Read the book: «Wrongly Accused»

ONE

Caleb O’Malley’s stomach knotted painfully at the thought of seeing his daughter, Kaitlin, for the first time in over a year. Since the day he’d been sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

He parked his beat-up truck in front of the fourth house from the corner and killed the engine. Taking a deep breath, he shoved his car door open and forced himself to get out and walk up the sidewalk to the front door of Noelle Whitman’s house, trying not to resent the woman who’d been his daughter’s foster mother while he’d been behind bars.

To be honest, it was his own fault he hadn’t seen Kaitlin in so long. At first, he’d thought he’d be let out as soon as they realized he was innocent. But then week after week passed by, and he’d grimly realized there was a very real possibility he’d be found guilty. At that point, he’d been unable to bear the thought of having his young daughter see him in jail.

He’d been shocked to hear from his lawyer that the case against him had been dropped due to the strange disappearance of the eyewitness. And deeply glad to know he was free at last.

He rapped sharply on the door and waited impatiently for the Whitman woman to answer.

He squinted against the harsh glare of the summer sun. After not being in the sunlight for so long, he enjoyed the warmth soaking into his skin, even though the temperature was hovering at a steamy ninety degrees.

His lawyer, Jack Owens, had promised to let Ms. Whitman know Caleb was on his way to pick up Kaitlin, so there was no reason for her not to be here. Hard to believe that he’d only been out of jail for a few hours. His release had been so sudden he hadn’t had time to make plans. It was Friday and once he picked up Kaitlin, he’d go home and take the weekend to figure out how to start their life over again.

He lifted his hand to knock again at the exact moment the door swung open, so he pulled back his hand just in time. The woman standing before him was much younger than he’d anticipated, probably barely thirty, with reddish-gold hair and fair skin. She was dressed casually in a green short-sleeved sweater and calf-length blue jeans. In her arms was his five-year-old daughter, wearing a pretty pink dress and pink barrettes clipped to her glossy chin-length blond hair. She clutched a small stuffed giraffe to her chest.

The minute Kaitlin saw him she dropped the giraffe, wrapped her arms around Noelle’s neck and burst into tears. “Nooo, I don’t wanna go wif Daddy!”

His stomach tightened painfully as his worst nightmare played out in front of him. Ms. Whitman held Kaitlin close at the same time she took a step back, a wary expression on her face.

“You’d better come in,” she said over Kaitlin’s sobs. He stepped forward and bent down to pick up the giraffe.

A split second later, he heard the crack of a rifle and the soft thud of a bullet hitting the doorframe of the house, inches from where his head had been.

“Get back,” he shouted, barging into her house with the finesse and strength of a bull, before slamming the door behind him.

Another bullet pierced the door, followed by yet another. He covered Noelle’s body with his as he practically pushed her toward the relative safety of the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” Noelle asked hoarsely, her green eyes wide with fear as he shoved her down behind the island. He hated the way Kaitlin’s crying grew louder.

“We have to get out of here.” There wasn’t time to explain what he didn’t even understand himself. He had no clue why someone was shooting at him, but right now all that mattered was getting out of here in one piece. He lunged for the keys he saw lying on the counter and mentally visualized where the garage was located. “Does that door lead out to the garage?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go.”

“No! Wait! We have to call 911!” She shrank away from him, pressing herself against the island and curling protectively around his daughter.

He hesitated, trying to think rationally. He didn’t trust the police, but if he left on his own would the shooter follow him and leave Ms. Whitman and Kaitlin alone?

Or use his daughter as bait as a way to draw him out? The very possibility made his blood run cold.

“Look, we need to get out of here. There’s a chance that guy out there will try to use Kaitlin as a way to get to me. I have to keep her safe!”

The sound of breaking glass made him glance back toward the living room. A familiar round canister landed and rolled on the carpet with smoke rising up toward the ceiling.

“Tear gas! Listen, lady, if you want to live, come with me. I promise to keep you and Kaitlin safe. But we have to move. Now!” His eyes were already starting to burn as he grabbed the pink backpack that was on the counter next to the keys, gripped her arm and dragged her toward the door to the garage. “Hurry!”

