Chapter 5

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Ben knocked on her door and waited, then knocked again.

"What!" she demanded as she threw the door open, squinting up at him under the porch light. It had only been ten minutes there was no way she had fallen asleep that fast.

"Did I wake you?" he asked innocently.

"Just about," she said with false cheer, "what do you want?"

"Can I borrow your ladder?" he asked. Maybe she was out of it enough not to ask too many questions; then he wouldn't have to admit to locking himself out of his house.

Lia stared at him blankly as if his words hadn't registered or didn't make sense.

"I'll forgive the debt of the lamp if you let me borrow your ladder," he offered.

She blinked. "Fine!" she said briskly. "Wait here." Then she closed the door.

Ben stepped away from the door and waited, he was just about to knock again when she joined him dressed and wearing shoes.

"You could have told me where it was; I would have gotten it myself."

"There is a system," she insisted as she led the way to a door in the brick wall that surrounded the main house. When she opened the door, his jaw dropped as the amount of stuff that was pushed into the small space.

"Ida, she owns this place, has a system, and you'll wake the entire neighborhood if you don't know it." She moved a few things into the alley then disappeared only to reemerge with the ladder leading the way.

"It's only half past eight, I don't think the neighborhood is asleep yet," Ben pointed out, admiring the way her arms flexed as she held the ladder. He was relieved that she hadn't asked why he wanted it.

"What do you want it for?"

This time Ben looked at her, silently, blinking.

"Look, I've had a very hard day, I'm tired, and I want to go to sleep," he could hear the tears in her voice.

He sighed, a sucker for tears. "I locked myself out of the house, but I think the window above the porch is unlocked from earlier today."

"There, was that so hard?" she asked, shocking Ben because she hadn't teased him about it.

"But you'll probably fall through the roof on your way to the window." And there it was, the hidden barb.

"You just don't quit, do you?" he took the ladder from her and pushed it up against the roof. All concern he felt for her dissipating in an instant.

"I'm just saying if you took care of your things then broken lamps and failing roofs wouldn't happen." She shrugged offhandedly.

He stopped at the base of the ladder and looked at her with disbelief. "Your dog broke my lamp!"

"But he didn't break your roof; you did that all by yourself, didn't you?" She crossed her arms and waited.

Muttering under his breath, he turned and started to climb the ladder. He was halfway across the roof when a patrol car pulled into the alley with lights flashing.

He sighed and closed his eyes. The police had only stopped giving him grief.

Suddenly, there was a flashlight in his eyes. "You want to come down from the roof sir?" the police officer demanded.

Ben rolled his eyes and turned to look down at the officer. "Would you mind if I came down through the house, the roof is a little precarious, and I'm afraid it won't take my weight a second time."

Lia snorted behind the officer and Ben wanted to strangle her.

"This is your house?" he asked, swinging his light to onto Lia.

"Yes, I locked myself out, and my neighbor was lending me a ladder to get in through the open window." But his explanation was lost as the officer recognized Lia.

"Lia?"

"Hey Crowley," she greeted.

Of course, she would know the officer.

"What's your name?" Crowley asked, swinging the light back upon him.

"Benjamin Emerson," he responded.

There was a heavy silence before the officer spoke. "Nope, come on back the way you went," he insisted.

Lia placed her hand on Crowley's shoulder and looked up at him. "Please Crowley; it's really not safe, let him come down through the house."

"Fine, but be quick about it," the officer relented, then turned his attention back towards Lia.

Ben wasn't happy at the sight of Lia's hand on his shoulder, and he didn't want to think about the why of it.

*******

Lia watched Ben as he gracefully entered through the window and closed it behind him.

"Thanks, Crowley, I would hate for there to be an accident."

"Lia, you shouldn't talk to the man or help him," Crowley insisted. He was a tall skinny man with sharp features. He, like most of the officers, had come through the ER for various reasons over the years, so they had a passing acquaintance.

"Why not, he's nice enough, when he has a mind to be," she replied, realizing it was probably true.

"He killed his wife!"

Lia rolled her eyes as his dramatic statement. "No, he didn't."

