Not by Sight (29 page)

Kate shuddered. That monster had threatened to feed Abby, Jay, and Riley Jo to his pigs. Did she want to know the truth?

“I think we oughta leave that to the sheriff for now,” Grandpa Buck said, almost as if he could read Kate’s mind. “Micah’s spirit’s with the Lord. We should dwell on that. That’s what he’d want us to do.”

Kate nodded. “He would.” Not that she was confident that his spirit lived on. Or that heaven existed.

Abby looked over at Kate. “Mama, God
did
answer my prayers—and Grandpa’s and Jesse’s. He brought Riley Jo back to us.”

“But not your father.”

“And we’ll never know why,” Abby said. “But I felt God’s hand on me the entire time we were being held captive. I wasn’t sure if I was going to live or die. But I felt His presence. It helped a lot. Maybe because I knew if I died, I’d be with Jesus.”

“Isaiah had free will,” Grandpa Buck said, “same as us. He’ll be held accountable for what he’s done.”

“That doesn’t help us now, though, does it?” Kate hated that she sounded combative.

Jesse got up, walked over to Kate, and cupped her cheeks in his hands. “Mama, God didn’t kill Daddy. Isaiah Tutt did it. And he’s not getting out of jail—ever. Riley Jo’s safe. Now you can be happy again.”

Kate was moved by Jesse’s sweet innocence and how much her sorrow must have weighed on him. “You’re right, sweetie. There’s a lot to be grateful for. We should concentrate on that.”

Kate smiled at her youngest son even as her insides churned. She was not about to give God credit for bringing Riley Jo home. Not when Abby came close to losing her life. As did Jay. And Hawk could just as easily have missed when he fired his rifle and become a victim too. It was the sacrifice of her older children that won the release of her youngest. As far as she could tell, God was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 31

Kate lay on her side, staring at the empty side of her bed. She had grieved Micah’s absence until she didn’t have a tear left. It hadn’t occurred to her that if the truth behind his disappearance was ever known, the gut-wrenching grief she had finally learned to manage would come back with a vengeance. How much more pain could she take before she simply shut down?

She blinked away the images that popped into her head of Micah fighting Isaiah to keep him from abducting Riley Jo. Did Micah agonize over his baby girl’s fate as he lay dying of a stab wound? Did he think of Kate? Did he regret that last argument as much as she did? Or did he just lose consciousness and slip away? Haunting questions with no answers.

She hugged her pillow, her mind wandering back to one of her most cherished memories …

Kate stood in the bleachers at the Foggy Ridge High School football stadium, snuggled up next to Micah. The September afternoon was crisp and sunny as the Foggy Ridge Bobcats went back into the locker room at halftime, leading by fourteen points, and the marching band filed onto the field. The stands were packed with students and alumni, all anticipating a big win followed by the homecoming dance that evening.

“Not much has changed in five years,” Micah said. “It almost feels as if we never left.”

“Other than these students seem really young.” Kate laughed. “Or is it just that we’re older?”

“A little of both, I guess. We sure have some great memories of this place.”

“There’s never been a homecoming game like
our
last one, when you carried the winning touchdown in that stunning defeat against Fayetteville.” Kate craned and spotted the floats pulling on to the track. “I’ll never forget the sight of you being swarmed by fans and carried off the field with everyone cheering wildly. You were everyone’s hero. But it wasn’t until the homecoming dance when the band sang ‘Endless Love’ that I realized I was falling in love with you.”

“I knew in the third grade.” Micah flashed a boyish grin. “When Jason Longmont dipped your braid in blue acrylic paint—and you chased him into the boy’s bathroom, wrestled him to the ground, and painted his face with it. I thought you were the coolest.”

Kate nudged him with her elbow. “I got in big trouble over it. Dad never expected to be lecturing his daughter about not getting physical to resolve conflicts. I think he was more amused than mad. But he made his point in no uncertain terms.”

