Forever Hers by Walters, Ednah (top 50 books to read txt) 📕

the tablet, Amy joined him. His video recording was clearer, but still they saw nothing of the burglar’s face. Luckily, they had a wireless camera on a security light pole and caught him leaving, teeth flashing. It also showed him throwing the crowbar in the nearby bushes. Then he pulled off his gloves and pocketed them, but one fell. He kept walking until he was out of the camera range. The screen went blank then the timer started again. It showed Catherine, Sam’s grandmother, walking then stopping by the cars.

Amy and Eddie looked at each other and both jumped up and raced outside. The rubber glove was exactly where the man had dropped it. Eddie stopped her from getting too close.

“Don’t step on the grass or touch anything. Could you get the colorful, plastic hampers you use for clothes? We’re going to mark the crime scene, so the cops don’t drive all over it. Too many criminals beat the system because an overzealous rookie accidentally destroyed the crime scene.”

She nodded and hurried back inside the house. He was right behind her. When she reappeared in the living room on her way outside, he was ahead of her with two rolls of toilet paper. Outside, he covered the glove with a hamper then proceeded to wrap the toilet paper around a tree, unrolled it and looped it around the next tree, then the light pole, across the road running past the house to the bushes, where the burglar had dropped the crowbar. He was ingenious and quick on his feet.

Instead of going back inside the house, they waited by the cars and watched the recording again.

“Freeze that frame,” Amy said. “Zoom in on his right wrist.” It showed a partial tattoo of the Eye of Horus. “That’s the same tattoo the men who killed Charles had on their wrists.”

“The right wrists?”

“Yes, just like this.” She pointed at the image on the tablet.

“Do you remember what you said during the trial?”

She tried not to remember that day or the months preceding it. “The entire trial is a blur. I was eight months pregnant, tired and they showed me pictures of me all purple and blue, my face unrecognizable.  I just wanted the whole thing to be over with, so I could go home.”

He frowned. “Come. I want to show you something. Court records are now accessible to the public online if you know where to look.” Inside the house, he disappeared into his bedroom and came back with his laptop, fingers typing furiously. He moved closer to her, so she could see the screen. “These are the court transcripts from the trial against Dan Talbert and Kendal Youngblood.”

On the screen was the name of the court and the defendants, the district attorney and the defendants’ lawyers. Then a list of items, which were introduced into evidence, which she didn’t bother to read as Eddie scrawled down to Day 2 of the trial. Her name was listed as a witness.

Reading the questions the prosecutor had asked and her responses seemed so surreal, like the entire event had happened to someone else. “What am I supposed to read?”

“You said the defendants had tattoos of the Eye of Horus on their right wrists just like the man on the screen.”

“Yes. See?” She pointed at the screen. “The prosecutor even had them lift up their sleeves to show them to the jury.”

“Read the description of your injuries.”

Lacerations on her face, a broken crown on her right lower molar, and a broken rib on her right side. She could see what he was getting at. “I see what you are saying. Most of my bruises were on my right, meaning my attacker was left-handed. My right ear was so messed up, I heard ringing for weeks. By the time of the trial, it was gone.”

“That’s right. People tend to curl away from the hand attacking them and cover their faces, so there’s no way you curled and faced the fist, especially when you were covering your stomach and protecting your baby. The man on the video and the two serving time are all right-handed.”

Wooziness washed over Amy. Nolan was left-handed. How could she have missed that during the trial? No, not her. How could the defense have missed noticing that her bruises her mainly on the right side of her body? When she looked up, Eddie was watching her expectantly.

“Is Nolan left-handed?”

Amy nodded, her eyes smarting. “We have to go to Charlottesville, tell the DA’s office what we know. My attacker is also the one who pulled the trigger. I remember because he called his friend chicken sh…” Her voice broke and tears filled her eyes.

Eddie pulled her into his arms. “We will talk to the DA but first, we need to track this other man down. I can offer him a deal, make him turn against Nolan. Right now it would only be your word against his, and Nolan made sure no one would ever believe anything you said.”

Sirens filled the air as the police cars approached. Eddie pressed his lips on her temple and started for the front door. “Stay here. I’ll deal with them.”

Amy rocked in place as he walked away. Everything Nolan had done to her during their marriage and afterwards now made sense. He’d been afraid she might remember that night. Their marriage protected him because spouses couldn’t testify against each other. But after the divorce, spousal privileges became null and void. Who would believe anything a crazy ex-wife said?

Should she call her parents and warn them about Nolan?

No, that would be pointless. They never believed anything she ever told them anyway, so why would they start now. Taking off to Virginia to talk to the DA would be fruitless too if all they had were her memories and evidence from a closed case. She was the crazy woman who kept calling Charlottesville Police Department with ‘bogus’ claims of harassment and break-ins. Nolan had done a bang up job of covering his