River's Edge

by Terri Blackstock

  Blair thought about that for a moment. “Okay, I’ll buy that, but what about the rest? The belt of truth, for instance. I sure didn’t know truth when Carson was telling me what I wanted to hear.”

  “The truth is in God’s Word. You get it from studying it, learning it, knowing what it says. Not whipping it out of some pretend closet.”

  “I guess that’s the problem. I don’t know the Bible that well, and even since I became a Christian, I haven’t spent that much time reading it.”

  “That’s easy to change. As for your breastplate, you do have that protection, because you exchanged your sin for Christ’s righteousness…and your shoes of the gospel of peace—”

  “They don’t fit very well,” Blair cut in. “Because my peace quotient is low. All I’ve had lately is anxiety and discontent. How can I take peace to anyone else when I’m in such a mess?”

  “Again, you study God’s Word, make it a part of you. But the shoes are about spreading the Word, telling others about the peace you’ve found. You have something they need.”

  “So what about the shield of faith? How do I strengthen mine?”

  “You have to feed it the things that make it grow stronger. Again, you have to study God’s Word as if it were your very lifeline. Because it is.”

  Blair looked out across the water and saw that the clouds were starting to break up, revealing a fissure of bright blue sky. Morgan was so wise. Blair knew she was right, that the armor was there for her taking, if only she spent time learning God’s Word and getting to know him better.

  “Okay, so I’m protected if I do that. But what about the sword? It’s the only offensive weapon, but I don’t feel like I’m any threat at all to the enemy.”

  “As you get to know the Word of God, front to back, layer upon layer—hunger for it, breathe it—that sword will get sharper and more effective. If you don’t arm yourself with God’s Word, it’s about as effective as that imaginary one you used to poke me with.”

  Blair felt hope seeping back into her heart. Maybe all wasn’t lost. “But then why did Mama wake us with that every morning? Like it was something we could do that day?”

  “She wanted to remind us what we had, and maybe she assumed that we were more spiritually mature than we were, that our weapons and armor were ready. But the truth is, you have to build up those weapons before you need them, so you’ll be ready when you’re face-to-face with someone like Carson Graham.”

  “You’re right. I was unarmed with him. Completely unequipped.” She looked down at the waves crashing past the posts. “I guess occasional curiosity about something in the Bible doesn’t cut it, huh? And neither does regurgitating what someone else told me. Not even if I hear it from you or Jonathan, or even Cade.”

  “You’re getting it, Sis. It’s a hands-on project, and you’re responsible to keep your armor in good condition. You’re a member of God’s army, and that’s what a good soldier does.”

  She deserved a court-martial, a dishonorable discharge, or maybe even a firing squad. “That does it. I’m not going to be found unarmed again. The next time the Devil tries to attack me, he’s gonna have a real fight on his hands.” She considered her sister for a long moment. “Maybe I need to be in the Hanover House program. Your graduates come out more grounded in their faith than I am.”

  “God’s growing you, Blair, and you’re letting him. You’re not kicking against the goads, like Sheila.”

  Blair realized she’d been mouthing off about her own problems when her sister was hurting. She settled her eyes on Morgan. “What are you going to do?”

  Morgan’s tears filled her eyes again. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t. But please pray for me—and for Caleb and Sadie. God’s worked miracles in our lives before. We could use another one, right about now.”

  CHAPTER 64

  Alan Sims was in much better shape than he’d been in the last time Cade had interviewed him. Cade and McCormick found him at home. Though it still looked cluttered, it was cleaner than it had been just after Lisa’s death.

  “No, I didn’t see Lisa the day she disappeared. I told you she canceled that appointment.”

  “One of your patients told us that she saw Lisa come into your office that morning.”

  Sims looked startled. “That morning? No, it couldn’t be. I wasn’t working that morning.”

  “That’s what she said,” Cade went on. “They told her you were off, and she left. She said Lisa looked angry and upset and that she was intent on speaking to you. You sure she didn’t come to find you?”

