by Terri Reed
He walked away, then whirled to face her. “There is no way that you could have done the deed in your apartment. Someone overdosed you, then put you there, spilling the pills all around you. It was probably a shock to whoever it was that you survived to stand trial. Of course, your memory lapse helped them since you couldn’t identify who had done this to you. But they had to make sure no one had any doubt that you were solely responsible for Sylvie’s death. That’s why the jurors were threatened. That’s why someone tried to kill your aunt Sarah. That’s why someone is after you now. They need to clean up their mistakes.” Jace grabbed hold of Mel’s waist and whirled her around. Then he backed away, flushing. “Sorry. Got a little too enthusiastic.”
“It’s all right,” Mel murmured, her expression stunned.
“We need a plan. But I can’t do that until I eat. Let’s order a pizza and then we can get our strategy worked out.”
“Your mom?” Mel gestured vaguely toward the door.
“We’ll go down to the basement. Shouldn’t disturb her there. Hopefully, we can change her mind about you tomorrow.”
*
Forty-five minutes later, they were seated together eating the best pizza Mel had ever tasted. Or maybe it was the company. Jace had shed some of his reserve in her presence. He even told her about his sister.
“Ellie was a sweet kid. Shy, tenderhearted. She was always the kid with her nose in a book. She also loved the Lord, and tried so hard to always do the right thing. She was so eager to make everyone happy—she never wanted to hurt or disappoint anyone.” He paused while he took a gulp of his soda.
Mel found her eyes drawn to the strong column of his throat as he tilted his head back. She blushed when he set his drink down, thankful that he hadn’t seen her staring.
He resumed talking. “When she was sixteen, we noticed a change. Not a huge one. She just started being more aware of how she looked, what she wore. We figured she probably had a crush on a boy. We were right.” He frowned. “Jeff Marcus. He was a year older in school. Seemed like a nice kid. We met him. He was very polite, a good student. He used to come over and hang out with me while he waited for Ellie to finish getting ready. Sometimes he’d help me tinker on my motorcycle in the garage. He even joined Paul and me once when we went to Pittsburgh for a football game. I really liked that kid. It was like having a little brother. What I didn’t know, what none of us knew, was that he sold drugs on the side.”
Jace stopped and rubbed his eyes.
Mel reached over and touched the hand lying on the table. “Jace, you don’t have to tell me. I understand.”
Jace turned his hand over and grabbed on to hers as though it was a lifeline. “I do need to tell you, Mel. I was unfair to you four years ago, and my mother was unfair to you today. You deserve to know why.”
Her throat dry, she nodded for him to continue. If he needed to unburden himself, she would listen. There was no way she could turn her back on him when he was hurting.
“Jeff got my baby sister hooked on drugs. She died when she jumped out of a window while high.”
He blew out a breath, hard. “Ellie called her best friend on her cell phone and left a voice mail for her right before she jumped. She said she was going to see if she could fly. They played that voice mail at Jeff’s trial. Not a dry eye in the place. Jeff was convicted. He was tried as an adult since Ellie was a minor. But Ellie was gone.”
“I am so sorry, Jace,” Mel wept.
She doubted he even heard her.
“I was such a wreck after she died. How could I not have seen what had happened to her? If I’d noticed the signs, I could have gotten her help, treatment. I was her brother, the only father figure she had left. And I had failed her.” He scorched her with the agony in his eyes. “I let affection for that boy cloud my judgment.
“Mel, when I saw Sylvie dead of an overdose, all I could see was Ellie. I’m ashamed to admit it, but Sylvie wasn’t who I was fighting for, it was my sister. And fighting for her meant making sure the person responsible was put behind bars. I wanted to close the case—I wanted to go with the easy, obvious solution. So when I got that nagging feeling that something wasn’t right, I tried to ignore it. I was disgusted with myself. I felt like I was having trouble doing my job.”
Mel swallowed. “But surely you can’t still blame yourself for the doubts about me anymore. You know you were right to question things, right?” She held her breath.
