Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [744]
Yes, Atticus Finch had inspired Grace to become a lawyer. That’s what she told anyone who asked, especially anyone in the media. It was easy, less messy, and for the most part, it was true. However, it was Jimmy Lee Parker who convinced Grace she should be a prosecutor. It was Jimmy Lee Parker who, on a hot, sticky night in July 1964, broke into a police officer’s home, sneaked up the narrow staircase to the officer and his wife’s bedroom and bashed in their skulls with a baseball bat.
That was the summer Grace turned six. She was spending that night, just three blocks away, at her grandma Wenny’s. She didn’t remember much about the rest of that summer, the summer she went to live with her grandmother. The summer Jimmy Lee Parker killed Omaha police officer Fritz Wenninghoff and his wife, Emily.
Yes, Jimmy Lee Parker was the reason Grace had become a prosecutor. She doubted that Max Kramer had any Jimmy Lees who had inspired him or surely he never would have believed freeing Jared Barnett to be justice.
Grace ripped open another box using a bit more force than necessary. She didn’t like thinking about that summer her father and mother were murdered in their own home, in their own bed. Although she couldn’t remember much about it. She dug into the box, shoving aside the flaps. Finally, the bathroom towels. She needed to get her mind back to the present. She loaded up an armful and headed for the bathroom, but this time when she passed Emily’s room she heard her daughter say, “You saw the shadow man?”
Grace stopped and listened.
“He was here inside our house?”
“Emily,” Grace interrupted, “what shadow man are you talking about?”
“The one Daddy talked about.”
Grace remembered Vince telling her to not look for Barnett in the shadows. That had to be what Emily was referring to. “You mean at the airport?” Emily nodded. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, facing the antique dresser and mirror. “He was only joking, sweetie. There is no shadow man.”
“Bitsy says he was here today,” Emily said, looking over Grace’s shoulder as if her friend was standing there. Only when Grace turned, there was just the dresser and mirror.
“Now, how would Bitsy know?”
“She saw him sneaking around. He took Mr. McDuff.”
Grace didn’t want to get angry with Emily, but she wasn’t sure why she was making all this up. Maybe the idea of a shadow man had really frightened her.
“Are you sure you didn’t misplace him?”
Emily shook her head. “He was on my bed where I always leave him.”
Grace looked around the room. The rest of the house was a mess but Emily had organized her room. Definitely not a trait she inherited from her mother. The stuffed white dog was nowhere in sight.
“I’m sure he’s here somewhere.”
“Bitsy said the shadow man took him.”
Grace rubbed at the ever-present knot in the back of her neck. She was beginning to get impatient, but kept her voice calm. “Sweetie, you know Daddy and I would never let anyone hurt you. You know that, right?”
Emily nodded again, but she seemed distracted. She glanced over Grace’s shoulder again. Maybe it was nothing all. Maybe she really was just playing, just talking.
“Why don’t you look around and see if McDuff is downstairs?”
“Okay.”
Grace started out the door but Emily said, “Mommy, Bitsy says we should lock the door from the house to the garage whenever we leave from now on.”
Grace stared at her daughter, and for a brief second she felt a chill, like a draft from an open door. How in the world did Emily know they didn’t lock that door?
Before getting back to the boxes she stopped to check all the locks on the doors and windows. Then she realized how silly she was being. She couldn’t let Emily’s fear and confusion cloud her judgment or frighten her. And she wouldn’t let Jared Barnett make her jump at shadows.
She had unpacked only one box when the phone interrupted her.
“Hello,” she answered, distracted and thinking it would be easier to go out and buy new things.