  Sims huffed and poked his chin in the air. “Quite sure. As I said, I would have told you something like that.”

  “Dr. Sims, what were you doing the morning Lisa Jackson disappeared?”

  “I was here, puttering around in my yard. My wife went to Europe for a month, and I’ve been building her a fountain in the backyard to surprise her. Would you like to see it?”

  Cade looked at McCormick, and the detective got up. “I would. I’ve thought of building one of those myself.”

  Cade knew his detective wanted a look at more of the house, the back door, the yard, anything that might offer him a clue.

  Sims led them out and showed them the finished fountain. There was no way to tell when it was built, though it did appear new.

  “Was anyone with you that morning?”

  “No. My maid, Kylie, had already taken the day off. Up and quit after that. I was here alone and kind of enjoying it.”

  “Did anyone see you at any time that morning? Did you talk to anyone on the phone?”

  “Yes, my office called a couple of times, but I didn’t leave the house until about noon.”

  “When your office called, did they tell you that Lisa had come in looking for you?”

  “Of course not.” He led them back in. “I get angry patients in all the time. They go ballistic when they start their menstrual cycles after they hoped they were pregnant. Talk about PMS. You haven’t seen the half of it until you’ve worked with angry, hormonal, infertile women.”

  Cade knew the doctor expected him to laugh, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He wished he could nail him with questions about Lisa’s second opinion, about the results that suggested he was a fraud. But he couldn’t. Not yet. He couldn’t risk having him go back to the office and start destroying evidence.

  “They certainly don’t notify me of every one of them. Besides, they knew I was seeing her that afternoon. Whatever she came to see me about could have waited.”

  “Don’t you find it odd that she would have come in that morning when she could have waited until her appointment?” McCormick asked. “Sort of sounds urgent, doesn’t it?”

  He rubbed his jaw and nodded his head. “Yes, it does. I wish I’d had the chance to find out what it was about. But I didn’t, officers. I didn’t.”

  Later, Cade and McCormick sat at their desks and conducted phone interviews with patients who’d been to Sims’ office the day of Lisa’s death. So far, only the woman Morgan met in the office claimed to have seen her that morning. The receptionist and all of the nurses had denied seeing her. Either Sims had warned them to lie, or it hadn’t really happened.

  After he’d talked to a dozen or so women, he hung up and studied his notes. McCormick stuck his head in Cade’s office. “Have you gotten anything yet, Chief?”

  “Nothing to work with. You?”

  McCormick looked down at his own list. “Afraid not, and everybody I’m talking to thinks this doctor hung the moon. You wouldn’t believe the loyalty.”

  “Well, who can blame them? A lot of these women have invested a number of their biological years in this man. To admit that he may have cheated them would be admitting they had wasted a lot of time and money.”

  “You don’t think this guy’s responsible for their infertility, do you?”

  Cade shook his head. “Who knows? Maybe he’s just in the business of giving false hope. Or maybe he doesn’t lie to all of them. Ma
ybe it’s just a select few.”

  “What a sleazeball.”

  Cade picked up his phone again. “The DA is considering subpoenaing his office for his patient files. He’s reluctant to do it until we can come up with a little more evidence. Before he shuts the guy down, he wants a smoking gun.”

  “Let’s hope we can find one before he uses it again.”

  CHAPTER 65

  Sheila took advantage of Caleb’s nap time to make some phone calls. Since Jonathan and Morgan were still at the Pier, and Karen was lying down while Emory napped, she knew she wouldn’t get caught if she slipped into that master bedroom that no one used and called her friends in Atlanta.

  She closed the door quietly behind her. Sadie had told her this was the bedroom of Morgan’s parents who had been murdered less than a year ago. The family had left it like a shrine, with all their belongings still in place. It was downright creepy, but it had a telephone.

  Sheila sat down on the bed and dialed her best friend in Atlanta.

  “Hello?”

