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They sure were slow to book him. Heath had spent hours waiting for the inevitable. He’d told them he killed Tommy. Certainly the wheels of progress should be turning by now.
Not long after that, the door opened and Sheriff Duke’s deputy, Jim, came through the door. “You can go.”
“What?” He stood up from his chair. “I can go?”
Jim came over and unlocked the handcuffs. “Yes.” He opened the door and held it.
Heath was thoroughly confused, but he wasn’t about to wait for them to change their minds. In the hallway, he found several people waiting there. He recognized the woman as Tommy Wilder’s sister, Deborah Curtis. Brody had sent them all the background report on her when she came to Cornwall asking about her brother. She was standing there with a man wearing an expensive tailored suit. He carried himself like he was important somehow, like he was her lawyer. Heath froze on the spot. Was she here to confront him for killing her brother?
Another door opened off the hallway and Julianne stepped out with a disgusted-looking Sheriff Duke at her side.
“What is going on?” Heath asked.
Julianne shook her head. “I have no clue. Duke said I was free to go.”
The man beside Deborah stepped forward. “My name is Pat Richards. I’m a prosecutor for the state of Connecticut. With the evidence I have, your testimony and that of Mrs. Curtis, the state has opted not to press charges. This situation was tragic, but obviously in self-defense. I can’t in good conscience prosecute Julianne after everything she went through.”
Heath frowned. “Prosecute Julianne? I’m the one that confessed to killing him.”
Pat smiled wide and nodded in understanding. “A noble thing, for sure, but it wasn’t necessary. The charges have been dropped. You’re both free to go.”
Sheriff Duke shook his head and disappeared down the hallway into his office with a slam of his door.
“He disagrees, I take it?”
The prosecutor chuckled. “He fancied himself the hero cracking a huge case. There’s not much crime around here for him to tackle, and this would give him the boost for his reelection. But even without Mrs. Curtis’s testimony of her own attack, there was nothing for us to go forward on.”
“What?” This time the question came from Julianne.
Deborah stepped forward, speaking for the first time. “I want you to know that I don’t harbor any ill will against you or your family. You took Tommy in when no one else would and did only what you had to do to defend yourself. I completely understand that. My brother started displaying violent tendencies before he was even twelve years old. My parents tried to control him. They punished him, they put him in therapy. They even considered one of the boot camps for troubled teens. But it wasn’t until my father came home early from work one day and caught him...attacking me...”
Julianne gasped, bringing her hand to cover her mouth. “Oh, god.” Heath wanted to go to her side, but he resisted. Despite what had happened, she might still be upset with him.
“Tommy didn’t succeed,” Deborah said, “but he would’ve raped me if my father hadn’t come home. I didn’t want to press charges, I was too embarrassed. After that, he wasn’t allowed to be alone with me. His close call didn’t stop him from getting in trouble, though. He was constantly getting picked up for one thing or another. He even did a few weeks in juvie. Eventually the state removed him from the home as a repeat juvenile offender and I tried to forget it ever happened.” She shook her head. “I never dreamed he would try to do it again. I feel awful.”
“Mrs. Curtis’s story was so similar to Julianne’s that there was no reason to believe she wasn’t telling the truth. The forensic evidence supported her version of his death. There’s not a grand jury that would indict her. Anything that happened after the fact is well past the statute of limitations.” Pat looked down the hall at the sheriff’s office and shook his head. “Sheriff Duke might not be happy, but the only real crime here was committed by the deceased a long time ago. As much as I’d like to, I can’t charge a dead man with second-degree sexual assault.”
The words hung in the air for a moment. Heath let them sink into his mind. Pat meant attempted sexual assault, right? Attempted. Julianne had sworn that Tommy hadn’t... And yet, why would a traumatized young girl want to tell him something like that? She wouldn’t.
And then it hit him like he’d driven his Porsche into a brick wall. In an instant, every moment made sense. Every reaction Julianne ever had. Their wedding night...
How could he have missed this? It was so obvious now that he felt like a fool. And a first-class ass. He’d believed what she told him despite all the signs indicating otherwise. All these years he’d been angry with her while she’d carried this secret on her own.
“I’m going to have a talk with the local child services agency. There is a major breach in conduct if they didn’t share the information about Deborah’s assault with Mr. and Mrs. Eden before they placed Tommy there. They might not have taken him in if they’d known.” The phone on Pat’s hip rang and he looked down at the screen. “If you’ll excuse me,” he said, disappearing through the double doors.
After a few silent, awkward moments, Deborah spoke again, this time to Julianne. “Mr. Richards and I were listening in the observation room while you told your story,” she said. “You are so much braver than I ever could have been. I’m sorry I wasn’t stronger. If I had been, I would’ve pressed charges or talked to people about what happened and this might never have happened to you.”
Julianne approached Deborah and embraced her. The two women held each other for a moment. “This is not your fault. Don’t you ever think that. I’ve kept this a secret, too. It’s hard to tell people the truth, even though you didn’t do anything wrong.”
When Julianne pulled away, Deborah dabbed her eyes with a tissue and sniffed. “You know, I came back to Cornwall to track down Tommy, but I wasn’t looking for a happy family reunion. My therapist had recommended I find him so I could confront my fears and move on. He had vanished, but I expected him to be in jail or working at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. This,” she said, waving her hand around, “was more than I ever planned to uncover. But it’s better, I think. I don’t have to be afraid of Tommy anymore. He’s never going to show up on my doorstep and he’ll never be able to hurt me or my little girl. I’m happy I was able to help with your case, too. It makes me feel like I have more power and control over my life than ever before.”
Heath stood quietly while the two women spoke. He had so many things he wanted and needed to say to Julianne, but now wasn’t the time. They eventually moved down the hallway, making their way out of the police station.
He was relieved to step outside. It was cold, but the sun was shining. It was like an omen; Noah’s rainbow signaling that all of this was finally over. They no longer had to worry about the police coming after them. It was in the past now, where it belonged.
At least most of it. With the truth out, the papers would no doubt pick up the story. They needed to sit down with Mom and Dad and tell them what had happened before some woman cornered Molly at the grocery store. Hopefully Ke
n’s heart could withstand the news now that the threat of his children’s incarceration was behind them.
