The Art of Going Home (The Art of Living series Book 1)

by Nicole Sorrell

  Everyone else was already there when we pulled up. Getting out of the car, my mouth watered at the delicious smells wafting from the house.

  Carlos met us at the door. “There you guys are. We were about to send out a search party. Everyone’s ready to eat.” My nose prickled with held-back tears when I saw the anxious looks Zac gave me. Avoiding him, I greeted everyone else with a hug.

  After a prayer of thanks for food and family, everyone began to load their plates with good-natured elbowing, reaching, and bumping. The mugginess had eased after the rain. We went to the shaded patio to enjoy our meal. I sat on a bench with Linda Marie, Teresa, and Josh, and tried to concentrate on my food. If anyone noticed I was giving Zac the cold shoulder, they didn’t say anything.

  “Come out here, woman,” Uncle José called inside to Aunt Marie. “Quit fussing with the food and eat. I fixed you a plate.” When she came to the patio, she got a big wet smooch on the lips from her husband. “There’s my beautiful wife!”

  “Oh, get a room you two,” Linda Marie complained. “You’re always embarrassing!”

  “You should see how he chases me around the house, now that both you girls have moved out,” Aunt Marie joked. Everyone laughed at Uncle José’s comical face as he pumped his eyebrows.

  Even with the tension of being around Zac, I missed times like those. I realized what I was thinking. These people are the closest thing to family you’ll ever have.

  “Maddie, we wanted to give you some news tonight,” Uncle José said, and everyone got quiet. I immediately grew nervous, my mind turning to the worst case scenario. Was someone else ill? I wouldn’t be able to survive if I lost another one of them so soon after Aunt Ceci.

  “Oh, don’t worry so, mi’ja. We have good news,” Sheriff Rey told me.

  Uncle José continued, “Aunt Ceci discussed it with us a couple of months ago, and we all agreed with her this was the right thing to do. Zac helped her set up the deed to her home so it would transfer to you when she died.”

  What? “Oh jeez! Wow. How generous! I don’t know what to say,” I stuttered in shock. “I mean, I’m very grateful! But, shouldn’t the house stay in the family?”

  “Oh, Mad Dash, Aunt Ceci wanted you to have it. You’re her daughter, as far we’re all concerned,” Teresa said. Josh nodded in agreement with his wife.

  “It’s no use arguing, it won’t change anything anyway,” Carlos said. “We wanted to talk with you about what you might want to do with it, so we can help.” He handed me a beer and grabbed one for himself from the cooler.

  I looked to Sheriff Rey for confirmation. “You could rent the place. Or you could use it as a second home during your visits, which we all hope will become more frequent,” he hinted.

  “Or you could move back and live in it yourself,” Linda Marie said, obviously wanting this to be my choice. Zac was looking intently at me.

