by Karen Fenech
No, Dee’s support wouldn’t end with giving Faith a ride. Dee was a florist who owned her own shop and Faith had met her while purchasing flowers for her father’s burial. Faith had been at the lowest point in her life to that date. Following her father’s death, Faith had wanted nothing more than to crawl inside herself and stay there. Dee hadn’t let her. In the last three years, Dee had become Faith’s best friend. If Faith could have chosen a sister, Dee would have been the one.
“Actually your timing is good,” Faith said. “I got in just a short while ago.”
“You’re all over the news.”
Dee wasn’t one to mince words. Faith winced. “I was met by reporters. A couple of them followed me here.”
“More than a couple. Those vultures. Come home with me. Spend the night. Hector can set up the spare bed for you and you know the kids would love to see you.”
Faith loved Dee’s husband Hector, their four girls and one boy and would love to see them too but the last thing she wanted was to bring the media to Dee’s house. “I’m going to pass tonight.”
Dee stroked Faith’s arm softly but her tone was firm. “You shouldn’t be alone. You need your family around you.”
Dee had made Faith one of her own. “I love you, Dee, but really, I’m going to pass tonight. Rain check, okay?”
Dee pointed a stubby finger at Faith. “I see you looking out that window. I know what you’re thinking. That those bastards will follow you to my place. I don’t want you to be worrying about that. Anyone comes near our front door, Hector will toss them out on their ass.”
Under other circumstances, Faith would have laughed at that. Hector wouldn’t be the one to toss anyone on his ass. The man was a marshmallow. Faith thought of Hector fondly. Dee was the fierce one in their family.
“Not even a smile for that one?” Dee’s lips quirked at her own humor. “Okay. It’s settled. Let’s pack a few things for you. You’re staying with Hector, me, and the kids for a while.”
Faith took both of Dee’s chubby and work-worn hands in her own and squeezed. “Please. Let this be for tonight.”
Faith didn’t like the desperation she heard in her own voice but she was helpless to put any strength into her tone. She simply didn’t have it in her tonight.
Dee must have heard it too. Her expression softened. “I don’t like it. You being here alone and tonight of all nights. I know you tend to draw inside yourself when you’re in pain, but I’m here for you. You don’t need to grieve for your father alone.”
The media wasn’t the only reason Faith was staying put tonight. Dee was right. Faith did draw into herself when in pain and she spent the nights marking her father’s death alone with the exception of last year with Ryan.
That night was one of too many memories she’d locked away and fought to keep contained. It rushed into her mind now. The soft press of his lips against her brow. His words tender and soothing. The strength of his arms as grief and guilt threatened to crush her.
But Ryan wasn’t here tonight. Faith held Dee’s gaze and slowly shook her head.
Dee blew out a long breath. “Okay. I’ll go along.” She shifted her feet in an uncharacteristic show of uncertainty. Dee was always sure of what she was about. “I should tell you Ryan called me.”
It took an instant for Faith to take that in. “When?”
“I was on my way out here anyway when his call came in. He’s worried about you.”
Faith did not want to talk about Ryan and remained silent.
“When’s the last time you went out on a date?”
“What?”
“A date. You know, where you go out to dinner with a man. He buys you dinner. After, he tries to get into your pants, or you try to get into his.”
“Dee.”
“I’ll answer that for you. One year ago. With Ryan. Why is that?”
“I’m too busy to date.” The lie came easily because she’d been telling herself that for the last year.
Dee snorted. “You can lie to yourself but you and me both know the truth.”
Faith tried to hide from it, to shield herself from it, and the pain it would bring. It didn’t work. The truth . . . she wanted only one man. There was no one else for her but Ryan.
Dee’s voice softened. “I know I told you that Ryan moved out of the house he shared with his wife and that they had filed for divorce.”
Yes, Dee had told Faith. Faith knew all that but her heart lurched anyway. She pushed the feeling away. Ryan’s marital status now changed nothing.
