12

Just as Garrett was about to speak again they heard the apartment's main door slam open.

"Baby Girl!" Chad called frantically, as he slammed through the apartment. "Katie!"

"In here!" She called back, looking at the three forlorn, angry, and confused people sitting on her bed.

He opened the door with a panic stricken look on his face and then fury as he realized who was sitting on the bed. "What the hell! How the...did you let them in here?"

"No, uh, I used my key." Amanda sniffed, "I was going to surprise you by making all of your favorite stuff for dinner as an apology. Sammy came over to help me...I was so enraged when I saw Katie in your kitchen washing dishes that I called Garrett and Emmitt. Emmitt wouldn't come but Garrett came on over... I'm sorry, Chad. I'm so sorry. You were right. I was so blinded by anger and bigotry... After listening to her side of things...hearing...seeing how hurt she is by it all... there's no way she could have killed Daddy."

"I know." He said, standing next to Katie to ensure that she was okay. "Emmitt called to read me the riot act about having Katie at my place. He and Ed are on their way over to 'kick my ass' as they put it."

Katie hugged her knees to her chest, resting her head on top of them and closing her eyes. "I remember them from the trial." She murmured, as she thought about Mr. Edgars eldest sons and shivered. "They hate me more than all of you do."

They looked ashamed and guilty. "Kaitlyn," Garrett said, "I apologize for how I've acted. I just took what was given to us as fact and truth without really looking into anything myself. Which is really screwed up because I'm a lawyer! I know better. Fifteen years ago, I was a freshman in college for criminal justice and thought I knew every damn thing there was. I switched to pre-law because I wanted to make sure they gave you the maximum sentence available. I wasn't trying to determine if you were innocent or guilty. I had already decided that you were guilty just because they said you were. I never looked at evidence. None of us did, I don't think." He looked at his siblings, questioningly, who shook their heads. "We all just assumed what we heard in the court room was true."

"Everything they say happened, happened." She said, "But the players were wrong."

Ed, Emilia, and Emmitt showed up a few minutes later and Chad was sitting out in the living room with Garrett when they arrived. Amanda and Samantha were sitting on the foot of her bed looking through her old photo albums at pictures of her and their dad and asking questions about events we were attending and what was going on in the pictures.

"Oh, gosh!" Sammy said, "Dad looks so handsome in this suit!" She laughed. "Where was this?"

"The SGA father daughter prom. My Dad had to work a double that night too." Katie said, as Emilia opened the door. "He actually bought Mr. Edgar the suit for that one and took him to get fitted and everything. My Uncle Kevin dropped us at the dance and picked us up after. "

"Emmy! You have got to see these pictures she has of her and Dad." Mandy looked up smiling, "God! We were so wrong, about her."

"How come your parents never invited Daddy to live with you all?" Emilia asked, after glimpsing a few of the pictures.

"My Dad did, actually but, my mom had a problem with it." Katie said, embarrassment in her tone. "She didn't like me hanging around with Mr. Edgar. He told her the basement apartment was for me for when I came from college but, it was really gonna be for Mr. Edgar. Dad was trying to get him on at the plant where he was but with his lungs..."

"His lungs?" Amanda asked, confused. "Was Daddy sick?"

Katie nodded, frowning. "Yes. He had lung cancer. I thought he told you all. He said he was going to write to you and tell you. They had caught it early. He was getting treatment through a program the Catholic Missionaries set up." She looked through some of her papers and pulled out a folder. He had made her and her father his emergency contacts. She handed it to Emilia who snatched from her hands. "Oh!" Katie thought about something. She rambled through her boxes and found and envelope. That had, "give this to my kids' written on the front. "I found this when I moved back here. I should have given it to Chad to give to you all but, I was afraid to. My mom said Mr. Edgar had given it to my Dad about a week before he got killed."

"And she never showed this to the police?" Emilia glared at her.

"She had just lost her husband and her daughter in one night, Emmy." Amanda rolled her eyes. "I doubt she was thinking about an envelope from a dead homeless man."

"No, Mom had to be sedated." Katie said, sighing. "She was hospitalized too. Her world was falling apart. I was arrested for murder and her husband had just died."

Emilia huffed, uncaring, as she left the room with the envelope. "We should probably go out there too." Sammy breathed, apologetically.

"It's fine." Katie nodded. "Thank you for listening to me and looking through my pictures. I hope that one day you'll believe me when I say, your father meant a lot to me and I would never have done anything to hurt him. I do think part of the reason he was targeted was because he took time with me though."

Mandy frowned. "Why do you say that?"

"The kids that killed him, used to bully me and Chad but, whenever your dad was with us, he interfered." She shook her head, "They didn't much like that he took time with me but, they didn't like Chad and me being friends either."

"So, you think his murder was premeditated or retaliatory in some way?" Sammy asked, frowning, curiously.

Katie nodded. "Retaliatory. I've always believed that, they got wasted that night and saw him in that alley waiting for me when they were walking home and decided to teach him a lesson for getting in their way but, things got out of hand. They lost control and did more damage than they intended. I don't think their initial goal was murder, just assault and battery. It in no way justifies their actions but, that's what I think happened."

"Did you ever tell your lawyer or the police what you thought or suspected?" Mandy asked, still frowning.

Katie shrugged. "I was assigned a court appointed attorney. George Gray. He said he wasn't interested in my theories only the facts. When I recounted my story, he told me it was my word against theirs because my boss at the diner said he didn't see anyone outside but me. He didn't even try. He encouraged me to plead guilty because as he put it, all the evidence and witnesses were stacked against me."

"But you plead not guilty." Sammy smiled.

"My parents always told me to only take credit for what I was responsible for." Katie said, "I wasn't responsible for that. I would never lift a finger to hurt Mr. Edgar. I loved him like a second father."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!!!!" They heard Emilia's shrill shriek from the other room.

Sammy and Mandy immediately ran in to see what was wrong and Katie slowly followed behind. She was already certain Emilia wanted to choke her out for simply existing whether she thought she killed Mr. Edgar or not.

"What's wrong, Emmy?!" They asked, alarmed.

Emilia turned around and showed then an official looking document and a letter. "Dad had a will with her included."