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  Jim took a pen and pad out of his briefcase, and then sat down across from Cynda. “That’s up to you. What can you tell me to get you out of this?”

  “I don’t know, man. You’re the one with the law degree. Shouldn’t you already have an angle worked out on this case?” She turned to Keith and asked, “How much you paying this slacker?”

  Jim cleared his throat and said, “Mrs. Williams, I’m here to help you. But I wasn’t a fly on the wall when Mr. Richard Davidson was murdered. You need to fill me in. That’s the only way I’ll be able to help you.”

  With a puzzled look on her face, Cynda asked, “Whose Richard Davidson?”

  Jim looked up from his pad. “The deceased; the man you lived with for several years.”

  Cynda sat back in her seat and shrugged. “Oh, just call him Spoony.”

  “Okay, so far we know that you lived with a man whose first name you didn’t know. Did you ever meet his parents?”

  She smirked. “I didn’t even know Spoony had parents. They sure didn’t call him.” She rolled her eyes. “Why are you asking me all these irrelevant questions?” Cynda glanced at Keith again, raising an eyebrow.

  Tapping his pen to his pad, Jim began, “Well, Mrs. Williams-”

  “Stop calling me that. My name is Cynda; Cynda Stephens.”

  Pointing his pen in the direction of Keith he asked her, “You did marry Mr. Williams, did you not?”

  Cynda bent over and touched the home-detection device around her ankle. “I had to get out of jail didn’t I?”

  It was Jim’s turn to steal a raised eyebrow glance at Keith. “Well then, Mrs. Williams, the reason I asked you about your relationship with the deceased is so we can prove to the court that you had a long-term committed relationship that turned violent.”

  She sat up and leaned over so that she was almost nose to nose with her attorney. “The last six, seven years I’ve been hooking for him. Is that long-term, committed enough for you?”

  Jim slammed his pen and paper on the table and stood. “Look, Keith, I don’t understand why you want to help this woman when she has no respect for you or herself. But I can’t waste anymore of my time on this case.”

  “What’s up his butt? I’m the one facing life in prison,” Cynda said while rolling her eyes.

  Keith looked at his friend and said as humbly as he could, “She’s my wife, Jim. Wouldn’t you do everything you could to help Marline?”

  Jim shook his balding head, then sat back down. He turned to Cynda and asked, “Can you please tell me what happened the day Mr. Davidson died?”

  “He was trying to kill me and I just happened to get the job done on him first.”

  Jim was writing in his pad. “Did Mr. Davidson have a history of hitting on you?”

  “He was mean. He loved beating on me. And I would just sit there and take it.”

  “Why didn’t you just take it that time?”

  “The fight wasn’t about me this time. He wanted my daughter.”

  Jim looked up from his notepad. “What do you mean when you say, he wanted your daughter?”

  She twisted her lip and ran her hands through her long black hair. “I mean that he wanted to put my baby on the street.” She lowered her head and averted her eyes. “Look, I know I’ll probably never win any mother of the year awards, but I’m not a monster, and I couldn’t let him have my baby.” She scooted back in her seat and brought her knees up to her chest, rocking back and forth. “Not like my mama let them take me.”

  Keith and Jim exchanged glances as Cynda continued, “He told my daughter that I wasn’t bringing in enough money and that she would have to take up my slack.” Her lip curled as she whispered, “Never.”

  As he watched his wife struggle with demons from her past, Keith’s heart opened to her. Help me to love her pain away, Lord. Keith stood. “I think that’s enough for today, Jim.”

  Jim turned away from Cynda, shook himself, and then stood. “Y-yes, I think we can dig a bit deeper next week. The preliminary will be next month. We’ll need to talk to the little girl.”

  “No,” Cynda said sharply.

  Jim didn’t back off. “Your daughter has a lot to do with this case.”

  “I’ve done enough to Iona. Just leave her alone,” Cynda asserted.

  Keith asked, “Do you think that’s necessary, Jim? I have to agree with Cynda; Iona has been through a great deal already.”