He let out a humorless chuckle. “You should be mad at me. Mel, do you realize that because I was such a jerk you lost four years of your life? Four years that you can never get back.”
“Stop that!”
His head reared back at her sharp command. She lowered her voice.
“You know that part in the Old Testament, where Joseph meets his brothers years after they sold him as a slave?” She waited until he nodded. “Well, he told them that they might have meant to do something evil, but God took that and used it for good. That’s what happened to me. I rejected my aunt’s lessons about God, laughed at her faith and moved out at seventeen. I was living with Seth, and we were both thumbing our noses at his snobby parents and the rules of moral conduct we had learned. Then he broke up with me and two months later Sylvie died. When I went to jail, I was stripped of everything. My job, my home, my friends. Seth had already abandoned me, and his father was using every opportunity to denounce me. I was so bitter. Angry. That’s when God showed me that He would never abandon me.” She gestured around them at the posh decor of his mother’s basement. “All of this is fleeting. Everything I had held dear was false. In jail, I learned that God was the only one I could depend on. Even if I marry someday, my husband will be a human who will make mistakes. So you see, Jace, you feel like you’ve cost me four years of my life. I feel like you’ve saved my soul.”
A slice of pizza stopped halfway to his mouth, Jace’s face reflected his astonishment.
A slight smile hovered about his handsome mouth.
“I’m glad you had faith to comfort you. It was the only thing that kept us going when Ellie died.” He cleared his throat and moved to a new topic.
“I want to go finish talking with the jurors tomorrow. Most of them are local. One moved out of state. I need to find the truth.”
“You mean you are going to just leave me?”
He shook his head. “No. I already told Paul I was taking you with me. It’s not normal procedure, but it would be safer for you.”
She sighed, relieved. “Okay, whatever.”
Later that night when Mel was getting ready for bed, there was a quiet knock on her door. She cast a glance down at her apparel and grimaced. Baggy sweats that had seen better days and a tie-dyed T-shirt with a heavy-metal rock band emblazoned across the front. Not exactly dressed to impress. She slipped her robe on to conceal the offending clothes, then walked on bare feet to the door. Pulling it open three inches, she peered out at Jace, who had his hand raised to knock again. She averted her eyes, trying not to smile as she noticed that he, too, was wearing old sweats and a T-shirt. Except his shirt featured Yoda from Star Wars.
“Yes?’ she whispered, not wanting to remind his mother of her presence.
“I forgot to say…can you be ready by eight tomorrow morning? I’d really like to head out as soon as we can.”
Her heart skipped a beat. A whole day driving around with Jace. She had mixed feelings about that. Excitement and nervousness. There was no point anymore in denying that she was attracted to the handsome lieutenant. But it could never go anywhere. She had too many trust issues when it came to men. Plus, she doubted he would ever be seriously interested in her—not with his mother’s attitude.
Then there was the issue of meeting former jurors. As much as she begged him to let her come, she really didn’t look forward to meeting those who had declared her guilty.
She hoped her face was neutral. “Fine.”
“Breakfast will be—”
Shaking his head, Jace pulled a face. “We’ll go through
a drive-through on the way.”
She heard what he didn’t voice. No sense pushing his mom any further than necessary. She nodded, then retreated back into her room. His footsteps padded down the hall as he returned to his childhood bedroom. It was probably selfish of her, but she had been relieved when he announced his intention of staying here as long as she was in his mother’s house.
She hefted her bags off the bed and stashed them beside the closet. Her suitcase was still packed. She hadn’t even opened it. Her sleepwear came from her small overnight bag, which held her nighttime necessities—pj’s, toothbrush and paste, and a Bible and journal. Remembering her dilemma over whether or not to bring the small bag earlier, she twisted her lips into a wry smile. Seems she needed it, after all.
An angry shriek woke her up in the morning. She bolted upright in bed, heart pounding. The clock on her nightstand said 5:52. Hurriedly, she arose and dressed in jeans and a checked flannel shirt over a mock turtleneck. Both shirts were faded and hung on her slender frame.
