A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [101]
“I’m all right,” Tessa insisted. Then she made introductions, and the two men shook hands.
“Thanks for looking out for my sister,” Tanner said.
Steven merely nodded, then headed down the steps. At the bottom, he met Olivia, Melissa’s sister, for the first time.
Not a word passed between him and Melissa until they’d both gotten back into his truck and he’d backed out of the alley and onto a side street, coming to a stop at the only traffic light in Stone Creek.
A right turn, and they would be headed for her place. A left, for his.
Steven was torn. He didn’t want to leave Melissa alone, but suggesting that she spend the night with him didn’t seem right, either.
“Where to?” he finally asked.
“The courthouse,” Melissa said, not looking at him.
She didn’t offer any further explanation, but Steven knew all too well why she wanted to go there. She meant to wait, either in her office or in Tom’s, until there was some kind of news.
“Okay,” Steven agreed, and when the light finally changed, he turned neither left nor right, but drove straight through the intersection, headed for the parking lot behind the courthouse.
The whole building was blazing with light, and Tom’s cruiser, along with two others, sat at angles from the main entrance, as though quickly abandoned. One of the motors was still making a ticking sound, in fact.
A group of onlookers stood watching.
“Showtime,” Melissa said, under her breath, without even a semblance of humor.
Steven kept pace with her, nodding to various locals as he passed them.
They reached the large glass doors, and he opened one of them, then waited while Melissa crossed the threshold.
“You don’t have to stay,” she told him, when they were inside the corridor.
Noise spilled from Tom’s office at the other end of the hallway—a woman was alternately sobbing and shrieking, and a dog, probably Elvis, was barking.
Steven made no response.
Melissa gave a small sigh of apparent resignation, and they walked toward the sheriff’s office.
VELDA CAHILL REELED, wild-eyed, when Melissa stepped through the doorway, but the woman was looking past her, to Steven.
“You’ve got to help my boy!” she cried. Word that he was a defense attorney must have gotten around.
Melissa stiffened slightly, but that was the only outward indication she gave that she knew what was going to happen. In some strange way, she’d known it all along.
Byron Cahill hadn’t lasted long on the outside. Most likely, she’d be filing charges of armed robbery against him by morning, if not before then.
Steven spoke quietly to Velda; Melissa didn’t attempt to listen in. She exchanged glances with Tom Parker and then swung her gaze toward the old-fashioned cells at the back of the office.
Byron sat on the cot in one of them, his head down, his hands hanging between his knees, fingers loosely intertwined. Elvis peered in at him, through the bars, reminding Melissa momentarily of one of the scenes in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.
“What happened?” Melissa asked, speaking to Tom but still watching Byron. She had a sinking feeling in her middle, and she knew the trouble went beyond the sure and certain knowledge that she and Steven would be on opposite sides of the coming fight.
They were emotionally involved so, technically, anyway, she and Steven could not legally oppose each other in a courtroom.
She could handle the prosecution, or Steven could defend Byron Cahill, but not both. One of them would have to withdraw.
And it wasn’t going to be her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
STANDING BESIDE MELISSA as she gazed at Byron Cahill through the bars of the cell, Tom explained what had happened after he’d spoken to Martine in the Grange Hall parking lot. He’d started for the Stop & Shop, intending to begin his investigation where the crime had taken place, and had nearly been hit by the Cahill car as it shot out of an alley.
Tom had stuck his portable light on the roof of his personal vehicle and set it flashing, wishing he had a siren, too.
The driver hadn