“I don’t know.” She looked down at the table, in shame. She couldn’t believe that her one night of indiscretion was the catalyst for all of the horrible events that followed.
“I see. And Frankie and the twins?” Rex asked.
“Well I don’t really know how they got involved. And that’s the honest truth. They just showed up in our backyard today for some reason. They were snooping around when we came home. They saw Zachary’s hand sticking out of the dirt. What were we supposed to do?” She didn’t wait for an answer.
“Marshall freaked out. He wasn’t going to hurt them, I swear. He just needed time to figure things out.” She conveniently left out the part about almost shooting Frankie. “Or…maybe he was going to hurt them. I just don’t know anymore.”
“Then Sebastian showed up, out of nowhere. He attacked Marshall and they got into a fight. While they were fighting, the gun went off and shot Piper. You know the rest.” She sat back in her chair, satisfied that she had told him everything.
“Okay,” Rex said as he stood up. “You stay here while I go have a talk with the others.”
She sat there with the child while she waited for the sheriff to return.
He returned a little while later and let her know that while the girls told a somewhat different version of the story, he believed what she had told him. However, she would still have to answer for burying her son in the backyard, instead of reporting his death, as well as being an accessory to Nathan’s beating and the drifter’s murder. As well as all the additional charges relating to the events of that evening.
He also told her that he had spoken with the boy next door, and Xander told him that he saw Marshall burying something in the rose garden late one night. So, he had confirmation that it was Marshall that had buried the body. And confirmation as to why Marshall was harassing the poor neighbors.
“Regardless of all of that,” he told her, “accidents do happen, and I do believe his death was an accident. Though the coroner will have to confirm that. Because Marshall is the one that technically killed Zachary, he has already been arrested. I could charge you with kidnapping this child, but I think Marshall was overbearing and abusive, and I don’t know if I can blame you for that one. Unfortunately for you, it’s not up to me.”
He gave her a look. She understood.
“Regardless of all of that,” he continued, “we do have to take the boy.” Rex looked over at the cute little boy in the highchair, having no idea what was going to become of him.
“What? No.” Eliza was smart enough to know that they would take him, but she was already starting to love him. She knew he wasn’t her Zachary, but she loved him anyway. “Do you even know who he belongs to?” she asked him.
“I have no idea. That’s for the social workers to figure out. It’s not my problem.” He didn’t mean for it to sound so callous, but that’s how it came out anyway.
“Can’t I take care of him until they find his parents?” Eliza was desperate not to be left all alone, now that Marshall was gone.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
That’s all he said as he nodded toward the open back sliding door and the social worker walked in. She picked up the boy, glared at Eliza, and walked out the door. Eliza didn’t say another word.
Sheriff Rex Roberts then arrested Eliza Porter. He knew life had not been kind to her, and she had made some bad decisions, terrible decisions actually, but he had to do his job. All eyes were on them as he guided her out the front door and down the walkway, toward his waiting car.
Chapter 22
That same evening, the paramedics had insisted that Piper and Frankie both go to the hospital to be checked out. Frankie appeared to have escaped with minor injuries, but they still wanted her to go in for tests. She had head trauma from her fight with Marshall, and that was nothing to take lightly. She agreed readily.
Piper was especially concerning to them. A bullet wound, no matter how superficial looking, was always something that should be looked at by a doctor. It wasn’t too deep, and the bullet did not lodge itself within her, but the paramedics didn’t want to take any chances with the young girl.
Piper began to argue with them. “Seriously, I’m fine. It’s not even bleeding anymore.” She looked down at her bleeding arm and back up at the man and woman standing in front of her, their navy blue uniforms were a bit rumpled. It had been a busy day for them.
“Yes, we understand that,” the female paramedic told her, “but there could still be some nerve damage. You don’t want to have permanent damage, do you?” She reached up and tucked some wayward strands of hair back behind her ear as she spoke.
Piper looked over at her parents. “I don’t want to go to the hospital.” She started to cross her arms, defiantly. “Ow, damn.” She uncrossed her arms. Both paramedics gave her a look.
Obviously the teenager was not going to cooperate, so the woman turned to Piper’s parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael, she really needs to go. Can you drive her there?” She raised her eyebrows as she asked the question.
“Of course,” Roxanne replied. Then to Piper, “Young lady, get in the car. You are going to the emergency room, whether you like it or not.”
Climbing into the backseat of the car, Piper scowled at her mother.
All three girls squeezed into the backseat of Roxanne’s car. They decided that they would come back for Tim’s car later. It was still parked down the street, where Frankie had left it hours ago, before the events of the night had unfolded. The Carmichaels didn’t want Frankie driving. She was in no shape emotionally to handle the task that night.
After three hours at the hospital, Frankie and Piper had been given all the tests in the world, according to them. Piper was stitched up and was told to be careful with her arm for a few days. She would be fine. There would be no lasting damage from her brush with the bullet.
Frankie didn’t have a concussion and was released as well. While they were getting their tests done, Roxanne had called Cecily to come get Tim. Roxanne couldn’t bear to leave the teens alone to deal with it all, and she equally couldn’t bear to watch Tim sitting in the waiting room, in his condition. Cecily happily complied. She adored the Carmichaels and would have done just about anything for them.
