Wrongly Accused

He nodded and decided to order a thick cheeseburger for himself. Soon they had their food piled on a plastic tray. Noelle and Kaitlin picked out a small rectangle table and he made sure to sit where he could keep an eye on the door.

He found himself distracted by Kaitlin, who’d grown so much in the time he’d been stuck behind bars. Before he could dig into his food, Noelle surprised him by taking Kaitlin’s hand in hers and bowing her head.

“Dear Lord, we thank You for providing this food for us to eat and we ask for Your protection and Your guidance in showing us the right path. Amen.”

“Amen,” his daughter echoed.

He paused, unsure of how he felt about the fact that Noelle was teaching his daughter to pray. He and Heather hadn’t been particularly religious and he instinctively knew Heather would have been upset at Noelle’s teaching Kaitlin about God. But he decided there were worst things than being a Christian so he didn’t say anything. Although he couldn’t help wondering what else Noelle had taught Kaitlin while he’d been gone.

He bit into his cheeseburger, enjoying the juicy taste he’d long been denied. He divided his attention between Kaitlin and the door. His daughter ate sparingly, spending more time playing with her chicken bites, pretending they were animals talking to each other. Regret burned in the back of his throat for the time he’d lost. He wanted nothing more than to gather his daughter into his arms and hold her close, but he’d rather cut off his arm than scare her again.

“Eat your dinner, Kaitlin,” Noelle said in a soft but stern tone.

“Are we goin’ home soon?” Kaitlin asked.

Noelle lifted her eyebrow and glanced at him. He cleared his throat and smiled. “We’re going to spend the night in a motel. Won’t that be fun?”

His daughter’s big blue eyes, mirror images of her mother’s, widened with excitement. “Wif a swimming pool?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” There were plenty of hotels with pools, but he’d wanted to find something small and off the main thoroughfares. Maybe he’d get lucky and find a small motel with an outdoor pool. After all, it was mid-June, warm enough for outdoor swimming. He was eager to gain whatever ground he could with his daughter. “But first you have to finish your dinner.”

“Okay.” She grinned saucily and popped another chicken bite into her mouth, smearing ketchup across her cheek. He was glad to see she was growing more at ease with him.

He reached for his napkin but Noelle was quicker, already wiping the red stain away. He curled his fingers into a helpless fist.

And couldn’t help wondering if Noelle was really trying to help. Or if this was a subtle way of sabotaging his relationship with his daughter.

* * *

Noelle finished her sandwich about the same time as Caleb. She gathered all the trash into a neat pile on the tray while they waited for Kaitlin. When they’d first entered the restaurant, she’d considered asking one of the patrons for help, but there weren’t many people inside. And what if they simply looked at her as if she were crazy? Technically, Caleb had legal custody of his daughter, while she didn’t have any right to the child. For now, she’d decided to go along with pretending to be a family.

The stark longing in Caleb’s eyes as he gazed at his daughter made her wonder if she’d misjudged him. Clearly he loved Kaitlin and during the course of the meal she found herself torn between wanting to get as far away from him as she could and wanting to help him repair his relationship with the daughter who barely remembered him.

She couldn’t imagine who’d tried to shoot him, but at least now the black truck that had trailed her for days made sense. Whoever was driving it must have been waiting for Caleb to arrive. If Caleb was truly innocent of the crime he’d been accused of, why would someone still want him dead? Was it possible he had really been framed? Or was that wishful thinking on her part?

“We need to go,” Caleb said.

“All right,” she agreed. Kaitlin was obviously finished with her food, so she quickly wiped off the little girl’s sticky fingers and then stood up. Caleb took the tray of garbage and headed over to the trash can. Then he waited for her by the door, holding it open for the two of them.

They walked toward her car and as Caleb opened the back passenger door, she caught a glimpse of a police car pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant. She froze, wondering if she could manage to capture the cop’s attention. Would the cop believe her story? Or would he run a check on Caleb only to find that he did have legal custody of his daughter?

“You’re welcome to leave, but you won’t take my daughter,” Caleb warned, clamping his hand on her elbow to prevent her from leaving. “So make up your mind, and quick.”

She hesitated, full of uncertainty.

“Just get Kaitlin into the car, all right?” he pressed.

