Mending Fences. Sherryl Woods

crying coming from the downstairs bathroom. Her instincts as a mom had her moving in that direction. She tapped on the door.

      “It’s Mrs. Dobbs. Is everything okay?”

      Her question was met with a loud sniff, but no response.

      “If there’s anything I can do to help, I will,” she said. “Please talk to me.”

      “Go away,” a girl murmured, her voice too thick with tears for Emily to be able to recognize it. “There’s nothing you can do.”

      “I can listen,” she said.

      “Just go away,” the girl pleaded. “I’ll be okay.”

      Emily finally retreated and went in search of Dani. She found her by the pool, her adoring gaze locked on Evan. She shook her head. She’d figured that sooner or later Dani was going to develop a crush on their neighbor. Thank goodness it hadn’t happened till he was almost ready to leave for college. She was doubly thankful that Evan seemed to be oblivious to Dani’s infatuation. Though Evan had always been polite to her and was well liked in school, for some reason she didn’t think he’d be a good match for her daughter. She’d never been able to put her finger on why, other than those rare instances when she’d heard him being disrespectful to his mother. He’d sounded a little too much like his dad. Fortunately, he’d shelved the attitude at home and was always on his best behavior at school. Apparently he was wise enough to understand that teacher evaluations and good grades might be as important as athletic prowess when it came time for him to get into college. He made it a point to turn on the charm for most adults, in fact.

      When Emily finally located Dani, she pulled her aside. “I need to speak to you for a second.”

      Dani tore her attention away from Evan and followed Emily through the hedge to their backyard. “What’s going on?”

      “Have you noticed anything happening tonight that might upset someone?”

      “Like what? Who’s upset?”

      “To be honest, I don’t know, but I overheard a girl sobbing in the downstairs bathroom. I tried to get her to talk to me, but she wouldn’t.”

      Dani looked horrified. “Well, Mom, what did you expect? You probably freaked her out. What did you do, stand outside the bathroom door and interrogate her?”

      Emily winced. “Something like that.”

      “Jeez, Mom. How humiliating!”

      “Okay, I get that it wasn’t the coolest thing in the world to do, but I’m still concerned.”

      “Maybe one of the couples just broke up or something. We’re all practically grown-up. We don’t need our mommies trying to fix things.”

      Duly chastised, Emily backed down. “Okay, I’ll let it drop, but keep your eyes open. There may be somebody over there who could use a friend, that’s all I’m saying.”

      “If I see anybody bawling their eyes out, I’ll give them a tissue,” Dani promised, then hugged her. “You can’t be a mom to the whole world, you know.”

      “I suppose not,” she agreed. “Just as long as you know that you can always come to me, no matter what.”

      “Like I have any big problems,” Dani said, her expression lighthearted.

      Emily cupped her daughter’s face in her hands. “Make sure it stays that way.” She pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Go on back to the party. Have fun and don’t stay too late. You still have curfew, even though the party’s at the Carters’.”

      “Couldn’t I spend the night with Caitlyn?”

      “Not when there are likely to be football players sprawled all over the place for most of the night.”

      “But that’s why it would be so cool,” Dani said.

      “And so out of the question,” Emily said. “Be home at midnight and not one second later.”

      Dani gave her a resigned look. “Yes, ma’am. Does Josh have to be in at midnight?”

      “He’s got a one a.m. curfew tonight, since he’s not driving.”

      “That sucks.”

      “Take it up with the court of appeals in the morning,” she suggested.

      “Who’s that?”

      Emily grinned. “Me.”

      If she could get her kids through the next few years with their hearts and limbs in one piece and their minds at least halfway well educated, she would consider herself lucky. She thought of the brokenhearted sobs she’d heard earlier and amended the thought. She was already darn lucky.

       Chapter 6

       Present

      The whole scene at the police station was totally surreal. Marcie felt as if she were caught up in a nightmare. All she wanted to do was grab her son and run. She’d declared him innocent until her throat was raw, but no one was listening to her. The two detectives had pointed her to a hard chair and told her to wait. She’d watched helplessly as they’d taken Evan off. He was still in handcuffs, and still berating them loudly and with language that made her cringe. Though she understood the fear and anger behind his outburst, she doubted his attitude was helping.

      Across the squad room, Ken was on the phone trying to reach their attorney, who only handled civil matters, but might be willing to come to the station in the middle of the night to help them straighten out this mess. Every chance he got, Ken was also insisting that there be an immediate arraignment so he could take Evan home.

      “Sir, that’s not going to happen before morning,” Detective Rodriguez told him. He had to raise his voice to be heard above Ken’s nonstop demands. “Why don’t you and your wife go home and get some rest?”

      “I’m not leaving my son here so you can railroad him into confessing to something he didn’t do,” Ken snapped.

      “We’re not going to railroad him into anything,” the detective responded, his tone growing increasingly impatient. “He’s asked for an attorney and until he has one, we’re not asking him a thing.”

      “Yeah, right,” Ken said, getting in his face. “I know how guys like you operate. You want to write this up and get it off the books so you can move on to the next case.”

      Marcie saw a muscle working in the detective’s jaw and guessed he was rapidly getting to the end of his rope. She crossed the room and put her hand on Ken’s arm. He jerked it away and scowled at her, clearly furious about her interfering. For once in their marriage, she refused to back down.

      “Have you found an attorney?” she asked quietly. “Is Don coming in?”

      “No, but he recommended somebody and said he’d give him a call. He told me to call back in a few minutes. He said he’d have another name if this guy wasn’t available. I was about to do that when this joker tried to hustle us out of here.”

      Marcie avoided Detective Rodriguez’s eyes and focused on Ken. “Then don’t you think you should concentrate on getting in touch with Don again? Evan needs legal repre-sentation as quickly as possible, so we can put this behind us. The last thing he needs is us making a scene that will make things worse for him.”

      “Okay, okay,” Ken said, shooting another lethal look at the detective before dialing the number for their longtime business attorney.

      Marcie turned to the detective. “Could I see my son?”

      He hesitated a moment, then nodded. “I don’t see why not. Come with me.”

      He led the way to an interrogation room. The pretty, dark-haired detective whose name Marcie had forgotten was sitting outside the door, her presence a disturbing reminder that Evan was