Betrayal - Fern Michaels [36]
Alex simply nodded and walked toward the van, a deputy on either side of him.
Kate watched the van until its taillights disappeared. Once she was back inside the house alone, she sobbed until her eyes were swollen shut. She took Alex’s best bottle of Royal Canadian and poured herself a tall glass. She gulped it down, then followed it with another. Her throat burned from the whiskey, but she continued to drink until the bottle was empty.
In a drunken stupor, Kate went upstairs to the master bedroom and fell onto the bed she had shared with her husband. She hugged Alex’s pillow, inhaling traces of Old Spice and a scent that was uniquely Alex’s. When she awoke, the sun was setting.
She reached for the clock on her side of the bed. “Damn!” She’d lost an entire day. Pulling herself into a sitting position, Kate tucked both knees close to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and sobbed more. She’d cried so much after Alex left, she was sure she had no tears left. She was wrong. Kate blew her nose on her T-shirt.
At that precise moment Kate wanted nothing more than to get her hands around Sara Marie Winter’s fat neck. She wanted to squeeze until the truth spewed forth from her lying lips. Why had she done this? What in the name of God had Alex ever done to the child? Kate tried to think of all the times they’d been with the Winter family in the past thirteen years. She couldn’t recall a single time that Alex had been alone for any length of time with Sara, or with Emily, for that matter. They’d gone over this a million times as they were writing the dates out for James. Both agreed that the child had serious mental issues because there was nothing that either of them could recall that remotely hinted at anything even close to inappropriate touching.
If Alex’s situation hadn’t been so desperate, Kate would’ve laughed. Who would have thought Alex capable of such a vile act? Kate wondered if Don truly believed Alex had committed an act so unnatural that it was sickening to contemplate. If so, then he’d never really known Alex, even though they’d been friends for most of their life.
Kate ended her pity-party then and there. It would do Alex no good at all. From that moment forward, everything she did would be for Alex. Somehow, she would help Alex escape from this nightmare. She wasn’t sure what she could do, but she was always big on gut instinct. When hers kicked in, and said, “Do this or that for Alex,” then she would know.
With their future at stake, Kate knew crying and theorizing wouldn’t get her any closer to learning the truth about Sara and why she’d accused Alex of such a sordid act. She would leave first thing in the morning for Naples, Florida. Gertie had arranged for her to stay in the house of a friend who was in Rhode Island for the summer. If Alex remained in jail when it was time for her to give up the house, then Kate would rent an apartment. Gertie would remain in Asheville so that Alex’s business continued. He’d been worried about leaving the dogs, but he knew they were in good hands with Gertie. Kate trusted her more than anyone else, excluding Alex. Gertie was as good as family.
After a long, cool shower and a couple of aspirins, Kate felt much better. She’d been foolish to drown her sorrows in a bottle, but somehow it’d seemed the thing to do at the time.
Hoping the weather for tomorrow was decent, she flipped on the television in the bedroom in hopes of catching an up-to-date weather report. She’d chartered a private plane to fly her to Naples and knew if the weather was remotely iffy, her flight would be canceled. She turned the volume up as the anchor’s animated face filled the screen to make sure she could hear accurately. As the anchor was about to switch over to the weather report, her smiling face became serious. “This just