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20. Chapter
When Cole entered the little room in the prison the next day, Amy was already waiting for him, very exited. She chewed her lips nervously and looked at him searching. "Did she believe my story?"
Cole nodded. "Yes, of course. Now we'll talk for a while and then we'll have to take down your testimony. I'll apply to the judge for a new analysis of the pieces of evidence in a laboratory of my choice. And if everything goes off well, you'll be free again in a few days." He told her confidently.
"And this man?" Amy asked insecurely.
"Don't worry, he is dead. They've found his corpse nearby the plantation. It was just perfect. You really don't have to worry about him, they even don't know his name." Cole tried to calm her down.
Amy nodded. "Nevertheless it's strange. He has nothing to do with it."
"But we can't call the demon to account for the murder." Cole informed her, although Prue had thought that it would be a better solution. But apart from the fact that they didn't know where to find the demon, he couldn't help them in Amy's case. "The unknown man would have been glad to do such a good deed after his dead." Cole tried to convince his client.
Amy looked at him sceptically. "Well, if you say so." she finally said.
One hour later, Cole filed an application to the responsible judge to examine Amy's blouse and the murder weapon in a private laboratory. The application was granted and the pieces of evidence where already on their way to the laboratory, Prue and Cole had chosen. Cole told them, that he just wanted an analysis of the blood and of other DNA traces, because he hoped urgently that they'd find the hair of the dead man.
After he had dealt with this problem, Cole went to the police station. When he arrived in front of it, as luck would have it, Robert crossed his way. "Robert, I'm glad to meet you." Cole tried to stop him.
Robert turned around. "Oh, Cole, nice to see you." he said and frowned. "What are you doing here?"
"Amy has finally remembered the real offender." Cole explained. "She could even give me a description of the man and now I'd like to know, if I could find him somewhere in your archives."
Robert nodded. "No problem. Come with me."
Cole followed Robert into the building. They passed countless overcrowded desks, until they reached Robert's desk. Paul Hennen was sitting on the other side of it. He glowered at Cole and didn't say a word, while Robert searched for a chair for Cole. He pulled one over to his desk and Cole sat down.
"Okay, let me hear, what you know." Robert told him, after he threw himself onto his chair.
Cole gave him the note with the description and Robert started to read. "Mm." he said after a while. "The description sounds familiar to me." He looked at his colleague and held the note out to him. "Paul could you read it and tell me, what you think of it."
Paul took the note and started to read. Soon after he looked up again. "There was an unknown dead person, who was found out of the town not long ago." he remembered immediately.
Richard hit his hand against his forehead. "That's it. Why didn't I come up with it at once." He wondered and started to type on his keyboard. "There he is." He said after a while. "He was found nearby the street a few days ago. We couldn't find any identity papers, so he isn't identified yet."
"Did you examine him?" Cole wanted to know.
Robert nodded. "Of course, according to the medical results he died a natural death. That's what they call when the liver has given up the ghost."
"Robert." Paul looked at him shaking his head.
"What? That's no secret." He shrugged it off.
"Does that mean you have blood samples and other material of him?" Cole asked.
"Yes, it's everything there." Robert said. "Why?"
"The pieces of evidence will be examined a second time. They'll search for DNA-traces and if everything happened the way Amy told me, they could find some blood of your unknown dead person there." Cole explained confidently.
Robert nodded. "If they'll really find something, they can contact our laboratory to check if it's the material of the same person." He suggested.
"Okay, thanks." Cole said and stood up.
"Don't mention it." Robert stood up to lead him to the exit. "We'll really have to meet again." He told Cole on their way. "Judy and me enjoyed the evening in your house." Robert laughed. "Okay, perhaps we shouldn't repeat, what happened after we left you."
"What do you mean?" Cole asked curiously, because he still didn't know, what Judy and Robert had done, after they were free of inhibitions.
"Forget it!" Robert looked around. "Oh I'll tell you sometime else. I'm just happy, that nobody here found out about it, yet."