Once the sun made its way over the top of the hills on Wildflower Island, the search party found what it was looking for. The body had been rolled down a short hill and came to rest at the bottom of a ravine. The plastic tarp had come unwrapped in the process, and Nathan was lying face up, staring forever into the cloudy sky above him.
The deputy that found Nathan didn’t need to take his pulse. It was clear to her that he had none, and hadn’t in a few days. She notified the sheriff and went about collecting any evidence she could find. The deputy was aware that Eliza Porter had confessed to dumping his body there, but it was standard procedure to continue with the investigation through to the end. Suspects changed their stories all the time.
Several days later, Sheriff Rex had a talk with the coroner. Everyone knew how Nathan had died. It was evident from even a cursory glance at his body. The coroner confirmed that he died from blunt force trauma.
Zachary’s cause of death also came as no surprise to Rex. Eliza’s story proved to be true. He had died from something heavy slamming him into the brick fireplace. The coroner could come to no other conclusion. The charges for Zachary’s death would be manslaughter. While he had no intention of injuring his son at all, he was the one that threw the vase on purpose, and the one that was responsible for the horrible results of that act. Though Eliza had her own set of charges to answer to, the death of her son was not one of them. That was all on Marshall.
“Hello Eliza,” Rex said to her as his deputy deposited her in the chair opposite of his desk. Rex waved the deputy away just as he was about to handcuff her to the chair. “No need for that,” he directed to the deputy. “Eliza and I will be just fine without the handcuffs. Won’t we, Eliza?”
She nodd
ed in agreement, and rubbed her aching wrists once the deputy completely removed the restraints.
Rex hated it whenever he had to go into the holding cells to talk to one of its occupants, which was why he usually just had a deputy fetch the prisoner and bring them to his office. Normally he was perfectly fine with handcuffing them to the chair, especially since there was that one nasty incident from a few years ago that resulted in a trip to the emergency room for Rex. He didn’t want a repeat of the day he had to explain to the hospital staff why he was clobbered with a wooden chair in his own office.
This time was different. He felt confident that Eliza was not the violent type. Regardless, he had the deputy stand outside of his office as a backup. If she did decide to start something, at least he wouldn’t be left to deal with it alone.
Once the deputy exited the office and closed the door behind him, Rex began. “So Eliza, I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you in here.”
“You are dropping all the charges against me?” Liza snorted.
Rex smiled at her attempt at a joke. “It’s good that you can still find humor in all of this, after what’s happened.”
Eliza frowned. “No, not really. I just don’t know if I have anymore tears left to shed…So why am I here?”
“Well, I have news. You and Marshall should both hear this, I guess. But, since he’s already been taken off the island to the men’s prison while he deals with his trial and all that, you get to hear this alone.”
“Okay.”
Rex got up and poured Eliza a glass of water from the pitcher that was sitting on the filing cabinet in his office. She was going to need it.
“Thank you.” Eliza took the glass and sat it down on the desk in front of her without drinking any of it. She was fidgety, crossing and uncrossing her legs while waiting for the sheriff to reveal why he had brought her in for a talk.
“So,” he began, “I had a talk with the coroner this morning. He confirmed your story about how your son died. He also confirmed how Nathan died.”
None of it was news to Eliza. She sat there without responding while waiting for the rest of the story.
“But you knew all of that already. What you don’t know is that I asked him to do a paternity test on Zachary. We had Marshall’s DNA on file from when he was arrested. We do that with everyone now,” he explained.
“Yeah, I know. Your lab tech took my saliva when I came in,” Eliza explained.
Rex nodded.
Eliza didn’t know if she really wanted the answer to Zachary’s true paternity. She was torn between wanting Marshall to be his father and Sebastian to be the one. Though she had loved Marshall once, that was no longer the case. She had finally seen him as he truly was. A violent person. A killer. A monster. Even so, he had believed Zachary to be his, and he should have been. Marshall was her husband and she had taken it upon herself to cheat on him. That was something she never should have done. And something she would have to live with.
Would Sebastian have been a better father? Eliza couldn’t even begin to answer that question. The truth was that she barely knew him. He had been a passing acquaintance at best, before she met up with him that fateful night almost two years prior.
What did it matter at this point anyway? Neither man was going to get the chance to raise that innocent little boy into adulthood. Marshall had seen to that with his violent temper. She also knew that he was not entirely to blame. Eliza had been involved in the fight also. Marshall did not act alone. If she had been a calmer person, one that knew when to keep her big mouth shut, the entire thing may well have been avoided. There was no point in worrying about that now.
“Eliza, are you listening to me?” Rex asked her, waving his hand in front of her face.
“Yes, sorry Sheriff.” She looked him in the eyes, waiting for that all important test result.
“Well, it turns out that Marshall is his father after all. Was his father,” Rex corrected himself.