"Yes, he did. I saw the report. It was pretty cut and dry. He pushed his wife down the stairs, and she and the unborn child were killed," Crowley whispered.

Lia paused, imagining the horror, but no matter how unbelievably rude and nasty Ben could be, there was no doubt in her mind about it. He could not kill anyone, especially a child, born or not. She didn't know how she knew it, but she did.

"No, he didn't," she repeated.

"Lia, he is a rich and famous man, but don't let that blind you," he begged.

She shook her head. "If he's so rich why doesn't he fix up this house?" she asked in disbelief, "And if he's so famous, how come I've never heard of him?"

"I couldn't say, but it's all true."

The door to the house opened, and Ben came out, leaving it open behind him as if he was afraid it would lock behind him.

"Good plan! Leaving the door open like that," she whispered when he joined them.

He ignored her and looked at the officer, arms crossed defensively, waiting.

"How did you get locked out of the house?" Crowley asked, realizing there was nowhere else to go with the questioning. Ben hadn't been doing anything wrong.

"My sister was the last one out the door, she doesn't know it locks behind you if you don't hit the button," Ben explained calmly.

"Your sister, where is she?" Crowley asked.

"At home probably, she left about twenty minutes ago." Ben waited. "Would you like her name and address so that you can verify the information?"

Lia was floored by the offer and by the fact that Crowley was considering it. Obviously Ben had been through it all before, enough times to know that he had to prove an alibi.

"I was here, I met his sister about half an hour ago before she left," Lia said, trying to help.

"Did you see her leave?" Crowley asked.

"No," Lia stated, confused by the question.

"Would you liked to check inside the house?" Ben offered.

"Enough guys, I'm tired," Lia said, her voice weary as she headed towards the ladder. Ben beat her there and lowered it down, walking it back to the storage area behind the wall.

"I heard about the accident," Crowley said changing topics, no longer interested in Ben, "they said there weren't any survivors?"

"No, there weren't," Lia said in a voice void of all emotion.

"The baby?" Crowley asked.

"No," Lia replied. She didn't want to say more because she would start crying.

Crowley looked over at Ben and nodded. It could have meant anything, but Lia was too tired to try to figure it out. She was relieved when he got in his car and drove away.

The darkness and silence that descended after Crowley's departure was bliss, and she closed her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Ben asked, walking up behind her. She wanted to lean into him, to turn and get a hug, and the feeling was so overwhelming that she forced herself to turn and walk away from him, back towards her apartment.

"Tell me about the baby; it might help."

Somehow when Ben asked, she didn't need much coaxing as the story spilled out in a rush. "He was so little, only eighteen months, his little body was broken, and his parents weren't there to hold him..." She turned to face him. "They should have been there for his last minutes on earth, but they were at a concert, he had been with his grandmother at the time of the accident. I should have held him, but I couldn't, no one could, his little body was too broken. I held his hand and stroked his head as his life slipped away. That was all I could do. Then I prepared the body for his parents and stood by as they kissed his head one last time." Her voice broke, and she started sobbing.

Ben walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her holding her close, and she turned into his chest and cried harder. It was a blessed release.

"Most times I can handle it, but tonight, it was just too much."

"If you can handle that most times, then you're braver than anyone I know," he whispered as he let her sob all over his shirt.

After a few minutes, Lia straightened and wiped her tears. "Thanks, will you be around to yell at tomorrow?" she asked, wondering why it mattered that he was. She had met him only that morning, but after only one day it felt as if she had always known him. Perhaps it was stress induced.

"Sure," he agreed. Watching Lia as if he wanted to ask a question.

"What?" she said with exasperation, a little of her old spirit returning.

"What did Crowley tell you?"

"That you killed your wife," she said. There was no reason not to say it; it wasn't as if he didn't know.

"And what was your response?" he asked as if the answer mattered.

"That you didn't," she said confused that he would think she had said anything else.

"Goodnight Lia," he said, turning abruptly and entering his house, leaving her confused and standing alone in the alley.

She didn't understand that he had left to save himself from grabbing her and pulling her back into his arms. It had never mattered what people thought about what had happened with his wife, but for some reason, it mattered what Lia thought.

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