“Uh, sure.” She lifted Kaitlin into the booster seat. Her fingers were shaking so badly that she had trouble buckling the girl in.

When Kaitlin was safely secured in the seat she shut the door and made her way around to the other side, trying to see where the cop car was located. The officer had pulled into the drive-through lane and had his window rolled down as he perused the menu.

If she started screaming like a lunatic, would he help her?

“Sit up front next to me,” Caleb said when she reached for the back door handle.

She felt trapped but since there was no way she was going anywhere without Kaitlin, she climbed into the front passenger seat.

When she glanced over to the police car, it was farther away, having moved forward to the next window.

Within moments Caleb drove back out onto the road, leaving the police car and any hope of getting help behind.

TWO

Noelle was grateful that after another two hours of driving, Caleb pulled off onto an exit that advertised a motel with a swimming pool.

The motel was small, but not so small that there weren’t other guests, at least based on the cars in the parking lot. She was berating herself for not taking a chance by going to the police.

Too late now. She’d agreed to stay with him for Kaitlin’s sake. Her own deep-seeded fears meant nothing compared to keeping the little girl safe from harm.

Caleb kept her close by his side, as if worried she might try something rash. She found his presence overwhelming. She wasn’t used to being so close to a man, hadn’t dated anyone in years. The three of them walked into the lobby together, and she knew he wanted to give the clerk the impression that they were a family, especially when he’d requested one room with two beds.

“How’s the water in the pool?” Caleb asked the older man behind the desk as he paid in cash for the room. The guy barely glanced at his driver’s license.

The guy shrugged. “Probably a bit on the cold side by now,” he said in a disinterested tone. There was a small television behind the desk and his gaze kept straying back toward the baseball game he had on.

“Thanks,” Caleb said cheerfully.

“Can we go swimming? Please?” Kaitlin asked.

“Soon,” he promised, taking the room key and then holding the door open for Noelle and Kaitlin as they made their way back outside. There were two levels of the motel but Noelle noted their room was on the first floor, closest to the outdoor pool.

The room was nothing special, but it appeared clean enough. Kaitlin disappeared into the bathroom. When the child was out of earshot Noelle turned to Caleb. “Now what?” she asked in a low tone.

His enigmatic gaze didn’t reveal much. “There must be spare clothes in that backpack that Kaitlin can use to swim in.”

“There’s one change of clothes, the rest is in her suitcase we left behind. And I don’t have any other clothes and neither do you. She’s too young to swim by herself.”

“There’s a strip mall a few miles down the street. We’ll stop by tomorrow to pick up a few things,” he said. “And the pool isn’t that deep. At the very least she can dangle her feet in the water.”

As annoyed as she was with him, she couldn’t help appreciating the way he was trying so hard to make his daughter happy. But at the same time, she also wished he’d simply let them go.

Was he right in thinking that the person who’d shot at him would use Kaitlin to get to Caleb? Or was that just a handy excuse? She wished she knew.

Kaitlin came out of the bathroom and jumped up beside her on the bed. “Can we swim now, Noa? Puleeze?”

Looking down into Kaitlin’s big blue eyes, she couldn’t bear to disappoint the little girl. “Sure, sweetie.”

“Why does she call you Noa?” Caleb asked, a small frown puckering his brow.

Did he resent their closeness? It certainly wasn’t her fault he’d been arrested.

She dug in the backpack for a pair of shorts and a top that Kaitlin could use in lieu of a swimsuit. “Because she couldn’t pronounce my name. Noa was as close as she could get to Noelle.”

“How is it that you became her foster mother?”

She had no intention of giving him her life story. Especially since that would include confessing her horrible past along with her more recent failures. Trusting him as much as she had so far had been difficult enough. Under normal circumstances she avoided men, especially macho, dangerous types like Caleb. She forced a casual tone. “I’m your daughter’s preschool teacher and happen to be licensed as a foster parent. I asked for custody and the state agreed.”

If he was embarrassed that he didn’t recognize her from the preschool, he didn’t show it. She wasn’t necessarily surprised that he hadn’t remembered her, because his wife had been the one who’d come in to drop off and pick up Kaitlin, at least 80 percent of the time. The few times Caleb had come, he hadn’t seemed to notice her.

