21. Dayton
CHAPTER 21
Dayton
A s I step out of the bathroom dressed for work, PJ lifts his head and watches me with his tail wagging as I walk towards the bed. At some point, Franny moved from the middle where I left her after my alarm went off to my side and wrapped herself around my pillow. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, I slide my hand up her back.
“Franny.” I slide the heavy fall of hair off her neck, and she moves, mumbling something in her sleep, making me smile.
“Baby.” I lean down and brush my lips across the shell of her ear, then whisper there, “I’m leaving.”
“No, it’s too early.” She whispers back, reaching out and wrapping her hand around mine on her neck. “Come back to bed.” Fuck, it kills me that I can’t give her what she wants.
“I wish, baby, we’ll sleep in on the weekend.” I press a kiss to her temple. “I already took PJ out and fed him, so sleep, and call me when you get up.”
“Okay,” she agrees, not even opening her eyes.
Getting off the bed, I make sure she’s tucked in, then start to leave the room, and PJ jumps off the bed to follow me.
“Dayton,” Franny’s sleepy voice calls out, and I stop in the doorway and turn to find her head up and her eyes on me.
“Yeah.”
“Before you go, you should know I love you.” My body stills. “I don’t want you to think that I’m not choosing you too.”
“You can’t say shit like that when I’m just about to leave Franny.”
“Sorry.” She whispers. “I just wanted you to know.”
With a shake of my head, I walk back around the bed, and she falls to her back as I loom over her, pressing my fist in the mattress while my free hand wraps around the back of her neck. Pulling her up, I capture her mouth and kiss her, and she threads her fingers through my hair, holding on.
Sometime later, when I’m dressed once more, and she’s lying half on her belly with nothing but the sheet low on her waist, I take a seat on the edge of the bed in the same position I was in earlier this morning and slide my fingers down the side of her face.
“I’ll see you tonight.”
“Okay,” she whispers with a smile, sounding sleepy as she reaches up and rests her hand on my cheek. “Good luck today.”
“Thanks, baby.” I turn my head and press a kiss to her palm. “Just so you know.” I lean over and brush my lips against the shell of her ear. “I love you too.”
“I know.” I hear the smile in her voice, and then I see it when I lean back.
“I’ll see you this evening.” I brush my mouth across hers one last time then get up off the bed and PJ starts to follow me, but I pick him up and put him on the bed since he can’t get up there without help.
I’m in my SUV a few minutes later, and I glance down at my dash when my cell begins to ring, the number isn’t one I recognize but it is local, so I hit accept on the call.
“Hello.”
“Dayton.” A familiar female voice asks.
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“Janelle, I got your number from Detective Shaw.”
“Oh, hey Janelle, how’s it going?”
“All right. Busy working, but that’s nothing new. I meant to call you yesterday, but time got away from me, and by the time I got a chance to call, it was too late, so I’m doing that today.”
“Okay.”
“I just wanted to give you a heads up, I spoke with Alice’s sisters yesterday. They called to ask me about the meeting you scheduled with them. They wanted to know if I knew what it was about.”
“What did you say?”
“As much as I could without saying too much, basically that I know that you plan on presenting them with evidence against Charles.”
“All right.”
“They were very skeptical, even when I mentioned the DNA that came back as a match to him.”
Shit.
“Do they understand how unlikely it is that his DNA would have been at the scene and on the murder weapon if he didn’t use it to kill her.”
“They understand, but now in their heads, Greg had Charles kill Alice, and that’s why his DNA was there.”
“I met with Greg yesterday; the man is still heartbroken, and it’s been twenty-plus years since he lost his wife.”
“I know,” she says softly, “but there is some very bad blood between them.”
“Fuck.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted you to know before your meeting. I guess I kind of hoped that you had found some other information that I didn’t know about and that you were going to use that to convince them that Charles killed their sister.”
“I don’t have any other evidence.” I tighten my grip on the steering wheel.
“Maybe you’ll be more convincing than me.”
“That’s doubtful. I listened to your podcast and I know that you built a rapport with them over the course of your investigation. If they weren’t willing to believe you, I doubt that they are going to believe me.”
