Reasonable Doubt Read Free Page A

Grabbing a suitcase from the closet, he slung it on the bed and started packing.
    Fifteen years. That’s how long he’d been away. He couldn’t help but remember that last day sitting with Keri on the bank overlooking the lake. He smiled at the memory of her sweet kiss. A first for them both.
    Was she still in Briarwood? He didn’t count on seeing her, not in this weather and considering the cabin was at least an hour’s drive away from the small town where he’d spent the first fourteen years of his life. Still, the memories were sweet, and he couldn’t help but wonder how her life had panned out. Better than his, he hoped.
    The twins mumbled their displeasure when he woke them a few moments later.
    “Where’re we going, Dad?” Billy asked with a yawn.
    “You’ll find out.” He settled the boys at the kitchentable. Made them toast, then snatched a leftover ham from the fridge. Just as he started to slice through the meat to make sandwiches for the road, a thud caught his attention, he turned and felt the pain in his finger as the blade nicked the tender flesh of his thumb.
    He winced. “What happened?”
    “Billy fell out of his chair.”
    “You all right, Billy?”
    The child sat up on the floor, sleepy-eyed but nodding. “I’m okay.”
    “You’re bleeding, Dad.” Josh’s voice rang with tension.
    Justin glanced at his throbbing finger. Blood dripped onto the floor. He turned quickly to the sink and ran his finger under the water, grateful it wasn’t a deep cut. He grabbed a bandage and covered the wound.
    When he turned back around, Josh had wiped up the blood from the floor. However, the boy’s face had also lost all color and he sat holding the rag in his hand.
    “Here, give me that, son.”
    Josh relinquished the cloth and turned away.
    With a sigh, Justin ruffled his head. “You two get some movies and toys. Only what will fit in your schoolbags.”
    He watched them, Billy scrambling with his usual fervor, Josh slinking away as though he couldn’t care less.
    A wave of helplessness washed over Justin. Nothing seemed to help Josh cope with the events of the past months. Counseling hadn’t helped. Not so far, anyway. Church wasn’t restoring the child’s soul. Yet he believed God was faithful. He had built a life and ministry on that belief. Once he’d returned to God, he would have built his marriage on the same belief if Amelia had been open. But religion was never her thing, as she reminded him every time he tried to talk to her about God.
    If only she’d listened. Maybe she’d still be alive.

Chapter Two
    “L et’s get one thing straight, Junior. No one made you crawl behind that wheel and drive drunk.” The barred door clanged shut with the same finality that rang in Deputy Keri Mahoney’s voice. “You’re in jail because you deserve it, so stop whining.”
    “You just ain’t got no compassion in your soul.” Hours after his arrest for drunk driving, Junior Connor’s words were still slurred, doing little to strengthen his case with Keri. “But I don’t guess I should expect no more from a power-hungry female, doin’ a man’s job.”
    Keri ignored the familiar comment. She was accustomed to the fact that most of the men in Briarwood, Missouri, hadn’t progressed past 1950 in terms of male/female relationships. But that wasn’t Junior’s only problem. He was a drunk. Keri had no tolerance for drunks, thugs or idiots who ran red lights through school zones. Junior embodied all three.
    “Drinking and driving kills people. You remember my mama, don’t you?”
    “Sure, I remember her. Fine woman.” He snorted. “Too bad you ain’t got none of her qualities.”
    Keri stomped back across the lemony-clean concrete floor and glared at him through the bars. He’d already made it to his bunk and his eyelids were half shut, so she knew she was more than likely wasting her breath, but the words hissed from between her clenched teeth like steam from a kettle. “Maybe I’d