Steal My Breath (Elixir #1) (26 page)

S
even weeks
after I start investigating Jolene’s case, I get the breakthrough I’ve been looking for. It’s also the week I receive the job offer of a lifetime and fate collides with heartbreak in ways I never imagined.

I’m stuck with the case and decide to pay another visit to the motel in the hope of finally convincing one of the women there to talk. I strike it lucky and manage to convince Amanda to share the truth of what happened that day.

“Fuck, not you again. I thought we’d seen the end of your visits,” she mutters when I approach the front desk.

“Nope. I don’t ever plan to give up.”

She must hear something in my voice—determination maybe—and she swears under her breath. “If I tell you the truth can you promise me that it won’t get back to my boss?”

“Who? Louise’s husband?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t see why it would have to. I’m not going to run to him and tell him everything. I just want to know who was here and what they can remember about the person who signed in. That’s all.”

She sighs. Defeated. “Fine. It was me—I was the one on shift that day. Louise was supposed to be here, but she asked me to fill in for her.”

I frown. “Why all the secrecy?”

“You’ve met her husband, right?”

I nod.

“He’s not only an asshole, but he’s also an abusive man who beats her up and cheats on her. She’s tried to leave him but he keeps finding her and dragging her back. Anyway, that’s a whole other story. On the day of the murder, she was trying to suss out some options she had to leave. He was out of town with some other woman, so that was the only day she had to get done what she needed without him knowing about it.”

I put it together in my mind. “So you guys didn’t want him to know she wasn’t on shift.”

She nods. “Right. That’s why we lied to the police, but honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to identify the person who checked in. I remember her, but she had a huge floppy hat on and dark glasses and a scarf around her head. The disguise worked because I couldn’t have been sure who it was.”

I stare at her in disappointment. I don’t doubt she’s telling the truth now. And that truth will get me nowhere. In desperation, I say, “Can we go over that day in detail? Maybe there’s something there that will help.” I really am clutching at straws now.

“Okay, but I don’t think it’s going to help much.”

“What time did you arrive for your shift?”

“Just after two that afternoon. I was rostered on until around eleven that night.”

“Was it a busy shift?”

“Not really.”

“What did you do to pass the time?”

She pulls a face. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“I cleaned the office for a while. I played some games on my phone. I read some of my book. Those kinds of things.”

“Did you get a break?”

“Not really. I just stayed here at the desk and ate some dinner around five.”

“And the murderer checked in at around five thirty, yes?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Just after you ate your dinner?”

She nods. “Yes, I remember she checked in just after my daughter left.”

“What was your daughter doing here?”

Her face lights up when she remembers this part of the day. “She brought my granddaughter by to see me. She was about six months old then and I loved taking photos of her. They’d just been to a party and she was all dressed up so my daughter dropped by for me to take a photo. I know it sounds silly, but these are the kinds of things a grandmother treasures.”

I smile. “It’s not stupid, Amanda. I love that.”

“Let me show you the photos. I still have them on my phone. She’s just too gorgeous to delete, even after all these years.” She rushes out to the office to retrieve her phone.

A minute later I’m looking at photos of not only her beautiful granddaughter but also of a woman whose muffin top and face I would recognise anywhere. Well, maybe not anywhere, but definitely in this instance.

I stare at her. “Was this the woman who checked into the room where the murder took place?” My heart is racing.

She peers closer at the photo and then blows it up. “God, yes, that’s her. She was right there near my grandbaby.” This thought appears to horrify her.

I motion at the phone. “Can I please see?”

She passes me the phone and I look at all the photos she has of that day with her family. It’s the very last photo that gives me what I’m looking for—concrete evidence of who killed Jolene’s mother.

Alanis.

She’s in the background of the photo getting out of a rental car. The photo was snapped when she didn’t have the disguise on fully. The dumb bitch. She planned everything else down to the detail, but she drove without the hat and the scarf in place.

