A Scarlet Cord (40 page)

“Well,” he said finally, “I need to go call Don Steele before it gets too late. I promised Melanie I’d let him know that Jerica was okay.”

Pulling the door to the nursery shut, he went down the hall to the den. He dialed Don’s home number and leaned back in his chair, weariness washing over him.

“This is Pastor Steele.”

“Don? This is Matthew Mason in New Jersey.”

“Matthew. Do you have any news for us?”

“Yes. That’s why I’m calling. Jerica is fine.”

“Praise God! We’ve been praying for her … for all of you.”

“Thank you. She’s spending the night in the hospital tonight just so they can keep an eye on her, but she’s perfectly fine.” Matthew relayed a brief account of the afternoon’s events. “Joel got there just before they were going to send the search dogs in and—”

“You saw Joel?” Don Steele interrupted.

“Yes. He’s the one who found Jerica, actually. I … didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but the police were taking him in for questioning about the time I left the park. Apparently the warrant—”

“Questioning? You mean about the … embezzlement … here?”

“Yes …” Matt hesitated.

“Joel didn’t do it, Matthew.”

“What?”

“He didn’t take that money.” Don Steele breathed out a long sigh into the phone.

“How do you know that, Don?”

Don sighed again. “Darlene Anthony—a woman who works as a secretary here at Cornerstone—turned herself in a couple of hours ago.”

“You’re not serious!”

“I am. I’m still reeling from the news myself. I would never have suspected Darlene in a million years. But her mother was dying of cancer, and apparently she needed the money to pay for some experimental cancer drugs. Got them somewhere down in Mexico … saw an ad in some magazine. I guess she was just desperate enough that when Joel left, she saw an opportunity to take the money she needed and pin the blame on him.”

“That’s incredible. So … Joel had nothing to do with it? You’re sure she’s not just covering for him?”

“No. Darlene assured us that she acted alone. Everything she told us checks out.”

“But—if the money wasn’t Joel’s reason for leaving, what was?”

“I have no idea, Matthew. I have no idea.”

A minute later, Matthew hung up the phone. He found the number for Tim Bradford that Melanie had given him at the park today and punched it into the keypad of his phone, his thoughts spiraling at a speed too fast for him to follow.

Thirty-Five

The classroom was empty and quiet. Joel moved the eraser over the blackboard in wide arcs, wiping away the morning’s English assignment. But his thoughts were miles away from the halls of King’s Collegiate, reliving the events of yesterday, remembering how it had felt to see Melanie and Jerica again.

Suddenly the ancient intercom over the door crackled to life, and the school secretary’s voice broke through the static. “Mr. Ellington?”

“Yes?”

“There’s someone in the office to see you. Are you free?”

“Yes. Who is it please?”

“A Matthew Mason?”

Joel’s breath caught.
Melanie’s brother
. “I’ll … be right there. Thanks, Shirley.”

He ran a hand through his hair. What could Melanie’s brother want with him? Melanie must have told him about what happened at the park yesterday. Had something happened to Jerica? She’d seemed fine when they put her in the ambulance, but he hadn’t heard anything since then. And how had Matthew found him here?

Joel hurried down the hall. He stopped short in the office doorway. The man standing at the front desk was the man from the park yesterday, the one from the street in front of Port Authority a hundred yesterdays ago. “What … is this?” he asked warily, his defenses alert.

The man stepped forward and extended a hand. “I’m Matthew Mason. In all the excitement yesterday, we were never officially introduced. Your brother said I could find you here. I hope this … isn’t a problem.”

This
was Matthew Mason? Joel’s mind raced to make sense of it. This was the man he’d felt so threatened by?

His thoughts flew to Melanie. “Is Jerica all right? And Melanie? Has something happened?”

Matthew smiled. “Everything’s fine. But … we need to talk. Is there someplace—?” There was a note of urgency in his voice. His gaze darted meaningfully to the secretary and two student aides who were working in the office.

“Yes … sure.” Joel turned to Shirley, who had been watching the exchange with interest. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, Shirley. I don’t have a class till fourth hour.”

The woman nodded and ostensibly busied herself with something on her computer screen.

Joel turned back to Matthew. “Let’s … go outside,” he said, inclining his head toward the front entrance just beyond the office.

He held the door open for Matthew and led him across the fenced-in grounds to a small courtyard at the far end of the campus. A group of benches were scattered around the edge of the square.

Matthew put a foot up on one of the benches and rested his hand on its weathered back. Taking his cue from him, Joel remained standing, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that this man he’d thought was Melanie’s new love was in fact her brother. What did he want that was so important that Tim would have sent him here?

Matthew cleared his throat. “Ellington … I don’t know what your game is. For a year now I’ve thought you were a con man and a thief. Now at least I know that you’re no thief, but I have no idea what to believe about you.”

“What are you talking about? I assume you know that the police
took me in for questioning yesterday … at the park. I can only tell you what I told them. I did not take that money. I have no idea who was responsible, but—”

“Wait— You haven’t heard, then?”

“Heard what?”

“I talked to Don Steele last night. The secretary at the church turned herself in. She took the money.”

“Darlene? Are you talking about Darlene Anthony?”

“Yes, that was her name. She told Don that you weren’t involved in anyway.”