She still remembered the last time she’d seen Heather, the day before she’d died. Caleb’s wife had come in late on that Friday, almost twenty minutes past closing. Heather had looked nervous and hadn’t been alone. There had been another man with her, who’d waited impatiently near the doorway.

It wasn’t until after Heather’s affair had hit the news that she’d understood what she’d seen that evening.

Tearing her thoughts away from the past, she turned her attention to helping Kaitlin change her clothes into a shorts-and-top set.

“But this isn’t my swimming suit,” Kaitlin protested with a frown. “My swimming suit has sparkles.”

“We left your swimming suit at home, remember?” she said patiently. “Do you want to check out the water or not?”

“I do! I do!” The little girl jumped up and down for emphasis.

“All right, let’s go.” She ducked into the bathroom, grabbed a towel off the rack and then came back out to take Kaitlin’s hand in hers.

Caleb silently held the door open once again. A criminal with manners, she thought, fighting a sense of hysteria as they walked over to the pool area. He unlatched the fence, and she was surprised and a bit disappointed to find there weren’t any other guests there.

Kaitlin ran over to the edge of the pool.

“Wait for me,” Noelle called out, quickly taking off her sandals. “We have to check the water first.”

She glanced over at Caleb, surprised to see he was taking off his running shoes, too. He then proceeded to roll his jeans halfway up his calves, which would have looked geeky on anyone else.

But there was nothing geeky about Caleb. He must have worked out while he was in jail because he was lean and muscular, without an ounce of fat to be seen. His dark hair was short and she wondered if that was by choice. Or if he’d been forced to get it cut.

Did they have barbers in jail?

He plopped down on the edge of the pool and put his feet in the water. “Come over and test the water, Katydid.”

Kaitlin hung back, staying next to Noelle. She urged the little girl over, taking a seat on the edge of the pool next to Caleb, leaving enough room between them for Kaitlin. The little girl sat down and then shrieked when she put her feet in the water. “It’s cold!”

“Probably because the sun is going down,” Caleb said. “I bet it will be warmer tomorrow. See that plastic cover rolled up over there? They put that on at night, and in the morning the sun shines through the bubbles to warm up the water.”

Kaitlin kicked her feet, giggling as she splashed the adults. Noelle tensed, but Caleb didn’t yell or tell Kaitlin to stop. In fact, he playfully kicked his feet, too, mimicking his daughter.

“Can I go in farther, Noa? Can I?” Kaitlin pleaded.

“You can if you hold on to me,” Caleb answered, holding out his hands in a nonthreatening gesture.

Noelle held her breath as Kaitlin silently stared up at her father. The lure of the water must have been more than she could resist, though, because she nodded.

Caleb gently lifted her up, as if she weighed nothing more than Kaitlin’s stuffed giraffe, and propped his elbows on his knees for stability. Slowly he lowered Kaitlin into the water, her tiny hands clutching his forearms.

“It’s c-c-cold,” she said, her teeth chattering.

“Do you want to get out?” Caleb asked.

“N-no, not yet.” Kaitlin wiggled around in the water, as if she could swim with her father holding her, and then scrunched up her nose when a bit of water splashed in her face. He grinned and lifted her up and down, like a bobber on the end of a fishing pole.

She watched Caleb play with his daughter, her reserve melting away. His smile softened his harsh features to the point it was difficult to imagine him doing anything as terrible as killing his wife.

“Okay, I think that’s enough, Katydid,” Caleb said, lifting her out of the water and setting her back on the edge of the pool. “Your lips are turning blue.”

“I’ll get the towel,” Noelle murmured, glad to have an excuse to put some distance between them. Why did she suddenly doubt the image the media had portrayed? An eyewitness had watched Caleb kill his wife and then flee the scene.

An eyewitness who’d disappeared. Why? What did that mean?

She hid her confusion by wrapping Kaitlin up in the towel. The little girl snuggled against her and yawned.

“I think it’s bedtime, young lady,” she said, glancing up at Caleb. He nodded, rose to his feet and padded across the concrete to where he’d left his shoes and socks.

