Taking Charge (39 page)

“I did convict him, the whole town convicted him.
It’s horrible! How could this happen? I mean, the whole point of
DNA evidence is so it’s accurate,” Robyn said, wiping at her
eyes.

“I’ve emailed everything over to Trudy, and what I’d
expect them to do is run the profile through the police database.
If the person who did this is in the system, they’ll know.”

“But what if they aren’t in the system? We might
never know,” Robyn said, running her hand through her hair.

“Hey, this is a good thing. We know conclusively that
it wasn’t Jason.”

“There’s no doubt?”

“None.”

“So how long? Until the police know, well, you know,
if the guy is on their database,” Robyn asked.

“I don’t know. Trudy wasn’t there today, she’s back
tomorrow. It could be tomorrow,” Cole told her.

Robyn nodded.

“You okay?”

“What am I going to say to Jason? Sorry isn’t really
going to cut it, is it? How do you give someone their life back?”
Robyn asked, looking up at Cole.

“It wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault,”
Cole told her.

“It doesn’t feel like that,” Robyn said with a
sigh.

“Pummel him! Hook him with the right! God damn!” Max
exclaimed as he weakly punched his arms out, copying the boxers on
the television.

“He’s had it. He needs putting out of his misery
now,” Eddie remarked, shifting in his seat.

“My money’s on the guy in the red shorts…Dad! What
are you doing here?” Robyn asked as she and Cole entered the
room.

“What you doing here, Buttercup?” Eddie asked,
greeting them.

“I asked first.”

“Nancy dropped me here on the way to the roadhouse,
house is quiet,” Eddie remarked.

“He misses me, gal…what can I say?” Max said with a
wheeze.

“Well we were going to drop by the house after, but
seeing as you’re here…low sugar brownies and pecan pie,” Robyn
informed Eddie, passing a bag to him and putting a bag on Max’s
bed.

“Okay, what are you going to tell me? If you’re
giving me sugar, low or not, then something’s up.”

“I don’t care what you’ve got to say, I’ll have it
anyway,” Max said greedily.

“You two broken up already?” Eddie asked, eyeing Cole
with suspicion.

“No! Of course not!”

“Then what?”

“Jason didn’t rape me,” Robyn said bluntly.

“Buttercup, we’ve been through this. Just because
some guy says he saw him doesn’t mean…” Eddie started.

“Cole got new DNA evidence. He didn’t do it, Dad,”
Robyn said seriously.

“Jeez,” Max remarked, his mouth half full of pie.

“I don’t understand,” Eddie said quietly, as if
finding the information difficult to process.

“I was pregnant, Dad, after the rape. I didn’t keep
it, but the clinic kept information, DNA profiling. Cole got the
DNA profile of the father,” Robyn attempted to explain.

“There’s no doubt. The profile doesn’t match Jason,”
Cole informed him.

“Just hold on one second. You’re not only telling me
that Jason didn’t attack you, but you’re also telling me you were
pregnant? And this is the first I hear about it?” Eddie exclaimed,
his face reddening, his eyes bulging.

“I didn’t tell anyone, Dad, I had an abortion.”

“What about your mother?”

“What about my mother?”

“Well, why didn’t she call me? She was supposed to be
looking after you,” Eddie continued.

“I didn’t tell her, either. You know what she was
like after the rape, making me shower three times a day and making
me wear jumpers. She was ashamed of me, telling her about being
pregnant would have made things worse. I just had to deal with it
on my own. Anyway, that doesn’t matter now. What matters is that
Jason didn’t do it,” Robyn said.

“Then if Jason didn’t do it, who did?” Max wanted to
know.

“The police are going to try and find that out,” Cole
said.

“Dad?” Robyn said, desperate for him to say
something.

“I don’t know what to say, Buttercup,” he said, his
voice faltering.

“In a few days, we can finally put all this behind
us. It can be a new start for everyone. You with your new body
parts and me with a husband,” Robyn said happily.

“Be good to put it all to bed before the wedding.
Extra cause for celebrating,” Max said, chewing up the pie and
spitting crumbs everywhere.

“Dad, this is a good thing. Focus on the fact that it
wasn’t Jason and he’s going to play for the Panthers,” Robyn
begged.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Eddie said with a
shake of his head.

