Past Forward- A Serial Novel: Episode 16 (14 page)

Cars whizzed by, Portia chased the sticks she threw, and the sun sank slowly toward the horizon.
Still Willow sat
,
thought, prayed, and rambled to her mother about everything from the state of the garden to the progress she was making on spinning.
She jumped to her feet and called Portia to her side.

“
Girl, I
’
m being immature.
I don
’
t care if he
’
s gone all day working and then helping someone
or
off to see his mom
—
or Todd
—
but
he gets stuck
in Rockland with that trial
,
and I act like it
’
s the end of the world.
I
’
m going to make some dinner,
play that
movie on the laptop, bring in the charger since I
’
ve run this battery down, and spin until I
’
m exhausted.
There
’
s a storm coming.
It sounds cozy
.”

Suddenly, she felt energized.
She heated soup, made a salad and another sandwich, flipped on the house electricity, and set up her movie.
Eagerly she raced to the barn for the phone charger and carefully plugged it into the kitchen outlet where she could hear it.
With everything ready, she clicked the play button on the laptop, sat at the spinning wheel, and began the slow steady treadle as she worked to get her rhythm.

The wool twisted into a thin cord and eventually she managed to keep it reasonably even.
There was something extremely satisfying about spinning as she watched the mill workers in the old cotton mills of northern England.
The first raindrops hit the windows as she finished the first bobbin.

Thunder flashed, the wind picked up and rattled the windows
,
but she continued to spin and watch
,
almost unaware of the storm raging outside.
Eventually, her calf muscle protested.
It
took
longer each time she sat at the wheel
,
and a call to her physical therapist had assured her that she should push it until it threatened to go from sore to painful and then stop.
Pain had already arrived.

Disappointed, Willow turned up the volume on the movie
,
moved the spinning wheel back into the corner by the chaise
,
and limped back to the couch.
Her muscle cream was upstairs in the bathroom
,
and the idea of climbing the stairs frustrated her.
Perhaps she should just go to bed.
There was no way she
would
come back down and then return to bed.
She
’
d fall asleep on the couch and wake up stiff and cramped.

A new idea occurred to her, making Willow feel ridiculously modern and decadent.
She grabbed the laptop and cord, crawled up the stairs, plugged it into the outlet behind Chad
’
s bed table and sat it on his side of the bed. Excitedly, she brushed her teeth, re-braided her hair, and grabbed the muscle cream before crawling into bed and restarting the movie.
Movies in bed.
What would Mother think?

The first witness in
Lynne Solari’s trial
was Robert Beiler of the Rockland Chronicle.
Chad felt his hands tighten into fists as the man took the stand, swore to tell the truth, and took his seat.
He described his meeting with Steven Solari as an awkward tens
ion-
riddled conversation where he
’
d been drilled for information.
“
I couldn
’
t tell where I
’
d learned about who Miss Finley
’
s
—”
he glanced in Chad
’
s direction.
“
I mean Mrs. Tesdall
’
s father was.
I thought he
’
d see right through me
,
but he seemed satisfied
.”

“
And why,
”
the prosecutor continued,
“
couldn
’
t you tell him?
”

“
Because Mrs. Solari told me I couldn
’
t.
She gave me the information on Willow Finley
.”

Robert went on to describe a meeting with Lynn
e
Solari where the woman gave all the information necessary to write his article.
“
She
’
d discovered Willow
’
s existence through some contact with the ME
’
s office.
Finley was a name she had flagged
.”

“
Are you saying that Lynne Solari paid someone in the coroner
’
s office to let her know if anyone by the name of Finley came through?
”

“
That
’
s what she said.
The way she said it implied that Finley was one of many names
,
but
—”

“
Objection, assuming facts not in evidence
.”
The defense attorney rarely spoke.
He hardly seemed to pay attention much less bother to object to any line of questioning.

“
Can you tell us what she said exactly?
”

“
No,
”
Robert began,
“
But almost.
She said,
‘
I have a contact at the ME
’
s office who lets me know when someone comes through that I am interested in.
I never expected to hear Finley
,
but she came through in May.
’
It wasn
’
t those exact words in that order but really close to them and the exact meaning
.”

Chad was dumbstruck.
Of all the scenarios he
’
d run through his mind, Lynne wasn
’
t even in the running.
She
’
d left them with the impression that she knew nothing of Steve
’
s payoff or Kari Finley at all.
This testimony implied otherwise.
He missed the final questions as his mind whirled with possibilities.

“
I call Officer Chadwick Tesdall to the stand
.”

The first questions were simple.
His name, occupation, how he met Willow, and finally when he
’
d met Lynne Solari. Chad felt the phone vibrate in his pocket
,
but he ignored it as he answered the question.
“
That is correct.
She
’
d disabled her own car in order to have an excuse to come to the house
.”

The defense attorney in a bored tone said,
“
Objection, conjecture
.”

“
Is it conjecture if she admitted it to us?
”
Chad
used the opportunity to share
the information
by
asking his question.

He
pulled out his phone
and glanced at the name on the screen.
Willow.
Thankful they hadn
’
t confiscated phones, he slipped it back in
to his pocket
and answered the next question.
“
She said it was because she
’
d seen the article in the paper
.”

Time passed with agonizing slowness as
he answered all of the prosecutor
’s questions and
endur
ed a rigorous cross-examination.
He sighed, relieved
as he was excused.
His phone vibrated again just as a crowd of reporters surrounded him
,
and he impatiently shoved it back into his pocket as he hurried down the courthouse steps.
The last thing he wanted to do is let Willow hear the questions fired at him one after another.

Everything changed in an instant.
The A.D.A. left the building seconds after Chad
,
sending the flock of reporters away from
Chad
.
He reached for his cell
phone to call his wife and watched it shatter as a bullet ripped through it
,
before tearing through
h
is body.
Fire.
His hand felt as though on fire.
As he fought waves of nausea from the pain, he stared at the pieces of his phone and then crumpled to the steps.