Presumption of Guilt by Terri Blackstock

Author:Terri Blackstock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Afew minutes after he got up that morning, Nick saw the news reports about the burning of the newspaper building, and quickly phoned Lynda’s house to see if Beth had heard. When he didn’t catch her there or at her own house, he decided to drive to the newspaper building itself. Just as he’d suspected, she stood there in the parking lot, leaning on the fender of her car, staring, stunned, at the smoldering ruins.

He pulled up beside her and got out of the car. “Beth, are you all right?”

She shrugged, then said in a dull monotone, “He stopped us. I knew he would.”

“You really think Bill Brandon did this?”

She sighed. “They just found footprints of children’s sneakers. They came in that window.” She pointed to the part of the building that had not burned to the ground. “There was a ladder left behind, and children’s fingerprints all over it.”

“But I thought Brandon was arrested last night.”

“The stupid judge refused to give them a warrant.” Her voice was so flat, so calm, that he could hear the defeat there. “Now two people are dead, and those poor kids have this guilt on their heads.”

He looked around. “Have Larry and Tony been out here?”

“Yeah, but they’ve gone back to try again to get a warrant.” She looked up at him. “Nick, I’m worried about the kids. What if one of them was burned in the fire? What if they got too close?”

“I’ll go back to SCCH today,” he said.

“What good can you do there? They already know you’re onto them.”

“So I’ve got nothing to lose. If I’m there, he can’t do anything to foil the police’s arrest attempts.”

“All right,” she said. “Do it. Do whatever you have to.”

“And you go back to Lynda’s.”

“No, I can’t. I’ve still got the article on computer. I’m going to take it to the St. Petersburg Times today. Somehow, I’ll convince them to print it.”

“But you can’t go to your house, now that Bill knows where it is. It’s not safe.”

“Nick, I have to. I have to get the disks that the story is on.”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

She sighed. “All right. Follow me. It’ll just take a minute.”

She climbed into her car, took a moment to greet Dodger, who had been asleep on the front seat, and cranked her engine. Nick followed her closely all the way home.

“It’s almost over, Dodger,” she said to the puppy. “The article will still come out, regardless of the fire, and Bill will still get arrested, and Jimmy and Lisa and the other kids will be put in safe homes . . .” She tried to believe what she said as she reached the dirt road leading through the trees to her house—but the truth was, Bill had beaten them all. As, deep down, she had known he would.

The house looked undisturbed as she pulled up to it and parked. She got out, put Dodger on the ground, and waited as Nick pulled to a halt beside her car.

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