Page 29 of Sharing Forever in Hope Creek (Hope Creek #2)
Callie tried to sleep but after tossing and turning for an hour, she opened her eyes to find Margaret and Stella seated at the edge of her bed.
‘Hi, darling.’ Margaret reached out and rubbed Callie’s arm soothingly.
Callie squeezed her eyes closed, trying to shut out the memories of the morning. She barely dared to ask but couldn’t help herself. ‘Jack?’
‘Still at the police station,’ came Margaret’s sombre reply. ‘How about getting up now and having some breakfast?’
‘I’m not hungry.’
‘I know, but you need to keep your sustenance up.’
Anger speared through Callie and her eyes snapped open. ‘I can’t believe I’ve been such a fool.’ Her voice wavered and she clenched her teeth as she drew herself up against the bedhead. ‘What the hell do I tell this baby when he or she asks about Daddy?’
‘Callie—’
Hearing the reproach in Stella’s voice only made Callie angrier. ‘Do you know how guilty I feel knowing my child will have to bear the same guilt I’ve carried all my life? It’s my absolute worst nightmare turning into reality.’
Unstoppable tears stung her eyes before cascading down her cheeks in hot trails.
‘Stop it, Callie!’ Stella insisted. ‘Mitch and I don’t believe for a second that Jack is capable of murder and nor should you.’
‘Jim, Blue and I stand with Jack, too,’ Margaret put in.
‘He was heard threatening Andrew Thompson one afternoon and the next morning Andrew turns up dead!’ Callie said harshly. ‘I knew something was wrong. He was so preoccupied last night.’
‘Just stop,’ Margaret berated her. ‘Stop yourself from jumping to conclusions and admit you’re tarring Jack with the same brush as your father without any solid evidence. Whatever happened to being innocent until proven guilty?’
‘How unlikely is it that an anonymous source tipped him off?’ One hand slashed through the air to emphasise her words. ‘He can’t even account for his movements with a solid alibi!’
Why couldn’t Margaret see that Jack could be guilty?
Why couldn’t she understand that Callie had to pull back and build up a defensive wall right now or she wouldn’t survive this? Callie couldn’t endure the shame of giving birth to the child of a possible murderer and having her child live day in and day out with that shame.
‘Come out and have something to eat. You can’t think rationally on an empty stomach,’ Margaret pronounced.
‘That knock on the head obviously did more harm than we thought,’ Stella murmured to Margaret. ‘I can’t believe she’s given up on Jack so quickly.’
For a moment, Callie felt shamed. But how could they judge her? Neither of them had lived through what she had. Neither of them could relate to the pressure she had felt all her life to be good and do good.
‘Come on, out of bed,’ Margaret urged again.
Callie got out of bed grudgingly and followed the women out into the kitchen. The statement that Brianna had given the police—Jack’s threatening words—kept playing in her mind.
Hell! He’d threatened the guy and now Thompson was dead.
The telephone rang and Margaret groaned as she went to answer it.
‘Brianna wasn’t discreet,’ Stella told Callie. ‘Word’s spread quickly through the community about “the murder at the vineyard”. Brianna’s told all and sundry how she returned to the vineyard yesterday afternoon unexpectedly and saw her boss afraid because Jack had been threatening him.’
Liquid shame diffused from cell to cell through Callie as she sat at the kitchen table and listened to Margaret field questions from a concerned neighbour.
‘The phone calls have mostly been to check in because it was obvious to all the guests on Saturday night that you and Jack were a couple,’ Stella explained as she took a bowl of fruit salad and yoghurt out of the refrigerator for Callie.
Damn! The whole community would be feeling sorry for her and her child forever more. Would she have to leave Hope Creek to escape the scandal? When a sob threatened, she gritted her teeth together and grated out, ‘Meddling, gossiping people.’
‘No!’ Margaret shot back as she hung up the phone. ‘They’re concerned and caring people who want to make sure you’re okay. You need to remember that—’
Before Margaret could continue, the phone rang again.
Even though she wasn’t hungry, Callie picked up the bowl and took it through to the living room, wanting to be by herself.
‘Thank you, June,’ Margaret said into the cordless phone as she followed Callie.
‘I’ll let you know if I need anything.’ She put the phone down on the coffee table.
‘June says that the vineyard is swarming with police and there’s a bunch of reporters that have arrived from the Melbourne news stations as well. ’
‘That’s no surprise,’ Callie remarked tiredly, remembering how the reporters had been present when her father had been arrested. It was through the media that Callie had discovered just how evil a man her father had been.
