Bill was thinking about moving back to town. Where Suzie lived.
“I passed on it because I figured it was too soon,” Bill explained. “When Suzie and I can talk, and I can make sure she’s ok
ay with me moving back to my hometown, then I’ll buy.”
As one of the conditions of his release, Bill wasn’t allowed to contact his ex-wife, since he’d broken into her home. But he was allowed to speak with her if she contacted him.
“Has she called you?” Jayden asked. And knew he’d gone too far when Bill took a deep breath.
“You’re checking my phone records, right?” Bill asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you know she hasn’t called. You also know I haven’t called her.”
He did.
He nodded. “I’m here to help, Bill. I know you can do this. I also know there will be tough times. I hope you’ll call me, anytime of the day or night, if you get to a point where doing so is the only thing that would stop you from doing something you don’t want to do.”
“I’d dump myself at the bottom of the ocean before I hurt that woman,” his parolee said. “But yeah, I got your number on my speed dial.”
Bill showed Jayden his phone.
He nodded. “Then we’re all good, man. I’ll be checking by again within the next few days. You’re at the three-month mark and I’ve found that to be critical timing. I like to keep a tighter watch between three and six months, if that’s okay with you.”
“Like you did for the first two weeks,” Bill said, climbing into his truck. “I hope someday when I see your ugly mug it’ll be over a beer at a pool table somewhere.” He pulled his door closed behind him.
Jayden didn’t get a chance to tell the older man that he’d like that. A beer and a game of pool sounded good. Too good. Reminding him of days gone, college nights that he and his frat brothers would drink and shoot pool until the sun came up, and then drink some more...
* * *
It was one of those days when Emma felt like no matter what she did, it wasn’t enough. She’d been disappointed from the get-go when she’d missed a call from Jayden. She’d been in court when he’d left a message, telling her that not only had he been over Bill’s locations, but that also he’d talked to the man himself. He’d told her that Bill had not been within two miles of Suzie’s home since he’d been out of jail and that he had alibis for every single location Jayden had questioned him about. Bill would be sending receipts as proof and Jayden would forward them to her if she had to see them.
Of course she didn’t need to see them. She didn’t need to do his job with him. She wasn’t that much of a control freak. Jayden hadn’t said if any of the times Bill had been in Santa Raquel coincided with times she’d given him, but assumed not, since he wasn’t sending up red flags. And she appreciated his diligence in following up.
Because if any of those occurrences had been during critical times, Bill could easily have left his phone someplace, gone to Suzie’s, and gone back to get his phone. Maybe that type of thinking was paranoid, but in her line of work, she had to be that way.
She spent her days unraveling all of the ways people managed to do evil things to each other, or to innocent victims. There were no lengths, apparently, that some wouldn’t go to...
So yeah, maybe she was a bit hardened by it all. And a bit paranoid? She’d been certain, when she’d first turned into the parking garage at work, that she’d seen in her rearview mirror the same truck from the night before come from around a corner and pass by. The stress of Bill on the loose, of Suzie not being in protective custody, was getting to her.
Maybe she needed to be a bit more like Jayden, looking for the good in people instead of always assuming the worst.
Maybe that’s why he’d come into her life right then, while she was taking steps to bring a baby into her world. To remind her to see the good.
No way a child should grow up seeing only the bad. Expecting the bad.
Like she did.
And what more perfect way to make certain that she didn’t make anything more of the fling with Jayden than to take steps to conceive a child on her own? She was remaining practical. Not even thinking about changing her life goals for him—or including him in them. If she got to the point of telling him her plans, and it scared him off, all the better.
Staring at her computer screen shortly after leaving her message for Jayden, she sat completely still. Shocked where her thoughts had led her.
She did expect the worst. Not just from the defendants she tried, but from everyone.
When had she become so hardened, bordering on bitter when it came to humanity?
She used to have so much fun. Used to love meeting new people because of the new experiences they’d bring to her life.