Read Online Hard Truth by Mariah Stewart - Free Book Online Page B

against hiring me. There’s no obligation. We haven’t signed any contracts. Right now, we’re just talking. So go on. Tell me from the beginning.”
    She did.
    “So that’s it, that’s all they have on this woman? A body with skull fractures front and back, and old signs of child abuse? And a kid who said he dropped Jason off at home and he was never seen again?”
    She nodded. “That pretty much sums it up.”
    “Doesn’t sound like a very solid arrest to me.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You might not have much of a decision to make after all. I think they’re going to end up dismissing the charges.”
    “Why would you say that?”
    “They really don’t have anything of substance. Can you think of any reason why the chief of police would jump on an arrest this fast?”
    “You mean some personal issue?”
    “Right.”
    “Not off the top of my head, but I haven’t lived around here in a long time. All I know is what I remember from before, and what the police are telling me now. I do know that the boy Jason was with that last night said he dropped him off around three and saw him go into the house. No one—except his mother—admits to having seen him after that.”
    “Maybe the other boy didn’t drop him off at home. Maybe he took him someplace else. Maybe he killed him.”
    Lorna stared at him. Had anyone considered that?
    “The point is, there’s only the boy’s word that he’d taken Jason home, just as there’s only Mrs. Eagan’s word that she didn’t kill him.” He sipped his tea. “Why would the boy’s word be more credible than the mother’s?”
    “One, because the mother was an alcoholic and an admitted child abuser. Two, because her daughter had disappeared a few weeks before Jason and she had been one of the first to be suspected, and I think they might have still harbored some suspicion there. Chief Walker was a patrolman at the time, and was involved in that investigation. Maybe he has some issues with having let her go back then, I don’t know. And three, because the boy who dropped Jason off was the son of a woman who, at the time, worked for the county.”
    “So they might have taken his story as gospel?”
    She shrugged. “I have no way of knowing if they had corroboration for that or not. I was only nine at the time, and my best friend was missing. I had no real understanding of what was going on, as far as the investigation was concerned, and I didn’t care. I just wanted my friend to come home. I knew the police suspected Mrs. Eagan—and, to be honest, I sort of did myself. I knew she’d been rough with Melinda, and I knew that Mellie was afraid of her. To my nine-year-old’s mind, that was enough to make her a bad person.”
    “What changed your mind?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’re willing to put up bail, willing to take on the expense of a private investigator to prove her innocent. Why?”
    “I guess because there’s no one else to help her. I think everyone is going to assume the worst about her. She was an alcoholic. She did hurt her kids. Easy enough to believe she killed at least one of them.”
    “But you don’t?”
    Lorna hesitated.
    “No, I don’t. And I believe that if my mother were still alive, she’d take Billie’s side. If for no other reason than to make sure the truth came out. My mother’s no longer with us.” She could have said more, but her throat tightened right about then, so she let it go. How important was it that he understand that she felt honor-bound to her mother, as well as to Mellie, to help find the truth?
    “Your mother and Mrs. Eagan were close friends?”
    “She says they were.”
    “Who says they were? Mrs. Eagan?”
    Lorna nodded.
    “You mean, you only have her word that she and your mother were friends?”
    Lorna nodded again, slowly. “Does that make me appear as stupid as I’m starting to feel?”
    “Not stupid, no.”
    “You’re searching for another word—perhaps,