Thankfully she followed him into the fresh air of the garage. She slid into the backseat and talked softly to Kaitlin as she buckled his daughter into her booster seat. He tossed the pink backpack inside and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Buckle up,” he said tersely as he cranked the key in the ignition. The moment he heard her seat belt click he put the SUV in gear. Thankfully she drove a sturdy vehicle, which would help them escape the shooter. The thought of backing out the driveway in full view of the shooter filled him with dread. But he mentally visualized the neighborhood, marking a path that should help keep them safe.

“Hang on,” he warned before he hit the garage door opener. As the door slowly opened he decided not to wait for it to get all the way up before he stomped hard on the accelerator and flew out of the driveway, clipping the bottom of the garage door with the top of her car.

The sound of gunfire filled the air as he swiftly spun the SUV around and headed straight across the street through a neighbor’s yard.

* * *

Noelle let out a small scream as he barreled out of the garage, wrecking her garage door as he sailed down the driveway. At the sound of gunfire, she leaned over, trying to protect Kaitlin as Caleb O’Malley drove like a maniac across the street and through her neighbor’s yard. She momentarily closed her eyes and frantically prayed.

Dear Lord, please keep me and Kaitlin safe!

The vehicle jerked sharply from side to side as they went up and over the edge of her neighbor’s flower bed. Within moments, they were heading down that neighbor’s driveway to the street behind hers.

Kaitlin’s father didn’t speak as he drove, taking several sharp turns as he took them farther away from her house. The way he kept glancing at the rearview mirror told her he was worried they were being followed.

Should she mention how she’d noticed a black pickup truck following behind her for the past few days? Was it possible that person had just been waiting for Kaitlin’s father to show up?

She swiped at her eyes and glanced back, wishing desperately there was a cop somewhere close by. Where were the police when you needed them? Hopefully one of her neighbors had heard the gunshots and called the cops. If only she hadn’t left her cell phone and her purse in her bedroom. But how was she to have known something like this would happen?

She pulled herself together with an effort. She could not let this man know how afraid she really was.

Kaitlin finally stopped crying, but her thumb was planted firmly in her mouth, a sure sign that the child was upset.

When Kaitlin’s father headed toward the freeway, she forced herself to speak. “Why aren’t we going to the closest police station?”

“Because I don’t trust the police.”

Her stomach knotted further and she had to work to keep her tone steady. “Where are you taking us?”

“Somewhere safe,” he said, barely glancing back at her.

Somewhere safe? She swallowed a hysterical laugh. Everyone in Milwaukee knew he’d been arrested for killing his wife fourteen months ago. Caleb O’Malley had made headline news, not just in the city but across the country. Former sharpshooter for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team arrested for murdering his wife.

Unfortunately, all charges against Caleb O’Malley had been dropped when the eyewitness, who claimed to have seen O’Malley shoot his wife and then take off from the scene of the crime, abruptly disappeared a week before the trial. Without the witness there wasn’t enough of a case against him. At least that was what his lawyer, Jack Owens, had told her.

Noelle had been sick at the thought of handing Kaitlin back over to her father, but there hadn’t been much she could do to prevent him from exercising his custodial right to take his daughter. Supposedly he wasn’t a criminal anymore.

Still, she knew there was no statute of limitations for murder. There was a part of her that believed the police would eventually find the evidence they needed to lock up Caleb O’Malley for good. If he was guilty, of course, which she was fairly certain he was.

Had she gone with one killer to escape another?

“Why don’t you let me and Kaitlin go?” she said, striving to sound reasonable. “Surely you don’t want to expose your daughter to danger.”

He concentrated on the road. “I told you, I can’t ignore the possibility they would use her to get to me. I thought about dropping you off somewhere, but obviously Kaitlin needs you so that’s not an option. I promise I’m not going to hurt you.”

He was right about one thing: Kaitlin did need her. No way was she leaving the child alone with a potential murderer. Yet she knew she was risking her life by staying. Granted, he’d tried to protect her back at the house when the bullets had started flying, but what did she really know about this man? Nothing except what she learned through the media.

And none of that had been good.

Trusting men wasn’t exactly easy for her, either.

“Did you see anything out on the street?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.

“You mean before the gunshots?” She thought back to those moments when she’d faced Caleb O’Malley across the threshold. Ironically, there hadn’t been the usual black car she’d noticed over the past few days. “There was a red pickup parked on the street.”

“That’s my truck. Did you see anything else? Another vehicle? A person? Anything?”

