“You know who I am, don’t you?”
She wiped her hand across her forehead. “I’m so glad you said it. I mean, I’m game for playing a bit more if that is what you want, but I think you’re here for a reason and games and lies will only get in the way.”
“Eat,” he said. “Or sit and eat. Do whatever you want. But yes. Rene was my sister. I was the worthless piece of shit who didn’t watch out for his sister. Guess I didn’t do as good a job as your brothers have.”
The smile flew from her face as if it’d been smacked off. That wasn’t what he wanted.
It was more about speaking the truth.
He’d spent too many years of his life hiding what was going through his mind, how he was feeling, dancing around a subject that his father failed to acknowledge and his mother refused to drop.
“Don’t do that,” she said. “It’s not good for you or anyone else.”
“Yeah, well, you weren’t looked at as having killed your sibling.”
Her hand reached over to grasp his. He’d noticed the flicker in her body of wanting to do it in the courtroom, but she’d held back.
It was so soft, smooth and comfortable. Her firm grip wasn’t tight but not loose enough to fall away.
She wanted him to know she had him in that moment and he realized no one had made him feel that since Rene died.
Not once.
Not even his mother who encouraged him to take this trip and find something. Anything.
“The law can suck,” she said. “I know that firsthand. My brother, he’s the sheriff. But you know that. Rules and laws have to be part of society to bring order to chaos, and sometimes they do. But often those rules and laws weigh people down more than they lift them up, whether it’s for a single day or a lifetime. As a former cop yourself, you’d understand that.”
“I do. Going through it, it felt never ending. It still feels that way. I understand the feeling of being cleared, so I’m happy for your client.”
“Not as happy as he was.” Her hand dropped away and she picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite. He did the same, the silence not bothering him, and he was positive it didn’t her either.
“I’m not sure how much you can help me,” he said. “But I’d like to know anything you remember from that time. Even about the guy who was falsely accused.”
“Cooper. You heard Barb in the courthouse. He was a friend of the family. I didn’t go to school with his daughter. They lived in Lake George, and I grew up in Warrensburg, but not that far from here. A small area and most knew everyone else’s business.”
Probably more so with her family’s apple orchard.
He knew what it was like to live under a microscope. To have microphones shoved in his face day after day, voices prying with the same relentless questions.How are you feeling? Any news? Do they know who did it?Strangers. Friends. It didn’t matter. Their curiosity always sounded the same. And every time, it scraped the wound raw.
All he wanted to do was shout, “What the fuck?! Leave me alone.”
If he’d had answers back then he sure the hell wouldn’t have shared them publicly.
The wedge his family had shoved in their life only grew wider with his father retreating and his mother jumping into the spotlight.
To her, the more she spoke, the more who listened.
It happened for a while. Then it quieted down.
He refused to let it die though.
“I’m sure you know we were vacationing from Allentown.”
“I do,” she said. “My family might know more than most because it felt as if we were living some of it too. Cooper had to sell his home to get out of debt. They didn’t know where they were going to move just yet, so they lived in a ranch on my parents’ property for a few months and he worked the farm with my father.”
He hadn’t known that. Why would he?
There was no reason for him to keep tabs on the man who was found not guilty of a crime he didn’t commit.
