Now, I had no choice but to pay attention to them.
I don’t know if there was a physical manifestation, but on the inside I know I cringed, fully expecting a horrific reality to descend upon me once again. Fortunately, it didn’t, and the bubble held.
It didn’t take long to become apparent that my plan didn’t fit with the one the two of them had devised between themselves. Since it was two against one, I didn’t have much hope for winning. Besides, I was lucid enough to realize that standing here arguing would just waste even more time, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. So, rather than perpetuate the disagreement in tactics, I quickly gave in, surrendering to their scenario.
Ben volunteered to stay behind and handle the situation with my brother-in-law. Constance drew the duty of taking me to pick up Felicity. Since they had come in her vehicle, and it was currently parked on the street in front of the house, we were unencumbered by both obstacles number one and two. Since they, themselves, were number three, all barriers were now rendered moot.
Before we left, both of them offered to give statements to the local police if I wanted to press charges against Austin. I pondered the idea then decided against it. I suppose in the end I made the choice for Felicity’s sake. Given all that she’d been through, having her husband swearing out a complaint against her brother probably wasn’t something she needed thrown on the pyre right now. I will admit, though, I seriously considered it, even if only for a moment.
What I did tell Ben was that I wanted the man out of my house before I returned. He may well have been on his way to coming around since my posing the questions to him, but I wasn’t interested in taking chances right now. As I was climbing into the passenger side of Constance’s sedan, my friend guaranteed me that he would see to my wish, admitting that it was likely to mean a call to the local police for a patrol car, a Breathalyzer, and a tow truck.
To be honest, that solution suited me just fine.
CHAPTER 21:
“I just don’t get this,” I said aloud as I shifted uncontrollably in the passenger seat. It seemed as though I was infused with enough nervous energy to power a small city, and I just couldn’t get comfortable. I settled back and tried to stop myself from fidgeting then added, “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
The verbal lament wasn’t actually a question; it was really nothing more than an observation born of frustration so intense that my brain was no longer willing to keep the thought to itself. Even so, it was the truth. While I was all about serendipity, especially in this case, Felicity suddenly being released without some type of advance notice just didn’t make sense. I was honestly perplexed by what was happening, and I really did want to understand.
Of course, the fact that I was less than a step shy of being officially overwrought certainly wasn’t helping. I guess my tone conveyed that sense of confusion in spades because Mandalay took it as a cue to provide a simplistic explanation.
“Something must have happened,” she stated without embellishment.
I’ll admit I was confused, but I also hadn’t gone totally dense. Without thinking I fired back a retort, and this time the unfiltered response was even more heavily rimmed with the emotional overload. Unfortunately, the bite in my voice was not only obvious, but also exceptionally unpleasant. “Well, hell Constance, I think maybe I kind of figured that part out on my own! The question is what?”
She glanced over at me as she eased the speeding sedan across the full breadth of Highway Forty and settled into the left lane. Reflected splashes of radiance from a self-contained deck strobe, which was resting on the dash, cast her face in a chaotic flicker of red and blue. It allowed me to see that she was frowning, but it also made her expression seem terribly harsh. I couldn’t truly be sure if the look she was wearing was one of anger or merely pity.
I doubt anyone else, least of all the police, would feel our mission warranted the use of the pulsating emergency lights, but they had been Constance’s idea, and not mine. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She had just managed to pre-empt me before I made the suggestion myself. In fact, the idea was about to tumble out of my mouth when I noticed her suction cupping the device into place.
“Calm down,” she said, shaking her head as she aimed her eyes back toward the road. Her voice was stern, but there was no real anger to speak of within the words, just annoyance. I’m sure she was experiencing her own attack of frustration, both with the situation and with me. “I’m saying something has to have happened that seriously undermined their case against her.”
“Sorry,” I apologized quickly then tried to offer an explanation for my comments. “Look, I’m not complaining, believe me. They never should have arrested her in the first place. I’m just trying to understand what’s going on.”
“I know, Rowan, but…” she stopped her sentence short, again focusing her attention completely on the road.
Lightly tapping the brakes, she canted the steering wheel slightly and veered onto the Eleventh Street-Stadium exit ramp then headed into the sharp curve. I was pressed against the door from the outward force as she eschewed further use of the brake and immediately gunned the engine, accelerating through the turn, shooting down the ramp, and off onto Eleventh Street. It was a good thing nothing was scheduled at the nearby indoor sports complex because that meant traffic was light, and there was no one to get in her way. As she merged onto the northbound street, she continued speaking where she had so abruptly left off, “What I’m trying to tell you is that you can bet whatever it is that happened, it cleared Felicity hands down.”
“Why? I mean, that’s great and all, but why?”
“Because, it’s Saturday night. The prosecutor had to suck it up and interrupt a judge’s evening. Who knows, maybe he even had to get a judge out of bed in order to get her released right now.”
“Okay, I admit I was wondering about that,” I replied with a nod. “Our attorney said it’s almost impossible to get a bail hearing on a weekend. She had to pull some serious strings just to get me in to see her today.”
“Your attorney is correct, but that’s just it. This isn’t bail; this is release. As of this morning she was being charged with murder, but now she’s walking. That means the charges got dropped almost as soon as they got filed. For the prosecutor to go to a judge, hat in hand, on a Saturday evening to get charges dropped means they’re painfully aware that they screwed up royally.
“What it basically says is that either there was gross incompetence that they knew was going to bite them in the ass, or something happened that screwed up their case. Either way, it’s not something that looks good on a resume at all. Given the track record of the prosecutor, I’m betting it wasn’t incompetence on his part. Maybe someone else, but not him. Either way, something happened. Something big.”
“Big how?”
“I can think of several things,” she replied. “New evidence, mishandling of existing evidence, or even another murder while she was in custody.
“No matter what it is, though, there’s one thing you can be sure of-a lot of embarrassment is being dished up right now, and someone’s ass is going to be in a sling. Count on it. The fact that they are letting her out in such a hurry is evidence enough of that.”
“Why?”
“Easy. They want her free before the press can get hold of it.”
“Won’t they still?”
“Sure, they always do, but it won’t make anywhere near as big a splash as it would if they had video of her walking out the doors after all the hoopla that got made over her arrest. I’m actually surprised they didn’t wait until later tonight to spring her. More like midnight or one in the morning.”
“One in the morning?” I repeated in disbelief.
“Yes, one in the morning,” she replied. “I know it sounds insane, but it’s not as off the wall as you might think. It’s been done before, more than once, actually. All in order to sneak it by the press. What’s unfortunate is that this sort of thing happens more than you’d care to know.”