Robert said Goodbye and Cole left the building. He stopped in front of the door and looked into the space satisfied. It seemed as if everything went well, lost in thoughts he suddenly heard someone behind him. "Can I talk to your for a minute, Mr. Turner?"
Cole turned around and saw Paul Hennen. "Of course, what do you want?"
"Robert has told me, that you are interested in Prue." he said without wasting time.
Cole looked at Paul in surprise. He would never speak about such things with another man. "Sorry, but that's none of your business."
"I just want to get things straight. I don't want to get involved into something, what isn't worth it." Paul told him calmly.
"Well, then I'd say, you should talk with Prue about it." Cole suggested.
"Unfortunately women mostly can't decide and like to put off other people." Paul stated.
"Oh, Prue can decide herself, I'm sure." Cole replied shaking his head. "You don't have to worry about it."
"I've already been through a lot in my relationships." Paul explained dryly. "And therefore I don't want to let myself in for something, that is doomed to fail from the beginning."
"Well Mr. Hennen, unfortunately I can't help you." Cole said and preferred to go, before he'd say something wrong. Such a coward! It was a mystery to Cole, how someone could act so strangely. He shook his head disgusted and went to his car. But perhaps Paul Hennen was wiser than he was himself.
The next day, Cole already got the results from the laboratory. They had found blood and DNA traces of Amy, Adam Boucher and a third unknown person. Cole applied immediately to compare the samples of the unknown death man with the traces of the third person.
He put down the phone satisfied and looked into the garden, when suddenly the garden door was opened and Dianne appeared with her daughter on her arm. She walked through the garden to the house. Cole sighed, he wasn't interested to talk with her at the moment. Nevertheless he opened the door and asked her to come in.
"The weather is terrible today, isn't it?" Dianne asked and sat Sarah down beside Danny. Then she turned around and flopped down into sofa opposite to Cole. "Overcast and sultry, that always gives me a headache."
"Mm, you are living here all your life." Cole said pitiless, because the weather didn't disturb him at all. "You should finally get used with it."
"Yes, that's right." Dianne sighed. "But that's not the point why I am here." She looked at Cole forcefully. "I want to talk about Amy with you."
"What's wrong with her?" he asked on alert.
Dianne leaned back. "I don't know, all her statement." She stopped for a while. "She let it out so quickly, as if she has learnt it." She looked at Cole sympathetically. "I wouldn't be surprised, if she just thought the murderer up."
Cole looked back grimly. "Do you mean, she would be able to kill anyone?"
"No." Dianne appeased him. "I didn't want to say that. Actually I can't believe that she is able to do anything like that. And incidentally, does nobody think about the fact, how such a thin young woman, should have been able to stab a knife into a human's heart, that isn't so easy."
"Thanks Dianne, that will help me to defend Amy." Cole explained with a grin.
Dianne nodded. "You're welcome. But do you know, I had such a feeling, that Amy has very strong emotions, but she doesn't know how to deal with them." She groaned. "Who can say, what she would do, if someone hurt her. There was such a bitterness inside of her."
"She's in jail, very likely unjustly. Well there would be a strong bitterness inside of me, too." Cole said cynically.
Dianne shook her head. "That isn't the reason. I'd say Amy was longing for love all her life. And when she had finally found the love of her live, she probably has given him too much power over herself. I'm sure she was convinced, that all her luck depends only on this person." She looked at Cole. "There is just one problem: What would happen, if this person hurt her? Would she be able to hate him with the same intensity, as she has loved him before?"
"What makes you think that she was fallen in love?" Cole wanted to know angrily. "Did she tell you anything like that?"
"No, but I felt it." Dianne said shrugging her shoulders.
"Even if you are right, that has nothing to do with the murder." Cole explained her colder than necessary. Phoebe could have done everything she wanted, nevertheless he had never wanted to hurt her, he had never hated her. "Your theory is rubbish, Amy is a peaceful person, even I'm able to see it."
"Nevertheless she believes, that there is only one person for her, who can make her happy. But that's nonsense, because you can find your luck just in yourself." Dianne shrugged her shoulders to excuse and looked up. "Oh Prue, you are at home, too." she asked in surprise.
