Wavering Convictions

by Erin Dutton

  “Any time.” Dani wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

  Ally sank into the comfort of that hug, letting the warmth envelop her. When she heard a throat clear behind her, she looked over her shoulder. Kathi stood at the entrance to the kitchen, both kids flanking her.

  “Nobody told me it was family hug time.” Kathi crossed the room and threw her arms around them both before Ally could move.

  “Hugs,” Grayson yelled as he and June flung their little bodies against their legs. Laughing, Ally reached back and placed her hand against his back, holding him to her.

  Ally stood there in her kitchen surrounded by her family of choice, and only one thing was missing. She’d felt Maggie’s absence all day and didn’t think any amount of acceptance could make that void go away.

  * * *

  “Can I get you ladies anything else?” The waiter set plates down in front of Maggie and Inga.

  “We’re good for now.” Maggie picked up the small cup of dressing and poured it over her salad. Then she sifted through the lettuce with her fork, making sure some dressing got distributed throughout it. She hated reaching the bottom of a salad and finding plain lettuce.

  “Salad again, huh? What is this healthy kick you’ve been on?” Inga picked up half of her meatloaf sandwich and took a big bite.

  Vowing to be a better friend to Inga, Maggie had initiated a Tuesday lunch date. Their deal was that they had to leave the office, and their destination had to be within walking distance. Today, Inga had chosen a new place that boasted about their Southern specialties, like the side of fried okra on Inga’s plate.

  “It’s a fried-chicken salad with a huge honey-and-butter biscuit on the side. What about that screams healthy to you?”

  Inga shrugged. “Is Charlie coming?”

  “She said she’d stop by if she didn’t get called for a case.” Since the day they’d run into each other at the gun range, Charlie had been texting occasionally to check up on her. Without Ally, Maggie was lonely, but she hadn’t confessed any of that to Charlie or to Inga. She simply kept her conversations with both focused on them, asking Inga questions about the baby, and getting Charlie to talk about her job and her own family.

  The previous week, she’d included Charlie in their lunch hour, at Inga’s insistence, and the two had hit it off right away. The plan had worked even better than Maggie expected, because while the two of them spent time getting to know each other, Maggie didn’t have to talk.

  She’d gotten Ally’s one text and wanted to respond, but she didn’t know what to say. Their difference of opinion about guns aside, the whole situation had only reminded Maggie that they hadn’t had a future to begin with. She’d let herself become attached to Ally in a way that could only end in heartache, so she might as well deal with that pain right now rather than later.

  “Tell me again why you aren’t hooking up with Charlie?” Inga asked.

  “I don’t want to hook up with anyone.”

  Inga gave her a look that said she knew that wasn’t true and that she knew exactly who Maggie wanted to be with. Before Maggie could respond, Charlie rounded the corner of their row of booths and strode toward them.

  “Speak of the devil,” Inga muttered.

  “Sorry I’m late. I got hung up in an interview.”

  “Did you make him talk, or did he lawyer up?” Inga slid over to let Charlie into her side of the booth.

  “You’ve been watching Law and Order reruns again, haven’t you?” Ally said.

  “I like to multitask during two a.m. feedings.”

  The waiter approached, and Charlie put in an order for a club sandwich with a side of pasta salad. As he walked away she said, “Maybe it’ll be quick since no actual cooking’s involved. I can’t stay long. We have another witness to meet with this afternoon.” She snagged a piece of okra off Inga’s plate. “Sorry if I interrupted. What were y’all talking about?”

  “How Maggie needs to get back out there and start dating.”

  “No. We weren’t.”

  “Why not?” Charlie grabbed a roll from the basket in the center of the table and tore off a chunk. “If we hadn’t met on a case, I totally would have asked you out.”

  “And she’d have said yes, because you’re hot.” Inga sang the word hot in a high-pitched voice as she leaned into Charlie’s shoulder.

  “I would say I’m flattered, but I’m not looking to date right now,” Maggie said.

  Charlie didn’t look too broken up by her rejection.

  “Because you’re hung up on another kind of inappropriate relationship.” When Maggie turned to Inga in surprise, Inga raised her brows. “Did you think I hadn’t picked up on that?” To Charlie, she said, “She’s been—dating, I guess—Ally Becker.” She could always count on Inga to lay out the truth.

  “Ally Becker, as in Carey Rowe’s sister?” Charlie asked. Maggie didn’t know if she’d put together when they talked about her before that something more was going on.

  “We’re friends.” Maggie didn’t think she could sell the lie. But they weren’t even friends now, were they?

  “Friends who sleep together,” Inga said.

  “How do you know we slept together?”

  “You just told me.”

  “Okay. Dial back the smug, Inga. God, remind me why we’re friends again.”

  “Because I don’t coddle you. And I put up with you when you shut down and don’t tell me what’s going on in your life”—she held up a hand to stall Maggie’s interruption—“and I’m okay with that. I’m the needy one in our friendship. But you’ve had some big stuff happening lately, and I hope you know that I’m here if you need to talk.”

  “I do. There’s really not much to discuss.”

