Resisting Redemption
Page 32
“The divorce. Her…her tricks. Manipulating him. He put up with her for so long. And when they divorced, he took a leave of absence. I know he was hurt by losing the second baby, but—”
“Whoa, whoa.” Kelly shook her head. “Did he tell you she lost the baby?”
“Which one?” Roxie frowned. “I meant the second one. That’s when he finally left her.” The timing of which overlapped with the start of Ben’s case.
Kelly pursed her lips and then scooted closer. “Look, this isn’t my story to tell. I shouldn’t even know about this. But…” She hesitated for a flash. “I want him to be happy. And with you at his side, the change is visible. If you complete him, then I support you. There was only one baby.”
One baby? From when they were graduating high school? Or was the baby from last year Stuart’s after all? Roxie set Lucy in the high chair, strapped her in, and gave Kelly all her attention.
“They were high school sweethearts. Not really. Football was his true love. That and reading. But she was persistent. Said the right crap. Whatever. So he went out with her. He planned to go to Purdue and she freaked out. It was like she didn’t want to lose a possession or something. Not that she loved him, she just wanted the handsome captain of the football team, the valedictorian everyone envied her for.”
“And she got pregnant. Grant gave up his scholarships and stayed with her,” Roxie said.
Kelly shook her head. “Minor uterine fibroids. She freaked at the pain and had it checked out. She was never pregnant.”
Roxie couldn’t see Tara sharing such personal information with Kelly. “You know this, how, exactly?”
“I’ll get to that. Anyway, she told him she was expecting, played the guilt card, and he stayed. Of course, no baby, and she said—according to him—that it was a miscarriage. Until he told all of us about losing that baby, I’d never known how much it mattered to him. God, he was excited to be a dad, even if the timing sucked. So they stuck together, married, and she promised they’d work on a family.” Kelly scoffed.
“And he got fed up. Never said as much to me, but he spoke to our brother Sean a bit. Said he was tired of working for a passion and not having anyone to go home to. That was even with Tara in his home. That bitch.”
Language… Roxie refrained from covering Lucy’s ears.
“He caught her cheating and that was it. He was outta there, he said. I was so happy he’d finally made the call. And then, poof, she’s ‘pregnant’ again,” Kelly said.
“Right… And Stuart wasn’t able to be a father. Someone else’s baby?” Roxie asked. Hell, if Tara was sleeping with Kaniz’s PI, why not others? She was already juggling visits on Stuart’s and Henry’s cocks.
“No. She shouldn’t have conceived. She had her tubes tied back when she’d had the fibroids.”
Roxie’s jaw dropped.
“I’m not proud of this, okay? Violates all kinds of medical ethics. I know. But he’s my brother. I refused to let this woman ruin him anymore. So sue me, all right?
“My best friend, Heather, still works in the ER. Tara had cramps and pains like never before and checked in. Heather had access to her charts, her medical history… I trust you won’t speak of this to anyone. Heather would lose her job. Likewise for me. But bottom line is, Tara lied to him. She wasn’t pregnant before, and prevented the chance of it through their entire marriage. But she was when she came to the ER. It can happen after having tubes snipped.” Kelly smirked. “Low odds, but it can happen.”
“Wow.”
“Uh huh.”
“Does he know?”
Kelly avoided her gaze for a second. “Yes. Now he does. All those years he’d been married to her”—she shook her head—“he never knew. I didn’t say anything at first. It wasn’t my place. It was wrong. But he came over, worried. He’d already agreed to stay with her—for the sake of the baby—and he was worried about Tara. Not for her, but for the baby.
“He said she wasn’t feeling well, stressed out, overdoing it with work. He’d tried to talk her into taking it easy. She was maybe a month in and it was nasty. Puking. Moody. Tired. Just a mess. When he said he’d pick up the slack for her so she wouldn’t overdo it, she lost it. Said she didn’t even want a baby. It was a curse. Wished it never happened.”