“You were a little spitfire,” Micah said. “Still are. It’s one of the things I love about you. No matter what life throws at you, you hang tough.”

“Tough, eh? That’s not exactly the trait I’d like to exude.”

“You’re also beautiful, intelligent, feminine, compassionate, caring, fun—
and
sexy.”

“How can I be all that and tough at the same time?”

“You are.” Micah turned his gaze to the field and seemed distracted for a moment, then took her by the hand. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

“I don’t want to miss halftime. Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

Micah led her down the steps and out onto the field.

“What are we doing?” Kate said, realizing that a male voice was booming over the loudspeaker.

“We have two very special alumni with us tonight. Our homecoming king and queen of 1983, Micah Cummings and Kate Winters.”

Kate felt her cheeks sizzling as they stopped on the fifty-yard line. “Why are they singling us out? I see lots of alumni here.”

The male voice continued to echo across the stadium as a man quickly attached a lapel mike to Micah and ran off the field.

“Micah has something he would like to say and asked Principal Adams if he could have a couple minutes of the program to say it publicly.”

“You knew about this?” Kate whispered.

In the next instant, Micah knelt down on one knee and took her hand. “Kate, I picked today—on the grounds of our alma mater and before all these students, past and present—to ask the most important question of my life. We’ve shared some wonderful times. You are my best friend and confidante. The love of my life. The other half of my heart.” He pressed his lips to her hand. “I can’t imagine living my life without you. Katherine Abigail Winters, will you marry me?”

Kate was suddenly so light-headed she thought she might faint. She had hoped he would propose but never dreamed he would do it with such flair.

“Yes!” she managed to say, aware that the stadium had exploded with clapping and whistles and feet pounding the bleachers.

Micah reached in his pocket and took out a tiny black case and opened it, revealing a delicate diamond solitaire. Kate felt him slip the ring on her finger but was so taken with the moment that she paid little attention to the ring and focused on the radiance of Micah’s countenance.

Music began to play over the sound system: “Endless Love” by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, which had been
their
special song since the homecoming dance where they reigned as royalty.

Micah took off the mike and rose to his feet, wearing a smile that would melt the polar ice cap.

Kate threw her arms around him, and he spun her around. “I love you,” she whispered.

Micah set her down and looked at her as if she were the only person in the universe. “Don’t ever doubt my endless love for you.”

The stadium erupted again in whistles and applause and feet stomping the bleachers as the two hid themselves in a lengthy, tender, meaningful kiss …

A river of tears soaked Kate’s pillow, an outpouring of grief she thought she had emptied years ago. Not that she ever expected to see Micah again. But the finality of his death—and her empathy for how he must have felt in those last horrifying moments—broke her heart all over again.

At least her girls were safe. That was the blessing. And Riley Jo would be home soon.

Kate was at the same time excited and terrified at the thought of being reunited with her younger daughter. Riley Jo’s personality would be more evident now—and almost entirely without the influence of her biological parents.

Abby said her sister’s grammar was terrible, but that was fixable. It was Riley Jo’s heart that Kate worried about. Regardless of how much abuse had occurred prior to Isaiah’s pushing her down in the hole, Riley Jo would need counseling to come to grips with being thrown away like a piece of garbage by the only father she could remember.

Kate couldn’t shake the nagging fear that the child’s DNA might not be a match. What if all this angst was for naught? No one had really proven that Ella was Riley Jo. What if another man, and not Micah, had fallen victim to Isaiah’s heartless scheme? And some other little girl had been abducted?

Until the lab test came back proving Ella was indeed Riley Jo, Kate’s life would remain on hold.

Kate heard a knock at her door. “Come in.”

The door opened, and Jesse came in and crawled into bed next to her.

Jesse draped his arm over her and was quiet for a long time. Finally he said softly, “I’m sorry Daddy’s dead.”

