Read A Single Thread (Cobbled Court) for Free Online Page B

the next fifteen minutes, it’s going to be a much bigger one.”
    Oh my God, I thought, he’s right. One way or another, I’m in this. Damn that stupid girl! And damn Franklin! What am I going to do? My mind was racing.
    “Abbie?” he asked. “Did you hear me?”
    “I did. Meet me at the courthouse in seven minutes. At the side entrance. I don’t want anyone to see us come in. Find out who the judge will be.”
    I was in luck. The judge was Harry Gulden. He and my late husband, Woolly, were college roommates. I’ve known Harry and his wife, Judy, for years. He agreed to hear Liza’s case in his chambers.
    This is one of the advantages of living in a small town. When people know you personally, they’re more willing to put aside strict formalities and procedures that could serve no purpose but causing you embarrassment. Not bending the law, of course. I’d never ask Harry to do that. But as long as justice was served, Harry didn’t see what harm there would be in conducting private matters in private, especially since this was a first offense.
    I sat perched on the edge of a chair in front of Harry’s desk while he went over the arrest report. Franklin was standing behind me along with a young attorney who introduced himself as Scott Corey; he was from the district attorney’s office.
    It was everything I could do to sit still and keep quiet, as Franklin had said I must. A thousand questions ran through my mind. What in the world had possessed the girl to shoplift a sweater, especially when she had the money to pay for it? How did Franklin manage to get himself mixed up in this? And what was the girl doing in New Bern anyway? When Susan was alive, she and Liza lived in the opposite corner of the state in a townhouse in Stamford, where it was easy for Susan to commute to her job in New York. The last I’d heard, Liza was at college in Rhode Island, getting a degree in studio art, or design, or some such thing. I didn’t know much about my sister’s child, but I was aware of the basics of her living situation. I’d asked Franklin to keep an eye on them. Whatever was Liza doing in New Bern? And the biggest question of all, what was I, who’d never gotten so much as a speeding ticket, doing at the courthouse on what should have been a perfectly normal Friday morning?
    I twisted in my chair and looked a question at Franklin, who was standing behind me, but he shook his head and frowned, silently warning me that I mustn’t risk saying anything in front of the judge or Mr. Corey that might hurt Liza’s case. I frowned back, impatient but grudgingly compliant. The door opened, and Liza was escorted into the room by a bailiff.
    Judge Gulden looked over the tops of his glasses. “Thank you, Carolyn. You can leave this young lady with us,” he said, dismissing the bailiff.
    Franklin was wrong. I had seen her before, but only once, when she was a baby. I’d never imagined her growing up to be so tall. But truth to tell, I’d never really imagined her at all. For the last nineteen years, I’d done my best to forget that she existed, and at my best I am very good indeed. Now there was no getting around it. The tall, slim young woman with the torn jean jacket, too-bleached blond hair, and brown eyes scowling from a face that looked disconcertingly like my own, did exist, and, like it or not, her life was now entangled with mine. Just how entangled was something I did not yet fully realize.
    She looked quickly at me and then at Franklin. “What is she doing here?” she asked him. The directness of her inquiry and familiarity of her tone turned on the lights for me. She and Franklin knew each other—well. Before Franklin could respond, Judge Gulden motioned to the empty chair next to mine, indicating that Liza should take a seat. We both stared straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with each other.
    “Your aunt came here to see if she could help you.” He slid his glasses back up his nose and looked at her case