One Man's Family

“How much?”

“He’s been making regular payments, but there’s still about two thousand owing.”

“Anything else?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary. Just the mortgage, household utilities, that kind of thing.”

“Credit card bills?”

She shook her head. “He didn’t carry a balance on his cards.”

“Did he gamble—horses, slots, stock market?”

“No.”

“Do drugs?”

Her jaw tightened. “No.”

“What did he do?”

“He worked and spent time with his kids.”

“Did he have a girlfriend?” he pressed.

“No. He dated occasionally, but no one seriously or exclusively.”

“Who else had a key to the house?”

“Me.”

“Anyone else?”

“No.”

“Not even Joey?”

“No. But he knows there’s a spare hidden in the ceramic frog on the back step.” She brightened at the implications of that. “Where almost anyone could have found it and come into the house to take the prototype and plans.”

“Anyone could have,” he agreed. “But there’s no evidence that anyone did.”

She sighed. “You’re right. I’m grasping at straws.”

“What did Joe say when the prosecutor asked him about the money?”

Alicia pushed away from the table and went to refill her mug with coffee. “Nothing.”

“He didn’t answer the question?”

“He didn’t testify,” she admitted.

“Why not?”

“That seems to be the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.”

Or maybe, Scott couldn’t help but think, in this case it was only a five-thousand-dollar question.

Alicia listened to the metal doors clang shut behind her and fought to suppress the instinctive shudder that ran through her every time she heard the sound. She wondered if she’d ever get used to it and desperately hoped not. She didn’t want Joe to be stuck in this prison long enough for her to get used to it.

She followed the guard to the visitors’ room. It was mostly empty at this time of day, which filled her with both relief and sadness. She felt claustrophobic enough in here without the press of dozens of bodies around her, and yet, she knew that visits from family and friends were the only bright lights these men had, their only connection to the outside world.

She wouldn’t have expected to feel any empathy for these convicted criminals, except that her brother was now one of them. He spent his days locked up in this prison with no one for company but the other inmates who lived behind these bars and the guards who monitored their every move.

The thought made her stomach clench. Her brother didn’t deserve to be here. And yet, he was here, and she was scared to death that he wouldn’t be able to survive without the oppressive environment crushing his spirit.

Joe had always been a kind person, a gentle soul, a dreamer. He believed the best in people and always looked on the bright side, even when life threw him a curveball. And life had thrown him a lot of those, starting with Yvette’s unexpected pregnancy when they were both barely out of high school.

Joe had immediately proposed, wanting to marry her and give their baby a family. He hadn’t listened to the naysayers who’d warned of the difficult road ahead because he’d believed that their love was strong enough to triumph over whatever obstacles they might face.

And for a while, it looked as though he was right. Joe Jr. was born seven months after they married, then Lia came along four years later. During that time, Joe had worked two and three jobs to provide for his young family. When Yvette started making noises about feeling restless, Joe had done everything he could to make her happy, fought with everything he had to keep their marriage together. In the end, he’d let her go because it was what was best for their children.

Yvette had broken Joe’s heart. Alicia knew it because she’d been there for him when his world was falling apart and when he’d started to put it back together again.

She’d been the first person he called when he was hired by Russo’s Dirt Devils Racing Team. He’d been as excited as a kid, thrilled with the challenges and opportunities the job would present, and overjoyed to have a steady paycheck that would keep Lia in ballet slippers and allow him to get Joey that computer he’d been eyeing.

He’d worked hard for and with the team. He’d taken pride in their accomplishments while continuing to look ahead at what they could do to perform even better. And he’d been thrilled to be part of their secret project.

There was no way he would have compromised the work. No way he would ever have stolen the prototype or the plans. And she was furious that anyone who knew her brother could even suspect him of such crimes.

The injustice of it all continued to gnaw away at her as she moved over to the table she’d started to think of as her “usual” table and sat in the hard wooden chair waiting for the door at the other end of the room to open.

A few minutes later it finally did, and Joe was led inside.

He looked tired, was her first thought, and thin. He’d lost weight in the few weeks he’d been incarcerated, weight that he couldn’t afford to lose from his already slender frame. And the color had faded from his cheeks, leaving his skin pale, almost pasty.

He was little more than a shadow of the vibrant man she loved so dearly, and it broke her heart to see him like this after only five weeks in jail. How could he possibly survive five years?

“Hey, Ali.” He managed a smile when she rose to give him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before returning to her seat in accordance with the strictly enforced rules of visitation. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”

But she could tell that he was pleased by her visit, grateful for the interruption of his mundane routine.

“I’m on my lunch break so I can’t stay long,” she told him. “But there was something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Are the kids okay?” he asked, immediately concerned.

“Joey and Lia are fine,” she said quickly, anxious to reassure him even while she recognized the falseness of her assurance.

Of course they weren’t fine—they were going through hell trying to deal with the repercussions of their father being in jail. On the other hand, there wasn’t any kind of medical emergency that she suspected Joe was worried about.