“The man is going to be free,” Dee continued. “Don’t try to tell me you aren’t still in love with him.”
No, Faith wouldn’t tell Dee that.
“You’re not denying it. There’s no reason not to have him,” Dee said.
“You haven’t been an advocate of Ryan’s for some time.”
Dee’s grip on Faith tightened and her gaze hardened for an instant. “I could cut off his cojones for hurting you.” Dee shook her head slowly. “But you’re like a ghost since the two of you haven’t been together. I want you to be happy.”
“Ryan’s out of my life. It’s over.”
“It took guts for him to call me after what went down between the two of you.”
Faith couldn’t deny that. Dee had confronted Ryan after the break up. But Ryan was not a coward. “What’s this? Sounds like you’re having a change of heart over Ryan.”
“I never doubted that he was in love with you. Still is, from what I heard on the phone.”
Faith looked away from her friend. “I don’t want to talk about Ryan.”
Dee held up a hand. “It isn’t over for either of you.”
Faith’s heart gave a hard thump. Her throat tightened. “It has to be.”
“Ryan and his wife are getting a divorce.”
“So you already told me.”
“I know you still love him.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“That’s all that matters.”
Faith faced Dee. “I can’t open myself up to that kind of pain again. Ryan still has commitments to his child and to his wife. He’ll always have those. He’s already gone back to his family once. I can’t take the chance that those commitments will become too strong and he’ll decide to go back to his family again.”
“He doesn’t love her.”
“No, he doesn’t and she made it clear that she doesn’t love him, but they have a child together.”
“The only reason Tina called Ryan at all about her pregnancy was because her lover dumped her.”
“However it came about, they decided once to give their marriage another try for the sake of their child. I didn’t blame Ryan for that. But I can’t live my life with that kind of insecurity, that kind of fear, waiting, wondering if today is the day Ryan will decide to return to his family.” Faith had thought to have a family of her own one day with Ryan. The thought brought a stabbing pain. Softly, she said, “I can’t risk my heart like that again.”
Dee wrapped Faith in another hug. The doorbell rang again. As Faith tensed, Dee drew back. “That’s Hector. He’s returning your car. I’ll let him in.”
Dee opened the door and Hector entered the house. Hector was a wiry man with a dark mustache. He owned a service station in Wade and took care of any maintenance on Faith’s vehicle, like today’s oil change.
Hector handed Faith her car keys. “All done.”
Faith gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.”
Hector nodded.
Dee gave Faith a sharp look. “If you need anything, call us.” She took both of Faith’s cheeks in her palms, drew Faith down to her level, then kissed each cheek in turn. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Dee looped her arm through Hector’s and led the way out of the house. Moments later, Faith heard the horn on Dee’s sturdy utility van as Dee navigated her way through the reporters lining the street.
CHAPTER FIVE
The door to the interview room at the Wa
de County Jail opened. It was Saturday, the day after Faith had requested the Gaines case, and the news had broken to the media. Faith had come to the jail early to have her first meeting with her client. Gaines’s arraignment was set for the following Monday.
She got her first look at James Gaines now as he shuffled into the room, accompanied by a large guard with a shaved head. Gaines was shackled at the wrists and ankles.
Though he directed his speech at Faith, the guard pinned Gaines with a look. “I’ll be right outside, Miss Winston,” the guard said.
“Thank you,” Faith said.
James Gaines was of average height and weight with sparse brown hair and sagging skin around his eyes and jowls that gave him the look of a man older than his fifty-two years. He was dressed in a prison jumpsuit that looked too large for his frame.
Faith waited until he was seated across the rectangular table from her then said, “Mr. Gaines, I’m Faith Winston, your court-appointed attorney.”
Gaines’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He nodded once quickly then lowered his gaze.
“Do you understand the charges against you?” When Gaines failed to respond, Faith prompted him. “Mr. Gaines?”
Gaines’s eyes rose to meet hers. “That I killed Mrs. Fahey.”