  “Boy. Oh, boy,” was all I could say.

  ~~~

  My heart clenched when I turned and saw Zac following me to the front step instead of Linda Marie. He opened the passenger door of his truck without comment. I didn’t say thank you, not caring that it was rude.

  He finally ended the silence when we were half way to the hotel. “I take it you didn’t return my calls because you’re not going to talk to me about this?”

  “About Aunt Ceci’s?” I asked. I’d spent the last couple of hours discussing every possibility for the house with the family, and what it would take to accomplish each one. I knew that wasn’t what he meant. Maybe he would drop it if I continued to avoid the subject. I stared out the side window.

  “Maddie,” he said in that tone. He was clearly frustrated, yet kept it under control. “I wanted to apologize. It was unfair of me to say those things to you last night.” I was skeptical. “It’s…” He took a deep breath. “I assumed you knew I’ve been waiting for you.” He paused when I gaped at him. “What?” he asked.

  “No, I…” I stuttered. “I mean… What are you…?” Oh, Christ! How did this happen? I tried a different tactic. “Everything you said last night is true. I think we—”

  He cut me off. “No, it isn’t true. It was unfair of me to push you. I’m asking you to forgive me.” I couldn’t think of anything to say. He plunged on. “I’ve been thinking about us being together for a long time. I’ve never been with any other woman who makes me so at ease. You’re very special to me, baby.”

  We’d reached the hotel, and he turned off the engine. “I want you. I want us, and I’m not giving up on that,” he said. “Where our relationship is concerned, I’m impatient. Now I get that it’s a new idea for you, and I’ve got to give you more time to get used to it.” He gestured to the door. “Can I come inside? I want to talk to you about this.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.” I stubbornly lifted my chin. “I do think everything you said last night is true. I don’t think I can learn to trust anyone.”

  “Don’t say that. You already trust people. You trusted Aunt Ceci. You trust Dad and Uncle José and Aunt Marie. You trust me. I’m asking you to continue to do that while we deepen what is already a great friendship.”

  “I don’t—” He leaned over and put a finger on my lips to hush me.

  “You understand me better than anyone,” he said. “I understand you, too, baby. I promise I’ll be better at showing it.” He looked like he was close to tears as he began stroking my cheek. “Please. Think about it.”

  Staring into his gorgeous eyes brimming with moisture, I couldn’t deny him anything. Before I realized what I was doing, I felt my head moving up and down. Madisen! He blew out a breath and drew me into a sweet kiss. He jumped out his door and ran around the truck, tugging me out and into a hug.

  “Do you forgive me for being… how did you put it? An ‘arrogant sasshole’?” he asked between the soft kisses he peppered on my face.

  “I guess I should, when you admit to it in such a gallant way,” I said. “I’m not sure we should try to be more than friends. We live so far apart, I think—” His mouth stopped my words.

  “You promised you’ll consider it,” he said against my lips and kissed me again. “We can work around the distance.”

  “All right, I will. I don’t want you to get your hopes up, though. Just friends until I decide.”

  Despite my words, his lips found mine once again. It was the most exquisitely gentle kiss I’d ever known.

  ~~~

  I fell onto the bed thinking about the unexpected gift from Aunt Ceci, and Zac’s request. Once asleep, I again floated back to my childhood with Angeline…

  I stood in the upstairs hall and heard her talking with Mother downstairs. “Maddie and me’ll be fine. You don’t want to be late. If you leave now, you’ll have time to stop at the liquor store on the way. Dad’ll be home soon, and we’ll stay in my room and listen to music ‘til he gets here.”

  As soon as Mother’s car was out of the drive, Angeline ran to her room, turned on the radio, grabbed her purse, ran back into the hall, and closed the door. She seized my hand and pulled me with her out the back door.

  “Where’re we going? You told Mother we would stay in your room,” I said.

  “We’re going on a trip. We’re going to see Miss Cecilia’s brother-in-law, Steve.”

  “How come?”

  “Because Da—. I mean, won’t it be fun to take a trip? It’ll be a surprise, so don’t tell anyone what we’re doing.”

  After we had walked for over an hour, the sun hovered on the horizon. We were almost to highway seven on the other side of town, where Angeline said we could hitch a ride.

  “Shit!” she suddenly cursed. Sheriff Rey had driven by and made a U-turn in the police cruiser to stop in front of us. “Let me do the talking.”

  He said hello to us as he got out of the car.

  “Hi, Sheriff Rey. We’re going to the store. To buy some stuff for baking.”

  “Is that so?” he said, lifting an eyebrow. “It’s getting late. I
’ll take you home. I don’t want you out alone after dark.”

  “No, that’s okay. We’ll be all right walking.” Sheriff Rey wouldn’t hear of it, and we had no choice. We got into his car. “Sheriff Rey, why don’t we stop by your house? We could fix you dinner. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Angeline wheedled.

  “We can’t without your parents’ permission. You know that.”

  “Wednesday nights Mommy goes to her Ladies Club meetings. We’ll stay with you until she gets back,” she explained.

  “Where’s your dad?”

  “Please, Sheriff Rey, take us home with you. We can make you hot dogs for dinner. And tomato soup.” She begged, “Please?”

  “We have to check with your dad first,” he said. Angeline slumped back in a sulk.

