Sidetracked-Kobo

by Brandilyn Collins

“I can’t go!” She jerked away. “I didn’t do it!”

  “Calm down.” Devlon’s voice.

  Calm down! For what? So they could drag her back to that little cell? The hard bed and stained walls? So they could throw her in CYA?

  Wails spurted from her mouth. “I didn’t dooo it!” Laura fell to her knees.

  Hands reached for her. Many hands. People calling her name, lifting her up. Her ankles wobbled, and the world dimmed. She caught a fleeting glance of her father watching her, forehead crinkled and tears on his face. “Dad!” She flung out an arm toward him, but someone caught it, pinned it. She felt the cuffs, and the world dimmed more, and her head tipped back, the room spinning …

  S p i n n i n g …

  rocks in her stomach and chest, breath blocked in her throat and people yelling and her knees giving way and the courtroom going black, blacker, until she saw noth—

  April 2013

  Chapter 20

  “Del!” Colleen called from our gathering room. “They’re running the news story next!”

  “Okay!” Quickly I put the finishing touches on my makeup and inspected myself in a full length mirror. I’d put on a blue cashmere sweater and black skinny pants and heels for dinner with Andy. Had only half managed to chase the stress and lack of sleep from my face. It would have to do.

  I hurried from my bathroom. Pete, Colleen, and Nicole were still sitting where I’d left them fifteen minutes ago. I resumed my own seat, feeling my heart flutter. Once this news story hit the airwaves, what would happen to me? What would Chief Melcher do?

  Commercials ended. The news returned.

  “Here it is!” Nicole leaned forward.

  An anchor woman led into the story of a “heinous murder in Redbud of a young woman driving home from her wedding shower.” From there the scene switched to the reporter I’d spoken with, Barlow Watkins, standing in front of the yellow crime scene tape on Brewer. He told of Clara’s strangulation and the arrest of Billy King, a man who “reportedly had a crush on Miss Crenshaw.” According to Redbud Police Chief Bruce Melcher, King was spotted near the scene of the crime by two people around the time of the murder.

  Two? Anger rose within me. Melcher had to mean Becky and me.

  “But one of the eyewitnesses strongly disagrees with Chief Melcher. Delanie Miller, who discovered Miss Crenshaw’s body, insists the person she saw in the shadows wasn’t tall enough to be Billy King. According to Miss Miller, Chief Melcher isn’t interested in what she has to say.”

  Nicole’s eyes widened. “Uh-oh.”

  The picture switched to my face. I looked haggard yet defiant, the blaze of injustice in my eyes. The sight sent a shockwave through me. How many times I’d seen myself like that in mirrors during the days of my own trial. During all the years following.

  I watched, muscles tense, as the reporter asked me more about Chief Melcher. And my response: “Chief Melcher came to my house and told me flat out if I interfered anymore in his investigation he would ‘haul me off to jail.’”

  Colleen and Nicole gasped. Pete turned to me, his mouth drawn inward. Oh, boy, he mouthed.

  The story wrapped up in another half a minute. I barely heard. My ears rang with my own words.

  The picture switched back to the news anchor and another story. How life moves on.

  Colleen grabbed the remote and muted the sound.

  For a moment none of us said a word.

  Nicole pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Is he gonna put you in jail?”

  I shrugged—who knows?

  “Nah.” Pete sat back and folded his arms. “As much as you got him riled up, Del-Belle, in a way you’ve protected yourself. How can he make any move against you now, with the media lookin’ on, and all the town knowin’ how he treated you?”

  “Yeah, Pete’s right.” Colleen sounded almost as defiant as I had. “Now old Melcher’s stuck by his own words.”

  I ran a sweaty palm over my pants. “I don’t know. If people in town really believe Billy did this, they will look at me as interfering with justice. And they’ll support Melcher.”

  Nicole made a face. “Melcher’s not very popular in this town anyway. People like you way more. I’ll bet they’ll side with you.”

