Subj: What Could Have Been part 10/?
Date: 1/16/00 9:14:22 PM Central Standard Time
From: KimD
Before leaving Vicki went to her room and changed into something that hid the scars that received the night before. Or at least most of them she thought looking down at her hands, which had received the worst of it. She was again led by a guard to barnabas’ cell. After her conversation with Elizabeth, she felt a strange sensation, as if she were seeing him for the first time. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but now wasn’t the time. She would wait until the right time, when he was safely out of jail.
When she was sure that she had her emotions under control she spoke. “Hello Barnabas. How are you holding up?”
“I’m feel so alone,” he said with emotion. This was nearly as bad as being chained in the coffin. This jail cell was just bigger. “I know that everyone at Collinwood supports me, but I can’t help but feel confined and alone.”
To hear his misery tore at her. She took his hand in hers, looked into his eyes, and said, “I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you.”
“Thank you Vicki. You’re support means so much to me.” There was something in the way she looked at him made him almost forget where he was.
Something seemed to be different about her. He had noticed it when she walked into his cell. But he wasn’t sure what it was. “My Grand Jury trial is in three more days. My lawyer tells me that if the jury thinks there’s enough evidence against me for a trial that I could be in this cell for the next six months before my case goes to Supreme Court.”
“Oh Barnabas.” Three days didn’t seem like very long for her to find evidence that would prove him innocent, and six months seemed like an eternity. “What does you’re lawyer say about the Grand Jury trial?”
“He’s not so hopeful about it. He tells me that the Grand Jury trial is the prosecution’s chance to justify having a Supreme Court trail. So they tell their side of the case, and get to show their evidence. If all goes well, then I’ll be free.”
“And if not you have to stay in here for the next six months waiting for a Supreme Court trial.”
“Yes,” he said with that same tone of voice that he used to tell he how alone he felt. “I keep hoping that soon my lawyer will find something that will clear me. But so far he has come up with very little.”
“I’ve found a little something. It was a piece of fabric caught in a bush in the woods close to murder site. I found it just this morning. I showed it to Sheriff Patterson, but he didn’t seem to be very impressed with it.”
“He wouldn’t be. He missed catching one killer once a few years ago, and suffered for it. He won’t let that happen again. Tell me more about this piece of fabric you found. How did you find it?”
“I was looking in the area near where the body was found. I was looking for evidence that would clear you. I looked up, and there it was. I know that you didn’t want me to get so deeply involved in this, but I couldn’t set back and see anything happen to you.”
“Vicki, If anything happens, I can’t be around to watch out for you.”
“I know that,” she said thinking of the events of the previous night, “but I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Has something happened?” he said in a concerned voice.
“What makes you think that?”
“The look on you face just now. Something has already happened hasn’t it?”
“I saw that dark shadowy figure that you were talking about in the woods last night. Only it had a woman’s voice.”
“It spoke to you?”
“Yes, she seemed to be calling to me.”