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“How is she?” Aaron asked as he slid a hand across his brother’s shoulder.
Sean shuddered. “I don’t know. Jesus, Aaron. He’s never hurt her like this before. I came in from running errands and found her like that. Her face is bloody and swollen. She’s bleeding from both ears, and from a huge cut in her scalp, and she has broken ribs, for sure. Scared the hell out of me. Have they found Clyde?”
Aaron lowered his voice. “He’s in jail. They’re processing him now. Mom got off lucky. Clyde walked into a Quick Loan and shot two people dead. He’s high as a kite and talking out of his head.”
Sean froze, unable to believe what he was hearing. “What?”
Aaron gripped his brother’s shoulders. “Our father just murdered two people in cold blood. Shit has hit the fan. Have you called Wiley? Does B.J. know?”
Sean’s eyes welled. “Oh, my God. No…not yet.”
Aaron nodded. “I’ll do it. And I’ll call the school for B.J. Did he ride his Harley this morning?”
Sean nodded.
“Okay. You just stay here with Mom. I’m going outside to make some calls.”
It was the beginning of the end of life as they’d known it.
***
Within a week of leaving the hospital, Shirley Pope Wallace had filed for divorce. By the time Clyde Wallace’s trial came to court, their names and faces were as well-known as his, and they were being judged and found guilty of nothing but bearing his last name.
The Conway, Arkansas police department decided it would be in the public’s best interest if the son of a killer was not on their force, and despite an exemplary record, they let Aaron go.
Aaron’s wife, Kelly, couldn’t handle the pressure and filed for divorce two months before their first anniversary. Again, it was nothing Aaron did. She just didn’t want to be associated with the crime.
Clyde was in prison for life, and so, it would seem, was his family.
Sean lost clients through the IT firm he’d worked for and was scrambling to make ends meet. And Wiley was reduced to a DoorDash delivery driver instead of the law enforcement job he’d been hoping for since graduating from the police academy.
B.J finished his senior year of high school but skipped the ceremony, unable to face the shame.
Shirley was let go from her job as a receptionist in a dental office and removed from being a volunteer storyteller at a local library. She finally found a job as a dishwasher in a small Mexican restaurant and was grateful for it.
Then one day, about a year after Clyde’s imprisonment, Shirley got a phone call that changed their world.
***
It was the first week of February and Shirley’s day off. She was doing laundry when her phone rang. She recognized the area code, and without looking at the number just assumed it was her mother, Helen, calling from Kentucky.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Shirley. This is your Aunt Annie.”
Shirley was a little surprised but pleased to hear from Annie. She was one of her deceased father’s sisters, and she adored her.
“Hi, Auntie! It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Well, sugar, I’m not calling with good news,” Annie said. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you, but your mother passed away in her sleep last night.”
Shock rolled through Shirley in waves.
“No! Oh, my God, no! I just spoke to her day before yesterday. She was in good spirits and said she was feeling fine.” She started crying. “Mom was my touchstone to sanity.”
“I know. I’m so sorry, Shirley,” Annie said.
Shirley was sobbing now, struggling to catch her breath. “Why didn’t Mom let me know she was failing?”
