Just Cause (18 page)

Jim stroked his chin. “I admit I discounted that because of Mason’s deposition. He took Bob home, stepped inside for a few minutes and then left. I figured one of the two neighbors had the time they saw the car wrong.”

“What if they don’t?” Dan asked. “This could be the ammunition we need to blow the case wide open.”

Dan, Laurel and Judy sat on the dock that night eating ice cream cones. The sun dipped below the evergreens, and the plaintive cry of a loon drifted down the lake.

“Jim says it didn’t go badly,” Judy said, sitting down on the dock with her cherry vanilla scoop. “When we start calling our witnesses, things will look a lot better.”

“That’s what he told me last time.” Laurel swished her bare feet in the cool water and licked her peppermint cone.
Say goodbye to all the small pleasures,
she told herself.

Dan crunched the last of his cone, then bent to rinse his hands in the lake. He wiped them on his shirttail and hitched over closer to Laurel.

Judy swatted at a mosquito. “Have you got the bug spray?”

“I think it’s up in the bathroom,” Laurel said.

Judy got up and went humming up the path to the cottage.

Deliberately, Laurel ate her cone, one crisp bite at a time. Dan slid his right arm around her, and she burrowed in, trying to get closer to him yet not looking at him.

He bent and put a soft kiss just below her left earlobe.

Laurel popped the tip of the cone into her mouth and crunched it, then licked her fingers.

“You want more ice cream?” Dan asked.

“No.”

They sat looking out over the lake.

“The verdict won’t change my feelings for you,” Dan said. “Whatever God brings, we’ll deal with it.”

She clutched him tighter and sighed.

Strains of music came from the cottage, and Dan raised his head to listen.

“That Judy. She asked me yesterday if she could use my violin to practice the Haydn.” He turned to Laurel again and rubbed his face softly against her hair and kissed her temple. “I’ve got to believe God will work this out and you’ll go free.”

She put her hand up to his cheek. “I want to believe it, too.”

The music stopped, and a few minutes later, Judy came down the path. Laurel moved away from Dan and felt cold in the breeze off the lake.

Judy came onto the dock carrying Dan’s phone and the bug spray. “You left this on the table, and it rang, so I answered. Mr. Hight wants to talk to you.” She handed it to Dan.

“Yeah, Jim?” He sat up straighter. “When?”

Laurel held her breath.

“Okay,” Dan said. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“What?” Laurel asked as he hung up.

“Jack Brody’s confessed to fraud, and they’ve arrested Larry Mason as his accomplice.”

At seven-thirty the next morning, Jim rang the doorbell at the Mason house. Tina opened the door, her eyes bloodshot and her face blotchy.

“Thank you for seeing us, Mrs. Mason,” Jim said gently. “This is my investigator. May we come in?”

She stared blankly at him for a moment, then took a weary step back. Jim and Dan followed her into the family room. Dan tried not to stare, but the room demanded attention. The cathedral ceiling soared to the height of the second story, and the entire south wall was glass, overlooking a rushing stream edged by forest. If he’d ever imagined a dream house, it might have looked something like this.

“I’ve been up all night, Mr. Hight. What is it that’s so urgent?”

Tina sat down on the cream velvet sofa, and Jim took a chair facing her. Dan went to stand with his back to the fieldstone fireplace.

“First, let me express my condolences. I heard of your husband’s arrest last night. I don’t wish to cause you any further grief, but this is a matter of vital importance.”

Tina eyed him coldly. “Is Laurel’s trial going forward?”

“Yes. We have to be in the courtroom at nine, so I won’t keep you long. But you must realize there are some problems with your husband’s account of the day Bob was murdered.”

Tina took a deep breath. “I’m still in shock, Mr. Hight. I can’t believe Larry would be involved in this bidding thing, but—” Fresh tears streamed down her cheeks, and she pulled a crumpled tissue from her pocket. “Larry said his lawyer will get him the best deal he can. This has been very difficult.”

“I’m sure it has.” Jim waited as she wiped her face. Dan stared out the window and wished they hadn’t come. Until he remembered the danger surrounding Laurel.

“Mrs. Mason, in his deposition your husband testified that he slept most of the afternoon on the day Bob was killed.”

“Yes. He came home with an awful headache. I gave him some tablets and sent him to bed.”

“What did you do that afternoon?”

“Me?” Tina stared at Jim.

