind and wanting to keep a close eye on her, Melanie took her cell phone out to the deck while she called her parents and Jerry and Erika to let them know how everything was going.
She hung up from talking to Erika, and homesickness billowed over her. She wished she could take Jerica and fly back to Silver Creek tonight, but the doctor had advised her to wait a few days before traveling with her.
Melanie looked across the yard to where the children were playing. Brock and Jace were chasing Jerica. She was squealing like a stuck pig, but Melanie could tell by the ocean-wide smile on her face that she was enjoying every minute of her cousins’ attention. A wave of longing swept over her for all the things that would never be—living near her brother and his family, a baby brother or sister for Jerica, the life she’d dreamed of with Joel …
She thought about the incredible things Matthew had learned from Don Steele last night. Her heart went out to Darlene, but more than that, Melanie was relieved that Joel had been cleared of the crime. Yet it bewildered her more than ever. If it wasn’t the money that had caused him to leave, then what was it? Perhaps she would never know all the reasons behind Joel’s actions. These weren’t easy things to ponder. Still, she had placed her feelings for Joel in the hands of her heavenly Father, and she was determined to leave them there.
She could not deny that she still ached for Joel. But now the familiar yearning was tempered by the inexplicable sense of calm that had anchored her since that defining moment in the ambulance with Jerica when she had turned the rudder of her life over to the God who knew far better than she what was right and good. Somehow she understood that the peace was there to stay this time. “Thank you, Father,” she whispered into the breeze.
Melanie woke the next morning when she heard Matt’s alarm clock go off down the hall. She had let Jerica crawl into bed with her last night, and now she watched her for a few minutes, needing the reassurance of her soft, even breathing. Melanie crawled out of bed and padded down to the kitchen where Matt was pouring cereal for Brock and Jace. Karly was nursing the baby in the family room.
Matthew and Karly and the boys were driving upstate to spend the day with Karly’s brother and his family, who had not yet met little Parker. The Masons had invited Melanie and Jerica to go along, but she didn’t feel Jerica was quite up to the all-day outing. Besides, they had long flights ahead of them tomorrow.
“Are you sure you don’t mind being here alone all day?” Karly asked, peering hard into Melanie’s face as if she would find her friend’s true feelings written there.
“Don’t worry about us,” Melanie insisted. “A day of peace and quiet sounds wonderful to me. Jerica can sleep in while I finish up our laundry and get packed.”
After they’d eaten, Melanie helped Karly get the boys ready. Across the hall from Brock and Jace’s bedroom, she heard Matthew talking on the telephone in his office. It sounded like he was discussing business with a client.
“Doesn’t that man ever take a day off?”
Karly’s back was to Melanie as she diapered the baby on the little changing table under the window. “Not often enough,” she replied lightly.
A few minutes later, Matthew herded his little family out the door and to the waiting minivan.
“Enjoy your day, Mel,” he hollered on his way down the hall to the back door. “Don’t wait up for us … It might be late. Oh, by the way,” Matt said over his shoulder as he stepped into the garage, “a guy … a friend might drop something by the house later this morning. Would you mind listening for the doorbell?”
“No problem.”
She heard the van pull away, and a delicious silence descended on the house. She went to check on Jerica one more time. The little girl was curled into a cocoon of blankets, her face serene in repose. Melanie wondered if she
would ever take Jerica’s safety for granted again. She whispered a prayer of thanks and slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Matt had kindled a fire in the fireplace, but the flames had dwindled to nothing and the house had grown chilly. Melanie brought in a log from the woodpile on the back deck and settled it on the fire. She pulled a sweater over her turtleneck and put the kettle on for tea.
She started a load of laundry and tidied up the kitchen. The kettle whistled, and she went to turn off the stove. While her tea brewed, she went to retrieve the newspaper from the driveway. She was on her second cup of tea and halfway through the tough Saturday crossword puzzle when the doorbell broke the stillness.
The sudden noise startled her so that she broke the lead of her pencil. Then she remembered that someone was coming by the house. Legal paperwork of some kind, she assumed. She finger-combed her hair quickly and went to answer the door.
Joel Ellington stood in front of her, his gaze searching, piercing her heart.
“Hello, Melanie.”
Thirty-Six
Joel waited on the doorstep, hope and longing mingled on his face. “May I come in?”
The sound of his deep voice brought a sharp pang to her heart and assured her that this was not her imagination playing tricks. Unable to find her own voice, she put a hand to her mouth. Suddenly lightheaded, she rocked back on her heels, struggling to keep her balance.
He put out an arm to steady her. “Are you okay? I’m sorry. I didn’t want to frighten you.”
“Joel? What are you doing here?” Her breath came in a shudder, and she clasped her hands to keep them from trembling.
“Please, Melanie, may I come in?” He stood before her looking a little like a lost puppy hoping to be adopted.
When she remained speechless, he offered, “If it’s any comfort, your brother called me this morning to tell me I could find you here. He knew I was coming. We … we talked yesterday.”
“Matthew knew? I … I don’t understand.”
“Please, Melanie. I promise I’ll explain everything.”
A Scarlet Cord Page 29