“You never know.”
“Yeah, you never know.” Except I do know. When people are emotionally connected to a situation and have a clear recollection of the past or the past as they believe it, it’s difficult to change their minds.
“I’m sorry. I really hope that they are open to hearing what you have to say.”
“Me too.”
“If you can’t get them on your side, do you still plan on?—"
“Yes,” I cut her off. “We will be moving forward with or without them. Our case is solid.”
“I’m happy to hear that. Alice deserves justice.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” I hang up with her after saying goodbye and drive the rest of the way to work, trying to figure out how much this is going to affect our case in the end. The truth is that her sisters siding with the defense, regardless of how strong our case is, could end up fucking us. At trial, all the defense needs is one person on the jury to hold out as undecided, and we will have wasted precious time and resources.
When I arrive at work, I stop in my office and drop of my stuff then head right to the conference room where the staff meetings are always held. Everyone is already seated but there is an empty chair at the table next to Mary, so I pull up a seat.
The meeting isn’t a big deal, just Billy going over what everyone is working on and checking in since we haven’t had a meeting in a few days with him in court.
“How close are we to being able to bring the case against Charles in front of Judge Brown?” Billy asks and everyone in the conference room turns their attention to me.
“I’d say another week, I have meetings scheduled with Alice’s family this afternoon, and Mary and I met with her husband yesterday. After that I want to get everything together, then I should be ready to present our case and hopefully get approval to move forward.”
“Great, I’m looking forward to hearing what you have.” He glances through everyone. “Does anyone have anything for me, anything that I need to know?”
“I’m pregnant.” Looking over my shoulder when that comment is made, I find Jamie sitting in the corner of the room. She looks pale and terrified, but there is also a glint of determination in her eyes.
“Umm.” I audibly hear Billy swallow from where I’m seated. “That’s…” pause. “That’s great news, congratulations.” I turn my attention back to him, his neck, and the tips of his ears have turned a bright shade of red. Dragging his eyes off of Jamie, he looks at me. “Congrats, Dayton.” Oh, hell fucking no. “Alright, this meeting is over, and we’ll all catch up again later this week.” He gathers a stack of folders from the head of the table, then quickly hurries to leave, not looking at anyone as he goes.
With my jaw clenched, I stay seated, afraid if I move, I’ll follow after him, and with the amount of rage sitting in the pit of my stomach, that conversation would not go well. I need a minute to cool down. As people get up to leave, not one person offers their congratulations; every single one of them is looking at me in disbelief. Then again, they have seen Jamie and I interact, and anyone who has seen the two of us together would be hard-pressed to believe that she and I are a couple.
“I’ll see you when Alice’s sisters get here.” Mary pats my hand before she gets up out of her chair and leaves, closing the conference room door behind herself.
“I’m sorry,” Jamie says softly from behind me, and I slowly turn my chair around to face her. “I’ve tried to see him numerous times over the last few weeks, but he’s been avoiding me. He even changed his number, so I can’t call or text.” I watch tears fill her eyes. “I didn’t think that he would imply that this is your child.”
“Did you think that he’d say it was his and that you two would share a moment in the middle of a meeting?” I fist my hands on my thighs. I don’t want to take my anger out on her, but I’m fucking angry. Even if Jamie and I have never had a relationship, the fact that it’s been implied again pisses me off. And the news that she’s pregnant, that just adds a cherry to the top of our fucked up cake. If Franny’s dad catches wind of this drama fest, he’ll hang me up by my balls before I have a chance to explain the situation to him. And even if I’m able to explain things, I doubt he’s going to believe me. I wouldn’t fucking believe me.
“I don’t know what I thought he’d do.” She looks away. “I’m really sorry, Dayton I…”
“You know Franny is pregnant, Jamie, and although I feel some empathy for you and your situation, you have to know that this puts me in a fucked-up position.”
“I never asked you to tell people that we’re together.”