“Larry’s car was back at the Hatchers’ house around one-fifteen the day of the murder,” Jim said. “If Larry didn’t drive it there, who did?”

Tina sat very still, but her upper lip trembled.

Jim leaned forward. “I have to warn you, Mrs. Mason, I’m having you subpoenaed as a witness. You could be called to testify as early as this afternoon. I should have looked into it more closely before, but I assumed that one of the neighbors made an error in the time he saw the car. But the two witnesses we have in this matter are credible. I think their statements will stand up in court.”

“Are you going to accuse Larry of the murder now?” Tina’s voice cracked. “Because he didn’t do it.”

“No, I don’t think he did.”

She watched him, her breath shallow and fast.

“Where were you at one-fifteen that afternoon, Mrs. Mason?”

Dan stepped forward and put his hand on Jim’s shoulder. Jim stood up and Dan sat down beside Tina. He looked at her for a long moment, a great sorrow weighing on his heart. “Mrs. Mason, you were a friend to Laurel. You treated her well when Bob’s family rejected her. You cared about her.”

“She’s a decent girl.” Tina reached for a fresh tissue.

“When Laurel was accused of killing Bob, you felt sorry for her.”

Tina looked down at her hands. “Yes. Her in-laws treated her like dirt, and she didn’t deserve it.”

“Please.” Dan touched her sleeve. “If Laurel is convicted, she will go to prison for a very long time. And she’s innocent. You know that.”

Jim moved toward him, but Dan held out one hand, and he stopped.

“I can’t bear it if she goes to prison,” Dan whispered. “Just the same as you can’t stand it if your husband does. Please don’t sacrifice her life when you know what really happened that day.”

Tina drew in a ragged breath and glanced toward Jim. “You can’t make me testify against myself or Larry.”

Jim sat down again. “That’s right. But I can give the information we’ve uncovered to the police and insist they reopen the investigation. In the meantime, your friend might be put in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. She’s already spent more than a year in jail unjustly, and it’s burdened you all this time. Won’t you do the right thing, Mrs. Mason?”

L
aurel sat through another day of listening to the prosecution’s witnesses’ testimony against her. Despite a long session in the judge’s chambers, Jim was required to wait his turn to call witnesses to introduce Tina Mason’s revelation.

Dan put his arm around Laurel as they entered the cottage Tuesday evening. “It’s going to be all right, sweetheart.”

“Jim said the judge might insist they finish the trial and let the jury deliberate.”

“Let’s pray,” Dan said. They bowed their heads, and Dan prayed once more. Laurel held his hand and added her silent petitions.

“I’ll always remember this time with you,” she whispered when he had finished.

“You’re not crying are you?” He leaned back so he could see her face, and her eyes were huge.

“Danny, we could still lose this. If it’s bad news, you’ve got to go back to Ohio and don’t look back. I mean it.” She buried her face in his shoulder.

“Shh. That’s not going to happen. God is in control.”

“But you know things don’t always go the way we think they should.”

“Hush, now.” He stroked her hair. “You’re going free tomorrow.”

She squeezed him tightly.

“Kiss me, Laurel.”

Slowly, she lifted her face to his. He could almost read her thoughts: this could be the last time.

He bent his head to meet her, determined to kiss her so thoroughly she would never forget it. She returned his embrace with great tenderness and longing.

Dan held Laurel’s hand as they walked down the hallway toward the courtroom Wednesday morning.

“Chin up,” Jim said when she joined him at the defense counsel table. “I’m optimistic.”

“May we sit in the family’s row now?” Judy asked.

“Sure, why not?”

Dan and Judy settled into chairs behind them, and the jurors filed into their box.

“All rise,” the bailiff intoned.

They stood, and Judge Hurst entered briskly from the door behind the desk. When he sat, they all sat.

Laurel’s stomach roiled. She felt as though her chest were being squeezed by a giant. She took a deep breath.
Dear God, get me through this
.

She knew she might not have another chance to swim in the cool, deep lake water or sit on the dock and watch the loons glide by. To lay her head on Dan’s shoulder, or kiss him again in the moonlight. Today could be her last day of freedom. The ache in her chest eased to a heavy, congested feeling. She tried to take longer, deeper breaths and calm herself.

She glanced toward the prosecutor’s table. From the row behind it, Wayne and Renata Hatcher watched her malevolently.

At last Jim stood to open his case. “The defense calls Tina Mason.”

