Skylar grinned. “Hadbeing the operative word here. I destroyed it with a single phone call. The coroner wasn’t positive about the time of death, so the police only had the neighbor’s word for it. The neighbor heard screams, but he just admitted he didn’t have his glasses on. He wasn’t sure of the time. The police told him when they originally thought the murder took place, and he agreed that was when he heard the screams.”
“Even if that’s true, we can’t place Marcus at the scene. Kyle Jensen was there for a fact, and he had blood on him.”
“He was trying to help the Merchants.”
Gretchen shook her head. “None of this proves anything.”
“Kyle Jensen has a rare kind of arthritis. My cousin had it, so I know what it looks like. The kid can’t hold a pen let alone a knife. No way could he have stabbed those people multiple times. I also talked to Forensics about the blood on his clothing. It wasn’t splatter. He didn’t do it.”
“That’s for a jury to decide.”
“Do you really want to go up against me on this?”
Gretchen hesitated. “I thought... isn’t Burkhart his lawyer?”
“She is, but I’m her boss. I can take over the case, and I will if you don’t back down. That kid is not physically capable of stabbing two people over forty times. You’ll look foolish if you push this... and isn’t this an election year? Rob won’t want to take the chance of prosecuting an innocent boy.” Skylar sighed. “Maybe I should just go talk to him directly.”
“No need to do that.” Her shoulders sagged. “Honestly, Rob thought we were rushing things. He wanted a bit more evidence.” She glanced at the closed door where a trembling kid waited to hear his fate. “I will have a doctor check him out today. If you’re right about the arthritis, I will have the charges dropped.”
He opened the door and signaled for Anna to join them in the hallway. She did so with obvious reluctance. Glaring at Gretchen, she took her place beside him. “What now?” she asked.
“I’ll let your hero fill you in,” Gretchen said in a snarky tone before walking away, back ramrod straight.
Anna looked at him with her big blue eyes. “What did she mean by that? Why did she call you my hero?”
He wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her breathless. But since they were at work in full view of anyone who happened to pass by, he shoved his hands into his pockets. “You were right. Kyle Jensen is innocent.”
“I know that, but how do you know that?”
He told her everything, and her eyes grew bigger by the second. Once he finished filling her in, she threw her arms around his neck. Somehow her happiness had become more important to him than anything else. That meant trouble for them both. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t give her what she needed most. He was too broken to give her the love and stability she craved.
He was ready to go home, but she insisted on staying with Kyle until his nightmare ended. So Skylar stayed with her. They stayed in the hallway because she didn’t want to get Kyle’s hopes up. She paced while Skylar watched with an admiration that grew and grew. He couldn’t remember meeting a stronger, more compassionate woman.
If he believed in wishes, he would wish he could change for her.
True to her word, Gretchen sent a doctor in to see Kyle first thing in the morning. By that time, Anna and Skylar had consumed enough coffee to float a boat. But it was worth it to see the look on her face when the doctor confirmed that Kyle did indeed suffer from arthritis and didn’t have the manual dexterity to hold let alone use a knife on two full-grown adults.
The charges were dropped, and Kyle was released into their custody temporarily.
Anna threw her arms around the kid and hugged him while they both wept.
Seeing them like that just about broke Skylar’s heart. They were two lost souls, unwanted until now, but they’d found each other. A sliver of jealousy embedded itself under his skin. Part of him, the part he kept buried and often denied even to himself, wished they could be his family. But that’s where it started and ended, a wish forever unfulfilled. He couldn’t do it again. He knew her well enough to know she would wind up adopting the kid, and he was not in the market for an instant family. Been there. Done that.
At least she’d have Kyle when their relationship hit rock bottom. It was close to being done already. He felt the shift between them even if she didn’t. Things needed to end sooner rather than later.
Skylar knew he needed to break things off with Anna before she got too emotionally involved. Hell, he needed to walk away before he got too emotionally entangled. He already found himself thinking about her way too often during the day.
He decided to wait until tomorrow. She was happy. He wanted her to stay that way for as long as possible. Maybe he would even wait until she knew the adoption would go through without a hitch. Then she’d at least have the boy. She’d finally have the family she’d always wanted.
Neither of them needed a screwed-up former drunk weighing them down.