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.
40
Callie