  Jim picked up his briefcase and headed toward the door with Keith following. He whispered to Keith, “If what she says is true, I probably would have killed that low-life myself. We’ll need that little girl’s testimony. She’s the only hope Cynda has.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Keith assured Jim as he escorted him out.

  Cynda was still on the couch rocking when Keith walked back into the living room. He stood behind her and touched her shoulder. “You ready for bed?” he asked.

  She stood without answering and walked toward their bedroom. Keith followed her and went into the adjoining bath. Cynda’s story had made him feel dirty, and although he knew that the kind of dirt that had been dished on her would not come off with mere soap and water, he stripped and jumped in the shower anyway.

  The hot water assaulted his body as he stood under the jutting stream, praying for his wife. He wanted God to do something special for her; to make her clean. When he’d finished praying and was soaping up, Cynda opened the shower curtain and stood in front of him.

  The heat that boiled in Keith right now had nothing to do with the temperature of the water. His wife stood before him naked. Her body was still slightly bruised, but she was toned, kind of athletically built. How she had time to exercise to get such a lovely figure, God only knew. Maybe, it was from dodging blows.

  “You want some company?” Her gaze scanned his body. She ran her hands through the hairs on his chest. “I’m not in pain anymore. We can make it happen tonight.”

  He moved her hand. “No, Cynda.”

  She stepped into the shower to confront him. “What’s your problem? Are we married or not?”

  He stepped back. She was too naked, and too close. “It doesn’t mean anything to you. It’s just your profession, remember?”

  Advancing on him, she played with his chest hairs again. “Look, man, I’m offering you some free sex. What more do you want?”

  Moving her hand away from his chest, he said, “Please get out of this tub so I can finish showering.”

  She looked down at him, then triumphantly back into his face. “You want me. So what’s the problem?”

  “You’re right, Cynda. I want you, and we will be together like that one day. But when you join with me, it’s going to be more than just a job.”

  She rolled her eyes and stepped out of the tub. “It’s just sex, Keith. You don’t need to make more out of it than it is.” She closed the shower curtain, leaving Keith alone.

  When his tormentor was gone, Keith turned the water to cold and lingered until he could walk into his bedroom without wanting plain and simple sex. Cynda had taken his towel, so he walked into the bedroom in his birthday suit. She’d seen all of him and a whole lot of other men anyway. He was quite sure his body would not make her blush.

  She sat up in bed as Keith entered the room. Her mouth opened as if in shock. “Husband, do you think you should walk around your wife like that? I might assume you want to sleep with me.”

  He grabbed the towel off the end of the bed and dried himself. “I do intend to sleep with my wife.” He pulled a pair of navy blue cotton pajamas out of the drawer and put them on. Pulling up the cover and getting in bed with her, Keith said, “And that’s all I intend to do - sleep.”

  Cynda turned on him. “You don’t normally sleep in here.” She pointed her index finger toward the door. “Go back to your office and sleep.”

  “This is our bedroom, Cynda. And I will sleep in here with you from now on. The only reason I haven’t been sleeping in here was because you were in pain and I d
idn’t want to bump you during the night and cause you more pain.”

  “Well, I still might be in pain, so get out of here.”

  “That’s not what you told me in the bathroom.” She rolled her eyes. “You know, you roll those eyes an awful lot.”

  “That’s because you irritate me an awful lot.”

  Cynda’s bare body was irritating him. He got out of bed, and from the dresser he pulled out a flannel night gown and brought it back to Cynda. “Here, I picked this up for you yesterday.”

  She again rolled her eyes. “Is this a joke?”

  “No joke. I need you to wear a nightgown so I can get to sleep without thinking about jumping your bones.”

  “If you don’t want to have sex with me, why do you want to sleep with me? Aren’t you afraid that my mere proximity will contaminate you and cause all your good choir-boy tendencies to fade away?”

  He held up the gown. “Can you please do this for me?”

  She got out the bed, snatched the gown from him and wiggled her hour-glass form into it. Before jumping back into bed, she posed, “Happy now?”

