“I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can. Will’s one of the best. He’s not going to railroad Emily.”
Connor pulled Julia into his arms and held her. Her body shook with silent sobs. “This is more about the past than it is about the present, isn’t it?” he quietly asked.
She nodded against his chest, hands clenching his shirt.
“I will not let Emily go to prison or juvenile hall or a mental hospital,” Connor said. “We will protect her together. I believe she’s innocent, and right now I think Will Hooper will listen. Trust me on this.”
“I trust you.” Her voice was a mere whisper, but the words were powerful.
TWENTY-TWO
After Julia changed and cleaned up from the accident, Connor drove her to the hospital. It was already nearly noon.
In the observation room outside Emily’s room, Dillon looked Julia over. “Are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?” Dillon touched the bruise on her forehead.
“I’m fine. Really.”
Fine physically, she thought, but worried to death about what they were asking Emily to do. She played with the rings on her fingers until Connor squeezed her hand. “Remember what I told you,” he said.
Dillon said, “I just talked to Emily. She said she wants to talk to the police and tell them everything.”
Julia released a pent-up breath. “I don’t know what’s the right thing to do anymore.”
“Emily is going to be fine,” Connor said. “You need to think about yourself. Someone just tried to kill you.”
Will Hooper stepped into the observation room. “Excuse me? What’s this about someone trying to kill the counselor?”
“Connor’s exaggerating,” she said. “Someone ran me off the road. We don’t know that they were really trying to
Will opened his notebook. “Who were the responding officers?”
“Davies and Rayo,” Connor said.
Will frowned. “Any problems?”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Connor said. “They called in the crime scene so if there’s any evidence they’ll gather it. The truck had no plates.”
“This just gets better and better,” Will grumbled.
“What happened at Bowen’s place?” Dillon asked.
Will said, “I don’t believe Dr. Bowen committed suicide. He supposedly put a noose around his neck and jumped off the balcony, but his fingerprints were nowhere to be found. And get this. He cut himself with a glass downstairs-he’d poured himself a little drink. But there was no blood on the railing, not even a flake. He would have had to touch the railing someway to get over it. We found a towel with blood at the top of the stairs. And then the paper. Where he allegedly wrote his suicide note. It looks like his handwriting, but we couldn’t find that paper anywhere in his house.”
“An elaborate setup with amateur mistakes,” Dillon said. “They didn’t make those mistakes with Montgomery.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Will said.
“What did you find?” Julia asked.
Will laid into them. “Why should I share anything with you? You’ve been running around investigating this case on your own without giving me even a courtesy call. I find out Connor talks to a potential witness, Billy Thompson, about another Wishlist murder. And before I can talk to Emily’s friends, he’s talking with them. And you-”
He pointed an accusatory finger at Dillon. “You’re the last person I expected to be running around like a vigilante. Bowen filed a report against you Friday after you harassed him at the country club.”
“I didn’t harass him.”
“I didn’t think you did either, but it shows that he was getting nervous and you were in the middle of
“I’m just trying to protect my niece,” Julia said.
Will rubbed his face with both hands. “Right. I understand that. But we’ve now come to full disclosure time. I’m eager to talk to Emily.”
Dillon nodded. “You can talk to her. But I’m still her physician and if I cut off the interview, no more questions.”
“Fair enough,” Will agreed.
“And you should know some other things.”
Will sat down, took out his notebook. “Finally.”
Julia told Will about Jason Ridge’s Deferred Entry of Judgment and Bowen’s role as his psychiatrist recommending the leniency.
“Who was the judge? Don’t tell me Victor Montgomery?”
“No. Vernon Small.”
Will stared at her. “Small? He never met a criminal he didn’t like.”
“He’s dead.”
“I guess I heard that, but how?” Will asked.
“I don’t know. I assumed old age.”
Will made a note in his notepad. “I wouldn’t assume anything right now.”
“And there’s another thing, but I don’t know how it fits in,” Julia said. “Jason’s ex-girlfriend is Michelle O’Dell. She’s at Stanford now. But apparently they both knew a girl who committed suicide, Shannon Chase. She hung herself.”
Will straightened. “Hung herself? Just like Bowen supposedly did? Far too many coincidences,” Will concluded. “Now I need to ask Emily about these people.”
Julia and Connor observed through the window as Dillon and Will went into Emily’s room. For Will’s benefit, Emily recounted her story, though it was now a much calmer version than on the day after Victor’s murder. Still, she stayed true to the facts as she’d stated them before.
As Julia heard Emily recount Victor’s rape and subsequent sexual abuse, a tear escaped. Connor wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulled her into the nook of his arm. “She’s going to be okay, Julia,” he said. “She’s strong, just like her aunt.”
“Thank you.”
Will asked about Jason Ridge, but Emily didn’t know him. Nor had she heard of Michelle O’Dell or Shannon Chase.
Dillon took up the questioning. “How long have you been a member of Wishlist?”
“A couple years, I guess. Ever since the vandalism.” She looked down, embarrassed. “I’m really sorry I did that.”
“I know you are,” Dillon said. “Wishlist is supposed to be confidential. So maybe you didn’t know Jason by name. What about anyone who talked about football, someone who isn’t around anymore?”
“I really can’t remember. Some of the guys talk about sports, but I don’t really pay attention to that.”
“Do you know Judge Vernon Small?” Will asked.
Emily rolled her eyes. “What a weasel. My mother made me go to his funeral. He and Victor were great friends, but I thought he was creepy. He looked at me like…like Victor did.”
“When was his funeral?”
“I don’t know, before Christmas last year.”
“Did anyone on Wishlist talk about Judge Small?”
“No, we rarely mentioned any names. But Judge Small is the one who put me on probation after the graffiti. I get three years for some stupid spray painting, but he lets some rapist off with a warning.”