Cole turned around and saw Prue standing in the door frame. She entered the room and greeted her neighbour. "Hello Dianne! What are you doing here?"
Dianne turned to Cole again. "Well actually I passed by to ask you to take care of Sarah for a while."
Cole nodded. "No problem."
Dianne said Goodbye to her daughter and Prue took her to the door. When Dianne was gone, she turned around to sit down opposite to Cole. "She didn't talk about you." She explained gently.
Cole looked at her surprised. "What?"
Prue pointed with her head to the door. "Dianne, she didn't talk about you."
"Well I didn't suppose that." Cole told her firmly.
Prue shrugged her shoulders and decided to change the subject. "Okay, if you say so. Then tell me, what the laboratory told you today."
"Everything is alright, they've found DNA traces of a third person, blood and hair." He explained.
"Mm, then they've even found the hair." Prue said satisfied.
"Yes!" Cole leaned back and looked at Prue thoughtfully. "Did I already tell you, that I've met your Paul yesterday?"
"He isn't my Paul." Prue informed him calmly, but she was shocked, when she realized that Paul had slipped out of her mind completely. She didn't think about him and forgot to call him after their dinner, although he had left a few messages for her.
"Well whatever, in any case he wanted to know from me, if he could stand a chance with you." Cole told her, rather amused.
"What?" Prue looked shocked. "I can't believe that he has asked you about his chances."
Cole shrugged his shoulders. "Believe me, he did."
"And what did you say?" Prue wanted to know.
Cole grinned. "What do you want to hear?" He asked provocatively. But when Prue didn't answer, he added. "I've told him, that he has to ask you. Finally we don't live in the Middle Ages anymore, where men had to fight for a woman and the winner got her as a trophy."
"Oh really not? I thought you'd like that." Prue laughed in amusement. "So you won't fight a duel?"
"For you? No way!" Cole explained calmly. "It wouldn't be worth the effort. Because I'm sure, if I won, you'd chose the poor looser."
"Yes, that's quite possible." she told him smiling.
The next morning Cole got the message, that the samples the laboratory had found and the samples of the unknown dead person were the same. What a surprise! Right after Cole went to the court to apply the case to be dropped, because new pieces of evidence had turned up.
In the afternoon, the responsible judge finally took time to meet Cole and David Morgan. He invited them to his office to tell them, that he had taken a close look at the pieces of evidence again.
He looked through his glasses at the slips of paper at his desk. "The police found out, that the unknown dead man was Alan Miller. Mr. Miller was in jail several years for armed holdup. They had to let him go a few months ago." He looked up quickly, before he continued. "He was living in New Orleans on the street for a while and he was known as a very violent man. Obviously he made some enemies quickly, because he had to leave the town. His corpse was found nearby the site of crime and he died a natural death."
Cole grinned satisfied, he couldn't have chosen a better scapegoat.
The judge looked up and gave David Morgan an interested look. "Mr. Morgan do you still want to press for a process on the new evidences available and after you heard the defendant's testimony?"
David Morgan clenched his teeth. "No, Your Honour." He brought out. "Under the circumstances I find myself compelled to drop the charge."
"Fine." The judge nodded and turned to Cole. "You can tell your client the good news. She'll be released immediately." He signed a document and handed it over to Cole.
"Thank you, Your Honour." Cole said and couldn't resist to give David Morgan a triumphant smile.
Morgan gave Cole a dirty look. When they left the room together, he whispered to him in an ice-cold voice. "You'll have to pay deadly for that."
Cole looked at him with an inocent smile on his face. "I don't know, what you are talking about. I just helped to establish the truth."
"I know, that there is something fishy about it. So don't start celebrating too soon." He turned around with a last black look at Cole and stalked away.
Cole shrugged his shoulders. David Morgan could try to threaten him as much as he wanted, he was a nobody compared with Cole's former enemies. He turned around to go to the judge's office to take the last papers. Then he set off to the prison to get Amy out of it.