She found Jace and his mother standing in the backyard, Mrs. Tucker making furious gestures toward her house. Mel looked up. She gasped, her hand clutched at her shirt over her heart. Right under the bedroom window where she had slept, in bloodred letters, someone had painted A MURDERER SLEPT HERE.
“That tears it,” Mrs. Tucker blazed. “I want her out of my house. Now.”
NINE
Silence stretched between them as Jace and Melanie drove. It was an awkward, tense silence. They had left his mother’s house within minutes of her declaration. Neither felt like eating, but Jace went through the drive-through at McDonald’s, anyway. She was only able to eat half of her breakfast sandwich before her stomach revolted. Queasy, she wrapped it back up. She hated to waste good food, but there was no way she could force any more down.
“You done with that?”
Mel jerked her head up at Jace’s terse question. He pointed to the half-eaten sandwich in her hand. She held it toward him.
“Yeah, I can’t eat any more. Do you want it?”
He grabbed it out of her hand. She bit her cheeks to keep a smile tucked away.
“I’ll take it. I’m starved.” He swallowed the sandwich in two bites, then washed it down with coffee.
“Better?” she inquired innocently.
For the first time that morning, he flashed her a smile. “Much. Thanks. We seem to have issues in the morning.”
And that, she thought, was all the discussion they were going to have about his mother. Fine with her.
“I’m dropping you off at the hospital for about an hour, two at the most,” Jace stated as he turned smoothly into the parking lot. Mel raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t been aware of their plans. “I need to go check in with Paul, update him on the situation. That sort of thing. I’ve arranged for Sergeant Olsen to stay with you at the hospital.”
Sergeant Miles Olsen turned out to be the policeman who had shown up the day she was released. He was a young kid who had just become a cop a year ago. Miles was bright, eager and looked as though he should be wearing a Boy Scout uniform instead of a police one. His shaggy blond hair kept falling across his forehead, and his smile was wide and engaging.
“Don’t worry, Miss Swanson,” he enthused when he met up with them in the hospital. “I’ll keep a real close guard on you. Lieutenant Tucker is depending on me.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she murmured, her mind on other things.
As they approached Aunt Sarah’s room, she heard Seth calling her name. Sighing, she waited for him to catch up. Seth hurried to stand before her, then directed a pointed glance at Miles. When Miles refused to acknowledge him, Melanie intervened…somewhat reluctantly. She wasn’t above wanting to see Seth squirm a little.
“Miles, could you let Seth and me have a word, please?”
The young sergeant shook his head, his mouth grim. The expression was alarming. All at once, he truly looked like a police officer. His eyes hardened as they glared back at Seth. Whoa. The hostility leaking from him was nearly tangible. But why? Judging from the confusion marring Seth’s normally confident face, he had no clue, either.
“No, ma’am. Lieutenant Tucker is counting on me. I can’t let you go off with anyone.”
Mel sighed. “Look, we’ll be right here. Just step back a few feet so we can talk privately. Please?”
Obviously unhappy about it, but without any real reason to argue, Miles retreated a few feet. His eyes remained on Seth, though. Seth pointedly ignored him. He reached out to grab Melanie’s left hand, but she moved away. His hand dropped.
“Mel,” he started, then paused, obviously unsure of how to begin. Melanie decided she didn’t feel like waiting for him.
“Why did you abandon me, Seth?” she shot out, accusation in her voice. “You were my best friend since we were kids. We always stood by each other. You knew me better than anyone. You knew there was no way I could have sold those drugs, or that I could have tried to kill myself. You knew that. Yet you didn’t even try to fight for me.”
Seth hung his head. There was no denying it. And they both knew it. He had let her down in the most despicable way possible.
“I’m ashamed of how cowardly I’ve been. If there was any chance…”
“Yeah, you acted like you were ashamed. One day we were in love and engaged, and the next, you were distancing yourself and treating me like I was beneath you. Even the other day, you acted like I was—”
Seth held his hands up, nodding his head. “I know, I know. And I’m sorry. I wish I had done things differently.”