As they made their way back to the room, she reminded herself that it was easy to believe Caleb’s father-of-the-year act because she hadn’t seen him angry. She’d suffered at the hands of an angry man in the past and the last thing she wanted to do was to find herself in a similar situation with Caleb. So far, she had not seen any evidence of his so-called hair-trigger temper.

And silently prayed that she never would.

* * *

Caleb stretched out on the bed fully dressed, and stared up at the ceiling of the small motel room. Noelle and Kaitlin were snuggled together in the other bed, the one closest to the bathroom.

There were a few things he wanted to do, but he didn’t dare leave until he knew they were both sound asleep. He was fairly certain Kaitlin was down for the count, but he sensed Noelle was fighting to stay awake. Finally her breathing deepened and he waited another hour just to be sure she was asleep before he quietly stood and made his way to the door.

He held his breath as he opened the door as silently as possible and slipped outside. Had the noise caused Noelle to wake up? He sincerely hoped not.

First, he needed to swap the license plates on Noelle’s SUV. He drove down the road, looking for a car that he could use for the swap. He was afraid that anyone within the motel parking lot might notice, so he was determined to find a vehicle somewhere else.

About three miles down the road he spotted a tavern that suited his needs perfectly. He pulled up to a SUV similar to Noelle’s and smiled grimly when he discovered the Illinois license plates. Even better. He made sure the tag was paid up, and then used his Swiss Army knife to swap the plates.

At least this way, he could buy some time if whoever shot at him had an APB out on Noelle’s car. It wouldn’t work forever, but he’d take what he could get.

He returned to the motel, relieved to have that task finished. He parked and shut off the car, but stayed in his seat as he turned on his cell phone to place a call to his lawyer, Jack Owens. It was well past midnight, but he didn’t care. He wanted answers.

The phone rang several times before Jack answered. “O’Malley, where are you?” he asked in a sleep-laden voice.

“Somewhere safe. I’m sure you know by now that someone tried to kill me,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but the police want to talk to you, Caleb. They’ve been hounding me all evening.”

“Too bad.” The last thing he intended to do was to trust the police. Not after the way his SWAT teammates had been so eager to believe the worst about him. And there was a tiny voice in the back of his mind reminding him that Jack was the only person who’d known he was heading over to pick up his daughter. Granted anyone could have made a reasonable assumption, but still. “Did they find the slugs embedded in the house? And the canister of tear gas?”

“They haven’t told me much,” Jack confessed. “Other than they want to talk to you.”

“Kind of hard to shoot at myself, don’t you think?” he asked, trying not to sound as sarcastic as he felt. “I’d estimate the shooter was standing about a hundred and fifty yards away.”

“I believe you. You’re the sharpshooter. But you really do need to come back, at least long enough to give your statement,” Jack pleaded. “After all, you have nothing to hide. You’re the victim this time, remember?”

He wished it were that easy, but knew full well it wasn’t. “What are they saying about Noelle Whitman and Kaitlin?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Not much, at least as far as I know. Although the police want to interview Ms. Whitman, too.”

Of course they did. And despite the way he’d watched her pray over their meal, he wasn’t ready to trust her completely, either. He sighed, feeling as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders. “I have to go. Let me know if you find out anything about the crime scene,” he said. “I’ll be in touch in a few days.”

“Caleb—” Jack started, but Caleb pushed the button to end the call, and then turned off his phone not just to avoid further conversation with Jack but to preserve the battery life and to prevent anyone tracing him through the GPS.

For several long moments he stared sightlessly through the windshield of Noelle’s SUV. He wanted to trust his lawyer—after all, Jack had been the only one to stick by him throughout the entire nightmare of being charged for murder. Of course, Caleb had paid the man a tidy sum of money to represent him, so that might not mean much. But he couldn’t come up with any reason his own lawyer would want him dead.

No, somehow the attempt on his life outside Noelle’s house had to be connected with Heather’s murder. It was the only thing that made sense. Someone who was afraid he’d discover the truth? Someone who was feeling desperate, now that the so-called eyewitness had disappeared? And why had the guy disappeared? A sudden attack of cold feet about committing perjury? Or something more sinister?

He took a deep breath and slid out of the car, closing the door behind him as silently as possible. Using the magnetic key, he quietly opened the door and slipped inside. He stood for several long seconds, allowing his eyesight to adjust to the darkness and listening to make sure Noelle and Kaitlin were still asleep.