She’s right, she didn’t ask. Billy did because he’s a piece of shit.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m looking for a new job. I can’t work here anymore.” Thank fuck, at least there’s that, though if I’m honest, since she had her epiphany about Billy, she’s been a great secretary. She shows up on time, is always professional, and has never hesitated to help out when she’s needed. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do about Billy. He isn’t exactly talking to me. I guess at some point, I’ll have to get a lawyer. Or maybe I’ll just move home to Florida close to my parents and forget that I ever had anything to do with him. That would probably be better for me and this baby.”
“Is the kid his?”
“I want to be offended by that question, but since I was sleeping with a married man, I guess I can’t be.” She wipes the wet from under her eyes and straightens her spine. “I know that you think I’m the bad guy, but he’s the only guy I’ve been with in a very long time, he told me that he was getting divorced, he met my family, spent time with my parents and told me that I would meet his kids.” More tears start to fill her eyes, and I reach over for the tissue box that is in the middle of the table and hand it to her. “I made a lot of mistakes when it comes to him, more than I can count, but my biggest mistake was believing him when he told me that he loved me.”
“I’m sorry.” And I mean that. If she’s telling the truth, which I do believe she is, he played her and preyed on her vulnerabilities. Franny was, or is, right.
“Of course you are, you’re one of the few good ones left.” She rubs her hands down the front of her skirt. “Do you need anything from me right now?”
“I can’t think of anything,” I tell her, and she nods, pushing up to stand.
“I think I’m going to go out for a walk. I need a few minutes. Do you want something while I’m out?”
“I’m good, but thanks.” I mutter and she leaves the conference room with her chin down and her eyes on her feet.
After scrubbing my hands down my face, I get up and leave the room. I don’t go to my office. I instead head to Billy’s. He might be able to avoid Jamie, but he can’t avoid me. Walking past his secretary, who smiles and waves me on, I don't even bother knocking before I open his door.
Hearing me come in, he turns around with his phone to his ear, and his eyes widen when he sees me. “Steven, I’m going to call you back.” He says as I close the door. “Yes, I’ll call you back.” He hangs up, tucking his cell phone into his pocket. “Dayton, I’m getting ready to leave for court.”
“That’s okay. This won't take long.” I lean back against the door and cross my arms over my chest. “I just wanted to let you know that you’re going to have to find someone else to blackmail.”
“Dayton.” He sighs.
“I’m done, Billy. Barrett knows about the baby, he knows Franny and I are together, and Franny knows about you and Jamie. I’m not keeping your secret.”
“You told Franny about Jamie and me?”
“I did, you might not have an issue hiding shit from your woman, but I got a problem doing that with mine.”
“Is she going to tell Shelly?”
“I doubt Franny wants to be the person to share that kind of news with your wife.” His shoulders sag. “But given what just happened, I would say you’re not going to have much of a choice but to be honest real fucking soon.”
“That kid is not mine.” He waves me off.
“If you say so.”
“It’s not.”
“That’s not my problem, Billy.” I turn to open the door.
“Dayton.”
“What?” I look back at him over my shoulder.
“Never mind.” He falls back into his chair, looking defeated.
I don’t fucking care. He made his bed. He can fucking lay in it and rot away.
When I get to my office, Jamie isn’t at her desk, and I don’t know how long it will be until she gets back, so I leave my door open.
Taking a seat at my desk, I take out my cell phone and dial Barrett’s number. He doesn’t answer so I leave him a message asking him to call me back. I don’t want to add to the stress that he is already dealing with, but I’m not stupid enough to believe that I don’t need to cover my own ass at this point. He and Billy have been friends for years, and they have a history Barrett and I don’t have. I’m not worried in the least about Franny believing the bullshit, but she loves her family, and if they decide that they don’t believe me, that could cause issues for us.
While I wait for Barrett to call me back, I make sure that I have everything in order for when Alice’s sisters arrive. If I’m going to have a shot in hell at convincing them that Charles killed their sister, everything needs to be presented with clear and precise accuracy, leaving nothing open for interpretation.
As I’m sending my files to the printer, my phone rings, and Barrett’s name pops up on the screen.
“Barrett,” I answer putting my cell to my ear as I leave my office to go to the printing room.