“No.” She’d been far more preoccupied with trying to find a way to ease the transition for Kaitlin. Noelle had planned to invite him in, hoping he’d spend some time getting to know his daughter again before leaving with her. Especially after the way Kaitlin had clung to her, sobbing.

As much as she feared the dark-haired stranger, she wasn’t leaving Kaitlin alone with him any time soon. Kaitlin was the sole reason she’d come along in the first place. The poor child had already been through so much, losing her mother and then her father. Kaitlin had suffered night terrors the first weeks she’d been with Noelle, but the child hadn’t had a nightmare for almost five months.

Noelle would be shocked if today’s events didn’t bring them back. She’d be surprised if her own nightmares of the past didn’t return, too.

There was another long silence and she realized they were already well outside the city limits. Grimly she knew they could go for several hundred miles without stopping on the gas tank she’d filled yesterday.

“I’d let you both go if I could,” he said in a low voice. “But I’m afraid it’s too late. You and Kaitlin are in danger now, too.”

“In danger from whom?” she asked helplessly.

“I wish I knew,” he said, his tone weary. “Probably from the same person who killed Heather.”

She knew Heather had been his wife and Kaitlin’s mother. And if he thought she was going to believe that line of baloney, he was as crazy as the media had portrayed him to be.

During an interview on TV, one of his SWAT teammates had mentioned Caleb’s hair-trigger temper. She could imagine how difficult it must have been for him to discover his wife was cheating on him.

Not that his wife had deserved to die for her sins, leaving Kaitlin without a mother, or a father once Caleb had been arrested. As Kaitlin’s preschool teacher and an approved foster parent, she’d fought for and won temporary custody of the little girl. At first she thought it would only be a few weeks until other family had been notified but no one had been found. Over the past year she’d grown to love Kaitlin. And being forced to turn the child over to Caleb had nearly broken her heart.

“I guess you don’t believe in the theory of innocent until proven guilty,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.

“I never said you were guilty,” she said hastily. No sense in baiting the tiger. She needed to keep on his good side in order to convince him to let her and Kaitlin go. So far, she wasn’t entirely sure she believed in his theory that she and Kaitlin were in danger.

“So you believe I’m innocent?” he asked after several long moments.

She licked her dry lips and tried to smile. “The judge let you go, which is good enough for me.”

He let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort, but didn’t say anything more. She stared out the window as the miles zipped past. Glancing over at Kaitlin, she noted the girl’s eyelids were starting to droop. Long car rides tended to make the little girl sleepy and no doubt she’d worn herself out with her crying jag.

Twenty minutes later, Noelle realized Kaitlin’s father had left the freeway and turned onto a country highway.

She couldn’t quell a hint of panic when she didn’t recognize the area. They were in a rural part of Wisconsin. Where was he taking them? What did he intend to do?

She’d gone along with him to protect Kaitlin, not to mention to get away from the rolling tear gas and flying bullets. But now, she was second-guessing her decision.

She and Kaitlin would likely be safer on their own. She trusted the police would protect them. Why wouldn’t they?

Somehow, she needed to find a way to escape.

* * *

Caleb dragged a hand over his face as the SUV ate up the miles, and tried to think rationally. He didn’t know who’d fired those shots at him, but if he hadn’t picked up Kaitlin’s stuffed giraffe, he’d be dead.

Leaving Kaitlin an orphan.

Somehow, he felt stupid for not realizing that whoever had killed his wife would still be out there somewhere, waiting for him. But the attempt on his life didn’t make much sense. Why not try to plant more evidence to get him back behind bars? What would they gain from killing him?

“Where’s Giffy?” he heard Kaitlin ask. The little girl had napped for a while but was obviously awake now.

“Right here, sweetheart.” In the rearview mirror, he saw Kaitlin hug the stuffed giraffe close.

“Ah, Mr. O’Malley?” Noelle’s voice was soft, almost hesitant. He hated seeing the shadow of fear in her eyes, but he didn’t know how to reassure her he was innocent of the crime he’d been accused of. He could talk all he wanted, but without proof that he was being framed, there wasn’t much he could do.

“Caleb,” he corrected curtly. “Call me Caleb.”

“Uh, sure. Caleb. It’s past five-thirty and Kaitlin usually eats dinner about this time,” she said with a hint of nervousness.

He flushed, squelching a flash of guilt. He should have realized that his daughter would need to eat soon. After fourteen long months in jail he’d forgotten how to be a father. “Sounds like a plan. What would you like?”