  “Marlene!” She kept her voice low. “You’ll never guess who this is.”

  Marlene paused for a moment. “Sheila, is that you?”

  “Yes, it’s me. I’m out of jail. Can you believe it? They let me out early. Some law by the legislature. Whoever thought those people were good for anything?”

  Marlene gave a hoarse victory yell. “Well, when are you coming home, kid?”

  “That’s just it. I’m not. I had to come to Cape Refuge to be with Sadie and Caleb. I’m staying in a home that’s almost like a prison itself. I really miss you guys. What’s going on there?”

  “I’ve got a new guy,” Marlene said. “His name’s Harley, and he moved in with me last week. I’m glad you’re not here. You’d probably steal him from me.”

  “Well, why don’t you bring him east and let me check him out? I could use some company, and you could probably use a little beach time.”

  “We might do that,” Marlene said, “only I’m working weekends now and most nights. Harley had a good job, but he got laid off a couple of weeks ago. I’m trying to keep us both above water.”

  It sounded like a typical scenario. The men in Marlene’s life—Sheila’s too, for that matter—had always had trouble holding jobs. “Man, I’d give anything to come home.”

  “Hey, if you do, you can stay with me. I can clean out the back room. It’ll be just like old times.”

  “What about Sadie and Caleb? I can’t leave without them.”

  “Hey, we can work it out. I love babies.” She’d had three of her own, but two had been removed from her home and the other one lived with his no-account father.

  The door opened, and Sheila jumped. Morgan stepped into the room, staring at her as if she’d caught her stealing from her purse.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  Sheila dropped the phone. “I just wanted to see what was in here.” She fumbled for the phone, then quickly hung it up. “It’s a nice room. Why doesn’t anybody ever use it?”

  Pain flashed across Morgan’s eyes. “It’s off limits, that’s why. I don’t want anybody in here.”

  “Okay, okay.” Sheila got up and started to the door.

  “You were on the telephone.”

  Here it came. Sheila stopped in the doorway. “Yeah? So?”

  “Sheila, you’re allowed to make local calls, and we have phones all over the house. Why did you come in here to make a call?”

  “Because I wanted my privacy.”

  Morgan picked up the phone, pressed redial, and read the readout. “Privacy to make a long distance call to Atlanta?” She hung the phone back in its cradle.

  “I just wanted to talk to my friend.”

  Morgan struggled with tears in her eyes. Sheila couldn’t imagine why. Was this just a battle of wills? Morgan hated losing that much?

  “This was my parents’ room.” Her voice rasped as she got the words out. “I don’t like for anybody to come in here except family.”

  Sheila didn’t know why that stung her. Sadie had talked so much about Hanover House being a family, but she had known it couldn’t be true. People didn’t treat strangers like family. Especially not people like her.

  “I’ve had a hard time with their deaths,” Morgan whispered. “I want…I need…to leave things in here exactly as they left them. It gives me comfort.”

  Sheila didn’t want to see Morgan’s grief. It was better if she kept her distance. She started toward the door.

  “Sheila, the home is supported by donations and the money that Jonathan makes on his fishing tours. We barely make ends meet as it is. We can’t afford long distance bills for the residents.”

  “Then add it to my list of broken rules and throw me out. My friend says I can come and live with her. She has a room for me, and Sadie and Caleb will be happy there. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a really good idea.”

  Morgan just stared at her. “Sheila, why are you so hostile?”

  “Hostile? Me? You’re the one riding me about everything.”

  Morgan sat down on the bed and started to cry. “I’m begging you, please don’t do this to Caleb and Sadie.”

  “I’m not doing anything to them except clearing their heads! You’ve brainwashed them both. If I get them out of here, it might be the best thing that ever happened to them.”

  “What are you doing, Mom?”

  Sheila swung around and saw Sadie standing in the doorway. How much had she heard?

