the courtroom.”
Voices murmured, and feet shuffled reluctantly from the courtroom. Garrett looked back again. Darby had left, too. Without her, his case was toast.
“Morning, Mayor,” the judge was saying. “I’m real sorry about your daughter. I’m real sorry about us being here today at all. Seems like situations like this always get worse before they get better.” He shook his head and slid a pair of eyeglasses on his beaked nose. “Let’s try to keep this as uncomplicated as we can. I’d like to get out of here before lunch. Any arguments?” He eyed the occupants of both tables and with none forthcoming, nodded with satisfaction. “All right, then.”
Darby felt as if a dozen curious eyes were watching her and, wanting only to escape, she walked down the wide marble-floored hallway toward the drinking fountain. She slipped her hat off long enough to bend over the bubbler and take a quick drink.
But the cool, refreshing water did little to alleviate the tension that clawed at her. Until the accident had occurred on the corner outside of Smiling Faces, she’d almost managed to forget the fear of being recognized.
Going to the market had become something to enjoy rather than something to dread. Walking in the park was no longer an exercise in furtiveness, but something to cherish. Now it was all back. In spades.
From beneath the brim of her summer hat, she eyed the crowd that was still hovering outside of the courtroom doors. At least four of them were reporters. She would have recognized the look of them even without the steno pads or the microcassette recorders.
The exit was right behind her. So close she could feel it reaching out to her. Beckoning. Inviting her to slip out the doors. To start running. To keep going, not stopping until she’d found a new place…another haven where she could start anew. Where she was still just a normal woman.
Just thinking it made her breathless. She actually pressed her hand against the heavy wooden panel. One push and she’d be through. She’d go and keep going.
She stared at her splayed fingers. Garrett had to regret what had happened between them when his father had come by the house the day he’d been working on the plumbing. Other than his unexpected appearance at the hospital, he’d been back to his usual self. He hadn’t even eaten dinner with her and the children after he’d returned with the garlic bread. He’d just left the foil-covered loaf on the counter, asked her to leave out her car keys so he could arrange to have her car returned from the hospital, reminded her about the hearing and shut himself in the den.
No more spontaneous laughter. No more projects around the house. No more kisses…
Not that she wanted any, of course.
It was just as well that he’d gone back to being Mr. Business.
The only thing Garrett wanted from her was help with the children and to give her account of the accident at this hearing. He didn’t understand her reluctance, and she couldn’t give him the reason for it. She’d seen custody hearings up close and personal. She’d have to lift her hand and swear truthfulness. Could she do that, without telling her true name?
Could she protect herself at the expense of Elise’s dying words?
She inhaled shakily and dropped her hand, turning once more to face the closed courtroom doors. Her legs felt like wet noodles, and she sat down on one of the cold stone benches bracketing the double doors leading into the courtroom. She folded her hands in her lap.
And waited.
Ballet lessons. Riding lessons. Lessons of every kind and size and shape. Followed by an Ivy League education.
Garrett returned Hayden’s look. Caldwell had been waxing eloquent for so long about the childhood he’d given his precious Elise that it was enough to make Garrett gag.
Instead, he watched the judge’s expression as Caldwell went on and on. Almost rambling. But if the judge had feelings one way or another about what he was hearing, there was no hint of it in his expression. Any more than there’d been an indication of what he’d thought of Garrett’s qualifications to care for the children when he’d been on the stand himself.
“This claim of Garrett’s that Elise wanted her children to live with him can be nothing but a fabrication, and for him to drag us through this farce of—”
Hayden objected and the judge wearily rubbed his eyes. “That’s enough, Mayor. We all know your feelings on this. You’ve made them plain enough. Why don’t you return to your seat. Mr. Southerland, if you’d call in your witness, I’d like to hear what she has to say.”
Garrett didn’t bat an eye when Caldwell stepped down from the witness box, his brows pulled fiercely together as he looked Garrett’s way. Caldwell’s animosity didn’t faze him any more than it ever did.
But he waited, still, when Hayden stepped out of the courtroom for a moment. The second he was gone stretched Garrett’s nerves to screaming. But there she was. Walking back into the courtroom with Hayden. Looking cool and delicate in her filmy white ankle-length dress and straw hat.
Her eyes looked his way as she passed between the two tables where the opponents sat. Her husky voice trembled as she was sworn in, and when she stepped up into the witness box and sat down, he could see she was pale.
A pulse visibly beat in her throat. She rested her arms over the wooden chair arms casually enough, but Garrett could see the white knuckles from fingers curled too tightly over the ends.
“Now, Ms. White, why don’t you tell us how you came to be involved in this set-to.”
“Your Honor.” Hayden rose. “If you’d permit me to—”
The judge waved his hand impatiently. “Sit down, Counselor. I’m getting a headache from the lot of you. I’ve a good mind to ban attorneys from my courtroom. Ms. White?”
Darby turned her blue gaze toward Garrett. She gave him a look he couldn’t interpret, then slowly unfastened her fingers from the chair and folded them in her lap. She cleared her throat. Then, with spare words that Garrett could only admire after Caldwell’s verbosity, described her actions when the terrible collision had occurred outside of her workplace. She concluded with Elise’s last words.
Caldwell immediately pushed to his feet, making his chair screech against the floor. “Obviously, Elise was not in a stable frame of mind. And this woman’s word can’t be trusted, anyway! She’s involved with Garrett, for God’s sake.”
Caldwell’s attorney practically dragged his client back down onto his chair, his words fast and low. Finally Caldwell subsided and the judge turned to Darby, waiting.
“Mrs. Northrop was quite lucid, considering,” Darby answered Caldwell’s first point. “She knew her husband was…gone. She knew she wasn’t going to make it to the hospital. She’d been carrying Mr. Cullum’s business card in her purse. It was right where she said it would be.”
“Did she speak of anyone else other than Mr. Cullum?”
Garrett saw the telltale glisten in her eyes as she looked at Caldwell. “No,” she admitted quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“Any other people around who heard what she said?”
Darby shook her head.
