Page 66 of Justice Delayed

“Is that so?” Jillian checked her smartphone.

Melender pulled her trump card. “Yes. The only thing that would calm you down was my singing.”

Jillian barely glanced up from the small screen, her thumbs busy tapping out a staccato rhythm. “What, you think we had some bonding moment over ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’?”

Instead of replying, Melender simply sang. “The wind doth blow today, my love.”

Jillian froze, her head still down and her hair brushing her cheek as Melender continued.

“And a few small drops of rain, I never had but one true-love.”

After that line, Jillian set her phone down on the table, her head still bent.

“In cold grave she was lain, I’ll do as much for my true-love.”

With her voice, Melender tried to recreate the same peace as she had all those years ago to a scared little girl. She’d sang that song to Jillian the morning Jesse’s disappearance was discovered, and every night afterward to lull her to sleep until Melender’s arrest.

As the last note drifted off, Jillian raised her head, her eyes clouded with tears, her expression one of such longing and grief that Melender felt intrusive witnessing the look. Without thinking, she rose to wrap the younger woman in her arms. Jillian stiffened immediately, her body resisting Melender’s comfort. But as Melender started to remove her arms, Jillian reached up and grabbed her shoulders, relaxing against Melender as sobs racked her body. Melender maintained her awkward position of leaning over Jillian, who stayed seated in the chair, murmuring soothing sounds and rubbing the younger woman’s back.

Jillian pulled away, swiping at her tear-stained cheeks with the back of her hand. “I didn’t know that was you.”

Melender dropped into the chair beside her as Jillian drew in a shuddering breath.

“I used to dream about someone, an older girl who had silvery hair and the voice of an angel,” Jillian whispered. “In my dreams, she would sing that song to me, and all my fears would dissipate like the fog on a sunny morning.”

“I’m glad.” A tightness eased in Melender’s chest at Jillian’s words. Finally, something from her past had a positive impact instead of a negative one. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been longing for such an encounter as a reminder of who she was before she became a convicted murderer.

“Mother never…” Jillian’s voice hitched on another sob. “She never told me it was you who sang to me, the one I kept dreaming about after Jesse left us.”

Melender patted her shoulder.

“I hated you for taking away my little brother.” Jillian slumped against the back of her chair. “A couple of days ago, I heard Dad on the phone tell someone where you were staying, and I had to come see you to tell you that.” More tears trickled down her cheeks. “I wanted to make you tell me where you hid Jesse so we could be a real family again.”

“Oh, Jilly. I’m so very sorry.” The childhood nickname slipped out as if Melender were seventeen again and Jillian three. “I would never harm Jesse. I don’t know where he is.”

“I think, deep down, I’ve always known that.” Jillian suddenly thrust the bag into Melender’s hands. “That’s why I kept this hidden for you.”

Melender longed to turn the conversation back to Jesse and the night he disappeared but instead reached into the bag and pulled out a tattered notebook. “This isn’t…”

“Even as a preschooler, I knew how much this notebook meant to you.” Jillian touched the cover. “When you left—I mean, when you were arrested—I took it from your room. I couldn’t read it, but it was yours, something you treasured. I used to sleep with it underneath my bed.”

Melender opened the notebook with trembling hands. Sudie’s childish print proclaimed this book as belonging to her great-granddaughter, Melender Harman. She could picture Sudie sitting in the fading light on her front porch, singing softly as she labored to write down the lyrics to those mountain folk songs she loved so much. Leafing through the book, she paused to read the first few lines of “I Am a Pilgrim.”

I am a pilgrim and a stranger

Traveling through this wearisome land

I’ve got a home in that yonder city, good Lord.

In her mind, Sudie’s lovely alto voice sang the lyrics, the cadence making them come alive with purpose. Brushing back a tear, she turned the page to “Meet Me by the Moonlight.”

Meet me by the moonlight, oh meet me

Meet me by the moonlight alone, Lord, Lord

I have a sad story to tell you

All down by the moonlight alone.

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