Page 11 of Nick

“Hey, maybe you can visit me at the shop sometime.”

“I would like that.”

I looked at the grandma and smiled, “If you and your husband have any place to go, I would very much like to take care of Julia. She is my little helper, and I enjoy having her with me.”

“Thank you.”

After they left, I decided to make a big dinner for Axel and myself, so I went shopping. I saw this woman watching me in the store and could tell she wanted to speak to me. So when I saw her in the parking lot, I walked up to her. “Hello, did you want to talk to me earlier? I had a feeling that you did.”

“Yes, I did.” She put her hands over her face and cried. I leaned against her vehicle until she finished crying.

“What’s your name?”

“Tina Lancaster… I wanted to talk to you about my brother. He’s only eighteen. He was sent to prison for killing my husband. My husband was mean. He was evil and mean. I have marks all over my body where he would brand me. He said he would make sure no one would ever want me if I left him. He would never have allowed me to leave him.

“Being with Tommy made me never want to be with another man. I would rather die than be with a man again. My brother came by one day when Tommy was beating me. He saw Tommy branding my back. That’s when my brother saw all the scars on my body. There are so many deep scars where Tommy would brand me with a hot iron.

“Jeff went wild. He started hitting Tommy, and I couldn’t get him to stop fighting. When Tommy came after him with a steel pole, Jeff kicked him, and Tommy flew back and hit his head. That’s how he died. Jeff didn’t mean to kill him. Tommy’s dad is a judge in Lake County. He made sure my little brother would go to prison.”

“Did you tell the police everything you told me?”

“Yes, I showed them my back, but Jeff told me not to show them the rest of my body. When he went to court, he didn’t have a chance. My family has no money. My parents are hard-working people, and they couldn’t afford an attorney. Jeff had a public defender who had a million other cases. We only got to talk to him a couple of times. Will you please help my brother?”

“Let me get all his files, and I’ll want to see all of your marks the bastard put on you. I will be taking photos of all of them.”

“Yes, I don’t care. I just want my brother out of prison.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s in the state prison. Are you going to talk to him?”

“Yes, I’ll leave in the morning. I will need yours and your parents’ phone numbers. You can write it on this,” I reached into my bag and handed her a piece of paper. Her hand was shaking so hard she could barely write it down.

“How did you hear about me?”

“This guy in prison told my brother he should get a hold of you.”

“What was the guy’s name?”

“Luca Thatcher, he’s been in prison for six years.”

“Luca, why is he in prison?”Luca Thatcher, I haven’t heard from him in years. Now I know why. Damn, I wonder what they have on him. Now I’ll have two new clients.

“I don’t know anything about him.”

“I will need you to help me with my bread shop in return. I can bake the bread, but I won’t be able to be there all the time. You’ll have to work there when I’m busy.”

“Yes, of course, I will. I’ll start in the morning. I can work every day.”

“Good. Which detective worked on your brother’s case?”

“His name was Anderson Miller. He didn’t do a lot of investigating. The police asked more questions than the detective did. We live in Long Barn. The story was only in the newspaper twice, which wasn’t good for my brother. Even though I tried talking the newspaper into running what really happened. They claimed they would be shut down if they ran what I told them.”

“Let’s go talk to your parents.”

“Okay, they will be happy knowing you will help us. No one has helped us or even talked to us. I didn’t tell them I was coming to see you. I chickened out and left the store. I’m not sure if I would have had the courage to ask you or not if you hadn’t said something first.”

“Why don’t we leave your car at my house? You’ll have to stay with me while we do this because my bread store opens at six in the morning. I close at three.”

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