Wrongly Accused. Laura Scott
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“She’s done this before, hasn’t she?” he asked.
“Yes, but not lately.” Not for over six months, but she didn’t tell him that. She’d suspected the gunfire, tear gas and subsequent wild ride out the back of her garage would bring them back. “Unfortunately, with everything that happened today, I’m not surprised they returned.”
Please, Lord, bring peace to this sweet little girl. She’s an innocent victim in all of this.
Noelle lost track of time as she held Kaitlin, waiting for her to fall asleep once again. When Kaitlin’s breathing slowed and her tiny body went slack, she stopped rocking and gently lowered the child to the bed. Caleb moved away, and now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she watched him scrub his hands over his face.
She knew just how helpless he felt; she’d experienced the same thing during those first few months that Kaitlin had come to live with her.
“Excuse me,” she whispered, making her way into the bathroom. She used the facilities and splashed cold water on her face to brace herself before heading back out to face him.
Caleb had opened the curtains a half inch, allowing the light from the outside parking lot to shine into the room. He was seated on a chair near the window, holding his head in his hands.
He lifted his head when she approached. “This is my fault, isn’t it?” he asked.
Why she wanted to make him feel better, she had no idea. “It’s not your fault someone shot at you.”
“I can’t stand the thought of Kaitlin being afraid of me,” he whispered.
“She’s not,” she whispered back. “After all, she let you hold her in the pool, remember?”
He shook his head. “She wanted to swim so badly I think she would have let anyone hold her.”
Noelle sank down onto the chair next to him, unable to refute his logic. “She needs a little time, that’s all.”
He lifted his gaze to hers. “Maybe I can find a safe place for the two of you to stay for a while. Then I’ll head off on my own to try and figure out who’s trying to kill me.”
As much as she wanted him to let them go, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from arguing. “Don’t you think that’s a job for the police? They have more resources than you do.”
“Not if they’re in on it,” he muttered. “Don’t you understand? I can’t trust the police, not after the way everything went down. The entire community thinks I’m guilty. And I can’t take the chance the shooter will use my daughter to get to me.”
“Who is the shooter? And why would anyone do something so terrible? I don’t understand what’s going on, Caleb.”
He stared at her in the darkness, and she wished she could see his eyes more clearly. Strange that her earlier distrust of Caleb seemed to have faded in the wake of Kaitlin’s nightmare.
“I don’t understand what’s going on, either,” he said. “Other than someone wants to kill me. Likely the same person who killed my wife. And why wouldn’t that person try to use Kaitlin? She’s my one and only weakness. Anyone who knows me, which includes all the guys on my former SWAT team, would know that I’d do anything to keep my daughter safe.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. “You really think someone on your team killed your wife?”
“Yes, I do. I’ve thought of nothing but Heather’s murder for the fourteen months and it’s the only theory that makes sense. I know you don’t believe me, but I promise you I didn’t kill her. I’d considered filing for divorce, when I discovered she was cheating on me, but I didn’t kill her. And I especially wouldn’t do that while Kaitlin was sleeping in her bedroom. I wasn’t there that night because I’d moved into a motel room. And no matter what that neighbor claimed he saw, I did not go back to the house to kill Heather.”
She’d known that Kaitlin being there the night of her mother’s murder had been the source of the child’s night terrors. The poor child had likely woken to the gunshots and had been found covered with blood in her mother’s room.
After seeing Caleb interact with his daughter, she found it hard to believe everything had happened the way the eyewitness had claimed. That Caleb had killed his wife and then had run away from the house, carrying a gun and leaving his daughter behind.
A gun that still hadn’t been found.
Not to mention an eyewitness who’d disappeared.
Had Caleb really been sleeping in a motel room while someone else killed his wife?
“You’d better try to get some sleep,” he finally said.
“All right.” She rose to her feet and crossed over to the bed she shared with Kaitlin.
But sleep was a long time coming, because for some odd reason, she found she was beginning to believe Caleb was in fact innocent of the crime he’d been accused of.
But knowing that didn’t reassure her the way she thought it would.
Because whoever had tried to kill Caleb outside her house was very likely still looking for him. And she was deeply afraid that the killer wouldn’t hesitate to take the life of a woman and child, too, if necessary.
THREE
Caleb woke up after five hours of sleep, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Maybe because it was his first night of sleep as a free man. He’d never slept well in jail, too much noise from the other inmates and guards constantly making rounds. Even a low-budget motel room was better than what he’d left behind.
The sun was up, but it was still early, barely seven-thirty in the morning. Noelle and Kaitlin were sleeping in, so he quietly made his way to the bathroom, gently closing the door behind him. He felt better after a hot shower, but wished he had a razor and toothpaste.
He planned to make good on his promise to do some shopping right after breakfast. Then maybe they could take Kaitlin swimming again, before they had to hit the road. As much as he wanted to stay here another day, he didn’t dare stick around in one spot for too long. He’d just have to find another motel with a pool for Kaitlin.
Remembering his daughter’s nightmare made him frown. It had been the first hint of what his daughter had gone through emotionally and psychologically after his arrest. He was sincerely glad to know that Noelle had been there for Kaitlin the past fourteen months. The way she’d soothed his daughter last night during her nightmare had touched his heart.
Noelle was a much better mother than Heather had been.
The instant the thought sank in, he thrust it away. He closed his eyes and dragged his hands over his rough cheeks. The demise of his marriage hadn’t been all Heather’s fault and he needed to stop thinking negative thoughts about his former wife. No matter how she’d betrayed him, and violated their marriage vows, she hadn’t deserved to be murdered.
He shoved the past away and finished cleaning up. When he emerged from the bathroom, Noelle was sitting at the side of the bed, finger-combing her hair. “Good morning,” she whispered.
“Morning.” The hint of fear that had shadowed her eyes since he arrived on her doorstep seemed to have vanished. He was afraid to hope that maybe, just maybe, she was starting to believe him. “I thought we’d get something to eat and then find a store. I’m sure you’d like some toothpaste as much as I would.”
A shy smile bloomed on her face. “Yes, that would be wonderful.”
Kaitlin opened her eyes and rolled onto her back, a tiny frown furrowing her brow as she looked around in confusion. “Noa?”
“I’m here, sweetheart,” Noelle said as she pulled the little girl close and gave her a hug.
He wanted to give his daughter a