When Cole arrived at the remand prison, he had to handle the bureaucratic matters first, before Amy could leave her cell. She had to sign a few documents and could change her clothes, before she got back her personal things.
Meanwhile Cole left the room to wait for Amy in front of the entrance. But when he entered the entrance hall, he saw Amy's parents and Edward Wingrove already waiting for her, too. It was so nice of her both fathers to meet Amy here, Cole thought in amusement and went to them.
Donald Carey rushed towards him enthusiastically. "Mr. Turner, I'm so glad, that you could get our Amy out of prison." He thanked him warmly.
"Don't mention it, I've just done my job." Cole said and flashed a look of contempt at his boss. Edward Wingrove didn't look so happy and even Amy's mother looked a little bit tensed.
"Thank you so much!" she said in a low voice and looked at the door, where Amy appeared shortly after.
She didn't pay her family any attention, but rushed at Cole to embrace him. "Thanks!" she said softly. "Thanks, thanks, thanks. I'll never forget, what you've done for me."
"Don't mention it." Cole answered quickly and stepped back a little, because he felt everybody's eyes in his back. He looked at Amy and wondered suddenly, if it was such a good idea to go home with her parents. "Listen Amy." he said on the spur of the moment. "If you don't want to go home, you can live with me."
Amy looked at him in surprise and moved away from him a little.
Cole lifted his hand and grinned. "Don't get me wrong, I have a big house with a lot of rooms. My sister-in-law lives with me, too. I just want to offer it to you, in case you don't want to go home immediately."
"Oh, yes, excuse me." Amy grinned back.
But before she could answer, Donald Carey stepped in forcefully. "But my dear girl, don't you want to greet your parents first?" He asked his stepdaughter with a forced smile. "You mother nearly died of worries. And I didn't feel any better."
Amy turned around to her mother. "Hello Mom, I'm so sorry, I didn't want to cause you so much worry."
Shelly Carey embraced her daughter. "But Amy, you weren't responsible for that. And now everything is alright again. We'll go home and you'll forget everything."
Amy turned around to Cole quickly and said firmly. "Cole has offered me to move into his house." she said and when she saw Shelly's surprised look, she added. "He has a big house and I need a distance to everything." She looked at her mother begging. "You'll understand that, won't you?"
Donald Carey stepped beside his wife. "Well I really don't know, if that's such a good idea." he explained firmly. "It's very nice of Mr. Turner, but..."
Cole walked beside Amy and ignored Edward Wingrove's black look. Wongrove hadn't said a word yet and kept out of the way. "It's Amy's decision." Cole stated. "But if she needs some time and distance to get over it, you should respect it."
Shelly looked at her husband doubtfully, before she turned to Edward. He came closer and looked at Cole coldly.
Cole looked back unhesitating and asked innocently. "How did you know, that Amy would be released today?"
"Didn't you let Edward know about it?" Donald Carey wondered.
Cole shook his head and kept looking at Edward Wingrove. "No, there was no time."
Wingrove turned to Donald. "I've heard about it, when I was in court." He explained quickly. "I think we should disappear here as fast as possible, otherwise the press could find out about it. And nobody would like to meet them in front of the prison." He turned to Amy. "And you should go home for the moment." he explained determined.
Amy glowered at him. "That's just my decision."
"But darling, you should think about everything first." Shelly tried to smooth out the differences between them. "And even if you want to move to Mr. Turner for a few days, you'll need your clothes and other things."
Amy nodded "Yes, that's right, my clothes." she explained thoughtfully and looked at Cole. "Could you take me home?" she asked, but before Cole could answer, Donald Carey interfered.
"But Amy, I'm sure Mr. Turner is busy. If you really want it, I'll bring you to his house later."
Cole nodded. "Yes, go home for now, I'll call you later, okay?"
"Okay." Amy agreed and left the building together with her parents.
Edward Wingrove stayed for a while and looked after them. Cole looked at him. "Don't you want to congratulate me on my victory?" He asked and smiled sarcastically.
Wingrove turned to him. "I'm glad that Amy is free again. But this isn't the right place to talk about it." He decided and looked around. "Come to my office tomorrow morning."
