Sidetracked-Kobo (22 page)

Laura was not prepared for the shock of that meeting.

Her father’s estate, McConally told her, was worth over five million in cash and stocks alone. Plus the house, which was worth another two and a half million. It was owned free and clear, since her parents had paid cash for it.

Seven and a half million dollars.
Laura couldn’t even imagine that kind of money.

After hearing that, she couldn’t process anything else McConally said.

“Understand,” Aunt Nicky explained on their way home, “that seven and a half million is
after
the divorce settlement. Tina got over a million. She wanted much more—over half the estate, can you believe it? She’d only been married to your dad about eight years. And she hadn’t helped earn any of that money. In fact she did all she could while they were married to spend it. Early in those years she’d even sold what jewelry your mom had and used the money to buy her own pieces.”

“My
mother’s jewelry
?” That was too much. Laura’s mom had never been big on jewelry, but what she’d had, Laura had wanted as reminders of her. Those pieces were more than just gems, they were history.
Her
history. And they’d gone to
Tina
? “How did Dad allow that?”

Aunt Nicky shook her head. “You’d just been sent to CYA, Laura. Your dad thought you were guilty. In his mind you didn’t deserve anything from your mom. Please know he lived to regret that.”

He’d better have. What he did was unthinkable. Some other woman getting her mother’s jewelry? Made Laura want to spit. “
Why
didn’t he tell me?”

“Probably very hard for him to admit. I’m sure he was going to.”

Like when? Once Laura got home and found the jewelry gone? She folded her arms and looked out her window. What else had her dad not told her?

They drove in silence.

“So was this jewelry-stealer mad to only get a million dollars in the divorce?” Laura asked after a moment.
Only.

“Furious. One thing’s for sure, seeing the way she’s acted. She married your dad for his money.”

The words chased Laura’s anger away. Had her father been that used from the beginning? She thought of him driving his expensive sports car. How that could have turned a gold-digger’s head.

“I don’t think she ever loved your father.” Aunt Nicky’s voice edged. “But she sure loved his money and his house. Thank heaven the divorce was final before his accident. At least Tina Fulder’s out of the picture for good.”

At least. Laura hoped she never had to meet the woman face to face.

In the next few days the enormity of the inheritance began to sink in. Seven and a half million dollars. All Laura’s. She could start a new life anywhere she wanted. Who cared if she couldn’t find work—she wouldn’t
have
to. If she was careful with the money, invested it properly, she’d be set for life. All she had to do was wait for the courts to handle the probate process. Unfortunately that could take a year or longer. More waiting.

In the meantime, what to do with herself?

Laura had lost so much. Her mother and father. Her freedom. Now a new world lay ahead of her. If she could just push through her grief. If she could just hang on a little longer until the money was hers.

Two days later, when her aunt and uncle were both at work, the doorbell rang. And Laura’s new nightmare began.

April 2013

It was some time before I could recover from Dora Crenshaw’s call. Finally I ventured from my bedroom out to the kitchen as Colleen and Nicole were eating breakfast. My phone remained in the bedroom. Colleen took one look at my face and stilled. “What’s wrong on this morning after you just got engaged?”

At that moment I wished Andy hadn’t asked me to marry him. Our engagement should have come at a time when I could fully rejoice. Now any thought of my future happiness brought a new wave of guilt. Clara was dead. And I’d hurt her grieving parents.

I waved a hand at Colleen. “Phone calls. Not everyone likes what I said on the news last night.”

“Like who?”

I could only shake my head.

From my bedroom my cell rang. I poured myself some coffee and slumped down at the table.

Colleen soon left for work, and Nicole went off to her college classes. Pete emerged for his breakfast routine.

In the bedroom, my phone had rung with five more calls.

Pete studied my face, then clumped over to the refrigerator and pulled out two eggs and a package of bacon. “You gettin’ some pushback ’bout your interview last night?”

I focused on my coffee mug. “The worst. From Dora.”

Pete grunted. “You had to know some of that would be comin’.”