“Hey, I just got your message. Is everything okay? Is Franny alright?”
“She’s fine, I was actually calling to see if I could stop by this evening when I get off work, there’s something I need to speak with you about.”
“Oh.” He says quietly, and I drop my eyes to my feet. Fuck I know what he’s thinking, especially after he brought up Franny and I getting married, and I jumped on that idea only to have it blow up in my face.
“It’s not that, it’s business.”
“Business?”
“There is a situation at work that I need to speak with you about.”
“Oh, okay sure stop by. I’m still under house arrest, so I’ll be here.” That makes me smile.
“Thanks Barrett, I’ll see you this evening.”
“See you then.” He hangs up and I pick up the papers I printed then go back to my office. While I’m looking everything over there is a knock and I look up to find Jamie standing in the doorway.
“I just wanted to let you know I’m back.”
“Thanks, Jamie.”
“No problem.” She steps out, closing the door, and I get back to work.
An hour later, there is another knock at the door, and Jamie pokes her head in again to let me know that Nicole and Heather, Alice’s sisters are here for our meeting. After asking her to call Mary and to get them anything they might need, I go out to greet both women.
Within the first five minutes of them taking a seat in my office, I know that they didn’t come here to listen to what I have to say, they came in an attempt to prove to me that Greg had something to do with their sister’s murder.
They dive into Alice and Greg’s history, how they got together in high school, and that Alice always seemed to be more invested in their relationship than he was. He would cancel plans, avoid seeing her for days at a time, and cheated on her more than once. When Alice ended up pregnant, she started talking about the two of them getting married, and he made it clear that was not something that he wanted, but she pushed the topic until he eventually gave in.
At their wedding, more than one person commented on the fact that Greg looked miserable. He didn’t smile, refused to cut the cake with Alice, and instead hung with his friends and got drunk. One of the friends he hung out with that night was Beau, who shared with guests at the wedding that he disliked Alice and that he believed his friend could do better.
The day after their wedding they left for their honeymoon, they rented a cabin a couple of hours away and planned to spend a few days there. Alice called her mom a day later crying and upset about a situation that happened and said she wanted to come home. Her mom told her that they would come pick her up, but a few hours later Alice called her back and told her that everything was okay and that they didn’t need to come get her.
Her mother, even before her death, didn’t tell anyone what had made Alice make that call, but her sisters believe that Greg hit Alice that night, though there was no evidence of that.
When Alice and Greg got back from their honeymoon, Alice’s family rarely saw or spoke to her, she went from daily phone calls to calls once a week or less and a rare visit. Her family didn’t even know that she was in labor until hours after she went to the hospital, and when her son was born, they weren’t allowed in the hospital room with their sister and the baby. Greg told them that Alice didn’t want a lot of people around, but they don’t believe their sister would have ever said that. They believe that he was isolating her from the people who could help her leave him if that is what she needed to do.
Weeks later, when they got the news of Alice’s murder, they instantly came to the conclusion that Greg killed her. Even after the police told them that he had a solid alibi at the time of her death, it didn’t change their opinions. In their minds, the only thing that changed is the person who committed the act, not Greg’s involvement in the murder.
After listening to them tell me their side of things, I lay out my case against Charles, the DNA, his extensive criminal history, the fact that he confessed at one point, and that his brother lived across the street from Alice and Greg at the time so there would have been a connection, even if they didn’t know each other personally. As I talk, I know everything I’m saying is falling on deaf ears, and I’m wasting my breath. They have spent years building up Greg as the villain in their heads, and nothing short of a full confession from Charles and him stating that Greg wasn’t involved is going to change their minds. Even then, I wonder if they would believe him.
When they leave, Mary and I come up with a game plan and I have Jamie call judge Brown’s secretary to get us on his calendar. In a few weeks I’ll know if my case is strong enough to bring to a jury and then we will go from there.
A few hours later, with the sour taste of my meeting with Alice’s sisters still sitting in the back of my throat, I drive up to Franny’s childhood home. When I arrive, Betsy lets me in and then leads me to the back patio, where I find Barrett with his feet up, watching TV.
