“Your son wants me to get your permission to run a new DNA test on the sample left at the crime scene. The technology is better these days. The sample may be large enough to exonerate you.”
“You think I’m innocent suddenly?”
“I think this test would give us the answer once and for all.”
“No.”
“Am I to assume you don’t want the test for obvious reasons?”
“Assume what you want. You were always good at that.”
Winona leaned forward.
“I read the transcripts, Dallas. Myrtle Michaelian saw you coming out of the alley. You stepped into the light from a streetlamp and she saw your profile and your tattoo.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But the tattoo she saw had to be on the man’s right arm. He was walking away from her.”
“Yeah. So?”
“You aren’t even surprised. Why not?”
He stared at her, saying nothing.
The answer to her question washed over her like an icy breeze. “You aren’t surprised because you weren’t there that night. You always knew Myrtle saw someone else.”
“Go home, Winona. You’re closing the barn door years too late.”
“Are you telling me you didn’t do it?” Winona felt sick at the thought.
“Go away, Winona.”
For the first time she saw it in his gray eyes, the pain she was causing him. “Why did you stop seeing Vivi Ann?”
He pushed back in his chair and glanced over at the door. “Did you ever see her when she brought home one of those abused horses?”
“Of course.”
“That was how she started to look when she came to see me. I knew she wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t eating. Believing in me was killing her, and I knew she’d never let go.”
“So you made the choice for her.” Winona sat back in her seat, stunned. It was like suddenly seeing one of those images hidden in a kaleidoscope of shapes. Once you saw it, you wonder how you could have missed it. He’d divorced Vivi Ann because he loved her.
“I didn’t say that. You did. What I said was, ‘Go away.’ None of this matters now. Vivi Ann’s gone on with her life and Noah will, too. It’s best if we just leave them alone.”
“You think Vivi’s gone on?” she said, staring at him.
In his gaze she saw a yearning that was like nothing she’d ever seen in her life. “Hasn’t she?”
“She hasn’t rescued a horse since the day she got the divorce papers. I guess all that took a kind of optimism she doesn’t have anymore. In fact, she’s like one of those horses now; when you look her in the eye, all you see is emptiness.”
Dallas closed his eyes slowly. “No DNA test will save me, Win. Say the test comes back negative. They’ll just claim I didn’t have sex with Cat before I killed her.”
“But there’s a chance. It’s not a slam dunk, you’re right—other facts convicted you—but I’m sure it will get you a retrial.”
He looked at her, and it was terrible, the despair she saw in his gray eyes. “And my son wants this.”
“He needs you, Dallas. You can imagine what they say about him. Butchie and Erik’s kids taunt him all the time. And he has your temper.”