“No…”
Kelly nodded. “Grant feared what she would do. If she wouldn’t slow down, let her body adjust. He offered to quit, to simply help her on her caseload that she insisted on keeping. Offered to hire more help. Another housekeeper. A personal nurse. He was ready to give her whatever she needed to make it an easier compromise as an expecting workaholic woman dead set on not showing a weakness at the office.”
“She didn’t…”
Kelly nodded again. “She never stopped whining, but she terminated. After all he’d said he could help her with. After—” Kelly gritted her teeth. “After she had a healthy twenty-one week ultrasound. After he begged her not to even consider killing his child.” With a grim frown, Kelly glared at the ceiling. “It’s none of my business, right? To each their own. A woman decides what to do with her body. Even an illegal maneuver like hers to have the baby terminated for no health concern after twenty-one weeks. Not a man. Not society. That’s my take on it.”
She put her hand on her belly.
“But the depths that woman went to fuck with him. Grant couldn’t do anything more. He couldn’t carry the baby for her. How else could he have made it easier for her? And sure, she had morning sickness. But her life wasn’t in danger. It was deemed a normal pregnancy. Had to go to out of the States to get the abortion. That is murder. An illegal, unnecessary abortion. That late in pregnancy?” Kelly growled.
Roxie wiped at her eyes.
“Again. None of my business, right? Nor yours.” Kelly sniffled. “But she didn’t lose that baby. The one she never wanted. The one she used to keep Grant married to her.”
How evil of an excuse of a human. Roxie’s sentiments of reproductive rights mirrored Kelly’s. Every woman had the power and right to decide what she deemed best for herself and her body. But my God, she thought. That baby was Grant’s too. He wanted it. Even suggested a surrogate mother if Tara didn’t want to carry a child.
“She aborted. And he lost it,” Roxie murmured.
“Immensely,” Kelly said. “He shut down. The next morning he took a leave of absence and took off to a buddy’s cabin in Colorado. Didn’t take his phone. He called Sean from a bar in town and gave him the landline to where he was staying and ordered him to contact him only for life-or-death issues in the family.”
“And Ben was arrested,” Roxie said, snapping her attention from feeding Lucy some sweet potato.
“Huh?” Kelly cocked her head to the side. “Well, yeah, I guess. Funny timing. Ben’s troubles did start around then.”
That was how Tara had gotten Grant away from Ben’s case. Playing a game with his heart. Deceiving him. All to ensure she had Ben’s case? Why? Why did she need Ben’s case so badly? What the hell could Tara gain from making sure Ben went down as Josh’s murderer?
“You okay?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah. Thinking.”
“Looks like you’re strategizing a war move.”
Roxie wiped her mouth, ready to get back to the office. “I don’t trust her.”
“Well, I’d say she’s out of the picture now. Grant’s clearly moved on.” Kelly laughed lightly.
“Not that. She’s up to something. With the case.” Roxie focused on wiping off the squirming, fussy Lucy.
“Thought Grant was in charge of it, though. Ben kicked Tara off counsel and went with him?”
“She’s still at the firm,” Roxie retorted. “She’s been trying to keep abreast of our developments, and I doubt her intentions.”
Development.
There’s no way he will be able to recover from the damage of this development.
Tara’s statement in the bathroom… What development? Something new on the case?
“Here, I’ll help. She sure is a fuss butt about being cleaned up.” Kelly leaned over to finish tidying up Lucy. “You sure you’re all right? Looking a little flushed.”
“Yeah. I will be. Something… I’ve got to talk with Grant.” Roxie picked up Lucy, still messy and resisting attempts of wipes.
“Right.” Kelly stood as well.
“Hey, mum’s the word. I understand. And I would have done the same.”
“He should have been the one to explain,” Kelly admitted.
“True.” But in light of the case, the story plugged in a gap of understanding. Why Tara was so duplicitous, Roxie couldn’t know. But she now saw the timeline of how Grant had been wrestled out of the way. “But thank you for sharing. It helps me get the big picture.”
