Shielded In The Shadows

“He was in our neighborhood—the old one before the divorce. I moved after Bill went to prison, after he broke in.”

“So why did Bill think that you’d...that this kid and you had...”

Suzie shook her head, tears falling in earnest now. “I talked to him,” she said. “I should never have talked to him. I saw him outside and I said hello. He asked if he could mow our grass, and I said sure. Bill was working so hard at the shop and we were busy at work and I didn’t have time. He needed the money. And it gave him something constructive to do.” The woman talked about a couple of times the boy had talked to her. How he’d come to her a time or two when he was having a rough time.

“You liked him.” Sara handed over a tissue box and Suzie took two.

“Of course I liked him!” she said, wiping her eyes and nose. “He was a sweet kid. Bill and I were trying to have a family and he’d just lost his mother. I liked that I could help him, even a little bit. It made me feel good about myself. But not in a guy-girl kind of way! I was seven years older than him! What Bill said...not only would it have made me a criminal, but it would have changed his life forever, too. Ruined it probably because his stepfather would have kicked him out.”

“Did you ever tell the kid what Bill thought?”

“Of course not. And I didn’t tell anyone else, either. I knew Bill wouldn’t. It just made him look bad, thinking something sick like that. And anyway, by the time we were going to trial, we already had the DNA and Bill knew the truth.”

“Can I know the boy’s name?”

Suzie stared at her then, almost pleadingly. “I’d rather not say.” Her words were strong. Clear. “He’s got a life now, I’m sure. Maybe in college. I’m not going to be responsible for messing up his life. He was an innocent kid.”

But if he could corroborate Bill’s abuse...it could be the missing piece Emma needed. To convince Jayden. And the court. If they could get a warrant for Bill’s phone records...anything.

“Did he ever see Bill hurt you?”

“No. Bill always made sure that was just between me and him.”

“And what about the bruises? Did he ever ask about them?”

Suzie shook her head. “Bill didn’t hit me in the face often. And the one time he did, I stayed inside until the bruise faded, and then covered it with a little bit of makeup, like when I went to work.”

She remembered that. Bill hadn’t hit Suzie in the face until toward the end, when his abuse had escalated.

As it had been doing for the past three months. Since Bill had been released from prison. She had enough evidence to know that Bill Heber was hurting his wife. But so much of it was circumstantial...she needed something solid to get the man back behind bars. For good.

The one thing she wasn’t going to do was berate this poor woman. Scooting over, she took Suzie’s hand. Not a usual move for her—instigating any physical contact other than a handshake with any of her victims—but she did it. “I know you didn’t fall, Suzie.”

“Yes, I did.” The woman didn’t pull her hand away.

Emma found that significant. Wondered if Sara did, too.

“Please, Ms. Martin, just leave it alone.”

Leave it alone. The expression stunned her. Scared her, too. But words came to her.

“I’ll leave you alone if you promise me one thing.”

“What?”

“Promise me that you’ll stay in touch with Sara. Whether group counseling, or just joining a craft group or something here at the Stand. You come here, at least twice a week, and you won’t hear from me again.”

Suzie held her gaze for a long moment, her lashes still wet from her recently shed tears. “I come here and you won’t try to see me again? Or get someone else to ask me questions?”

Suzie had told her everything she was going to. Or felt she could. Emma nodded.

“Okay.” The other woman smiled. When her face relaxed, Emma could see a hint of the beauty she must have been before worry and fear, grief and abuse, had misshaped her nose, and driven so many lines around her mouth and eyes.

“Okay.” With a quick goodbye to Sara, Emma left Suzie alone with the woman who could help her to heal.

She’d leave Suzie alone. No way she was walking away from the rest of it. She had a job to do.

Chapter 18