Eliza’s chin dropped to her chest. She reached up and covered her face in her hands, but the tears would not come. Her mind was not on Marshall at that moment. She only thought about her son. He would never know his mother or father. He would never have another moment for the rest of eternity to experience anything. He was gone, and there was nothing she would ever be able to do to change that.
Rex watched Eliza’s reaction. He couldn’t tell if she was happy or disappointed in the news that her husband was the baby’s father. He also knew that it was of no consequence either way.
Eliza lowered her hands down to her lap. “So, what happens now?” It was her only response directed toward the sheriff after hearing the paternity results. She didn’t even mention her son, which Rex thought was odd.
“The D.A. is trying to figure that one out. I’ve briefed him on all of the events, and he knows that you were involved in the cover ups. But he also believes that you were not directly responsible for any of the deaths. He knows all of that is on Marshall.”
“Is that good news?” Eliza wasn’t sure what Rex was telling her. “Am I going to prison or not?”
“I think it’s good news, yes. For you anyway. Not so much for Marshall. About going to prison? Right now, the answer is no. I can’t speak for the future though. That will depend on what the D.A. decides to do,” he told her honestly.
“Sheriff, I was wondering if I could ask about the boy. Is he all right? Do you know where he is?”
Eliza picked up the glass of water from the desk and drank the entire thing while waiting for Rex to tell her. He sat watching her while she subsequently stood up and walked toward the water pitcher sitting on top of the filing cabinet.
“Okay if I get some more?” she asked, not waiting for a response. Eliza poured herself another glass and sat back down in the chair.
“Eliza, I have no idea where that boy is or who is taking care of him. I assume he’s been placed in a foster home while they try to locate his parents. And before you ask,” he held up his palm facing her, “no, you can’t see him. I’m pretty sure that chapter of your life is closed. Permanently.”
Eliza was not surprised by his response. When she took just a moment to think about it, she realized that he was right. She was never going to see him again. She thought that she could actually feel someone reach into her chest and twist her heart until it broke.
“I think we are done here. For now anyway,” Rex added.
He slowly stood up, his knees creaking in protest. Eliza stood up in response. She turned toward the doorway, and the waiting deputy on the other side.
“Go home. Your bail has been paid.”
Eliza’s eyes lit up. “What? Really? Who paid it?”
“Your father-in-law. Marshall is being held without bail due to the multiple murder charges against him, but you are free to go,” Rex explained.
“That’s odd,” she answered. “Murray Porter is the last person on this earth that I thought would ever come to my rescue…” Eliza’s voice trailed off as she spoke, mostly to herself.
“And one last thing,” Rex added, as he walked around the desk and opened the office door for Eliza. “I will let you give Marshall the good news about the paternity test results.”
Chapter 23
The Carmichaels did what they could to get back to their normal daily routine. Tim was getting weaker, and sicker, and paler by the day. Roxanne, Piper, Mary, and Frankie lived each moment thinking it would be his last.
“Good morning, my love,” Roxanne said to Tim. “I brought you some breakfast.”
Tim had been only half asleep when she walked into his room that cloudy Sunday morning. His nights were long and drawn out, punctuated with lots of tossing about. Everything seemed to hurt and he woke most mornings feeling like he didn’t get a wink the night before.
Tim slowly opened his eyes in response to his wife’s voice. “Hello gorgeous,” he replied to her.
Roxanne laid the tray of food on the desk in his room while she walked over and opened
the curtains. Her husband could do with a bit of sunlight. He was so pale. She promptly opened the window to allow some fresh air in as well. Regardless of the reason someone was sick, a closed up bedroom with an ill occupant, was always stuffy and odd smelling. She did her best to freshen it up a bit.
Tim grunted a bit as he slowly worked his way into a sitting position. He didn’t have much of an appetite, but that was pretty normal for him lately. He wanted to try eating something anyway. He wanted to attempt to keep his strength up, and he wanted to do it for Roxanne. She put the food tray stand over his lap when Tim was ready.
“I have a few things to do downstairs while you eat,” Roxanne announced. “You don’t mind, do you?”
Tim picked up a piece of toast and looked at it. “No, not at all. But I would like to talk to you first. Can you spare a few minutes?” He laid the toast back down on the tray without taking a bite, and pushed it to the side.
“For you? Anything.” Roxanne sat down on the bed, next to her husband.
Tim took her hand and smiled. Roxanne wanted to return his smile, but very little currently made her happy. It took all she had just to put on the brave face she wore every day.
“Sweetheart,” Tim began. “I wanted to start by saying that I’m so very sorry that you have all of this to deal with.” He pointed to himself as he spoke.
“No, it’s perfectly fine. I…”
Tim held up his hand to stop her. “No, it’s not. You didn’t sign up for any of this. I just want you to know how much I appreciate it all. I appreciate you, and our beautiful daughters, and all that you have done for me. And I’m sorry that I’m going to miss out on all the wonderful things I’m sure will be part of your futures.”
Roxanne sat quietly while he spoke. She knew he needed to get it all out.
“I don’t know if I’ve told you this enough over the years,” he began, “but you are the love of my life. You have always been…the love of my life.” His voice broke as he spoke.
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