After a couple more hurried kisses and nuzzles to her daughter’s chubby cheeks, Roxie said goodbye to Lucy, handed her back to Kelly, and then nearly ran back to Grant’s office. She let the door shut behind her, maybe more of something like a slam, and she faced Grant, panting and warm from her haste.
“When will something new fit in this case? When will we just get somewhere with a fuc—freaking clue?” His groan followed.
She didn’t move, staring at him.
“You okay?” he asked, straightening from leaning over papers on his desk.
Such a strong, warm, wonderful man. How hard it had to have been, imploring that witch not to deprive him of a child he so desperately longed for. How low he had to have felt when all those years’ old lies and tricks were revealed to him—when Kelly told him about Tara’s medical history. If Roxie could have only met him earlier, to be available as a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear to let him run through his rants.
So much he’d suffered through, and still he persevered. He stayed strong and was gunning to come back for a fresh start, never giving up. A survivor. A fighter. Just as she was to him.
“I love you.” Her words were quiet and more of a gasp as she struggled for breath.
“And…” He eyed her cautiously. “And I love you. What’s wrong?” In mere steps, he was in front her, holding her close to him. “Were you crying?”
“Kelly…she…told me.”
His eyes stopped narrowing and his mouth slipped to a frown. He pulled her in for a hug.
“I’m so, so sorry, Grant.”
His chin tapped the top of her head as he nodded. No words, only physical comfort. Tucked into each other’s support, they stood as one—grieving, loving, offering warmth. Speech was unnecessary as Roxie hoped she could transfer the energy of compassion into his heart.
Beeps alerted from his desk across the room and she pulled back enough to look at him.
Developments.
“Answer it,” she said. “Hurry. I overhead Tara in the bathroom and she mentioned a new development you hadn’t heard of. Answer!”
He cast her a questioning expression and went for his phone. The changes on his face were too dark to follow. Anger. Misunderstanding. Shock. Fear. Fury. Once he hung up, Roxie waited.
“Fuck.”
Okay, not good. Tara had gloated about them not being able to recover from the impact of this news, so Roxie knew it had to be negative to the case. But how bad?
“They found the gun.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I still don’t see how they could have found it now. After all this time.” Roxie sputtered as she buckled her seatbelt in his car.
As soon as he’d hung up from the DA’s call, they bolted for the government building.
“Josh was shot months ago. Now? They find the gun now?” she asked.
Her incredulity matched his own. The fucking weapon. Physical evidence in the case that loomed sketchy with mostly all speculation.
Now? Damn right, why the fuck was this happening now? It had been unlikely but not improbable for the APD to locate the gun that ended Josh’s life. Un-fucking-believable, was what Grant would call it.
He reiterated the scant details he’d gleaned in the call that invited him to the DA’s office—to discuss it further. A legal obligation for prosecution to share any new evidence with the defense.
“Some ecological team. An undergraduate research project from ASU investigating breakdown of some specific form of leaves. They had leaf-fall litter traps. Mesh liners underneath random trees at Woodland Park. Seems they collected them and found the gun. Not knowing what else to do with it, they contacted the police and they filed it.”
“So how can that prove it was used to kill Josh?” She gasped and grabbed his sleeve. “Please tell me it doesn’t have Ben’s fingerprints on it.”
He smirked. So much for her faith in their client. “I’m telling you, Ben didn’t do it.”
“But he had fired a gun that day. GSR reports show that.”
“All that GSR shows is that he fired a gun. Not that gun. The residue didn’t match one hundred percent. Residue which Sonny said came from Ben shooting a rat on his property that morning. And no, his prints aren’t on it. No one’s are. It must have been wiped clean.”
“Then how do they know it was the gun used to kill Josh?”
“Ballistics match up, apparently. We’ll get more on that as soon as we get there.”
