The Long Road Back Ch. 13

Mr. Wallace just looked at Ms. Talner coolly. "You killed her?"

"Yes."

"How?" Mr. Wallace knew that the pattern of knife marks on Ms. Rodriguez's back hadn't been made public. Only the person who killed her would know.

Again Ms. Talner took a deep breath. "When she was walking away from me in the kitchen, I grabbed a carving knife off the table. I stabbed her seven times in a circle on her back." There was a loud gasp from several people but that was it.

Again Mr. Wallace looked at her. "Why did you kill Ms. Rodriguez?" This was what I wanted to know. I had never seen this woman before in my life.

Ms. Talner looked at me for a minute before she turned back to Mr. Wallace. "Because she killed my brother." She said it so matter of factly, I just sat and stared at her.

Mr. Wallace looked at her. "Mrs. Anderson killed your brother?" He looked over at me.

Suddenly I knew. I knew who she was. Standing up, I put my hands on the table. "Your Danny's sister?"

Ms. Talner nodded. "I was raised by my aunt. After Danny was born mom and dad decided not to have any more children. Unfortunately I came along two years later. They decided they didn't want to know about the sibling rivalry, so they sent me to live with my aunt. It was two years ago that I found out she wasn't my mother but actually my aunt. I went to my father but he denied me. Said he didn't know what I was talking about. Danny was there that day; he knew right off that we were sister and brother not cousins. He said that we always looked too much alike to be just cousins. I was living in London."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "When Danny was there for that last business trip, he stayed with me. I know he wanted to tell you about me but I didn't want anyone knowing our true relationship. As far as anyone knew we were cousins. I wanted to keep it that way." She kept her eyes glued to mine. "He told me how you cheated on him, how the kid you guys had wasn't his. I begged him to stay in London with me, to forget you. He just stroked my cheek, and then gave it a kiss. The last words he said to me were. "I love her." Then he boarded that plane, he got in that car, heading back to you. Because of you, he's dead." She suddenly broke down in tears.

The courtroom was silent, silent as a grave. Nobody moved or spoke. All eyes were on the witness stand. On the woman who killed to frame me because she blamed me for her brother's death. Mr. Wallace looked at the judge. "I have no further questions your honor." He moved back to his seat beside me.

The judge looked bored. "Mr. Palestine?"

Mr. Palestine stood up, buttoned his coat, looked at me, looked at Ms. Talner crying on the witness stand then looked at the judge. "Your honor, in light of Ms. Talner's testimony, the state would like to drop the charges we brought forth against Mrs. Anderson. We would also like to request that Ms. Talner be placed under arrest for the murder of Ms. Rodriguez."

The judge looked at Ms. Talner. "Very well. This court is dismissed. Mrs. Anderson you are free to go. Bailiff, please place Ms. Talner under arrest."

I jumped up, hugging Mr. Wallace then my family. Everybody had tears in their eyes. I finally came to Hawk. He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly and kissing me deeply. When he pulled back, I looked at him. "How did you know?"

He kept his arms around me. "That Danny had a sister or that you were being framed?"

"Both."

He smiled at me. "Well actually it was Suzanne who suggested that you might be being framed. It didn't connect at first, but then I thought that it had to be a coincidence that the girl who killed Sheila had your figure and your hair color. Well the hair color was no big deal I mean it is really easy to color your hair. But I was obsessing about it. I couldn't get the thought out of my mind.

Then I remembered what you told me about Danny and about how his father had acted at the funeral. At first I thought maybe he had hired someone to frame you. So I called him, confronted him. That's when he told me about Sabrina, how she was Danny's sister. I asked him what she looked like. He told me that she had your build and strawberry blonde hair. Well it all fell into place. I called every hotel in town I could think of. Of course she wasn't listed under her real name but the fourth place I called said that yes they had a young woman staying there that fit my description. I sent my friend Jake to check her out." He nodded towards the guy standing at the back of the courtroom. "When he confirmed who she was, he had a long talk with her and convinced her to turn herself in."

I kissed him lightly. "Thank you."

He smiled at me. "For what?"

"Thank you for believing in me, never giving up, and trusting me."

He smiled more brightly. "You're very welcome. Let's go home."

I wrapped my arms around his neck. "That is the best suggestion I have heard all day."

Once we were in the aisle, we followed Mom, Jeff and Robert towards the doors. Hawk had his arm around my waist. We had almost reached the door when a man stepped out of the last row blocking the door. "Excuse m..." I stopped, staring into his eyes. I suddenly knew who had paid my bail. The only question I had was what was he doing here now? Holding tightly to Hawk I said one word before I fainted in his arms. "Daddy?"