  “It seems like there’s something,” Charlie said. “Whenever I ask how you’re doing, you just say fine. I kind of assumed you were still dealing with the robbery and everything, but there’s more, isn’t there?”

  Maggie sighed and set down her fork. So much for her stress-free lunches while Inga and Charlie distracted each other. “Ally and I aren’t—anything, anymore.”

  “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry.” Inga reached across the table and covered her hand. “What happened?”

  “Basically, we had a disagreement that we maybe could get past. But it brings to light all the other obstacles to a relationship between us, and, long story short, I haven’t talked to her in over a month.”

  “Maybe that’s for the best.”

  “How so?”

  “What are you imagining is going to happen? That she’s going to sit next to you in court and hold your hand while you put her brother in prison?”

  “I know it’s complicated. But we got involved in spite of that situation.”

  “You did.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I believe you’re trying to get past who she is to be close to her. But are you really sure you know what her motives were?”

  Maggie narrowed her eyes and waited, needing to hear Inga say aloud what she’d just implied.

  “You said yourself that she knew about the relationship to your case before you did. Maybe it was even sooner than she let on.”

  Maggie didn’t want to consider that the theory might be true. “No. She didn’t seek me out. She was already seated in the café when I walked in. There were no tables left. Our first meeting was entirely by chance.”

  “And then?”

  “I called her.”

  “After she made sure you took her number.” Inga turned toward Charlie. “What do you think?”

  Charlie gave Maggie an apologetic look, then said, “I think you should be careful.”

  “And I’m wondering why I introduced the two of you.”

  “Hold on. I’m not done. I don’t necessarily agree with Inga. I’ve only seen this woman around you one time, in the lobby that day.”

  “That was immediately after I found out who she was.”

  “But I’m
pretty good at reading people, and I didn’t get a conniving vibe off her. She seemed genuinely concerned for you.”

  Maggie nodded. Not that she’d needed confirmation that Ally wasn’t just out to con her. But it helped to have someone else say it.

  “I don’t know much about her. She was in court that day to support her brother, right? Are they close?”

  “Yes.”

  “Parents still alive?”

  “Their mom is very involved in their lives. But their dads aren’t around.”

  “I can see that all being a sticky situation. So I say be careful. I’d hate to see you hurt if she decides being with you isn’t worth the stress it puts on her relationship with her family.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter. Because I’ve already decided for her. I didn’t respond when she reached out.” Maggie picked up her fork again, but she’d lost her appetite, so she just pushed the remains of her salad around for the rest of their lunch.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Maggie stuck her head in Inga’s office and knocked on the doorframe. Inga looked up from her paperwork and took off her reading glasses.

  “Hey. I just wanted to remind you that I’m leaving early today.”

  “Oh, right. That thing with the DA.”

  Maggie nodded. A victim / witness coordinator with the district attorney’s office had left a reminder message on her cell phone late last week. After the fight with Ally, she’d completely forgotten to call and schedule the pretrial conference. She’d returned the call when she got off work and set a late-afternoon appointment for this week.

  She left the office and decided to walk the five blocks to the address she’d been given. She’d worn a light blouse and knee-length skirt that day, but even the shade from the towering buildings of downtown didn’t abate the humid July air. When she arrived, she went straight to the lobby restroom, allowing the air-conditioning to cool her off. She blotted her face and neck with paper towel and fussed with her hair for a moment before leaving.

  She took the elevator to the fourth floor and gave her name to the receptionist. Only a few minutes later, a tall African American woman came through a door behind the reception desk. Her quick stride, strong posture, and smart black pantsuit telegraphed confidence. Could this woman, please, be assigned to Maggie’s case? She needed that energy.

  “Ms. Davidson?” She slowed as she approached Maggie, leaving a respectful distance. Did she do that in deference to Maggie’s status as a victim?

  “Maggie.”

  “Maggie, I’m Sasha Westlake. I’m the prosecutor assigned to the state versus Carey Rowe.”

  Maggie grasped Sasha’s outstretched hand. Did Sasha feel hers tremble when she said his name? She managed a firm handshake and didn’t apologize for her slightly damp hand.

  “Come on back.” She led Maggie to a conference room just down the hall from reception.

  “Make yourself comfortable.”

  Her offer to get comfortable felt futile. A large conference table dominated the room, the eight chairs around it basic black and chrome. The overall effect left the room feeling like an afterthought, although the blame probably fell to the same government underfunding she’d seen in her own office. She’d campaigned for two years to finally get a comfy desk chair.

  She chose a spot at the side of the long conference table that allowed her to look out the window. When she swallowed, her throat felt sticky and dry. She should have accepted the receptionist’s offer of a drink earlier.

  “It’s just going to be us today. The other attorney on the case had to go pick up his sick kid from school.” Sasha sat across from her and opened a thick blue folder. “This is just a pretrial conference. We’ll talk about your recollection of the events of that night. I’ll review most of the questions I intend to ask you on the stand. Okay?” Sasha’s eyes conveyed warmth and patience as she spoke to Maggie. But when she began leafing through the file in front of her, they looked sharp and alert.