"On Saturday?" Cole asked in amusement.
Wingrove looked at him confused. "No, no. Monday morning suits me fine."
"Okay, I'll see you." Cole told him and left the building, without looking at Wingrove again.
When Cole arrived at home, it was already late and Prue's car was standing in front of the house. He got off the car and thought about his offer for Amy. Prue wouldn't be against it, finally she loved to help innocent people, he tried to persuade himself. And he was sure, that they'd find another room for Amy somewhere. He opened the door firmly and crossed the hall.
When Cole entered the room Prue looked up immediately. "Hey, where have you been? Is Amy released?" She asked curiously.
Cole nodded. "Yes, they let her go just minutes ago." He told her and sat down on the sofa. "And have a guess, who was there right away. Her parents and in their way Edward Wingrove."
Prue shook her head thoughtfully. "I'd like to know, what this is all about."
"Me too. And I think, it wouldn't be a good idea, if Amy went back to her parents." Cole explained and looked at Prue firmly. "Therefore I've asked her to move in here, for the moment."
"Not bad, that's a good idea." Prue said.
Cole looked at her in surprise. "Really?"
"Yes, why not? Did you think that I'd be against it?" she asked surprised.
Cole shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, honestly I didn't think about it. But do we have another room left?"
Prue nodded. "Of course, there is a room left next to my bedroom. We'll just have to take away a few things." She explained and stood up.
Cole looked at her quite surprised. "Oh!"
"What oh?"
"Just oh. I remember very well, that you could just spare a cubbyhole for me." He explained ironically and stood up, too.
"Yes, for you." Prue told him and went to the stairs. "Or did you really think, I want to have you next to my bedroom?"
"Why not? It would be closer for us." Cole followed her upstairs.
Prue ignored his argument and opened the door. They entered a small room, where Mrs. Jennings hanged up the washing. An ironing board with an iron was standing in the middle and an empty clothes horse in the edge of the room. There were a sofa and a cupboard in the room, too.
Prue walked to the sofa. "You can pull it out, then Amy can use it as a bed." She said and turned around to Cole. "Take the things out of the room. We'll put them in the corridor and Mrs. Jennings will have to find another place for them on Monday."
Just in this minute Cole's phone was ringing, he took it out with an excusing smile. Then he sat down on the sofa and answered the call. Prue sighed while she had to push the ironing board together by herself to carry it out on the flour.
Cole answered the call and heard Amy's voice. She called to tell him, that she would come the next morning, if his offer to move into his house was still valid.
"Of course it is. Prue already prepares a room for you." He told Amy and flashed an amused look at Prue, who was just entering the room again. "And you can feel honoured, because it isn't a cubbyhole."
Prue took the clothes horse and gave Cole a dirty look. When Amy had said Goodbye, Donald Carey was on the phone to ask Cole for the exact address. After Cole told him his address, he hung up and waited, until Prue entered the room again. "She'll come tomorrow morning. Her father will take her there."
"Okay." Prue explained firmly and sat down on the sofa beside him. "Do you think we have to talk about it?" She asked abruptly.
"About what?" Cole asked in surprise.
"About us." Prue said and cast a quick look at him.
"Oh, ... no." Cole replied quickly. "What made you think of that? I wouldn't say that there is anything to talk about."
"Okay!" Prue said in relief and stood up again. "Then we should get ready with Amy's room."
Cole looked at her still thoughtfully. "Do you really think, there is something, we should talk about?" He asked again, because like Prue he had avoided to think about their relationship, yet. He had just guessed, that one day, they would have enough of it and the matter would disappear into thin air without hurting one of them.
Prue shrugged her shoulders. "How should I know." she said in a low voice. She didn't understand herself. She didn't know, why she got into this awkward situation, finally she definitely didn't want a relationship with Cole. It was beyond her, why she couldn't end it finally. It was just crazy, because she really didn't want the discarded ex-demon of her little sister. But when she looked at him, she knew that it was just the same. So it was better not to think about it, she decided. And if Amy was here, she would come to her senses again, hopefully!