  Actually, he wasn’t happy. She looked just as good in that gown as she did nude. But it had been a long time since he’d been with a woman. Sliding in next to her, he grabbed his Bible off the nightstand. He prayed. Cynda tossed and turned. He then read from his Bible until his eyes drooped. Pulling the covers over his body, he pulled his wife close to him. She removed his hands and scooted to the edge of the bed.

  14

  Nina was back home, but in three days, nothing had been resolved.

  She was laying in her king-size, dark cherry oak finished bed facing the wall – tears streaming down her face. Isaac pulled her close to him, feeling the warmth of her back as she rested against his chest. He couldn’t stand the thought of living without her. He’d spent too many years without her already.

  “We’ll get through this, baby. Don’t give up on me,” Isaac told his wife.

  Sniffing, she told him, “That child hates me. No matter what I do, she won’t even talk to me.”

  The child’s name was Iona. Nina hadn’t once used it since Isaac had brought her home. How was Iona supposed to show affection to Nina, when she was treating her like an inconvenience that she was forced to put up with? Nina didn’t mean to do it and Isaac knew it. His wife didn’t have a mean-spirited bone in her body. But the truth of the matter was he saw what she was doing, and Iona saw it also.

  “Maybe if you spent some time with her, the two of you would learn how to communicate with one another.”

  Nina turned to face him. “I can’t spend time with someone who hates me. Your daughter doesn’t want to be bothered with me.” Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she said, “But, you think I should suck up to her, don’t you? You think I should try to make her like me.”

  Isaac kept his voice level. He didn’t want to get upset - didn’t want to go off, but they’d been having the same conversation for the past three nights with nothing being resolved.

  “Nina, Iona is ten. You are the adult.” He wanted to add that she was also a Christian, but he left that out and hoped that God would convict her Himself. He continued. “So quite naturally I would expect that you would make more concessions than Iona.” She said nothing. “Nina, I need your help. The night before I brought Iona home I had one of those nightmares. You know the one – where I’m in hell.” His voice trembled as he added, “But this time Iona was in hell too – those demons told me that if I didn’t want her, they did.” He rubbed her shoulder. “Honey, don’t you see what this means. If we don’t love and care for Iona, she could end up in a place we don’t want her to go.”

  Nina flipped back the covers and got out of bed.

  “Where are you going?” Isaac sat up and asked.

  Not looking back, she told him as she opened their bedroom door, “I need to be alone. I just need to pray right now.”

  ***

  Even with prayer, Nina couldn’t get her heart to change. The next morning, Donavan and Iona were sitting at the table playing a game of hangman while she fixed bacon and eggs. The two of them were getting along so well, Nina wanted to lean over the table and shout, “Traitor” into her son’s face. Couldn’t he see that this was tearing her apart? Where was his loyalty? But then she also asked herself where was all this Christian love she was supposed to have? She hadn’t even said good morning to Iona. Oh, she covered it in a round about way by saying a generic good morning to all. She even heard the Lord gently saying to her, if you don’t forgive others their trespasses against you, how can I forgive the things you’ve done?

  There was a time when that gentle rebuke from the Lord would change her heart and mind. She always felt that God had gifted her with a forgiving heart. That made her feel special. She just didn’t know that something could hurt so bad that she wouldn’t want to forgive.

  The telephone rang and Nina turned off the stove and picked up the wall phone. “Hello,” Nina said.

  “Where’s my daughter,” Cynda asked angrily as if Nina had done something to her, other than feed, clothe, and house her child.

  Nina took a deep breath. “She’s right here getting ready to eat breakfast.”

  “Well why am I still listening to you talk? Put my daughter on the phone right now.” Cynda said.

  Tears seeped through as Nina tightly closed her eyes. She wanted to tell this woman off so bad, but she refused to act of fool in front of her son. She handed the phone to Iona and then told Donavan, “Breakfast is on the stove, go ahead and make your own plates.”

  She went into her office, closed the door, took a few deep breaths, waited for Iona to hang up with her wonderful mother, and then she called her best friend. Elizabeth answered on the third ring. “I can’t take this. I really can’t,” Nina told her through sobs.