  I gave her a crooked smile. Kind words. But Clara was dead, and somebody needed to pay. That changed the balance.

  The doorbell rang. Andy.

  I rose, apprehension swirling in my veins. What would he say about what I’d done?

  “Hi, Beautiful.” Andy wore a dark blue sport coat and silk multicolored tie. He stepped inside and hugged me for an extra long moment. When he drew back, he studied me with a warm smile. “You look terrific.”

  My heart lurched. To the very core of me, I loved this man. If only he could have been beside me during this terrible day. Andy could make anything better. “Thank you.”

  He glanced at the faces of my roommates, the muted news on TV. “Something about Clara?”

  “Yeah.” Nicole gave me a meaningful look. “Delanie was on, too.”

  Andy raised his eyebrows. “You were interviewed?”

  Thanks, Nicole. “I’ll tell you about it in the car.”

  We said our goodbyes and headed outside. I was silent as we pulled away from the curb. The more I thought about what I’d done, the more frightened I felt. Something would come of this. Something bad.

  Chapter 21

  “So what happened with your interview?” Andy asked as we hit the edge of town. He shot me a sideways smile, but it faded quickly. Maybe he didn’t approve of my talking to the reporter.

  My hands pressed together. I had yet to tell Andy how Melcher had threatened me with jail that morning, and the chief’s final remark about my “rich boyfriend not being able to help.”

  It struck me then for the thousandth time—how much I kept from Andy. I’d grown so used to guarding the secrets of my past, I didn’t know how to share my present.

  “First I need to back up and let you know what happened this morning.” Staring through the windshield, I told him about Melcher’s visit. What he’d said. How Pete had heard it all.

  Andy’s jaw set. “He really said that to you?” A rhetorical question. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

  I shivered. The evening wasn’t cold, but my body could not shake its chill. “I had so many people to see, and …”

  “But I called you hours ago. Didn’t you think I’d want to know?”

  I turned my head and focused out my window. “I knew we’d see each other tonight, when we could really talk.”

  Silence.

  “Okay.” Andy lifted a hand from the steering wheel. His tone did not match the word. “So what happened on the news?”

  I told him.

  A little smile crept over Andy’s face. Hadn’t expected that. “Well, sounds like you gave it right back to him.”

  “You’re not mad at me?”

  “Why should I be mad at you? I’m furious at Melcher for what he said. He deserves this. Now everyone knows what a jerk he is.”

  “Oh.” I took a long breath. “A minute ago you seemed …”

  Andy shook his head. “I just don’t like it when you don’t tell me things.”

  I shifted in my seat.

  “Pete says Chief Melcher won’t be able to ‘haul me off to jail’ now. Because people will be watching him after the newscast.”

  “Pete’s right.” Andy fell silent again. After a moment he cleared his throat. “Something I need to say, though, Del. Even though I’ve been at work all day, I’ve been hearing things through phone calls. The evidence—other than what you saw—all points to Billy. I know you think he didn’t do this. At first I thought the same. But you can’t let your emotion cloud the facts.”

  I stiffened. “It’s not just emotion. I know what I saw.”

  “You saw a shadow of a figure. Didn’t even see his face, right? Becky Myers saw Billy up cl
ose. Yet he denies he was there and has no alibi. It just doesn’t look good.”

  First Nicole, now Andy. If they wouldn’t listen to me, who would? I folded my arms and stared out the windshield. “He didn’t do it.”

  “Okay.” Andy held up a hand. “But what if he did? And meanwhile you go around defending him? People will remember that.”

  The faces of Phyllis and Doug Bradshaw flashed in my mind. What were they thinking? They didn’t approve of their son dating me in the first place. “Is this about your parents?”

  Andy threw me a glance. “Why are you bringing them up?”

  “Because they don’t like me.” And when his mother saw the news, she’d probably have apoplexy. The Bradshaws and anyone linked to them simply did not make spectacles of themselves on television.

  “They like you just fine.”

  “No, they don’t.” Impatience laced my voice.