“Me, too, sweetie. But your sisters are both alive. That’s a wonderful thing.”

“Maybe our family can be happy now,” Jesse said.

Kate swallowed hard, all too aware that, for half of Jesse’s life, their family had forgotten how to be happy. He had little recollection of the laughter and the playful times they’d had before his daddy and sister went missing. Most of the years he could remember had been spent with a mother and older siblings who were depressed.

“I hope so,” Kate said.

“I wish I could make you happy, Mama.”

Kate turned over and faced him, stroking his cheek. “Oh, sweetie, you do. I can be happy about some things and sad about other things.”

“You never smile.”

“I’m so sorry.” Kate’s eyes stung with tears. “I know it’s been hard for you seeing me hurting all the time. And it might take time for me to get over the news about your daddy. But I promise things are going to get better now. We’re going to be a happy family.”
If I can just survive the grief.

Virgil sat with Kevin across the table from a very arrogant Isaiah Tutt.

The questioning had become tedious, and Virgil was trying not to lose patience, lest Isaiah change his mind and lawyer up before they got him to confess to Micah Cummings’s murder.

“Tell us again,” Kevin said, “what happened the day Micah Cummings was killed.”

Isaiah’s eyebrows came together. “I done said it till I’m blue in the face.”

“I’d like to hear it one more time.”

“I was in the woods, tracking some feral hogs that was eatin’ up my crops. I heard shootin’. I seen a man on the ground and a little girl standin’ next to him, cryin’. I hurried over to ’em. The man was bleedin’ out. There was nothin’ I could do for him. I looked out yonder and seen a kid with a rifle runnin’ toward us. He stopped at a plastic carton set on a stump at the edge o’ the meadow. I hollered at him. He said his name was Jimmy Dale Oldham and he lived over yonder. Said folks called him J.D.”

“Tell us again how you responded.”

“I drug the dead man’s body out in the open and told the kid straight out he killed the man. He got all flustered and such and claimed it was an accident. I told him it didn’t matter, that the law would make him pay, and he’d go to jail for it.”

“Did you really believe a twelve-year-old kid would go to jail for an accidental shooting?”

“Killin’s killin’, that’s all I knowed.” Isaiah smirked.

“You really expect us to believe that you, a grown man and lifelong citizen of the United States of America, didn’t know that the law doesn’t hold a child accountable the same as an adult, especially for an accidental shooting?”

“I weren’t thinkin’ that way at the time.”

“How’d the boy react?”

“He was plenty shook up and said over and over it was an accident. I can’t say one way or th’ other. All I seen was a dead man and a kid holdin’ a rifle. The boy pleaded with me to believe him. Begged me not to call the sheriff and not to tell nobody. I finally had mercy on him and told him to git, that I’d tend to the body. I knew I was takin’ a risk he might tell someone and blame it on me. But I felt sorry for him.”

Kevin looked Isaiah squarely in the eyes. “We’ve got three witnesses, one of them Ella, who say you admitted to stabbing Micah Cummings in the heart and abducting his daughter.”

“Them kids got their fool heads together and made up a tall tale. I never said no such thing. Jimmy Dale, J.D., Jay—whatever name he goes by now—killed the man, pure and simple. He knows it too. If he said different, he’s a liar.”

Kevin stared at his hands for a long time. “Let’s talk about why you tried to kill Jay.”

“How many times do I hafta tell you? He come on my property and took Ella. He and that redhead. I was chasin’ ’em down and had Jay cornered when someone shot my rifle outta my hand. Next thing I know I’m bein’ accused o’ all kinda things. I was just tryin’ to git Ella back. I admit to takin’ her home with me that day her daddy was shot dead. But I done it to be kind.”

“Why didn’t you just call the authorities and let us find her family?”

“I figured if I took good care o’ her, I was doin’ the right thing.”

“You thought wrong. You have to live by the laws of the state. Being ignorant of the law is no excuse for breaking it.”