“He has no alibi. He was sick, remember? Even though he was fine the next morning.”
“I’ll do anything, Winona. Please. Just help me save him.”
Winona stared at her younger sister, seeing how close she was to breaking. Vivi Ann had probably never begged for anything before, but Winona knew how that felt, that pathetic desperation, how your need warred with your ego, and you wanted to shout, Fuck you, even as you whispered, Please. “He needs a criminal defense attorney, Vivi. A good one. I’ll handle his arraignment if you want me to, but after that I’d be in over my head. I’m just a small-town civil lawyer—”
“I don’t care about all that. What he needs is someone who believes in him. That matters more than experience.”
And there it was, the thing Winona had thought about as she sat in her window seat staring out at the rain, the thing that would break their bond, but there was no way to avoid it. “I heard about the fight he got into at Cat’s,” she answered quietly, knowing her words would hurt Vivi Ann and unable to change that. This pain was inevitable. It had been moving this way slowly, advancing on them, probably from the moment Dallas took the job at Water’s Edge.
“What do you mean?”
“The night you had Noah, Dallas picked a fight with Erik Engstrom. Word was he almost killed him.”
“We thought Noah would die that night. He was scared.”
“He’s dangerous, Vivi. Everyone but you can see that,” Winona said evenly. “I tried to tell you . . .”
“Is that what this is about? I told you so?”
“No. I’m trying to protect you. I’m trying to be a good big sister.”
“Do you actually think he killed her?”
“It doesn’t matter. This thing will break your heart, Vivi Ann. You’re not strong enough to—”
“Doesn’t matter?”
Winona wasn’t saying the right things, or in the right way, to make Vivi Ann understand. “I’m sorry, Vivi Ann. What I mean is, my opinion doesn’t matter. I can’t help Dallas. I’m not experienced enough. And there’s probably a conflict of interest. He needs—”
Vivi Ann stood up. “You keep talking,” she said. “I didn’t hear anything after ‘it doesn’t matter.’ Believe me, Win, I got your point loud and clear. You think I’m married to a murderer.” She turned and ran for the door, trying twice before she wrenched it open.
“Vivi, wait, please—”
Winona ran across the porch and out into the yard, but her sister was already gone.
Chapter Fifteen
After a long and sleepless night, Vivi Ann woke up tired. Still, by nine o’clock she was dressed in the only suit she owned and heading out to her truck, with Noah squirming in her arms. Now more than ever he needed her to be strong, and she would be. Her son would someday hear about all of this and say, Mommy, what did you do while Daddy was in trouble? and she would say, I never stopped believing in him and I made everyone in town see how wrong they were.
All her life she’d been dismissed by people because of her beauty, considered naïve because she saw the best in everyone. Finally she would show people that her innate optimism wasn’t a weakness or an ignorance or even a flimsy kind of hope. It was made of steel and she would wield it like a sword. Driving through town, she passed Grey Park, and saw the sign—LAND DONATED BY ELIJAH GREY IN 1951. For the first time, she thought not about her family’s prominence in this community’s history, but rather about their durability in the face of adversity. Her great-grandparents had traveled the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon, making their way through countless dangers. Her grandparents had hung on to this land through the Great Depression and two wars.
The land was still theirs because they’d refused to give up or give in. That tenacity was in her blood and she would call on it now.
On the street in front of the diner, she parked and got Noah out of his car seat. As she headed to the restaurant, she felt people watching her, shaking their heads. Their whispers pissed her off, renewed her determination to prove her husband’s innocence. As expected, she found Aurora at the diner with Julie and Brooke and Trayna, having coffee.
At her entrance they all looked up and their expressions of pity said it all: Poor Vivi, such a fool.
“Hey, Vivi,” Julie said, sliding sideways in her booth. Her silver bangle bracelets tinkled at her wrists. “You’re just in time for breakfast.”
“Thanks, but I can’t. Aurora, you still okay with taking Noah for the day?”
“Sure.”
“Why?” Trayna asked. “Are you going to the jail?”
“Not yet. I need to go to Olympia to find a good lawyer. I got some names out of the phone book.”
Brooke frowned. “Winona—”