  “Del. We are not talking about my parents.”

  I closed my eyes. The day had been bad enough. Did I need to make it worse by picking a fight with my boyfriend—something I’d never done?

  “I’m talking about you and your reputation in Redbud. I’m just suggesting that as much as you like Billy, you might pull back now from saying anything more. Because if you’re proven wrong, I think you’ll live to regret it.”

  Tears of frustration bit my eyes. I tried to blink them back and failed.

  “Hey.” Andy reached over to squeeze my arm. “I don’t want to make you cry. I just … want to protect you, that’s all.”

  Since the beginning of our relationship, Andy had viewed himself as my protector. As if I was somehow lost and needing direction. He was three years older and supposedly therefore wiser. Little did he realize I’d lived through twice what he had in my lifetime.

  “I know.” I dug a tissue out of my purse.

  “Look. Just let me say one thing, all right? Then we’ll change the subject.”

  Like there was any another subject right now. “Okay.”

  He tapped a finger against the steering wheel, as if considering how to begin. “Sometimes people surprise us. Sometimes they’re not at all what they pretend to be.”

  My gaze darted to his face and hung there.

  “I know you’ve seen it on the news or heard stories. Everyone swears they know a certain person, and that person would never do x, y, z, but then it turns out they did. And the friends and family members say ‘how can this be? It just doesn’t fit with what I know.’ Or sometimes people who may be disturbed don’t show it outwardly. They’re quiet and easy to overlook. Until bam, they blow up.”

  Shades of the town’s gossip Colleen had heard. I turned my head away. My heartbeat felt like a hard grind.

  “Do you hear what I’m trying to say, Delanie? I just don’t want you hurt more than you already are in case something like that happens.”

  I rubbed my hands together, focusing on my fingernails. Why didn’t I paint my nails? It would be so much more refined and fashionable. So would living in my house by myself, instead of gathering a faux family. And I should have a job. Be like a normal person. I’d bucked all those things to be me in this new life I’d created.

  Except I wasn’t being the real me at all. Never could be.

  “Delanie?”

  Words stuck in my throat. “I hear you. Thanks.”

  Andy sighed. “Okay then.” He slid his arm across my shoulder and massaged my neck. “I’m done. And now—this evening is about us. No one else.”

  My chest felt tight.

  I could think of little to say the rest of the drive, or as we sat down to dinner at a secluded corner table in the best restaurant in Lexington. Andy told me about his real estate deals—which had worked, which were giving him trouble. I responded at all the right times, but it was obvious I was still upset. Andy kept up the conversation, pouring out energy for both of us. I loved him for that.

  After our meal was finished, he pushed aside his coffee and reached across the table for my hand. “Delanie.” His eyes were so warm. “I love you.”

  My throat constricted. How had I ever found this man? “I love you too.”

  He took his hand away to reach into the pocket of his coat. Brought out a blue velvet box and pulled back its top. A large stunning diamond in platinum gold sparkled in the lamplight.

  All air left my lungs.

  Andy watched my face, nervousness pulling at his mouth. Never before had I seen him show such an expression. “I want to be with you forever, Delanie Miller. You’re everything I need. Will you marry me?”

  I couldn’t speak. A montage of memories flooded me. My father and mother kissing in front of a Christmas tree. My father’s grief at her death. The long days in juvey, when all I wanted was the family I’d lost. The horrible years and further shocks following my guilty verdict. The day I bought my house in Redbud. The day Pete moved in. My first date with Andy. The nights I’d fallen asleep dreaming of this moment. Clara’s smile after her wedding shower—“You’re next, Delanie!”

  Andy still held out the ring. “I—I know it’s a bad time. Sorry for that. I just … after what happened to Clara, I want you near me always. Starting now.”

  I looked at him, fresh tears in my eyes. His mother would hate this.

  “Sometimes people aren’t what they pretend to be.”