“Darlene stole the money?” Joel’s mind reeled.

“She took it to pay for cancer treatments for her mother.” Matthew went on to relay what he knew.

Joel found it difficult to make the meek woman into a thief, but then, if anyone understood what desperation could do to a person, he did. “Does Melanie know?” he asked finally.

“Yes. I told her this morning. But I don’t have to tell you that this turn of events begs the question, Ellington. If you didn’t take the money, why did you disappear?” Anger had crept into Matthew’s voice, and it rose with each word. “You wrecked my sister’s life. And yet a year later she is still obsessed with you, and her little girl apparently aches for you so badly that she’d do what she did yesterday just to find you.”

Matthew took his foot off the bench and kicked a pebble across the cement. “I don’t know what you did to inspire that kind of loyalty and love. But I want you to hear me and hear me well. It’s time for my sister to move on. And I don’t think that can happen until she talks to you. Until she knows the truth.”

Joel felt lightheaded. Melanie still loved him? He held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Please … Matthew. You’re telling me that Melanie still … has feelings for me?”

Matthew hesitated. “I think you have some hard questions to answer before this discussion goes any further.”

Joel paced along the edge of the concrete, trying to make sense of all this. If what Matthew said was true, there was no reason to hold back the truth any longer. He’d had enough of lies, enough of deceit. It was only fair that Melanie know the truth now.

He sighed and took a seat on the far end of the bench. Matthew sat down on the other end, waiting, his expression skeptical but open and earnest, Joel thought.

Joel released a short sigh and met the man’s gaze. “I’m not even sure where to begin.”

“I’ve got all day,” Matthew Mason told him, draping an arm across the back of the bench.

Jerica was released from the hospital the next afternoon with no more serious instructions than to take it easy for a few days. When they got back to Matt and Karly’s house, Jerica went out into the yard to play with her cousins. Still a little nervous about Jerica’s state of mind and wanting to keep a close eye on her, Melanie took her cell phone out to the deck while she called her parents and Jerry and Erika to let them know how everything was going.

She hung up from talking to Erika, and homesickness billowed over her. She wished she could take Jerica and fly back to Silver Creek tonight, but the doctor had advised her to wait a few days before traveling with her.

Melanie looked across the yard to where the children were playing. Brock and Jace were chasing Jerica. She was squealing like a stuck pig, but Melanie could tell by the ocean-wide smile on her face that she was enjoying every minute of her cousins’ attention. A wave of longing swept over her for all the things that would never be—living near her brother and his family, a baby brother or sister for Jerica, the life she’d dreamed of with Joel …

She thought about the incredible things Matthew had learned
from Don Steele last night. Her heart went out to Darlene, but more than that, Melanie was relieved that Joel had been cleared of the crime. Yet it bewildered her more than ever. If it wasn’t the money that had caused him to leave, then what was it? Perhaps she would never know all the reasons behind Joel’s actions. These weren’t easy things to ponder. Still, she had placed her feelings for Joel in the hands of her heavenly Father, and she was determined to leave them there.

She could not deny that she still ached for Joel. But now the familiar yearning was tempered by the inexplicable sense of calm that had anchored her since that defining moment in the ambulance with Jerica when she had turned the rudder of her life over to the God who knew far better than she what was right and good. Somehow she understood that the peace was there to stay this time. “Thank you, Father,” she whispered into the breeze.

Melanie woke the next morning when she heard Matt’s alarm clock go off down the hall. She had let Jerica crawl into bed with her last night, and now she watched her for a few minutes, needing the reassurance of her soft, even breathing. Melanie crawled out of bed and padded down to the kitchen where Matt was pouring cereal for Brock and Jace. Karly was nursing the baby in the family room.

Matthew and Karly and the boys were driving upstate to spend the day with Karly’s brother and his family, who had not yet met little Parker. The Masons had invited Melanie and Jerica to go along, but she didn’t feel Jerica was quite up to the all-day outing. Besides, they had long flights ahead of them tomorrow.

“Are you sure you don’t mind being here alone all day?” Karly asked, peering hard into Melanie’s face as if she would find her friend’s true feelings written there.

“Don’t worry about us,” Melanie insisted. “A day of peace and
quiet sounds wonderful to me. Jerica can sleep in while I finish up our laundry and get packed.”

After they’d eaten, Melanie helped Karly get the boys ready. Across the hall from Brock and Jace’s bedroom, she heard Matthew talking on the telephone in his office. It sounded like he was discussing business with a client.

“Doesn’t that man ever take a day off?”

Karly’s back was to Melanie as she diapered the baby on the little changing table under the window. “Not often enough,” she replied lightly.

A few minutes later, Matthew herded his little family out the door and to the waiting minivan.

“Enjoy your day, Mel,” he hollered on his way down the hall to the back door. “Don’t wait up for us … It might be late. Oh, by the way,” Matt said over his shoulder as he stepped into the garage, “a guy … a friend might drop something by the house later this morning. Would you mind listening for the doorbell?”

“No problem.”

She heard the van pull away, and a delicious silence descended on the house. She went to check on Jerica one more time. The little girl was curled into a cocoon of blankets, her face serene in repose. Melanie wondered if she would ever take Jerica’s safety for granted again. She whispered a prayer of thanks and slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.