  At our house, Sheriff Rey knocked on the front door. Father opened it with a look of disbelief when he saw us, followed by a mean expression that he quickly hid. As Angeline and I went inside, I got a bad feeling about what we’d done.

  Chapter 14

  WITH EACH STEP I TOOK toward the town square, my anxiety grew. The dreams about my childhood had become much more frequent since my return. They made me fretful and amplified the unease surrounding my talk with Sheriff Rey.

  I forced one foot in front of the other until I reached the county sheriff’s department. It was already eight o’clock, and I might be late if I didn’t get in there. In, then out. In, then out. I filled my lungs as full as possible a few times, exhaling slowly before heaving the door open.

  The building was old and a bit small. Desks were crowded together behind the counter. Several office doors lined the darkly paneled wall, and a side door revealed more lines of desks in the adjacent room.

  Sheriff Rey was perched in one of the flimsy chairs set out in the waiting area. He looked strained. I wondered if seeing his ex-wife Deborah at the funeral might be on his mind.

  He stood to hug me and offered a cup of coffee. I declined. He led me toward one of the doors along the back wall. Behind it was a closet-sized room, and we sat in the two wooden chairs with a scratched metal desk between us.

  He went straight into it. “I shouldn’t be releasing this information to you. I know I can trust you to keep it confidential. You can’t pass this on to anyone. More importantly, you can’t act on it in any way.”

  I was glad he didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “Yes, I understand,” I said. “Thank you for doing this.”

  “According to the autopsy,” he began. “Angeline died between eleven and a quarter past noon. That was when Cecilia called me, after hearing your mother’s screams when she found the body. The first step in the investigation was to determine the suspects who may have had access to her during this window of time. Of course, the list includes you, Cecilia, who was helping at your house that day, and your mother.”

  I listened impassively, staring at my hands folded on the table. He continued, “You were never considered because you weighed less than Angeline and weren’t physically capable of holding her under two and a half feet of water. Cecilia and your mother had no motive, so were also eliminated.

  “We checked into James Dorman from the elementary school, who headed up the summer reading program. He drove the van with the mobile library to your house that day and arrived at approximately eleven twenty-five. Cecilia confirmed he stayed inside the van while he was there, and left at approximately eleven forty-five. His background check appeared to be clean, at first. When we dug further, we found a record that revealed a rape charge. When he was eighteen, the mother of his sixteen-year-old girlfriend found out they were having sex. She initiated the charges, and later they were dropped.

  “I talked with the other families he stopped to see that day. I double and triple checked the timeline. I confirmed it would’ve been impossible for him to have parked the bookmobile far enough from the house to conceal it, attack Angeline at the pond, and make it to his next destination within the time frame. He wouldn’t confess to anything when we questioned him and seemed genuinely revolted by the idea of a violent attack on a child.

  “The other persons of interest were the lawn man, Clayton Wittford, and his seventeen-year-old son Robert, who you may remember as Bobby. They arrived at approximately ten thirty in the morning and left at about eleven fifty. They were free to move around the three acres. Either individual could’ve attacked Angeline, or they could’ve done it together.”

  I hung my head at this point to hide my tears. “You don’t have to do this.” Sheriff Rey said softly, as he came around to squat by my chair. “It’s too much after losing Aunt Ceci.”

  “No, I’m okay. I need to know.” I sniffled despondently.

  “What’s bothering you, mi’ja?” he asked.

  “When Mr. Dorman came with the bookmobile, I was so excited to see the books, I didn’t look for her. If I’d brought her with me, she wouldn’t have died.”

  “No, you can’t be sure of that. Don’t blame yourself.” He spoke firmly. “Don’t ever do that. Listen to me. You couldn’t have saved her. Either it would’ve been too late by the time the bookmobile got there, or, more likely, the murder would’ve been in progress. If you’d interrupted, you would’ve been killed, too. Don’t break my heart by saying you wish that had happened. What would I have done without you? What would Cecilia have done? You were everything to her.”