“Your arraignment is set for this Monday. We’ll be going to the courthouse,” Faith went on.
Gaines gagged as if he were going to be sick.
Alarmed, Faith leaned across the table. “Mr. Gaines are you all right? Do you need a doctor?”
Gaines passed a hand that trembled across his mouth. “N-no.”
Keeping her eyes on his, Faith slowly leaned back from him. “Do you know what’s going to happen at the courthouse?” When he shook his head, Faith added, “The charges against you will be read and we’re going to be asked how you plead, guilty or not guilty. It’s my responsibility to explain to you what entering each plea entails. As you may know this is a death penalty state.” Thinking of her innocent father who’d been put to death, Faith couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice as she spoke of the death penalty. “If you choose to plead guilty to the charge of murder in the homicide of Sharon Fahey, I can make an appeal to the State for life in prison rather than execution. If my appeal is granted, you will spend the rest of your life in prison but you will live.”
Gaines’s body seemed to crumple in on itself. Before Faith’s eyes, the man appeared to deflate. “They’re sayin’ I done it. I don’t got no way to prove to them I didn’t.” His eyes bulged and Faith could see he was straining to hold back tears. “I don’t want to die but I can’t spend whatever life I got left in a jail cell.” His voice came out hollow. “I’d be walking around but inside I’d already be dead. That ain’t living. I’d rather be dead.”
His words, the emotion behind them, were painfully familiar. She’d heard much the same from her father and it hit Faith hard. Her heart began to race. Compassion. Anger. She felt a surge of both on Gaines’s behalf and curled the hand in her lap into a fist. “If you plead ‘not guilty’ the prosecution will need to prove the case against you. We’ll have an opportunity to go over the evidence and decide if it proves that you murdered Mrs. Fahey. There will be a trial, a chance for you to tell your story, a chance for me to refute the evidence against you. You do not have to accept the district attorney’s terms. You can fight this. We can fight this.”
“I never won a fight in my life,” Gaines said dully.
Faith’s mouth firmed. “We can win this one together.”
Gaines’s eyes widened slightly. The desolation in them was replaced by hope. He nodded.
The door opened. The guard filled the space.
“Time to go back to your cell, Gaines,” the guard said, his tone harsh.
Gaines glanced back over his shoulder at the guard then back to Faith.
Faith got to her feet. “I will see you in court on Monday, James.” She nodded. “From this point on, I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
* * *
On Monday morning the courtroom was filled when Faith took her place beside James Gaines at the defendant’s table. Faith had spent the weekend familiarizing herself with the Fahey homicide. District Attorney Rick Irwin sat across the aisle. He was in his mid-forties with a full head of fashionably styled black hair and a physique that he kept trim in a gym and on the golf course. Despite the fact that he worked for the State and not a high-powered law firm, the suit he was wearing cost more than many people’s monthly mortgage payment. Faith wasn’t surprised to see that he would be prosecuting this case rather than his underlings. She’d expected him. Irwin always came out for the murder cases. Irwin had prosecuted Faith’s father.
Irwin was calmly reading from a stack of papers in front of him. It was doubtful he would be reading anything pertaining to this case. This wasn’t the venue for him to present argument. He was just passing time.
Her first murder case. This would be Faith’s first time facing Irwin in a courtroom. Adrenaline shot through her. Bring it.
Irwin glanced up then, into her eyes. He held her gaze then turned to the junior prosecutor on his staff seated beside him. An instant later, the man leaped to his feet and scurried to Faith.
The man swallowed hard. “Miss Winston?”
Faith knew the young lawyer, Dalton Kendall.
“Mr. Irwin would like to speak with you,” Dalton said in a squeak.
Faith turned to Gaines. “I won’t be long.”
Irwin was no longer seated as she got to her feet. She followed Dalton through a side door that led to a small chamber customarily used for attorney conferences. Irwin was inside.