“Dayton, good to see you.” He starts to stand when he sees me, but I shake my head.
“Please don’t get up.” I pat his shoulder, then take a seat across from him. “How are you feeling?”
“Better, ready to get back to work. Betsy is keeping me in lockdown until the doctors give me the all-clear.”
“I don’t want to side with her, but that’s probably wise.”
“Probably.” He picks up a glass of water he has sitting on a table next to him. “So, what brings you out here?”
“There is a situation with Billy that I’ve been brought into, and I want to let you know about it.”
“His affair with your assistant,” he says, and my brows drag together. “I have birds all over the place, they all like to bring me news. I’ve known for weeks what he was up to even before the news story. After the story came out, I asked him about it, and he told me that you and she were together and that the rumors about him were a lie. I knew he wasn’t being honest, but sometimes you have to let things play out, and people dig their own graves.” Shit, I sit back, scrubbing my fingers through my hair. “Billy has been doing this kind of thing for years, he’s never going to change.” He shakes his head. “Some men will learn from their mistakes; others keep making those same mistakes and blame everyone but the person looking at them in the mirror.” His eyes roam over my face. “If I had known this is what you wanted to talk to me about, I would have saved you the trip, but I appreciate you letting me know.”
“I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, if it was only me in this situation, I might not care, but Franny’s involved, and I don’t want anything to harm her, even a rumor that she knows is a lie.”
“You told her.”
“Of course.”
“Good man.” He smiles. “I’m glad she found you. She needed someone who puts her first even when putting her first isn’t comfortable or easy.”
“She’s my priority.”
“I know.” He says softly before he pushes up to stand. “Well, if that’s all you wanted to talk to me about, I’m going to go in and see what form of torture Besty made for dinner.”
“I think you’re safe.” I laugh, moving to my feet. “It smelled good when I walked by the kitchen.”
“Don’t believe your nose, kid. I’ve made that mistake more than once the last couple of weeks.” He pats my arm, then leads the way into the house.
“Yo, Dayton.” Jacob greets from a chair at the island. “You staying for dinner? Mom’s making Cowgirl steaks.”
“Steak?” Barrett asks, sounding surprised.
“Don’t get excited, Dad, they’re vegan.”
“See what I mean.” Barrett turns to me, and I grin.
“You’re welcome to join us Dayton, there’s plenty,” Betsy says, taking a big bowl of salad out of the fridge.
“I would, but Franny told me earlier today that we’re making tacos for dinner.”
“You mind if I join you guys?” Jacob asks.
“Sure.”
“Cool, let me go get my wallet. I’ll follow you in my car.” I watch him leave the kitchen in a hurry.
“Do you have room for one more?” Barrett asks.
“I’ll make you tacos tomorrow,” Betsy tells him before I can respond.
“No one wants vegan tacos, honey.”
“Well, too bad.”
“Lord save me.”
“He did save you,” she snaps while glaring at him, “and I promised him that I wouldn’t let you end back up in the hospital.”
“All right,” Jacob calls out coming back into the kitchen his eyes on me. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah.” I walk over to kiss Betsy’s cheek then tell Barrett goodnight before we leave the two of them in a standoff in the kitchen. On the way home, I call Franny to let her know that we have company and the smile in her voice is clear. It took a while after Barrett’s surgery for Jacob to come back around, and all of us were relieved when he finally did.
A couple of hours later, with our empty dinner plates still on the table, I sit back with my beer and Franny’s hand wrapped around mine on my thigh. I listen to her and her brother laugh about some vacation they went on as kids.
Their childhood was vastly different from mine, they had a home with two parents who put them first and everything from money to opportunities at their disposal. But it’s obvious listening to them that one thing their parents instilled in them is that happiness is not something that can be bought and that family is the most important thing you’ll ever have. I didn’t learn that until later in life, but our son or daughter will grow up with that being a core value, and that is something I didn’t know was important to me until now. And it’s one more reason I’m lucky to have Franny as the mother of my child. One more reason that I’m lucky to have her as mine.