  “Stop crying, hon. You know I cry whenever you do – and I’m tried of crying,” Elizabeth said.

  “I can’t help it. Every time I look at that child I remember how her mother used to taunt me. I hear her telling me that she and Isaac are going to Chicago for the weekend. And I just keep thinking that she probably got pregnant that weekend.”

  “I remember you telling me about that. Girl, you should have tripped her and let her fall head first into one of them big dryers you had at that Laundromat you used to work in.”

  Nina laughed through her tears. “Do you think I’m an awful person because of the way I feel about this child?” Nina had been on the phone with Elizabeth everyday since she came back home about this issue.

  Elizabeth told her, “Now you know I don’t have no stones to throw at you. If Kenneth had brought some long-lost child in here from one of his previous indiscretions, I don’t know which side of crazy I would have gone to first. That man brought a child into your house that he had by a woman who despises you. The child can’t stand you, and Isaac is over there wanting you to get over it and feed his flock. The only thing I don’t understand is why the police haven’t been called over there yet. Girl, you are better than me.”

  “Stop making me laugh. I want to have a pity party.”

  “Then come on back to Atlanta and I’ll treat you to the pitifulest time of your life.”

  Nina smiled at the thought of leaving all her troubles behind. “That sounds good.”

  “Nina, can I ask you something?” Elizabeth said in a more serious tone.

  “What?”

  “Have you told Isaac about your doctor visit yet?”

  Running her hands through her hair, Nina said, “I haven’t had time to tell him yet.”

  “Maybe you should make time. Huh, hon? That way he can help you pray about this thing.”

  “I think I’d rather come back to your house.”

  “Well, come on. But make sure you tell Isaac where you’re going before you leave. That man was absolutely frantic the last time you left.”

  Nina frowned. “I probably can’t come right now anyway. Isaac is planning a tent re
vival and I can’t leave the kids on him while he’s working on that.”

  “Like I said, you’re better than me, because I would have left everything and let his congregation see him pulling his wavy hair out.”

  “Isaac hasn’t been too bad. He’s taken the kids with him a couple times this week. That way I was able to work on my book and not be distracted by them.” She added, “He even made dinner last night.”

  Elizabeth sighed. “Well then, Nina, if he’s not so bad, why don’t you give him a chance. I know you can get through this if you try.”

  Anger pricked at Nina. “Oh, so this was your little reverse psychology, huh? You figured if you talked about my husband I would come to his defense. Is that it?”

  “Now, calm down, Nina. I’m only trying to help.”

  “Well, from now on, Ms. Elizabeth Underwood, just be a friend and listen. Okay?” She hung up and put her head in her hands. She knew exactly what was wrong with her, but hadn’t wanted to admit it. Looking at Iona reminded her of the little girl she desperately wanted to have. The little girl she would never have.

  The phone rang and Nina snatched it up, prepared to let Elizabeth have it again. But it wasn’t Elizabeth – it was Ebony.

  “Nina, it’s me, Ebony,” she said.

  “Hey honey, how is everything going?” Nina smiled.

  “Fine. I know you are usually writing during this time of day, but I had to call and share my good news.”

  Nina smiled. She’d heard from Ebony a couple times since she left with her mom. Her heart went out to this girl. Thank God she was able to communicate with her. “Don’t keep me in suspense. Spill it.”

  “I got an A on my math test. You know, the one I didn’t think I was smart enough to pass.”

  “See! I knew you could do it. You just keep studying, girl. The sky is the limit for you.”

  “Okay, well I’ve got to let you go. I’m going to the movies this afternoon with my mom.”

  How Nina wished that she was Ebony’s mom, and that she was spending girl time with her. “All right. Call me soon, okay?”

  They hung up and Nina locked herself in her office for the rest of the day under the guise of working on her book. In reality, she hadn’t typed a single sentence. She was playing solitaire, and wishing that she were alone on a deserted island. Then nobody would have unrealistic expectations of her. She would get along nicely with the swaying trees and God’s cool breeze.