I glance up at Amanda. “Can I please send these to myself?”

She nods, clearly shaken. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know I had those on there.”

I quickly send the photos to my email and then hand her phone back. “You’re going to have to make a statement to the police. Please tell me you’ll do this.”

“Yes. When?”

“What time do you finish work?”

She checks the time. “In half an hour.”

“Right, I’ll stay here and then we can go to the police station, okay?”

We agree to do this together and then I head outside to wait in my car for her. My mind is bombarded with thoughts and my emotions race through me. After all this time, Jolene may be able to go home to her son. She may be able to start piecing her life back together.

And Luke?

I grip the steering wheel. In all the thinking I’ve done over this, I haven’t actually stopped to think about all the repercussions of Jolene being released from prison.

I haven’t considered Luke’s reaction in any of this. I was so focused on Jolene.

Oh, God.

My thinking has been so narrow right from the beginning. All I could think about was getting to the truth. I never reflected on what the truth would actually mean.

I
take
a deep breath as I knock on the front door of a house I know well but haven’t visited in nearly two months. Waiting for the door to open is nerve-wracking. What if my information isn’t wanted or listened to?

The door swings open and laughter filters into the warm night air as I stare into friendly eyes.

“Callie!” Estelle greets me with enthusiasm at the same time as her arms fold me close to her in a hug. “Come in, my darling!” She ushers me in and leads me to her lounge room.

Luke’s mother always makes me feel welcome. It’s hard for me to reconcile this woman with the one Jolene knows.

George and Tyler stare at me in surprise when we reach the lounge room. Tyler stands and makes his way to me. “Fuck, I’ve missed you,” he says, hugging me also.

This is way harder than I imagined. All the memories of my time with Luke and his family flood my mind, hurting just as much as they did seven weeks ago.

Will this heartache ever go away?

I smile up at him. “I’ve missed you, too, Tyler.”

George nods at me. We haven’t spent a great deal of time getting to know each other, but I think he’s good for Estelle—he seems to calm her. She drinks far less than she used to and I attribute that to George.

“Would you like a vodka?” Estelle asks.

I smile. One of the things I adore about her is that she took the time to get to know me. We lunched every couple of weeks while I was with Luke and became friends—we weren’t just connected by our relationships with him. After we broke up, she checked in with me regularly, but I put some distance between us, unable to face the regular reminder of what I gave up. “No, thank you. I need to talk to you about something and alcohol would not be good for the conversation.”

Lines crinkle her forehead as she frowns. “This sounds serious. Do we need to have this conversation in private?”

I consider that for a moment. “Actually, that would be good, I think.”

She nods and puts her arm around my shoulders. “We can talk in my office.” Turning to George, she says, “Darling, can you please make me a drink? By the look on Callie’s face, I feel I may need it for this.”

After he agrees, we exit the room and make our way to her study. It’s one of my favourite rooms in her house. White reigns in here with splashes of pink throughout. Estelle has stamped her personal space with luxury and feminine touches that make you want to spend hours in the room. It’s uncluttered but the few items she chose to include are perfect—plump cushions on her chaise, candles, art and fresh flowers daily are all items I would choose, too.

She faces me. “What’s going on? You look like you’re wrestling a monster inside that head of yours.”

“I need you to hear me out, okay? Please keep an open mind and know that what I’m about to tell you is the honest truth.”

“Goodness, I think I need to sit for this.” She fumbles her way to the chaise and takes a seat.

I sit next to her. “To cut a long story short, I’ve been looking into the murder of Jolene’s mother after a work colleague of mine told me she didn’t think Jolene was guilty.“ I take in Estelle’s wide eyes, but send thanks to the universe that she doesn’t interrupt. “I’ve spent the last seven weeks investigating it and today I discovered that she is not guilty. Her mother was murdered by Alanis.”

The seconds tick by at a maddeningly slow pace as she processes this information. Her face finally twists in confusion. “I don’t understand. The police and the lawyer, and the investigator I hired, they all said it was Jolene.”

