Shielded In The Shadows

“Kind of hard to believe his mother would tell you all of this and then not testify,” he noted.

“She didn’t tell me. She told the investigator I sent to question her. And she, the investigator, just asked if Bill liked ice cream, as though making conversation. She was trying to lead the woman into giving up something that we could use. I’m sure his mother was merely explaining her son’s behavior, not meaning to implicate him. She really wanted to believe that her son was a happy, good husband.”

Jayden planned to ask Bill about his relationship with his mother. He wouldn’t ask direct questions. He didn’t want his client to know that the law was looking at him. Or why. Either could tip the fragile balance between staying straight or reoffending.

If a man thought there was no hope...that he’d always be judged on what had been...

“I’m not sure it was necessary to bring up his former relationships when there was no accusation of abuse there, only of jealousy,” he told her. “But you make it sound like he’s unstable when there was no indication of that.”

Before meeting Suzie, Jayden knew Bill had been with a woman for five years, who’d then walked out on him. He’d had a few other relationships, all of which he’d ended with little or no explanation. And then he’d met Suzie. She was just twenty-four to his thirty-eight, and he’d apparently fallen deeply in love for the first time in his life.

“My job is to anticipate every question that might be in a juror’s mind, and any defense that could be presented, and find answers to all of it.”

“Answers that satisfy the jury, yes, but what about the truth?” If he’d been a little less irritable, he might have managed to keep the question to himself.

Her gaze narrowed as she leaned toward him, as though issuing a challenge that went beyond their current conversation. His body took up the challenge even as his mind prepared for a fight.

There was nothing overt. With Emma Martin there never was. Nothing he could hold up as evidence of the connection between them. How did you describe an intimate look in her eye? Or prove that it was there? Or take an account of heat emanating in the space between them?

“The only answers I seek are truthful ones,” she told him quite succinctly. Enough so that had he been sitting on one of her juries, she’d have convinced him. “I have no desire to put away someone for a crime they didn’t commit,” she continued, a shadow coming over her face. “Taking away people’s lives, even if they are guilty...it’s not easy.”

His hand fell to the table as he felt himself being converted. And fighting to maintain complete control of his own mind.

“I have Bill on an app through his phone that allows me to see where he is at all times,” he told her, hoping he wasn’t hurting his client by doing so. But getting her to see that Bill wasn’t the man she was looking for was the only way Suzie was going to win.

And the way they’d all win.

“You don’t trust him,” she said.

“I give all of my clients the o

pportunity to be monitored so they have an alibi if they’re wrongfully accused. They tend to get looked at first because they’re ex-convicts. Bill chose to take me up on the invitation.” He paused, distracted by her dark blue gaze, angry enough to want to issue a few strong words in her direction, yet wanting to know the taste of her lips at the same time.

Must be the gunshot getting to him. He’d fallen to the ground, didn’t remember hitting his head, but if he’d been stunned, he wouldn’t know, right? They hadn’t checked him for blunt force trauma to the brain since he’d never lost consciousness and had no cause for, or sign or symptoms of, concussion.

And he was the only protection, the only potential champion, Bill Heber had.

“My point was,” he explained, returning to the conversation, “that if I have suspected times, a window even, of when Suzie was hurt, I can see what area of town Bill was in at the time.”

“Oh.” She relaxed. Smiled. Not really at him, but it hit his gut anyway. “That would be great,” she said. “Thank you.”

He nodded. She thought the app was going to deliver Bill up to her. He hoped it would get her people out there looking for the right man. Before Suzie was hurt again.

“So... I’ll get you a listing of potential abuse dates from Suzie’s doctor and anything her counselor at The Lemonade Stand has, and then you’ll let me know what the app shows ASAP?” she asked, stacking her files into a neat pile to take out with her.

“ASAP,” Jayden said, collecting his own paperwork together.

“And in the meantime, now that I have Heber’s address, I’ll have someone check for any ice cream shops in the area, since he seemed to prefer them. But I’ll have someone check any other establishments that serve ice cream, as well. It’s a long shot, unless it turns up something.”

Seriously?

The man had done nothing but get out of jail and work hard. He didn’t deserve a witch hunt against him.

And...what if Emma Martin was right? What if Bill wasn’t who Jayden thought he was?

“Why don’t you let me do that?” Jayden said. If Bill was in trouble, he wanted to know immediately. If that was the case, it was Jayden’s job to get the man off the street.

Heber wasn’t the first guy Jayden had believed. He wasn’t even the fifth. And every single one of those who’d earned his faith were was still on the outside, living productive lives. He knew. He still kept watch.