How was she going to protect her child from a similar future?
‘Yup,’ Blue said, overhearing the conversation as he came through the doorway.
‘Damned reporters and photographers probably only just got back to Melbourne after they trained their long lenses on the wedding and harassed your wedding guests for details and insider photographs from their phones, Stella.’
‘Well, nobody obliged,’ Stella said.
Blue made a growling sound. ‘Damned cheek of them! They don’t think twice about invading anybody’s privacy if they think it’ll sell their blasted newspapers.’
‘I don’t like them much either, Blue, but they’re doing their job,’ Jim said as he came into the room.
Callie guessed the men had been out in the paddock for the last hour to check on the cattle.
‘It’s not every day a former world champion tennis player marries a famous NFL quarterback.
Now, one of the country’s top CEOs is being questioned about a murder. They’re all after a scoop.’
Hope Creek had been in the news quite a bit in the last few months with both Stella and Mitch coming back home, especially because there had been interest in how Stella was recovering from her accident.
‘Looks like we’ve got company,’ Blue announced as he looked out the window. ‘I don’t recognise the vehicle. Probably an unmarked police car from Melbourne.’
Margaret looked worried. ‘I hope it’s not reporters.’
‘Probably not,’ Blue said. ‘Looks like our visitors are wearing suits.’
‘Stay here and I’ll find out.’ Jim went to the screen door then made his way down the stairs.
Ned and Ben, the Richardsons’ two dogs, barked madly announcing the arrival of visitors.
‘You’re a bit late for that now,’ Blue told the dogs. ‘You’re supposed to warn us before we know.’
‘I suspect they’re exhausted after last night,’ Margaret said. ‘Lord knows I thought Jim was going to march out to their night yard and find something to muzzle them with, they went off so badly.’
‘I would’ve done it myself, but I’m still recovering from the late night on Saturday,’ Blue said. ‘Must’ve been a roo that got too close, because they were sure riled up about something.’
Callie only half-listened to the conversation as she watched a man and woman, each dressed in suits despite the heat of the day, get out of the car and hand a piece of paper to Jim.
‘Speak up, Jim!’ Stella willed.
‘I wish he would,’ Margaret said under her breath. ‘I can’t hear a word they’re saying.’
‘They must be detectives. They look like they’ve stepped off the set of Homicide ,’ Blue said, referencing a very old Australian television series that had discontinued long before Callie had been born. ‘The car’s modern, but otherwise they have that same intense look about them.’
‘Minus the hats,’ Margaret agreed.
Callie wasn’t sure what the ‘look’ was, but she wasn’t going to wait inside any longer. She let the screen door bang shut behind her as she went down the stairs, uncaring that she was still in her pyjamas. Even though she was scared of the answer, reality had to be faced. ‘What’s going on, Jim?’
‘These detectives have a search warrant for Jack’s car as well as for the station and next door,’ he told her. ‘Do you know where Jack’s keys are, Callie, in case it’s locked?’
‘I doubt the car’s locked but I can get them.’ Knowing Jack had left the keys on the bedside table in her room, she turned to go back inside. Every step felt as leaden as her heart. If they wanted to search Jack’s car, they must be expecting to find something.
Margaret, Stella and Blue emerged from the house with the dogs as she reached the door.
‘Don’t worry, love. It’ll be fine,’ Margaret said as Callie walked past them.
She couldn’t see how anything would ever be fine again.
Jack being under suspicion of murder plunged her right back to her darkest days and her deepest anxieties from her childhood stretched every nerve and muscle tight.
Unconsciously she put a protective hand over her lower abdomen, trying to shield her child from what was happening.
Since Jack had re-entered her life, she had hoped it would grow up with two loving parents.
Now she faced her own failure knowing the child was likely to know the shame of growing up with a father who was locked up in jail—a father who was a murderer.
When she returned with the keys, Jim led the detectives to where Jack had parked his car beside the house the night before. It was a serious procession with the dogs right at his heels and Callie, Margaret, Stella and Blue trailing after the detectives.
‘Hang on!’ Jim said as they saw puddles of water on the track down the side of the house where Jack’s car was parked. ‘Watch your step.’
‘The hose has sprung a leak?’ Blue asked him.
‘Oh no!’ Margaret said. ‘I’m so sorry. That will be my fault. I was watering the plants yesterday and then Stella had her faint. I mustn’t have turned the tap off properly.’
Jim went straight to the tap while the rest of the party sidetracked around the puddles. The female detective was certainly not dressed for country life with her black leather high-heeled court shoes.