“There is. I was wondering what you’d like Satan Clause to bring you,” he said.
Libby looked at him with surprise, then fell apart laughing. “Other than the mug in your cabinet the other day, I haven’t thought about Satan Clause in a long time,” she finally said, still chuckling.
“Our cabinet. And I’ve thought about him often,” Travis admitted.
Libby sat so close to Travis that their thighs touched. She waited until he pulled out on the highway, and got the old truck up to speed, and laid his hand on her leg until he’d need to shift gears again. She took his hand in hers and laid her head on his shoulder. “I don’t need anything at all, Travis. Everything I want, I already have,” she said, bringing his hand to her lips to press a kiss to it.
Travis looked down at her head resting on his shoulder. “I love you, Libby.”
“Love you, too,” she answered.
Chapter 22
The clanging sound of a buzzer releasing the door jolted Talie out of her distracted state. She turned to watch the door, to see who walked through it.
“Good morning, Talie. How are you doing this morning?” Ms. Autry asked, as she set her briefcase and purse on the table beside her. She looked around the bare, gray walls, the single barred window, the plain steel desk bolted to the floor in the middle of the room and Talie handcuffed to a chain leading up and through a hole in the desk itself.
“I’m okay. How is Darcie? Have you seen her?” Talie asked.
“I have. She’s doing as well as can be expected. Asking about you,” Ms. Autry answered.
“Please. You have to get her out of there. I grew up in a place like that. I know what it’s like,” Talie begged.
“Unfortunately, there are too many kids that need fostering right now. There’s nowhere else to send her. But she’s managing. She’s clean, and she’s being fed, and she’s going to school and learning to adapt.”
“She doesn’t belong there,” Talie said. She looked from her hands, handcuffed and resting on the table in front of her. “I don’t belong here. I should be out there working my butt off and taking care of Darcie.”
“I know. I believe you. But no one else does. The evidence is compelling.”
“I didn’t rob anybody. And I certainly didn’t kill anyone!” Talie insisted, her voice rising in her alarm at the situation.
“Like I already said, I believe you. But the prosecutor doesn’t. Your fingerprints were on everything we recovered. Your prints were on the murder weapon. You were even covered in blood when the paramedics arrived.”
“Of course I was! I tried to do CPR. And my fingerprints were on everything because I lived there. Only for a month, but I lived there. My prints are also on most places in the house. I lived in it. I cleaned it. I moved all the electronics from the living room to the shed in the backyard. The knife was one I used almost daily when I cooked.”
“How can I prove that? Tell me and I’ll pursue whatever lead you give me. But I need your help to help you. As it stands, it looks like you’re guilty. There are no prints other than yours on the recovered property.”
“I don’t know. Maybe Frederick cleaned his prints off everything in preparation of selling it. Then just left it in the living room. If you check the rest of the house, you’ll find his prints and the prints of whoever else he had there while I was working.”
“Okay, assuming you’re right. Why did you decide to move everything to the shed?”
“Because it was all over the sofa, the chairs. It was clear to me that laptops, expensive smart phones, jewelry, all without boxes, was not gained legally. I didn’t want it around Darcie. And even more, I didn’t want Darcie to fool with any of it and break it. My ex’s anger issues are not a new thing. I didn’t want her to bear the brunt of any of it.”
“Then why didn’t you just leave?” Ms. Autry asked.
“I was working on it. I’d begun to make arrangements. I was planning to move far away from here before he was ever released. But then Frederick got out of prison. No one warned me. He showed up at the motel one day. I never got a chance to be away from him.”
“If what you say is true, when he and his friends were out taking all these things that now have your prints on them, you could have left then.”
“I thought about it. But, I was afraid to. He said if I ever left him, he’d take Darcie away. He said he’d come after me, he’d find me, and he’d take Darcie from me and I’d never find her,” Talie said.
“And you believed him?” Ms. Autry asked.
Talie nodded. “He took my cell phone from me. It’s only a cheap prepaid phone, but he took it. He checked every number in it. There are only a few. But he knew the calls I was making and receiving were from Missouri. He knew the numbers, he knew where to start searching if I went missing. I could have gone there, but he’d have followed, and then I’d have brought trouble to their doors, too. I couldn’t take that chance, and I couldn’t risk him having Darcie without me. I thought that if I just held on long enough, he’d slip up again, and end up back in jail. Then I could continue with my plan to leave,” Talie explained.
Ms. Autry sat back in her chair. She took a good, hard look at Talie. The woman had no prior record of any type. By all accounts, she did nothing but work and try to keep herself and her daughter fed. Even the arrogant manager at the truck stop she’d worked at mentioned that her child was always with her when she wasn’t in school. She displayed all the classic signs of an abused woman. And, Ms. Autry should know. She’d had close up personal experience in trying to save a woman from an abusive relationship. She’d failed that time. This time, if she could manage to prove that Talie was as innocent as she believed she was, maybe she’d be successful.
Ms. Autry sat forward. “I believe you, Talie. I think that someone stumbled on Frederick robbing their home, followed him to confront him and get their belongings back, and Frederick grabbed the knife from the kitchen and stabbed him.”
“You do?” Talie asked, sitting forward and placing her still cuffed hands on top of her court appointed attorney’s.
“Yes. I do. But we’ve got a lot of work to do. And there are some things happening that need to be addressed long before I ever get the chance to prove you innocent.”
“Okay. Like what? Tell me, I’ll help anyway I can,” Talie said.
“Frederick’s mother is attempting to prove her maternal DNA matches Darcie’s. She’s trying to gain a court order to give her custody.”
“No! No, you can’t let that happen. She will give Frederick access to Darcie. He doesn’t care about her. He only uses her to get me to cooperate. And she doesn’t care about her either. She’s never even met her!”
“Frederick’s claimed he had no idea you were quietly robbing all his neighbors. You know this. He’s on his best behavior. Maybe letting his mother have temporary custody of her would achieve two things. It would get Darcie out of the state facility, and it would give Frederick a false sense of security, thinking they have the upper hand enough to get him to relax and let his guard down. Maybe he’d be stupid enough to try to break and enter again.”