“But from Clara’s own parents! I can’t hurt them, Pete. I can’t
do
this.”

“Tell the truth, you mean?”

My cell phone rang again. I lowered my chin.

“You got somethin’ else to tell me?”

Colleen must have whispered the news to him. “I’m engaged.” My words dulled the air.

Pete cracked an egg into his cast iron pan. “Don’t sound too happy ’bout it.”

“Life is complicated, Pete.”

“You’re tellin’ me.” The second egg went into the pan. Followed by three pieces of bacon. They started to sizzle.

Movement out the front window caught my eye. A car I didn’t recognize pulled up to the curb. A man got out.

Pete studied the figure as he came up the walk. “Who’s that?”

“No clue.”

The doorbell rang. I pulled to my feet to answer.

It was a reporter. Wayne Hollander from the Cincinnati newspaper.
Cincinnati
.
In Ohio
. Would I answer a “few questions” about the case?

My muscles chilled. “I can’t talk any more about that.”

“If you could just tell me—”

“I’m sorry. No.”

I shut the door. My heart banged around in my ribs.

Pete saw my stricken face and gestured with the spatula in his hand. “You don’t have to talk to them anymore, Del.”

Didn’t I? Yesterday I’d vowed to help Billy all I could. How could I turn away this opportunity?

Because of Clara’s family, that’s why. I’d done what I could for Billy, now I needed to keep silent.

But in the core of me, I knew that was only half of it. I was afraid for
myself
. My face being seen by more people, by someone who might recognize me. Now I was actually engaged. All those years in CYA, longing for a family. I was on the verge of having it. And I couldn’t lose that. I
couldn’t
.

I was going to sacrifice Billy for
myself
.

On weak legs I stumbled to the couch and sank upon it. I lowered my head and heaved into sobs. Pete soon sat down beside me, putting an arm around my shoulders.

“I don’t want to be on TV anymore, Pete.” My voice cracked and ran all over the place.

“You don’t have to be.”

“But Billy …”

“You said your piece. You’ve done what you can.”

If Pete only knew what I feared. The truth churned inside me, fighting to come out.
Just be free of it, Delanie, tell him and be done with this
.

But once I told the truth I could never take it back. And my life as I knew it would be over. Then what would happen to Billy? With my integrity in the mud, no one would believe me on the witness stand. For once I had to see justice done. The false suspect cleared. The real killer brought to justice. Clara deserved that. So had my mother …

I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand. Sat bent over, staring at my knees.

“Don’t you worry ’bout Dora Crenshaw, now.” Pete curled his gnarled fingers around the back of my neck.

“It’s not just her. Lots of other people in town must feel the same way.”

Pete grunted. “Partly out of convenience, I suppose. People have been scared to death that a killer’s runnin’ the streets. Now to think he’s in jail—that takes a big load off everyone’s mind.”

My cell phone went off again.

Throughout that morning it continued to ring. A few calls I answered. Most I didn’t, but those people left messages. Some encouraged me. Others said Melcher was right, and who was I to mess up an investigation?

A second reporter came to my door, this one from another Lexington TV station, with cameraman in tow. Pete spotted the two outside and said he’d take care of it. I hid in my room like the coward I was and listened to him turn them away.

Next came a call from Colleen at Grangers. “I’ve seen four reporters in here today, and I’ll bet you more are on the way.”

Four?

“They all want to know about the case, Delanie. And they all want to talk to you.”

I sat at the kitchen table, trying to eat a late breakfast. “Did you tell them you’re my roommate?”

“Sure. I imagined you’d want to talk to them just like you did yesterday.”

My stomach felt sick. I pushed the food away. “Colleen. Please don’t do that again. Tell them nothing. I’m through talking to the media.”

Apparently the reporters were keeping Colleen busy enough that she wasn’t spreading the news about my engagement. Not one person had mentioned it.

In the next hour two more reporters showed up at the house. I began to panic. I wanted to escape—anywhere. But what if they spotted me and followed? And where could I go? As much as I wanted to run to Andy, I couldn’t bother him during his work hours.