“Kaitlin, what do you want for dinner?” Noelle asked.

The little girl pulled her thumb out of her mouth. “Chicken bites.”

In the rearview mirror he caught the fleeting grimace that passed over Noelle’s face, but she readily agreed with Kaitlin’s decision. “That would be great.”

“Looks like there’s a fast-food restaurant five miles ahead,” he said, gesturing to a road sign. “We’ll get something there.”

“Thank you.”

He swallowed a frustrated sigh. Noelle acted as if he was some sort of ogre keeping her and Kaitlin prisoner. Yet what could he have done differently? If he had left Kaitlin behind and something had happened to his daughter, he’d never have forgiven himself. No question he’d give up his life for Kaitlin.

And he couldn’t bring himself to trust the police, either. Not when he fully believed that someone from his SWAT team had set him up for his wife’s murder.

Feeling grim, he imagined that the cops were right now swarming Noelle’s house, gathering evidence. What would they think when they found the slugs from a high-powered rifle and a canister of tear gas in her house? Would that prove his innocence? Or would they turn the whole thing around to somehow make him the bad guy?

He couldn’t help believing the latter. It wouldn’t be long before the killer was hot on their tail. He needed to figure out a good place to hide until he could find someone to trust.

Not that he could think of too many people he trusted at the moment. He’d put his faith in his lawyer, Jack Owens, but Jack had been the only person who’d known Caleb’s plan of going to Noelle’s house. Not that he could understand why Jack would try to kill him after working more than a year to set him free.

His wife’s killer had clearly set him up to rot in prison for the rest of his life. And now that Caleb had been given a get-out-of-jail-free card, it was possible that the same person had tried to kill him. Unless his wife had other lovers who he didn’t know about, someone who’d taken shots at him in an effort to seek revenge?

He sighed and turned off the highway, heading onto a side road leading to the popular fast-food restaurant. He pulled in and headed down the drive-through lane.

“I hav’ta go potty,” Kaitlin announced.

He inwardly winced, feeling guilty for not anticipating his daughter’s needs. He made a quick U-turn in the parking lot so he could pull into a spot located near the front of the building.

He slid out from behind the wheel but before he could try to help Kaitlin out of her booster seat, Noelle took control, undoing the buckles to free his daughter. She carried Kaitlin out and set her down on the ground.

“I hav’ta go now!” Kaitlin said, rushing toward the door. Noelle sprinted to catch up, quickly capturing Kaitlin’s hand.

“I’ll take you to the bathroom, okay, sweetie?”

Caleb followed them inside, feeling like an outsider. He’d lost so much time with his daughter. The fact that she didn’t want to be near him was like a knife to his heart.

Standing at the back of the lobby area, he stared blindly at the menu selections. Food wasn’t nearly as important as keeping his daughter safe from harm. He felt exposed standing here in the middle of a fast-food joint, considering how just three hours ago, someone tried to kill him. Yet he’d kept a careful eye out to make sure they hadn’t been followed.

But they weren’t safe yet, not by a long shot.

Noelle and Kaitlin returned from the bathroom and he couldn’t help smiling at the way his daughter was giggling.

“I had no idea public restrooms could be fun,” he said with a smile.

Noelle shrugged. “She found the air hand-drying machine entertaining.”

“So, Katydid, what would you like for dinner?” he asked, capturing his daughter’s gaze. He hoped she remembered his pet name for her.

She tilted her head to the side and gave him an exasperated look. “I already tole you, chicken bites.”

She hadn’t reacted to the nickname, but at least she wasn’t crying, either. He tried to take heart at the minor step forward. “Okay, one order of chicken bites. Noelle, what would you like?”

“I’ll have a grilled chicken sandwich.”

“What about to drink? I’ll get Kaitlin some milk, but what would you like?”

“Water is fine.”

He nodded and decided to order a thick cheeseburger for himself. Soon they had their food piled on a plastic tray. Noelle and Kaitlin picked out a small rectangle table and he made sure to sit where he could keep an eye on the door.

He found himself distracted by Kaitlin, who’d grown so much in the time he’d been stuck behind bars. Before he could dig into his food, Noelle surprised him by taking Kaitlin’s hand in hers and bowing her head.

“Dear Lord, we thank You for providing this food for us to eat and we ask for Your protection and Your guidance in showing us the right path. Amen.”