Tina advanced slowly toward the witness chair. She wore rumpled slacks and a loose print blouse. Her face was haggard, and she had neglected her makeup that morning. As she sat down, she glanced toward Laurel without expression. The bailiff swore her in.

“Mrs. Mason,” Jim began, “what did you do the day of the murder?”

“I went to the grocery store in the morning.”

“You were at home when your husband returned after the golf game?”

“Yes.”

“And what did he tell you?”

“That he had a headache. I…got him some Tylenol.”

“Now, Mrs. Mason, yesterday you spoke to me, and you said that your husband told you that day that Bob Hatcher was going to the police with some information about his uncle’s activities.”

Tina nodded. “That’s right.”

Jim turned and paced back toward the table where Laurel sat. “You also told me that Larry said he could get in trouble if Bob turned in his uncle, Jack Brody, for cheating on construction bids for Hatcher & Brody.”

Tina moistened her lips. “Yes.”

Jim nodded. “You then told me that you were afraid. You sent your husband to bed, and while he slept, you drove to Bob Hatcher’s home to confront him. Is that true?”

“Yes.” Tears glistened in Tina’s eyes.

Sympathy for her friend surged through Laurel. She closed her eyes and prayed silently,
Dear Lord, help Tina. Give her strength now, and let the truth be told!

“You admitted to me that you went to Bob’s house that afternoon to try to persuade him not to turn in Jack Brody, because if he did, your husband would also be implicated in the bidding fraud.”

“That’s correct. Bob knew someone was helping Jack fix the bids, but he didn’t know it was Larry. I begged him not to turn Jack in.”

Jim walked toward her and placed his hands on the railing before the witness chair. “Now, Mrs. Mason, you are not on trial here, but you confided to me yesterday that, when you pleaded with Bob Hatcher not to reveal this situation, Bob refused to do what you asked.”

“Yes, he did.” She buried her face in her hands. “I just couldn’t believe it. Jack apparently had talked Larry into helping him get some information from a rival builder. Larry said that if Bob told, he could…he could go to jail.”

“And Bob wouldn’t listen to your pleas.”

“He said he had to do…what was right.”

“You also told me that, in the passion of the moment, you took a handgun from the case where you knew Bob kept it, and you turned and fired it at him.”

After a long pause, Tina whispered, “Yes.”

Jackson jumped up, but Hurst waved his hand at him.

“No more questions,” Jim said.

Laurel stared at Tina, numb to her toes.

Myron Jackson looked at Tina and sighed. “No questions.”

Judge Hurst sat with the gavel in his hands, looking at Tina. “Do you have an attorney, Mrs. Mason?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“All right, you may step down.”

Tina stared at Laurel for a moment, tears wet on her face. The courtroom was utterly silent as she walked down the aisle and out the door, her head high, her eyes straight ahead.

The judge tapped his gavel and turned toward the jury box. “I hereby dismiss the members of the jury. Thank you for your service.”

The jurors stirred and looked at each other in confusion.

Hurst turned toward the defense table. “In light of this testimony, I will exercise my right to dismiss the charges of murder against Laurel Wilson Hatcher.”

A cheer broke out, and Hurst tapped his gavel. When it was quiet, he said, “Mrs. Hatcher has suffered for two years under the public perception that she murdered her husband. She spent sixteen months in the Kennebec County Jail for a crime she did not commit. For that, I am deeply sorry.”

Laurel inhaled slowly, unable to take her eyes from the judge’s face. Her hands trembled, and she clasped them in her lap.

Judge Hurst nodded at her. “Mrs. Hatcher, I would like to say, on behalf of the state of Maine, you are free to go, and we regret the suffering and sorrow you have endured.”

Laurel smiled tearfully at him. She turned toward Jim. He was smiling. She turned around, and Dan catapulted toward her. He hugged her close, his eyes shut.

“Thank you, Lord,” he breathed in her ear.

Judy embraced her next, then Jim. Dan placed a clean handkerchief in her hand, and she swiped at her errant tears. Around them, spectators gathered their belongings to leave. Wayne and Renata Hatcher strode toward the door, Renata’s face etched with bitterness.

“There will be reporters in the hallway,” Jim said, and Laurel nodded. She could face the lions now without fear. Dan’s tender smile encouraged her, and she squeezed his hand.

“You can speak freely now,” Jim went on. “Give them a positive spin—I’m thrilled with the outcome—something simple like that.” He closed his briefcase and lifted it. “Ready?”