Next, Jack Grayson called. Reporters were outside his house, he said, taking pictures of his yard and The Bush. “They won’t leave us alone. I talked to the first two, but after that it gets old, you know?”

“I’m so sorry, Jack. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Not your fault. Just wanted you to know what’s going on over here.”

I clicked off the line and stared out the window, trembling. Clara’s death was horror enough. Then Billy’s arrest. Now this. Surely, the media were at the Crenshaw’s house as well. Would Dora go on camera declaring I was wrong? Would Redbud neighbors and friends start arguing publicly, this quiet little town turning into a cat fight as the world gawked?

“I’m goin’ downtown.” Pete shuffled toward the garage. “Gonna see what’s happenin’ down there.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “Text me.”

He stopped at the door. “You be okay? Just don’t answer if someone comes knockin’.”

I nodded.

After Pete left I could do little but pace the house. I tried to pray, but God seemed to have moved even further out of reach now that I was engaged. The diamond ring on my finger burned. I’d pledged to give myself in honesty to a man who didn’t even know my real name. Who had no idea I could go to jail if law enforcement discovered what I had done just before arriving in Redbud.
After
already serving time for supposedly killing my mother. Andy didn’t deserve that kind of shock. He would be crushed.

A chime
sounded from my phone. It was a text from Pete.
Three news vans on Brewer. More reporters at the police station.

I stared at the words, knowing this wouldn’t stop. The media had been at my own trial. What if Billy went to trial—and cameras were allowed in the courtroom? I’d have to testify on
TV
.

A shaking began in the pit of my belly. In my mind I heard Pete’s words from his grimmer railroad stories. During his engineering career he’d hit seven people on the tracks, and the memories still haunted him.
“Takes a long time to stop a train when it’s barrelin’ along. If someone steps in front of it, there’s no savin’ ’em, no matter how hard you brake.

I thrust a hand in my hair and begged God to save me. He wasn’t listening.

I texted Pete back.
Are you talking to them?

Nope. Observing.

Five minutes later he texted me again. It was just as I’d expected.
Drove past the Crenshaws
and saw the WTVQ news van. Dora and Dave were on their porch, talking to Barlow Watkins.

No doubt they were setting the record “straight.”

Around 11:30 Andy called. I answered with trepidation. “I hear there’s a lot going on in Redbud,” he said.

I sat on the couch, wrung out. Pete still had not come home. “Reporters are everywhere. They’re trying to get to me. I keep turning them away.”

“I think that’s the right decision, Del.”

“Dora Crenshaw called me. She’s furious about what I said on TV.”

Andy sighed. “I was afraid that would happen. You doing all right?”

“Sure.” I fiddled with my ring.

He hesitated, as if not believing me. “I told my parents about our engagement. Didn’t want it to get to them through someone else.”

“I’ll bet your mother is thrilled.”

“Delanie, come on.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’ve got to quit this negativity against my parents. Puts me in a very bad position.”

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just … a hard day. Even though you made me happy last night.”

“Yeah. Know what you mean.”

We fell silent.

“All right, I need to go, Del. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I ended the call, dwelling on more negative thoughts of Andy’s mother. Phyllis would be so perfectly groomed at my wedding. She would do her best to smile. For the rest of my life cold Phyllis Bradshaw would be all I had for a mother. My own wouldn’t be there to see me marry the man of my dreams. Nor would I have a father to walk me down the aisle.

Pete. He would do it.

At noon, with butterflies in my belly, I turned on WTVQ news. Their lead segment featured Watkins, standing once again at the crime scene on Brewer. Then it flashed to his interview with Dora and Dave, both with tears in their eyes. “Two days ago we were looking forward to our daughter’s wedding in June,” Dora said. “Now we’re barely holding on, getting through each hour. Each minute. We don’t even know yet when we can have our daughter’s body for a funeral.” Her voice cracked. She turned away from the camera.

Dave wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulder. “We do want to say thank you to the Redbud police for arresting the perpetrator of this horrible crime so quickly.”