  Love for Andy flushed through me. The last thing I would ever do was hurt this man. And if he found out how I’d lied to him about who I was, my childhood, my parents—everything—he would be hurt. I could never, ever let that happen. Ironic, how he thought he would be protecting me from now on. Just the opposite. Whatever it took, however hard it was, I would protect him from discovering my deceit. For Andy. For me. For our life together.

  I gave him a shaky smile. Took the box from his hand and slipped the gorgeous ring onto my left fourth finger. “Yes. You know the answer is yes!”

  October 1995 –

  January 2004

  Chapter 22

  Two weeks after her guilty verdict, Laura Denton was sentenced to serve time in the California Youth Authority until she turned twenty-five. She would be moved by the end of the year.

  Eight and a half years in CYA.

  By the time the judge handed down her sentence, Laura already knew what was coming. Devlon had warned her. No crying out, no fainting like she’d done at the verdict. Laura heard the words fall like stones from the judge’s mouth but barely felt a thing. In the last two weeks she’d gone numb. The days blurred by, nothing mattering, nothing to fight for. Letters had stopped coming from her friends. Did they believe everything they read in the papers? Had their parents made them quit writing? No matter, either way. Laura was alone.

  Her mother’s real killer would never be brought to justice.

  A week after the sentencing, Laura’s father showed up in a surprise visit. When they told her he was there, the anger in her wanted to declare she wouldn’t see him. The love in her, however beaten and bruised, moved her feet out of her room and down the hall.

  They faced each other in the glassed enclosure, both standing. Her dad looked like he’d aged ten years.

  “Hi.” His hands hung awkwardly at his sides, as if he didn’t know what to do with them.

  “Hi.”

  “I came to see you before …”

  “Before they ship me off to CYA? Somebody in there’ll kill me, you know. That’s what happens in that place.”

  Her father’s face turned grayer.

  Laura’s nerves sizzled. She wanted to punch him. She wanted to throw her arms around him and never let go. “You still think I did this? You really believe that?”

  He shook his head. “I … don’t know.”

  “Which means you do.” Her voice was razor sharp.

  He gazed at her, pain zigzagging his face. “Did you?”

  She closed her eyes, so weary. “Like you didn’t hear my answer enough in court?”

/>   Her father gave a slow nod. Looked away.

  Weakness rushed Laura’s legs. She sat down in one of the plastic chairs. Minutes ticked by, both of them staring at nothing.

  Laura took a breath. “You gonna come visit me in CYA?”

  He flinched. “You want me to?”

  Yes. No. Who knew? What she wanted was her life back. Her mom alive. And her dad. School. Friends.

  “You still have that same cop girlfriend?”

  Her father lowered himself into a chair. Focused on his hands. “Yeah.”

  “You gonna marry her?”

  He shrugged.

  “I’ll bet she tells you how guilty I am, huh. Fills your ears full with it.”

  “We … don’t talk about it.”

  “Oh. Your daughter and your dead wife aren’t worth talking about?”

  He looked up at her, eyes glazed. “Laura. Don’t.”

  Her heart turned over. If only she could hug him. Cry into his chest. But he sat across from her, a world away.

  Laura closed her eyes. How hard she was becoming. How cynical. And she wasn’t even in CYA yet. She heard how that place changed people. She couldn’t let herself get worse. Age twenty-five was a lifetime away, but it would come. And she’d have the rest of her life. Somehow … some way she had to keep some part of who she was. Who she’d been.

  She picked at a pulled thread on her ugly cotton pants. “So you gonna marry her or not?”

  Her dad sighed. “I don’t want to talk about Tina. I want to talk about you.”

  Tina. Laura hated that name. “What’s there to talk about? You think I’m guilty. That I’m going where I deserve. And no matter what you say, I know your girlfriend convinced you of that. After all she is a cop.”

  “You’re still my daughter.”

  “What good does that do?”

  His jaw flexed. “I’ll always love you.”

  She looked down and shook her head.

  More silence.

  “Are you happy with her? Tina?”

  “Why do you keep asking about her?”