Reassured by the steady breathing, he ventured farther into the room, estimating the location of the bed.

And then nearly fell flat on his face when Kaitlin screamed.

* * *

Noelle bolted upright in bed and gathered the little girl close. “Shh, it’s okay, sweetie. I’m here, it’s okay,” she crooned.

“What’s wrong?” Caleb asked hoarsely.

“Nightmare. Shh, Kaitlin, please don’t cry. It’s okay, sweetie, you’re fine. Everything’s fine.”

She felt the mattress dip as Caleb came over to sit beside them. “Is there anything I can do?” he asked softly.

“For night terrors? I’m afraid not,” she responded, still smoothing her hand down Kaitlin’s back. After what seemed like ages, the little girl’s screams subsided into hiccuping sobs, her tiny face still pressed tightly against her neck. “I’m sure she’ll calm down soon.”

There was a long pause as she rocked Kaitlin back and forth, still murmuring words of reassurance.

“She’s done this before, hasn’t she?” he asked.

“Yes, but not lately.” Not for over six months, but she didn’t tell him that. She’d suspected the gunfire, tear gas and subsequent wild ride out the back of her garage would bring them back. “Unfortunately, with everything that happened today, I’m not surprised they returned.”

Please, Lord, bring peace to this sweet little girl. She’s an innocent victim in all of this.

Noelle lost track of time as she held Kaitlin, waiting for her to fall asleep once again. When Kaitlin’s breathing slowed and her tiny body went slack, she stopped rocking and gently lowered the child to the bed. Caleb moved away, and now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she watched him scrub his hands over his face.

She knew just how helpless he felt; she’d experienced the same thing during those first few months that Kaitlin had come to live with her.

“Excuse me,” she whispered, making her way into the bathroom. She used the facilities and splashed cold water on her face to brace herself before heading back out to face him.

Caleb had opened the curtains a half inch, allowing the light from the outside parking lot to shine into the room. He was seated on a chair near the window, holding his head in his hands.

He lifted his head when she approached. “This is my fault, isn’t it?” he asked.

Why she wanted to make him feel better, she had no idea. “It’s not your fault someone shot at you.”

“I can’t stand the thought of Kaitlin being afraid of me,” he whispered.

“She’s not,” she whispered back. “After all, she let you hold her in the pool, remember?”

He shook his head. “She wanted to swim so badly I think she would have let anyone hold her.”

Noelle sank down onto the chair next to him, unable to refute his logic. “She needs a little time, that’s all.”

He lifted his gaze to hers. “Maybe I can find a safe place for the two of you to stay for a while. Then I’ll head off on my own to try and figure out who’s trying to kill me.”

As much as she wanted him to let them go, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from arguing. “Don’t you think that’s a job for the police? They have more resources than you do.”

“Not if they’re in on it,” he muttered. “Don’t you understand? I can’t trust the police, not after the way everything went down. The entire community thinks I’m guilty. And I can’t take the chance the shooter will use my daughter to get to me.”

“Who is the shooter? And why would anyone do something so terrible? I don’t understand what’s going on, Caleb.”

He stared at her in the darkness, and she wished she could see his eyes more clearly. Strange that her earlier distrust of Caleb seemed to have faded in the wake of Kaitlin’s nightmare.

“I don’t understand what’s going on, either,” he said. “Other than someone wants to kill me. Likely the same person who killed my wife. And why wouldn’t that person try to use Kaitlin? She’s my one and only weakness. Anyone who knows me, which includes all the guys on my former SWAT team, would know that I’d do anything to keep my daughter safe.”

She wasn’t sure what to say to that. “You really think someone on your team killed your wife?”

“Yes, I do. I’ve thought of nothing but Heather’s murder for the fourteen months and it’s the only theory that makes sense. I know you don’t believe me, but I promise you I didn’t kill her. I’d considered filing for divorce, when I discovered she was cheating on me, but I didn’t kill her. And I especially wouldn’t do that while Kaitlin was sleeping in her bedroom. I wasn’t there that night because I’d moved into a motel room. And no matter what that neighbor claimed he saw, I did not go back to the house to kill Heather.”