  “I was just having a few words with Morgan.” She left the room and headed for her bedroom. Grabbing the bag she’d brought from jail, she pulled open her dresser drawers and started packing. There wasn’t much, since even the clothes on her back were borrowed. Sadie came in behind her. “I’ve decided I’m leaving here. I’ve had enough. Marlene says we can move in with her. All I have to do is call her and tell her to clean out the back room. Pack your stuff.”

  She looked over her shoulder at Sadie, and saw that she was crying now too. She softened. “Honey, it’ll be fun. You remember Marlene, all the times we used to have.”

  “I won’t go with you, Mom. I’m staying here.”

  Sheila stopped packing and turned back to her. “How can you say that? After all this time that I’ve been in jail, not able to see you…? Are you trying to break my heart?”

  “No. I’m trying to change it.”

  “Well, you can’t change me! There’s nothing wrong with me. I know what you’re afraid of. You think I’m going to go back to drugs, but I’m not, Sadie. I’m stronger now. I’ve been sober all this time, and I know I can do it.”

  “You knew you could do it last time too, Mom, only you didn’t. Jack came along and he ruined you, and you wound up in jail.” She smeared the tears across her face. “You can go, if you have to, Mom, but you’ll go alone. I won’t let you take Caleb.”

  Sheila stood stiffer now, facing off with her. “You can’t stop me, Sadie. He’s my son.”

  “That’s right!” Sadie cried. “He’s your son. Be a mother to him! I’m asking you to put his welfare first. It’s not good for him to move in with Marlene and her boyfriend-of-the-week and her drugs, and you know it. If you cared about him, you wouldn’t even think of it.”

  Sheila felt as she had in jail when someone had waltzed into her cell and stolen her hard-earned commissary items. “You have no right to talk to me that way. After all I’ve been through, the sacrifices I’ve made.”

  “The only sacrifices you’ve made have been forced on you,” Sadie cried. “They’ve been because you were backed into a corner and you had no choices. You have choices now, Mom. You can do the right thing for Caleb. I’m old enough to make my own decisions, and I don’t have to go with you. But so help me, if you take Caleb out of here and disrupt his life, you’ll never see me again.”

  Sheila gaped at her. “You would turn your back on your mother and your little brother?”

  “I wouldn’t want to, Mom, but
you’ve got to think about what you’re doing. He’s just a baby. He’s seen some hard times, but he doesn’t even remember them because the last few months have been so good. He doesn’t need to go to some place where the people can’t be trusted and he can’t have any peace. He loves Morgan and Jonathan, and he loves me, and he doesn’t even know you anymore!”

  The words stung like the bite of a viper. “Sadie…”

  Her daughter could hardly speak through her sobs. “I know it hurts to hear that, Mom, but it’s true. You can’t say you love him if you’re going to take him out of this home. It would be a lie. I’m asking you to do the right thing. The hard thing. I want you to stay, but if you can’t do that, leave him here. If you don’t, you can quit calling me your daughter, because I don’t want to have anything to do with you!”

  The words slammed hard into Sheila’s heart, almost knocking her back. She watched her daughter turn and run back down the stairs. The front door slammed. She looked out her window and saw Sadie running across the street to the beach, sobbing her heart out.

  It only made her angry.

  “You really gonna leave?”

  She swung around and saw Karen standing in her doorway, her arms crossed.

  Sheila wiped her face. “What’s it to you?”

  Karen came in, looked at the bag she’d been packing. “I’ll tell you what it is to me. When I got out of jail I wanted to do the same thing. I had the choice of coming here or going back to the old neighborhood. I decided to go back. Wound up moving back in with my boyfriend, and every night he got high and slapped me around.”

  Sheila had been there. She hadn’t forgotten what that was like.

  “And then I went and got pregnant.” Karen sat down on her bed. “And I kept telling myself that he was gonna change, because I was having his baby and he was gonna care. Only he had a few other women, and some of them had babies, too. One of them had her baby before me. She had to go back to work two weeks after the baby was born because he wasn’t about to support her.”