“But why did you act that way, Seth? I trusted you.”
“My dad put pressure on me to leave you. He felt your background would hurt his campaign. And it upset my mom to see him get so upset. She was sick, I didn’t feel I could stand against him.” He shrugged. “By the time I came home, your trial was over and you were already in jail. ”
Melanie realized she wasn’t surprised. His father had always looked down on her. She should have known he would try to come between her and Seth. What really hurt is that Seth had let him. But Seth wasn’t done.
“I suspect he used his connections to speed up your trial so it would be resolved before I came home. The judge and the DA are both golfing buddies. My father has contributed thousands to their campaigns.”
Shock tore through her with the force of a bullet, rocking her back on her feet. Sheer grit allowed her to regain her equilibrium even as liquid agony ran raw over wounds she had thought were healed long ago. Whether she had been innocent meant nothing to these people. Her future, her life were gambled away so powerful men could keep their power. Worse than that, Sylvie had died, and whoever had killed her was still at large, probably preying on others.
“Melly? Are you all right? Mel?”
Disgust boiled inside her, rising and pushing at her until she had no choice but to let it out. Her lip curled and her eyes narrowed. Seth actually retreated a step as she scalded him with a glance.
“You were supposed to love me.” The words were bitter on her tongue. “We were planning to vow to forsake all others, remember that, Seth? Good thing we weren’t married yet. Because that was an epic fail on your part.”
She read his intention to touch her arm and backed away, shaking her head. His hand dropped, desolate.
Miles approached. The look on his face said he would not be gainsaid. “I think it’s time for us to continue to your aunt’s room, Miss Swanson. Lieutenant Tucker said he would be back within an hour and a half.”
Seth sketched a brief salute and departed. She watched him as he strode away, dejection in the slump of his shoulders. She refused to call him back. A whisper in her soul encouraged her to pray for a forgiving heart, but she blocked it out. The shock and betrayal were too new. A throat clearing reminded her Miles was waiting. Setting her jaw, she turned away from Seth and started walking again.
When they arrived at her aunt’s room, Miles respectfully waited o
utside while she visited. She sat by the bed, singing in a soft voice, sometimes praying. Finally, a sense of peace came over her. She forgot about the IVs and the breathing apparatus. Even the monitor’s beeping became background noise.
“You ready to go?”
She hadn’t heard Jace enter the room, but it felt right that he should be there.
She stood and left with him.
“So, you want to tell me about it?” Jace held open the door for a young woman struggling with an infant car seat. He tipped his head at Mel, nudging her to exit the building ahead of him.
Mel shrugged her shoulders. “Tell you about what?”
Jace snorted. “Please. I can read you better than that. Something has you riled.” He cut his eyes at her. “Was it something Seth said?”
“How did you know…? Oh, you talked to Miles, didn’t you?” She should have known Miles would feel duty-bound to give Jace a full report. She really couldn’t blame the kid for being conscientious.
“Yep. I think the kid has a crush on you. I barely even knew his name before, and now he practically begs to be in on the case. Now spill.”
A gusty sigh exploded from her. Jace smirked, amused.
“Okay, okay. Remember when you asked Seth why he hadn’t testified? Seth thinks his father made sure that would never happen. His father was concerned that a connection with me would hurt him politically even before Sylvie’s death.”
“Well, strictly speaking, maybe it could have.”
Mel flinched. She was still feeling bruised from her conversation with Seth.
“Anyway,” she continued, “the senator convinced Seth to drop me. Then, Seth thinks he might have used his connections with the DA and judge to push the case through, so I’d be locked away before Seth got back.”
At least that seemed to catch Jace off guard. “Seriously?” he said.
Melanie nodded. “Apparently the senator goes golfing with the DA and judge and has contributed heavily to their campaigns. All that power and influence,” she spat out bitterly, “and he decides to use it to keep his son from marrying some bad seed.”