“Everything’s fine, properly fine, for the first time
in a long time,” Robyn assured him.

“Got any beer?” Max asked hopefully.

“You okay?” Cole called into the darkness.

Robyn was dressed in his robe, looking out of the
window at the lake. Everything was still and calm. The water was
lapping softly against the sand, and there was hardly a breeze to
move the rust colored leaves on the trees.

She didn’t respond to him. She was too engrossed in
looking at the West Lake scene. He got out of bed and joined her at
the window.

“Hey,” he said, putting a hand through her hair.

“Oh, hey. Sorry. Did I wake you up? Should I close
the curtains?” Robyn suggested.

“No, leave them. I like it,” Cole told her, putting
his arms around her waist and holding her body to his.

“Even though I don’t know who did it, I know who
didn’t, and it’s like this weight’s been lifted off me,” Robyn
said.

“I can’t imagine how it must feel,” Cole said,
holding her tight.

“I’m going to see Jason tomorrow. I have no idea what
I’m going to say, but I have to see him. Do you think he knows?”
Robyn asked.

“He’s always known, Robyn.”

“Yeah, of course. He told everyone time and time
again and we didn’t listen.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“I should have known it wasn’t him. I mean, he’s
Jason! Yeah, he was a bit dorky and weird at school and we didn’t
hang out, but we spoke in passing about hockey. I knew he liked me,
you know, had a crush, I guess. But I should have known he wouldn’t
do anything to hurt me. He was always sweet to me,” Robyn said.

“You were told it was him.”

“I know. I just want to make things right, somehow.
But how can I give him all those years back?” Robyn asked.

“You can’t. But you can make things better. Start by
giving him that place on the team,” Cole suggested.

“And a lifetime’s free meals at Eddie’s, at the very
least,” Robyn continued.

“It might take time. He’s spent half his life being
shunned by everyone; he’ll need to learn to trust people again,”
Cole said.

“I wouldn’t blame him if he told the whole town to go
to Hell…that’s no more than we deserve.”

“I don’t think he’ll do that.”

“No, because he’s Jason. Plain, slightly freaky
Jason, who collected bottle tops and wore tank tops,” Robyn said,
smiling at the memory.

Cole smiled back at her.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“I called Bryn earlier,” Cole said quietly.

“Oh, Cole, why didn’t you say? What happened?” Robyn
asked, turning to face him.

“We talked, for almost an hour, about pretty much
everything,” he told her.

“And? Have you sorted things out? Did you invite him
to the wedding?”

“Yeah. He’s coming, him and Veronica,” Cole said
slightly hesitantly.

“Are you okay with that?” Robyn asked.

“Are you okay with that?”

“Of course. He’s your brother and she’s…your
brother’s girlfriend,” Robyn said diplomatically.

“Well put.”

“I’m meeting Brad tomorrow, at the arena. I don’t
know what I’m going to say to him, but I can’t be responsible for
him going off the rails, I have to try,” Robyn told him.

“You can’t have a wedding day without one of your
oldest friends there and things can’t be left how they are,” Cole
said, kissing her.

“Have I told you you’re really hot when you’re being
understanding?” Robyn asked, her fingers circling his chest.

“Is that so?”

The next day Robyn called into the roadhouse to see
how the breakfast session was working out. She’d ended up serving
coffee and breakfasts for two hours before relieving Nancy at the
house to sit with her dad and then fitting in an hour with Max at
the hospital. His coughing had worsened again and he looked pale,
despite being as incorrigible as ever. She worried about him and,
before she’d left, she’d asked the nurse to keep an extra eye on
him.

By the time she got to the arena and onto the rink,
Brad was already on the ice powering around it to the strains of
the eighties band Heart. The cleaning team had a selection of soft
rock classics they liked to sweep up to.

“Hey,” Robyn greeted, crosschecking him and stealing
the puck.

“Hey! Come back with that!” Brad ordered, chasing
after her.

“You look like shit,” Robyn said, weaving away from
him.

“It was a late night,” Brad remarked.

“At Taboo?”

“No, I was working.”

“In a vat of beer?”