“Amen,” his daughter echoed.

He paused, unsure of how he felt about the fact that Noelle was teaching his daughter to pray. He and Heather hadn’t been particularly religious and he instinctively knew Heather would have been upset at Noelle’s teaching Kaitlin about God. But he decided there were worst things than being a Christian so he didn’t say anything. Although he couldn’t help wondering what else Noelle had taught Kaitlin while he’d been gone.

He bit into his cheeseburger, enjoying the juicy taste he’d long been denied. He divided his attention between Kaitlin and the door. His daughter ate sparingly, spending more time playing with her chicken bites, pretending they were animals talking to each other. Regret burned in the back of his throat for the time he’d lost. He wanted nothing more than to gather his daughter into his arms and hold her close, but he’d rather cut off his arm than scare her again.

“Eat your dinner, Kaitlin,” Noelle said in a soft but stern tone.

“Are we goin’ home soon?” Kaitlin asked.

Noelle lifted her eyebrow and glanced at him. He cleared his throat and smiled. “We’re going to spend the night in a motel. Won’t that be fun?”

His daughter’s big blue eyes, mirror images of her mother’s, widened with excitement. “Wif a swimming pool?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” There were plenty of hotels with pools, but he’d wanted to find something small and off the main thoroughfares. Maybe he’d get lucky and find a small motel with an outdoor pool. After all, it was mid-June, warm enough for outdoor swimming. He was eager to gain whatever ground he could with his daughter. “But first you have to finish your dinner.”

“Okay.” She grinned saucily and popped another chicken bite into her mouth, smearing ketchup across her cheek. He was glad to see she was growing more at ease with him.

He reached for his napkin but Noelle was quicker, already wiping the red stain away. He curled his fingers into a helpless fist.

And couldn’t help wondering if Noelle was really trying to help. Or if this was a subtle way of sabotaging his relationship with his daughter.

* * *

Noelle finished her sandwich about the same time as Caleb. She gathered all the trash into a neat pile on the tray while they waited for Kaitlin. When they’d first entered the restaurant, she’d considered asking one of the patrons for help, but there weren’t many people inside. And what if they simply looked at her as if she were crazy? Technically, Caleb had legal custody of his daughter, while she didn’t have any right to the child. For now, she’d decided to go along with pretending to be a family.

The stark longing in Caleb’s eyes as he gazed at his daughter made her wonder if she’d misjudged him. Clearly he loved Kaitlin and during the course of the meal she found herself torn between wanting to get as far away from him as she could and wanting to help him repair his relationship with the daughter who barely remembered him.

She couldn’t imagine who’d tried to shoot him, but at least now the black truck that had trailed her for days made sense. Whoever was driving it must have been waiting for Caleb to arrive. If Caleb was truly innocent of the crime he’d been accused of, why would someone still want him dead? Was it possible he had really been framed? Or was that wishful thinking on her part?

“We need to go,” Caleb said.

“All right,” she agreed. Kaitlin was obviously finished with her food, so she quickly wiped off the little girl’s sticky fingers and then stood up. Caleb took the tray of garbage and headed over to the trash can. Then he waited for her by the door, holding it open for the two of them.

They walked toward her car and as Caleb opened the back passenger door, she caught a glimpse of a police car pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant. She froze, wondering if she could manage to capture the cop’s attention. Would the cop believe her story? Or would he run a check on Caleb only to find that he did have legal custody of his daughter?

“You’re welcome to leave, but you won’t take my daughter,” Caleb warned, clamping his hand on her elbow to prevent her from leaving. “So make up your mind, and quick.”

She hesitated, full of uncertainty.

“Just get Kaitlin into the car, all right?” he pressed.

“Uh, sure.” She lifted Kaitlin into the booster seat. Her fingers were shaking so badly that she had trouble buckling the girl in.

When Kaitlin was safely secured in the seat she shut the door and made her way around to the other side, trying to see where the cop car was located. The officer had pulled into the drive-through lane and had his window rolled down as he perused the menu.

If she started screaming like a lunatic, would he help her?

“Sit up front next to me,” Caleb said when she reached for the back door handle.

She felt trapped but since there was no way she was going anywhere without Kaitlin, she climbed into the front passenger seat.

When she glanced over to the police car, it was farther away, having moved forward to the next window.

Within moments Caleb drove back out onto the road, leaving the police car and any hope of getting help behind.