away from him and run. In the eyes of the law, he is an innocent man. With rights to his children.
She thinks of the twins, her heart in her throat. Her little birds. She feels a dread creep over her. If it’s true that he murdered his first wife – and his unborn child – if he was capable of that … If she tried to take the girls and leave him – would he kill little Jackie and Emma? Would he kill her? Her head begins to spin and she feels overcome with nausea. Lately she’s been thinking a lot about the man in the news who smothered his two children with pillows and stabbed his wife to death … It’s something she has to consider.
Was Patrick violent before they married? Did he push his first wife down the stairs? Had she and Patrick been living a lie together before all this happened – and all along he’s been someone capable of murder? Parents – usually fathers – have been known to kill their children to get back at their estranged spouse. And then they kill their spouse. No one ever seems to see it coming. And he might have already done it once.
And he’s coming home tonight.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
PATRICK FUMBLES WITH the key in the door. She’s left the porch light on for him. It’s late, after eleven. He’s had a long trip home – he’d rented a car at LaGuardia rather than have Stephanie wake the twins and drive all the way to the airport to get him. He’s had plenty of time to think. The earlier elation – Lange had driven him directly to the airport in Denver, and they’d celebrated with a drink in the bar, before Patrick boarded the flight home – has subsided as he thinks about what’s to come.
But at least it’s all over. For good. Nothing can change that now. Erica can’t do anything to him. They don’t have enough to proceed to trial and Erica has been completely discredited besides. She’s a liar and a criminal. He’s free – of her, and of the past.
He has to convince Stephanie that everything is going to be all right from now on, that they can start over, and that none of this has to hurt them. They’re free! He’s been exonerated – it will be in the news that charges against him have been dropped. He’d had no idea about Erica dealing drugs back then. He’d hardly known her really – except in the most carnal of ways. He will rise above it all, start over. He’ll start his own firm – show Niall what he can do. Niall will be sorry he dropped him. And he’ll show Stephanie that she has reason to be proud of him.
But now he must talk to Stephanie, to explain. He tries not to feel irked by her apparent doubts – even though it was perfectly clear to Stephanie that Erica lied at the inquest.
He can explain about the lie detector test. He knows that Stephanie stopped believing him in the attorney’s office that day. He can still see it – her reaction when she realized he’d failed the test. It had played over and over in his mind, while he was in jail. She thought then that he’d deliberately killed his own wife. She probably thinks so still, even though they’ve let him go. He must change her mind. He hopes that she will forgive him and they can move on. She loved him once, and it wasn’t so long ago. They have the twins to think of. They have a life to build together.
He opens the door. There’s a faint light coming from the living room. The twins must be asleep upstairs. He places his keys on the side table, takes off his coat, hangs it up and walks slowly through to the living room. His wife is waiting for him, sitting on the sofa in the semi-darkness, and when she looks at him, she doesn’t move. She doesn’t run to him and throw her arms around him. He hadn’t really been expecting her to, but he feels disappointed anyway.
He stands still as they stare at each other. He doesn’t like the expression on her face. She looks wary, almost as if she’s frightened of him. Is this how he should be greeted, after being exonerated? After all he’s been through? He’s never given Stephanie any cause to be frightened of him. His attorney had