Children of the Sea 02 - Sea Fever

lashes against a smooth, flushed cheek.
     
    A boy or a girl? “A daughter of the house of Atargatis, who will change the balance of power between Heaven and Hell”?
     
    Or a black-eyed boy who would run away to sea and break her heart?
     
    172
     
    Some choice.
     
    She moistened her lips. “You know what they say. As long as the baby’s healthy . . .”
     
    And safe.
     
    Her heart clenched like a fist. Please, God, keep her baby safe.
     
    *
     
    Caleb shifted the paper on his desk a half-inch to the left and tapped the top sheet.
     
    Regina’s heart drummed in time with his fingers.
     
    “If I take this to the DA, he’s going to assume you’re lying or crazy or both,” Caleb said.
     
    Regina’s stomach dropped. Her chin jutted. “Dylan said you would believe me. Because of Margred.”
     
    “I do believe you.” Caleb’s voice was firm, his eyes kind. “Which is why I’m suggesting you reconsider your statement before you sign.”
     
    Regina trusted Caleb. She always had. But under the circumstances ..
    “I want to talk to Dylan,” she said.
     
    Caleb frowned before rising stiffly from his desk and opening his door. “Edith, would you—”
     
    Before he could finish his instruction to the clerk, Dylan strode into the room, his mouth a tight line, his gaze locking instantly on Regina’s.
     
    She released a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding.
     
    “That took long enough,” he drawled. “Should I be jealous?”
     
    “Your brother thinks the DA won’t like my story,” she said.
     
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    Caleb closed the door on Edith Paine, hovering in the outer office.
    “Parts of it. Sit down,” he said to Dylan.
     
    Dylan raised an eyebrow and draped himself in the chair next to Regina’s. In the small, cramped office she could feel the heat under his cool. “So don’t tell the DA. Drop the charges or whatever you call them.”
     
    “I can’t do that.” Caleb positioned himself behind his desk.
    “Criminal charges are filed by the state, not the victim. And with three unrelated attacks in two months making headlines across the state, you can bet the DA is bringing charges against somebody.”
     
    Regina sat forward. “But Jericho isn’t really guilty, is he? I mean, if he is possessed—”
     
    “Was possessed,” Dylan corrected. “The demon left him.”
     
    “That’s the part the DA is going to have problems with,” Regina said.
     
    Caleb sighed. “Actually, the DA will assume— correctly— that the defense will use demonic possession as an insanity plea. The court will take into account that this is Jones’s first offense. They’ll consider his military service, probably do an alcohol and drug assessment. Even so, he’s facing charges of aggravated assault and kidnapping.”
     
    Dylan shrugged. “You said yourself the charges have nothing to do with us.”
     
    “Unless you’re called to the stand. Kidnapping is a Class A crime.
    The defense will try to reduce it to a lesser charge by arguing that Jones voluntarily released the victim in a safe place.”
     
    Dylan lifted an eyebrow. “Since when is dumping a woman in a flooding cave considered ‘release in a safe place’?”
     
    “It’s not,” Caleb said. “I’m telling you what the defense will argue.
    You’ll both be called to testify. Do you really want to explain under oath where and how you found her?”
     
    “Your oaths do not constrain me,” Dylan said.
     
    “No? How about being locked up for contempt of court?”
     
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    “You guys want to settle this over a game of hoops?” Regina asked.
    “Or pistols at dawn?”
     
    They turned to her with almost identical expressions of annoyance.
     
    “What if I refuse to testify?” she asked.
     
    Caleb rubbed his jaw. “That would definitely weaken the prosecution’s case. The DA might be willing to settle in Sessions Court in return for a guilty plea to a lesser charge— say, misdemeanor assault. The case wouldn’t actually go to trial.”
     
    She reached for the cross around her neck. It was in her pocket. She flushed and tucked her hands into her armpits. “And Jericho would go free?”
     
    “He’d serve some time. Long enough, maybe, for me to get him into the new veterans’ housing program downstate.”
     
    “Whether Jones is in jail or not is irrelevant,” Dylan said.
     
    “Not irrelevant to him,” Regina muttered.
     
    Dylan’s black eyes glinted. “His fate is not my care or responsibility.
    Yours