Judy walked ahead with Jim, and Dan stayed at Laurel’s side. As they left the courtroom, cameras flashed in Laurel’s face.

“Mrs. Hatcher, Mrs. Hatcher!”

The press crowded around with questions.

“How do you feel about the judge’s ruling?”

“Are you staying in Maine?”

“Were you surprised at Mrs. Mason’s testimony?”

She pulled in a deep breath. “I’m pleased, of course, at the way things went today. I thank God for the outcome, and for my freedom.”

She walked quickly with Dan down the stairs to the lobby. Jim and Judy came close behind.

“Get out of here,” Jim advised. “I doubt the press will find you, but if they do, refer them to me. I’ll wrap up the paperwork and call you tomorrow morning.”

They hurried to Judy’s car.

“Get in the back with Dan,” Judy said. Laurel started to protest, but saw several photographers headed their way. Dan opened the door, and she dove into the backseat. Judy pulled into the street and away from the crowd that had gathered in front of the courthouse.

They rolled past the county jail, and Laurel stared toward the unforgiving stone walls. Tears welled in her eyes.

“I’m so glad I’m not in there right now!”

Dan reached for her hand. “It’s over,” he said softly.

“You told me it would be. I should have believed you.” She smiled up at him.

Dan leaned over to kiss her. “What do you want to do now?”

“Jim wants me to stay for a few days to tie up some loose ends. Do you mind being at the cottage a little longer?”

“How about it, Judy?” Dan asked.

She glanced at him in the rearview mirror as she pulled up at a stoplight.

“Stay as long as you want.”

They drove back to the cottage and changed into casual clothes. Dan called his parents with the good news. Judy insisted on cooking dinner, so Dan and Laurel walked down the path to the dock. Laurel sank into a deck chair and sighed.

Dan pulled another chair close to hers and sat down. “Tired?”

“Mmm.”

They sat in silence as the sun sank behind the pines. A loon called and its mate answered. Laurel could see them bobbing in the water, near the point across the cove.

She reached for Dan’s hand. “I can never thank you enough.”

He took a deep breath. “Laurel, we agreed to wait until the trial was over to discuss the future. I don’t want to rush you…”

She rolled her head to the side and gazed into his gray eyes. “I think the right time has come.”

His smile was eager and at the same time content. “You sure?”

“Yes.”

He turned sober. “Can you wait just a minute? There’s something I need to…” He glanced anxiously up toward the cottage.

“I’ll be here.”

He leaned over and kissed her, then got up. “I’ll be back in thirty seconds.”

Dan dashed through the kitchen, conscious of Judy’s stare, and into his room. He fumbled with the dresser drawer and pulled out a small box.

“Supper in ten minutes,” Judy called as he charged back through the kitchen.

Dan slowed and glanced at his watch. “We might be delayed a bit.”

“What’s up?” Judy opened the oven and slid in a tray of biscuits, then looked at him more closely. “What’s that?”

Dan smiled. “It’s, um, something I bought for Laurel.” His smile was becoming a first-class clown grin.

Judy’s jaw dropped. “Now? You’re asking her now?”

“Well…”

Judy untied the strings of her apron. “Wait! Let me get the violin!”

“Oh, I don’t know….”

She ran for the next room. “Go! Just go slowly.”

Dan went through the closed-in porch and down to the dock.

“Sorry,” he told Laurel. “Judy waylaid me.”

Strains of Mozart drifted over them.

“I thought she was cooking.”

“She is. She’s a versatile woman.”

Dan knelt on the dock and took Laurel’s hands in his. The moon rose behind him, sending its rays across the dark water. They looked at each other for a long moment.

“I love you so much,” he whispered.

Laurel squeezed his hands. “I love you, Danny.”

He nodded. “Laurel, will you marry me?”

Two tears rolled down her cheeks, but she was smiling. “Yes.”

He pulled her into his arms and held her close. “I…got a ring.”

She laughed. “When?”

“Last night, after you went to bed. I made a run to the mall.” He sat back on his heels and held out the box. “If you don’t like it…”

“Hush.” She bent forward and kissed him lightly.

Dan smiled and opened the lid, revealing a sparkling diamond nested in a twined Celtic band of white gold.

Laurel caught her breath. “It’s beautiful.”

He reached for her left hand. “I’d be honored if you wore it.” He slid the ring onto her finger. “This means I’ll always love you.”

She melted into his arms once more, as the music drifted over the lake.