Chapter 48
Leaving turbulence behind and transitioning to calmer waters is the message of the Six of Swords.
CAL
Jury selection starts one month from today. I haven’t been sleeping well. I’m scared. No, I’m petrified.
I call Laura every day. “Be patient,” she says. “The wheels are turning.”
It doesn’t appear the plan to get Juliet to confess has worked. I am really going on trial. I will spend the rest of my life in jail. I don’t even know how to mentally prepare for this.
Marci has been bringing me meals and spending more time with me. I don’t want to leave the cottage. People stare at me everywhere I go. With the trial approaching, my picture, along with Paul’s, is plastered all over the local media.
Today Marci shows up with the top down on her baby blue VW convertible. There is a picnic basket in the back seat. “Let’s go. We’re taking a drive into the mountains.”
North Georgia is beautiful. It is the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountain range, and the area is dotted with clear lakes and streams. We drove to Helen, a little Bavarian-style village. We shop and go to a winery for a wine tasting. No one recognizes me. No one is staring or whispering behind my back.
“This is nice. I needed this.” I was sitting outside the dressing room while Marci tried on clothes in a small boutique.
The salesclerk made small talk. “How are you ladies doing this gorgeous day? Having some fun?” It all felt so normal. I hadn’t experienced anything resembling normal in months.
A rogue thought crossed my mind. What if I ran away, far away where no one knows me? Could I get away with it?
How do people do that? Disappear, I mean. I’ve had some experience with it. Over twenty years ago my only daughter, Eve, ran away. I was married to my first husband, John, at the time. We paid private investigators tens of thousands of dollars to find our daughter, but they never did. It is the single most shattering event in my life. I think about Eve every day and send love to her, wherever she is. I refuse to think she is not safe and happy somewhere.
Marci and I are sitting by a small stream under a tree. I lay back on the blanket after stuffing myself with one of Marci’s famous muffaletta sandwiches.
“You can’t be serious,” Marci said when I broached the subject with her. “You’d be a fugitive for the rest of your life.”
“Being a fugitive is better than being incarcerated for the rest of my life or worse, dead.”
“Laura hasn’t said anything about progress with finding Juliet?”
“They’ve located her, but so far, no confession. Danny hasn’t said anything?”
“We don’t speak that often. He still comes to Serendipity but avoids me.”
“Marce, I’m scared, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t think Laura can convince a jury of my innocence.”
“Whatever you do, you know I will support you and help you.”
“You can’t help me. That’s aiding and abetting a criminal. I need to do this myself.”