What a wrench in the game. He had to wonder how Tara knew this was coming. Obviously the DA received word pronto from his side of the fence, the investigative police crew alerting him to the new evidence in their closed case. Whatever the DA knew, Grant gathered Tara would be informed of as well—maybe when she was sucking the old goat off at his desk.
He cringed at the disgusting idea.
“What exactly did Tara say in the bathroom?” That she knew of this before them was given. But for how long had she known?
“Um, let’s see. She said she was clear to speak—didn’t want her PA to overhear anything in her office. Told someone to calm down. The press is just keeping their news interesting. Uh… She said there’s nothing to worry about and the case isn’t going down that path. Then said he doesn’t have new info in the case. To trust her. Said she was in charge of Ben’s case while you were on leave. There’s nothing new to have. Besides that. She meant nothing new on ‘you’, whoever she was speaking to.”
She paused, frowning at the dashboard, and then continued. “Said something about them calling to ask a question to whomever she was speaking. Nothing to worry about, she’s got this under control. Then she said she got you away from the case in the first place, but she won’t have to distract you this time because you’re uh, well, ‘lovey-dovey’ with me.”
“That’s it?”
“No. Then she said you hadn’t heard the latest. That the police have to do their thing and then the press can know. Said you can’t recover from the damage of this.”
“Nothing new on you? She said that to the person on the phone?” he asked. Tara was protecting someone? The killer?
“Yes.”
Grant ran Roxie’s account through his mind again, replaying the statements. The press is just keeping their news interesting—the caller had to be someone worked up about Wayne’s stupid posts on social media, stirring everyone into thinking there was a hot twist in business. The case isn’t going down that path—reaffirmation of what…? The case changing from the way she wanted it to, as in changing to Ben winning his case? Nothing new on you—covering for someone. Them calling to ask a question—
“She said ‘them’ calling to ask a question?” Them being him and Roxie.
“I think so.”
“Not him or her?”
“I’m pretty sure she said ‘them’.”
Someone he and Roxie could have called, someone getting nervous about an inquiry. He made a menta
l note to scan through who they’ve called. All, oh forty-some odd contacts.
Dismissing Tara’s comment about distracting him from the case in the first place, he snorted at her assumption about him losing focus on the case because of Roxie. Roxie was the kind of hardworking, determined survivalist he needed on this challenge of a job. Distract him, yes, but they were both professional enough—so far—to keep a balance on their desires.
“Grant?”
He glanced at her as he parked in the garage for the municipal building. “Hmm?”
“Can we recover from this?” she asked as she rushed to get out of the car.
“Of course.”
Her clatter of little steps chased him as he made for the entrance. “How?”
“Until I see an unedited video with Ben shooting Josh with that gun in that hotel room, it’s all up for speculation.”
Once they’d managed their way through the security checkpoint, Grant kept his temper and frustration under tight rein. Facing the podgy, double-chinned, and greasy DA leaning back in his chair at his desk, the desk he likely fucked Tara on plenty of times, he let loose.
“What the fuck is this, Henry?” he demanded.
Henry hung up and motioned for them to sit in the high-backed chairs across him.
Neither he nor Roxie showed inclination to accept the invitation.
“I called as soon as I could, Newland.”
The hell you did.
He reached through papers and then tossed a file to the opposite side of his desk. Grant snatched it and perused the photos and documents, handing them to Roxie once he’d skimmed them.
“Why hasn’t this been sent to my office when this weapon was turned in”—he checked the dates—“two days ago?”
Henry huffed. “I had to let the boys do their jobs first, Newland.”
Grant clapped the file shut, handed it to Roxie, and then crossed his arms. “And now that they’ve done that?”
A sinister smile lined the DA’s face as he leaned back again. He shrugged. “Research team found the gun in a liner of some kind. They only check certain traps at scheduled intervals. The trap holding the gun was due last week, so the kids emptied the contents, found the gun, and ta-da, they bring it into the station.”