  Sheriff’s Rey’s eyes were damp and his tone intense. I considered what he’d said. Had I come upon the attack as it happened, my cries wouldn’t have alerted the women in the house, who were used to hearing our yells when we played. And at ten, I wouldn’t have been able to fight off or outrun an adult man or a seventeen-year-old boy.

  Pushing back my hair, I asked, "So, what took place after that? I assume she was checked for skin under her nails for DNA? Hair that may have been left behind by the killer?"

  He rose and sat back in the chair. "Yes, everything was checked. There was no hair and no skin under her nails. Nothing. No semen was found. There wasn’t…" His voice died when he saw the horror that distorted my features.

  “My God! She was raped?” I cried. “No... no... no...” I didn’t realize I was still speaking until I heard the words I repeated in a whisper. I sat statue-like in the chair with my hands over my mouth. My gut started to roil as the revulsion became physical. I swallowed hard, struggling to fight my nausea. I was unaware that tears rivered down my face until my hands grew wet.

  I’d never known the extent of Angeline’s suffering.

  Sheriff Rey called out into the main area, asking for a cup of water. He took it without fully opening the door and handed it to me. He moved his chair alongside mine to put his arm around my shoulders.

  After ten minutes passed, he spoke. “I'm sorry, Maddie. I know… I know how painful this is for you. I’m so very sorry.”

  Finally getting a little control of my emotions, I managed to say, “Go on.” He looked unsure I could take any more. “Please?” I begged. “I have to know."

  He hesitated. Knowing I wouldn’t give up, he waited until I took a drink of water and held my hand. “We found out Wittford was charged and tried in Jackson County for a vicious, violent rape twenty-three years ago. He was found not guilty.”

  “Why wasn’t he prosecuted for Angeline’s murder?” I asked.

  “We questioned him for hours. He wouldn’t say anything to us without his attorney present. The lawyer advised him not to answer our questions, except to say that he didn’t do it. We rode him as hard as we could until we were walking a fine line. The attorney claimed we were violating his rights. We held him as long as possible. In the end, there was insufficient physical evidence to make a case. His previous charges couldn’t be brought into it.” Sheriff Rey’s expression was full of sorrow mixed with apprehension.

  “There’s something else, isn’t there? Please tell me,” I pressed.

  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Quietly, he said, “Your father was his attorney.”

  My face
went hard, and my eyes turned to slits. I cleared my throat. “You’re telling me my father convinced a jury Clayton Wittford was innocent of a brutal rape. Five years later, he was free to rape and kill Angeline.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes, I believe so.”

  ~~~

  As I was leaving, Sheriff Rey put an arm around my shoulders. My psyche was stretched and bruised as if I’d been emotionally beaten and left bleeding.

  “Goodbye. And thank you,” I said. “I know this wasn’t easy for you, either.”

  He returned my hug. “I wish the news wasn’t so upsetting to you. At least Angeline’s suffering ended. Take comfort in that.”

  One of the deputies gave me a lift back to the hotel.

  It was midmorning, and I was astonished at the exhaustion I felt. I couldn’t resist the temptation of a nap and crawled into bed with my clothes on as soon as I walked in the room.

  Loud knocking woke me. I stumbled over the stained carpet and opened the door with a yawn. I blinked at Zac standing in the sun.

  “Hi, beautiful,” he said. “Guess you were sleeping.”

  “What time is it?” I mumbled.

  “A little after one,” he replied. I yawned again and sunk to the bed. He sat beside me and kissed my cheek. “Dad said you might need some company after your talk this morning. You took it hard.”

  “What he told me was quite a shock,” I said.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked. “Why don’t we head out to the park at the lake. It’s not as hot today, and we could have a picnic in a quiet place to talk.”

  “You agreed we’d only be friends until I decided about a relationship.”

  “I’m here just as a friend for you to lean on. And friends have lunch together all the time,” he coaxed.

  “I am hungry. I was too nervous to eat breakfast. Let me freshen up.” I groaned when I saw my reflection in the bathroom mirror. My hair was sticking out on one side, my eyes were red and puffy, and my makeup was smeared. You definitely are not beautiful. Fifteen minutes later, I’d repaired the damage and we left.