  Maggie nodded.

  “Great. And as things evolve, if we have anything new to discuss, I’ll have the victim / witness coordinator get in touch with you. You’ll hear from her more than from me directly going forward. But I’m always available if you need to speak specifically to me.”

  For the next thirty minutes, Maggie recounted the details of the robbery, and Sasha occasionally stopped her with questions. When they took a break, Sasha pointed Maggie to a nearby restroom, and when she returned to the conference room, Sasha had brought them both back a bottle of water.

  “This heat is killing me. And the air-conditioning in this building can’t keep up.”

  “I hear you. They upgraded our system, and now it’s supposed to be more efficient. But so far, it’s just controlled remotely by some guy in another city building somewhere. The temperature swings seem even more dramatic.”

  “Great. They’ve been promising us an update as well. Thanks for dashing our hopes that things will be better then.”

  Maggie smiled. “Sorry.”

  Sasha smiled back, then closed her folder and set her pen down next to it. “I think that’s it for my questions for now. You’ll be fine on the stand, and I don’t expect the defense to throw you any oddball questions.”

  “He won’t try to make it look like I’m lying?”

  “No. There isn’t any question you were robbed. He won’t want the jury to feel that he’s attacking the victim. He’ll look for a weak point in the evidence or something.”

  “Okay.”

  “The goal is a guilty verdict. I’m confident we can get that, in this case. Then the judge will set a sentencing date. Mr. Rowe likely will get time served for the time he’s spent in jail, so that will be subtracted from his sentence.”

  “That was only a couple of days or a week, right?”

  “Initially, yes. Plus, this last month.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I thought you’d been notified.” Sasha flipped her file back open and consulted a page at the back. “He’s been in jail again for nearly a month now.”

  “Why?” Had he committed another crime? How was Ally dealing with this?

  “He violated the bond condition requiring him to stay clean. I’m so sorry. I thought someone from our office had called you. If nothing else, you can breathe easier until we go to trial. He’s not getting out of jail before then.”

  “Oh, Ally,” Maggie murmured.

  “What’s that?”

  “Uh—nothing. No. No one called me.”

  “Apparently, he overdosed at home, and his mother had to call for paramedics.”

  Sasha walked Maggie back out to the lobby with a promise to get in touch if anything changed before the court date. Maggie rode down in the elevator, staring at the buttons while thinking about what Sasha had revealed.

  Carey Rowe was back in jail. Sasha had said she could breathe easier. But Maggie didn’t feel any more or less safe than she had before. Given what Ally had mentioned about his back injury on the job and eventual spiral into addiction to painkillers, she’d never felt that Carey was a continued threat to her. Her fear stemmed more from the awareness that danger existed—a fact she’d been able to ignore before the robbery.

  * * *

  Ally stepped into the visitation room at the detention center, searching for her mother and Carey. She didn’t see them at any of the dozen tables spread throughout the space.

  A uniformed guard approached her. “Ms. Becker?”

  “Yes.”

  “The inmate is in a private room, because he requested a conference with his attorney. This way.” He led her to a door along the far wall. As they got closer, she could see into the room through a window, but nothing being said inside could be heard from the outside.

  Ally had gotten stuck in traffic on the interstate, due to a vehicle accident. Just when she’d started to fear she would miss visiting hours altogether, traffic had started moving again.

  “Sorry I’m late.” She slipped i
nto the chair next to Shirley, across from Carey and Jorge.

  “Would you please talk some sense into your brother?”

  Ally glanced at Carey. “What’s going on?”

  Shirley waved her hands in huge arcing circles. “Go ahead. Tell her what you’re planning to do.”

  “Ma—”

  Shirley exploded again. “He’s going to plead guilty. Tell him how foolish that is.” She turned to Carey. “Listen to your sister.”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Ally said.

  “What? Don’t listen to her. What the hell are you saying?”

  Ally met Carey’s eyes for a long, serious moment. “Is the ADA still willing to reduce your sentence in exchange for the plea?” Carey deferred to Jorge, who nodded. “Then you’re doing the right thing.”

  “No. We’re going to fight this.” Shirley’s face grew red, and she jabbed a finger with every word. “Don’t let that little bitch lie—”

  “Whoa, Ma.” Ally bristled, prepared to defend Maggie. In fact, she was ready to out her relationship with Maggie right here and now, if it meant she didn’t have to listen to Shirley finish that sentence.

  “I did it.” Carey’s words sent the room into silence. Jorge shifted in his chair, possibly uncomfortable with hearing such an admission from his client. But Carey made his statement calmly, as if the truth had settled something within him. He looked at Ally. “I think you need to hear me say it.”

  She nodded, understanding passing between them that she desperately wanted to delve further into. But she didn’t want Shirley involved in that conversation, so she’d wait until they were alone. Did he already know about Maggie? She’d never given him enough credit for being able to read her.

  “Why are you doing this?” Shirley practically wailed.

  Carey looked at Shirley, more focused than Ally had seen him in some time. “Because my life is out of control. I’ve been blaming everyone else for my problems. If I’m going to stay clean, I have to grow up.”