Irwin kept his eagle eyes on Faith as he said, “Thank you, Dalton.”
With a quick nod, Dalton left.
A tense silence stretched as Irwin watched Faith and she returned his stare. She would not be the one to break the silence. She’d wait him out until hell froze over.
Finally, Irwin said, “It’s being said that you requested this case.”
“Is it?”
“You made a mistake taking me on. You won’t win.”
“Won’t I?”
“Your client beat a woman to death with a hammer.”
Faith arched a brow. “Not even a pretense of innocent until proven guilty? Have we skipped the trial and gone straight to the conviction?”
Irwin’s gaze hardened. “We have him running away from the scene, practically into the arms of the victim’s husband. He was covered in her blood. We have his DNA at the scene, on the body, no less. We have the murder weapon with his fingerprints on it. A search of his things produced no less than one hundred pieces of paper he’d taken from people’s garbage on which he’d handwritten Sharon’s name. He cut out her tongue as a trophy. In case all of that escaped your notice.”
The papers denoted a fixation with Sharon Fahey but Faith countered with, “Writing on discarded bits of paper is not illegal. Mrs. Fahey’s missing body part was not found in Mr. Gaines’s possession. Leaving the scene of a violent crime does not necessarily make one a murderer. Surely you learned that in law school.” Faith’s tone was mocking. “It’s been established that Mr. Gaines’s DNA is at the scene because he was working in Mrs. Fahey’s bedroom painting walls. His prints are on the hammer because he’d used the claw to open paint cans. Mr. Gaines explained to police that Mrs. Fahey’s blood was on him because he touched her to feel for a pulse.”
Irwin gave her a slow shake of his head. “I doubt Gaines knows anything more about taking a pulse than I do about the secrets of the universe.”
“I can’t speak to your knowledge base, but considering what we have in this case and how I’ve just explained it away, I do know that you won’t get a conviction.”
“I always get a conviction. You should be more aware of that than anyone else, Faith.”
Until that comment, she’d wondered about the point of this meeting. Why ask to speak with her at all? Now she knew. He thought to knock her off ba
lance, to shake her. Instead, he only served to strengthen her resolve. “I was thinking about your record of convictions, Rick. How you assign lesser cases to your staff and only take on murder trials, always seeking the death penalty. How many have there been? Over the years, how many defendants have you sent to their deaths? So many that you’ve lost count? And, of that number, how many have been innocent?”
“Like your father?” His voice dripped sarcasm.
Faith had already turned away from him and now turned back. Her father’s wrongful death never failed to rouse painful feelings, but she’d be damned before she allowed him to see how mentioning her father hurt her. Facing him head on, she said, “Yes. Just like that. My father died an innocent man.” Faith’s lips curled in disgust and hatred. “I’m done here. Anything more I have to say will be said in the courtroom.”
* * *
Seated behind James Gaines in the courtroom, Ryan studied the man. Gaines was a drifter who’d made his way to Wade County and found a frequent bed at the Wade County homeless shelter. Sharon Fahey volunteered there and according to her husband, Timothy, when Gaines showed an aptitude for fixing things, Sharon gave him a job repairing their house that Fahey readily admitted was a starter home, a fixer-upper that needed a lot of repair.
Timothy Fahey hadn’t liked the idea of having someone they didn’t know and knew nothing about in their house. The Fahey’s lived in a remote area of Wade County with no close neighbors. Fahey was an investment broker and was away from home many evenings, leaving Sharon alone in the house. Because they both worked and Fahey wasn’t willing to give Gaines a key to work at the house during the day when neither he nor Sharon was home, Gaines needed to be at the house when Sharon’s workday was over. Fahey readily admitted to police that he and Sharon had argued over Gaines, but as Fahey broke down in tears, he’d added that his wife had a big heart and she’d wanted to help Gaines, who she believed was down on his luck, get back on his feet. It wasn’t the first time Sharon had offered help to someone she perceived to be in need.