Reasonable Doubt. Tracey V. Bateman

only irritated her more, but she fought to keep her temper in check.

      “What’s up, Rave?”

      “Are you sitting down?”

      “Yeah, I’m in the Jeep.”

      “It’s about Justin Kramer.”

      She stopped swiping and gave Raven her full attention. “What about him?”

      “I think the KC police are getting close to an arrest.”

      Swallowing past the sudden thickness in her throat, Keri managed to croak, “How do you know?”

      “Eugene. Who else?” Raven’s contact at the Kansas City PD. A dispatcher with a crush on the annoyingly gorgeous TV reporter.

      “Is it still off the record?”

      “Yeah, for now. But he said Justin and his lawyer spent the better part of the afternoon in an interrogation room with the detectives working his wife’s homicide.”

      “I just can’t believe it,” she breathed, almost to herself.

      No longer in the mood for lunch, Keri wrapped her barely eaten sandwich and stuffed it back in the bag.

      “I absolutely don’t believe it,” Raven said emphatically. “Justin Kramer is no killer.”

      “Not when he was fourteen, you mean.” But considering he’d never bothered to come back as he’d said he would, how could she really know if he was capable of murder at the ripe old age of twenty-nine?

      “She can’t make you go. It’s not fair.”

      Fourteen-year-old Keri Mahoney sat on the bank overlooking Bennett Lake and swiped at the tears on her freckled cheeks. She stared glumly at the shallow, gray water gurgling over opaque brown stones in the summer breeze. The brilliant sun reflected off the creek—a mocking contrast to the dismal reality stretching before her.

      Justin Kramer sat beside her, equally sullen, snapping twigs and tossing them into the water. One by one the pieces disappeared, carried away by the current. Keri knew exactly how they felt. Helpless, hopeless…drowning.

      Justin sighed. “Aunt Toni says we might come back for a visit sometime.” But his voice didn’t offer much hope, as if he couldn’t quite convince himself they’d ever see each other again.

      “Who am I going to talk to when you’re gone?” She hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face in the rough denim of her jeans. “You’re the only friend I have.”

      “You still have Jesus.” The statement might have sounded stupid coming from anyone else, but Justin’s words rang with sincerity. Keri had the familiar, unsettling sense that Justin knew God as no one else did—better than she did, anyway.

      Feeling the warmth of his palm on her back, she looked up, drinking in his tender expression, memorizing the smooth contours of his handsome face. Black hair, freshly cut, swept across his forehead and around his ears. His nose was just wide enough to even out his face, and his square jaw made him the most handsome boy in class. Not one eighth-grade girl could dispute that fact.

      Keri couldn’t help the pride that accompanied her relationship with Justin. She barely gave a thought to her own looks when Justin looked at her. He never mentioned her freckles, skinny legs or coarse, orange hair. Every girl wanted to be pretty, but Justin didn’t care if she wasn’t, so Keri didn’t, either. Not much.

      Beautiful blue eyes pierced her very soul. Words had never been necessary between them. Even now, though he didn’t speak, Keri knew he was thinking about his parents. How could he not, when the only life he’d ever known had been snuffed out along with their lives only a week ago?

      Why did God have to take both of his parents away? Why couldn’t at least one of them have survived the car accident?

      “Justin!” Hidden by the trees surrounding the creek, they heard Justin’s aunt calling from the cabin. “Where are you? It’s time to go.”

      Justin’s hand tightened around hers, and Keri rested her head on his shoulder. He slipped his arm around her, drawing her close. It was the first time he’d done that, and Keri felt her heart pound at the grown-up gesture.

      Rather than feeling awkward, it felt right, as though she belonged in his embrace. She’d always thought they’d marry some day. Only now…now he was going away.

      “Promise you won’t forget Jesus,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

      Keri’s heart sank. For once, why couldn’t he talk about something personal? Confess undying love. Kiss her. She loved Jesus, too, but there was a time and a place.

      “Justin Michael Kramer, get up here this instant or you’re going to be in big trouble, young man!”

      Reluctance clouded his eyes and he pulled away. “I guess I better go before she explodes a vein.”

      A sense of panic swelled inside Keri. She grabbed at his black T-shirt. “Kiss me goodbye, Justin.” His startled gaze met hers just before she closed her eyes and lifted her chin.

      Feather-soft lips brushed across hers. Never had Keri experienced the feelings springing to life in her heart in that moment. Justin, her friend, her hero and now the first boy ever to kiss her. It seemed right.

      Only his aunt interrupted the beautiful moment. “Justin!”

      He pulled away and jumped to his feet. A long silent stare followed, then he sprinted toward the edge of the woods.

      “I love you,” Keri called after him. “I won’t forget you, I promise.”

      He turned. “I’ll be back,” he promised before disappearing into the trees.

      “I’ll wait,” she whispered. “I’ll never forget you.”

      The squeal of tires accosted Keri’s attention and she jerked around. A blur of red shot past the parking lot, weaving down the road. Horns blared as the pickup narrowly missed a black sedan and a blue hatchback.

      “Gotta go, Rave.”

      “What do you mean you have to—”

      Making a grab for the strobe light, Keri punched off the phone and switched on her siren. Junior Connor—already drunk at 7:00 p.m.—was headed for the bar, which meant he’d brought along his own booze. Mentally, she racked up the charges, from DUI to open container, to manslaughter if she didn’t get to him before he got to that group of teens hanging out on the corner.

      Anger boiled her blood as she slammed the SUV into gear and burned out after the pickup. She wasn’t about to sit by and let that lush take out someone’s kid. Not on her watch.

      Red digital numbers glared; it was just past midnight. Punching his pillow, Justin let out a half growl as he replayed today’s interrogation over and over in his head. He was sick of being called in for questioning by those goons, sick of not knowing who had killed Amelia, and even more sick of being the only suspect the police seemed to have.

      Helplessness sliced at his gut like a dagger. So far, he’d sat back and done pretty much nothing while the detectives worked to find anything to pin Amelia’s murder on his shoulders. He was a sitting duck, just waiting to be arrested for a murder he didn’t commit.

      Releasing a heavy sigh, he flopped over. Lacing his fingers behind his head, he stared toward the ceiling. He needed a vacation. A long, peaceful vacation somewhere away from the media attention, away from the stress of the city and wondering each morning if this might be the day when his worst nightmare became a reality. He closed his eyes, and his mind conjured the image of the only vacation spot he’d ever known.

      Until his parents’ deaths, he’d spent time every summer at the Mahoney cabin on Lake Bennett. He could almost smell the crisp clean lake, could almost see the sun reflecting off wind-rippled water. A flash of freckles on cheeks just below enormous green eyes joined