He was sitting in the chapel when someone came in. Melvin looked at him. He was conditioned from years of working in law enforcement to assess any threat.
He relaxed.
The man standing in the doorway was no threat to him now. If anything, he was his mentor, his guide. "Adrian.”
Adrian Barratt looked unsettled. No wonder. It had been his brother’s family who had been harmed tonight. Melvin still did not know how it had actually happened. He did know that there would be some people extremely upset because of this. And…hurt.
"Hello, Melvin. It's been a bit of a rough one tonight."
"Yes, yes it has. Any word? About your family?"
Reverand Adrian Barratt was both a neighbor and was becoming a friend. More than that, he was the pastor of the church that Anita had attended weekly for years. Melvin had asked Adrian to help with her funeral. To just help him get through.
Adrian had stood by him throughout that long ordeal. Melvin would never forget that.
It was Adrian's family who had been hurt tonight. Melvin was still trying to gather all the details. But the Finley Creek post was playing it close to their chests. There was such division in the TSP now. Melvin just didn’t understand it.
"My brother is going to be okay, they said. He took a hard knock to the head, but well Mason has always had an extremely hard head. He'll be fine. His wife wasn't harmed physically. Thank the Lord. But the trauma of this, it will be hard for her.She's had some traumas in her background already. So please say an extra prayer for her tonight."
"I'll do that." Melvin thought for a moment. He had heard through the rumor mill that the girl involved with Erickson was a Barratt. "And Erickson?"
"He's in surgery now. My niece… She loves him a great deal. She's already informed me I'll be performing the ceremony. As soon as he's back on his feet. And she’ll be making me a great uncle this September again. It'll be her first. Mason and Melissa’s first grandchild. There's nothing like a grandchild, Melvin. There just isn’t. I love being grandpa.”
"How is the baby? Your grandchild, I mean."
"Serenity is beautiful. Just absolutely beautiful. She takes after Annie, her mother. Her three big brothers dote on her like crazy. She’s going to be spoiled rotten.” Of course Adrian had photos. The little girl really was a beautiful baby, and the three older boys were good-looking children, too. Adrian was holding them proudly in the photos.
Melvin looked at the precious baby girl, and imagined. He could be a grandfather someday. He had one child he adored more than words could say—a daughter.
She was a student at FCU: MED. She insisted she’d be paying him back for her tuition one day. They saw each other so rarely; it was time he called her again. She was a bit stubborn like her mother, that child. He looked at her sometimes and saw her mother. She looked like her mother, right down to the freckles across the bridge of her nose. He would call her tonight. Check to see if she needed anything.
Melvin had messed up with his daughter so badly through the years. He wanted so badly to fix that. His daughter…she was reticent, of course. She didn’t trust him now. He understood. And he prayed for their relationship and hers with God every single day.
Adrian excused himself to go find his sister-in-law. Melvin could see how concerned the other man was about his family. Adrian was lucky—he was from a rather large, extremely affluent family. Melvin just had his daughter now, and what he had worked for his entire life. His investments. He’d won a lottery of four hundred thousand dollars in his mid-forties. He and Anita had used it wisely. Built their retirement funds and investments so that their daughter Skylar could have a real future someday.
He wished he had been able to give Skylar a bigger family than what he had, but he and Anita had both been only children. And their parents hadn’t had large families, either. It was just what it was.
He had his church family now.
Melvin wanted the same for Skylar. If something were to happen to him, his daughter wouldn’t have many people in her life. She just wouldn’t. That worried him, no denying that. How could it not? He was her father; he wanted her taken care of. That was all he really wanted. Her to be taken care of, eternally.
He was still sitting there in the chapel when someone else came in. He looked up.
A young woman was standing there. For a moment, he couldn't place her. Then it sank in who she was. The forensic tech. One of the women shot during the choir hall shooting almost a year and half ago. The McAlister girl.
One of those girls abducted by Steve Wilson several weeks ago. One of the girls shot in the children’s theater a few years ago, as well. It surprised him, that she hadn’t quit already. After such traumas, most…forensic science wasn’t a field that paid well, especially under those types of situations. She was a strong girl, apparently.
"Dr. McAlister." It was just an acknowledgment that he did recognize her. He studied her. She still wore the TSP polo withforensicswritten across one side of her chest. She had herhair pulled up in a high ponytail. It was an interesting color somewhere between red and brown. Her eyes were a lighter brown that was unusual. She was young, maybe less than thirty. A very beautiful girl, though that was understated.
"Sergeant Stillman, I just came in here to get away from the noise for a moment."
"Have there been any more updates?”
She just shook her head. "Now we’re just waiting. They said it could be several more hours."
"Sometimes the waiting is the hardest part. I've been through this a few hundred times before. Waiting to hear, it never gets easier. It just doesn't.”
“No, I guess it doesn’t. I…if you’ll excuse me…I…need to find my friends. Make sure everyone is okay.”
