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“And you don’t believe him? Or you do?” Steve asked.
“I don’t know,” Della said. “I mean, this Douglas Stone guy really exists. He’s bad, and he was out to stop Chase from trying to prove this. So maybe I do believe my uncle didn’t do it. Oh,” she grabbed the file and flipped pages and pointed down, “and I just found in the transcripts of the 911 call that my dad told the operator ‘he’ broke in but that ‘they’ were hurting his sister. Doesn’t that mean there were two people there that night? And that kind of supports my uncle’s version, because he said Douglas Stone got there first and then he arrived.”
Steve sat there thinking. “But why would he think your uncle was hurting his sister?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he was unconscious when Feng got there and just heard them screaming or something. But the thing is that my mom said that shortly after all this happened they had to put my dad in St. Mary’s hospital, that hospital for crazy people. Which is more proof that he saw something. But my dad’s lawyer is afraid to request the files because he thinks something in there could hurt the case.”
“Or it could prove that he got attacked and that’s the reason his blood was on the knife. Those files might help his case.”
Frustration welled up and started spilling out of her and she moaned. Really loud.
Realizing how crazy she looked, she said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Steve asked.
“For bitching. I told you I wasn’t good company.”
Steve hesitated. “Are you sure it was St. Mary’s Psychiatric Institution?”
“That’s what my mom said, why?”
“Well, what if you could get your hands on those files and find out if they would help or hurt your father’s case? And if they help, you can tell the lawyer to get them opened and used for evidence.”
“How?” Della asked.
Steve shrugged and looked hesitant to say it. “My mom works there one day a week. Well, she volunteers and visits some of the people who don’t have insurance. I don’t know if they have the old files there, but they might.”
“Your mom would actually give them to me?” Della asked, not believing it.
“Oh, hell, no,” Steve said. “I’m thinking if I found out where they keep the files, I could go, then leave a window open and you could take a peek at them.”
“God, I love you,” Della said and hugged him.
It only took a second for Della to realize what she’d said and to realize how awkward it felt. Her arms around Steve. Steve’s arms around her.
Surely Steve didn’t think she meant that she loved him like … “love” love.
Or did he?
Oh, hell!
* * *
Chase moved faster up the steps. He saw the two guards start toward him as he entered the door.
Kirk, along with the other councilmen, waited in the entryway.
Chase stared at Kirk’s face, trying to read him. “What’s going on?”
Chase heard the guard’s footsteps move up the porch.
“Stop,” Kirk growled. “There will be no bloodshed!”
The two sets of footsteps halted.
Chase looked at the man whom he’d grown to love and trust, and just like that he knew he’d been wrong. Kirk knew about Stone. The whole council was in on this. “Why are you protecting Douglas Stone?”
Councilman Powell’s shoulders gave, as if in defeat. “The guy you call Douglas Stone is my son.”