I nod. “I know because the evidence all pointed to Jolene. But I uncovered new evidence that proves it was Alanis. She set Jolene up and did a damn good job of it.” I pull out my phone and scroll to the photos I’d emailed myself from Amanda’s phone. Thrusting it at her, I say, “The woman who checked the murderer into the motel that day took this photo of her grandchild that afternoon. If you blow it up, you can see Alanis in the background. The staff member verified that was the woman she booked in.”

Estelle spends a good minute inspecting the photo. Her hand moves slowly to her mouth as horror spreads across her face. Her eyes meet mine in shock. “Oh, my God.”

“I know,” I say softly, still processing this myself.

“Have you shown this to Luke yet?”

“No.”

She frowns again. “Why not?”

I take a deep breath before I try to explain. “Did he ever tell you why we broke up?”

“He just told me you two had a difference of opinion and then you told me pretty much the same thing. Was it about this?”

“Yes. He didn’t want me to have anything to do with it.”

“And you, being the wonderful Callie that you are, couldn’t bear to see Jolene suffer for something you didn’t think she did. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think you’d want me doing it either. I mean, you didn’t exactly like Jolene—”

“That’s not entirely true, my darling. I just didn’t feel she was right for my son. From the day I met her, I sensed Luke was blind to her beauty because they simply had nothing else in common. Well, except for mothers who weren’t always around during their childhoods. And didn’t Luke throw that in my face as often as he could. But that’s a whole other story.”

“Jolene told me you two clashed horribly throughout the marriage.”

“
That
is true. I tried to help them where I could, but she didn’t appreciate any of it. She had a chip on her shoulder when it came to money. I couldn’t understand the problem. I could afford to buy those things, so why not let me do what I could?”

I smile sadly and squeeze her hand. “Because sometimes we all just want to think we can take care of our family by ourselves. We want to feel like we’re enough and can be enough for those we love.”

She presses her lips together and I know she doesn’t really understand that concept. “Well, when you can’t provide for your child, you need to either figure out a way to do that or accept help when it’s offered.”

I nod. “Yes, I understand that, too. But us humans are funny sometimes, aren’t we? We twist things in our mind and come up with some screwed-up ideas.”

“Yes, we do. That is also true. So why haven’t you been to Luke with this?”

“He’s so angry and closed off to anything to do with Jolene. I don’t blame him at all, but because of that, I don’t think he’ll listen to me. He’ll find a way to shut me out and continue living with that burning hate he has for her.”

“Ah, so you want me to tackle him?”

I laugh. “That is probably a good way of describing it. I think his mother would have more chance of having him hear her out.”

“I imagine we’ll have another argument but there’s nothing unusual there.”

“Can you also take this new information to Jolene’s lawyer?” I pass her the file I’ve put together with my detailed notes of everything I’ve discovered. “It may not be enough, but it’s a start. All the research I’ve done makes me think Jolene will need solid scientific evidence to succeed in having the conviction overturned. I’m hoping there’s some DNA evidence they were never able to use that proves it was Alanis.”

“That woman was awful at her job. I have a better lawyer now. He can work on this.” She pauses and thinks about something for a minute. “This was a horrible screw up right from the beginning I fear. The lawyer and the investigator I hired really let Jolene down, didn’t they?”

This is nothing I haven’t thought about. I can’t even imagine placing my life in someone else’s hands like that to then have them make such a life-changing mistake. “They did. But I guess if all the evidence points to someone, and you’re not invested in the case like I was, you perhaps get sloppy and miss things.”

We sit in silence, both lost in our thoughts.

I will never forget this day or the lessons learnt.

Sometimes what appears to be the truth is merely a lie parading as an illusion that steals everything from us. And sometimes our flawed heart buys into a truth we can make sense of rather than looking deeper for the real truth.

Jolene was right.

We exist in shades of truth.