“If you just want to kick a guy when he’s down, why
don’t I just lie on the ice and let you get on with it?” Brad
suggested loudly.

“Tempting,” she answered back.

“Look, why are we here? I know I’ve been playing like
crap lately, I know I went a little crazy and I trashed the locker
room, I know I can’t stomach the fact you’re marrying someone like
him, so what’s the point of all this? You want to give me a
training session? Make me sweat out the way I feel about you? Think
that will help?”

“I don’t know. Will it?”

“I doubt it.”

“Listen, things can’t go on how they are right now.
The Panthers are a player away from falling apart, you know that.
We need you here, on the team. The Brad Willis I know can out
maneuver anyone else in this league. I’m sorry if you thought you
and I had a future together. If I said or did anything to make you
think that, then I apologize,” Robyn said.

“It isn’t too late,” Brad said.

“Brad, don’t! You’re making this impossible. I don’t
want to not have you in my life and on the team, but Cole and I are
the real thing. You have to accept that. We’re crazy about each
other, I can’t imagine spending a day without him. I would do
anything for him. I love him,” Robyn stated firmly.

“I don’t want to lose you, you only just came back,”
Brad spoke softly.

“You’ve always been one of my closest friends,
someone I could trust. I don’t want to lose that, but you’re making
it so difficult,” Robyn said, kicking the ice in frustration.

“I’m sorry,” Brad apologized.

“Tell me how to make this right? Because I’ve got Pam
begging me to talk to you, I’ve got Dad worrying about you when he
should be worrying about getting better, I’ve got Sarah freaking
out because she’s scared you’ll tell Mickey you almost ended up in
bed together, and I’ve got Cole, yes Cole, who would gladly punch
you out, telling me that I shouldn’t lose such a good friend,”
Robyn said.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say we can put how you feel to one side and be
friends, for the sake of the team, for the sake of our friends, and
for the sake of the arena locker rooms,” Robyn suggested to
him.

“I guess we can try, if you’re really set on marrying
the guy,” Brad answered with a heavy sigh.

“I am really set on marrying him. Really set,” Robyn
said confidently.

“I don’t think I can come, though. It would be too
much,” Brad said sadly.

“I would love for you to be there, the whole town’s
coming. It’s going to be the biggest town party there’s ever been.
I’m even hoping Jason’s going to come, but it might be too soon,”
Robyn said.

“Why would you want him at your wedding?” Brad
exclaimed.

“Because he didn’t rape me. We just found out. It
definitely wasn’t him,” Robyn said.

“I don’t believe it. How? What about the DNA
evidence?” Brad said a look of shock on his face.

“It wasn’t accurate. Don’t ask me about these sorts
of things, Cole’s the scientist. Another sample was tested and the
DNA didn’t match,” Robyn explained.

“What other sample? What d’you mean, another sample?”
Brad demanded to know.

He was agitated and his face was flaming. He stopped
skating.

“It doesn’t matter. But there’s no doubt,” Robyn said
with a swallow, stopping opposite him.

“What d’you mean, it doesn’t matter? Of course it
matters! There were no other samples! There was one sample, my dad
dealt with it, and it was Jason’s DNA!” Brad yelled at the top of
his voice.

“Well, there must have been contamination or
something, because Jason wasn’t the father of my baby!” Robyn
screamed back at him.

Robyn watched the color drain away from Brad’s face
and his hockey stick dropped from his gloves and fell to the ice
with a clatter. He put his hand to his mouth, his eyes wide,
unsteady on his skates.

And all at once she knew.

His reaction spoke a thousand words. Robyn felt the
bile rise in her throat as she looked at him. He bent in half, fell
to the floor, and doubled over on the ice, sobbing onto the frozen
ground.

“It was you,” she said, her limbs paralyzed, her
skates stuck to the spot.

Brad just howled like someone who had been cut in
two. He didn’t lift his head, maybe couldn’t lift his head.

“You raped me,” Robyn stated as calmly as her
trembling voice would allow.

“No!” Brad howled, finally looking up, his face
pained, his eyes spilling tears.

“It was you,” Robyn said again, furrowing her brow
and staring at him, confused.

“You had a baby?” Brad questioned, looking at her for
confirmation.