Convicted

Chapter 15

Connie hadn't known what to do with herself for the last few days. She was due to go for a conjugal visit to see Jacob today, but yesterday during their phone call, she'd asked if he wouldn't mind using the two hours to sit together and talk something over instead. She explained that she had to tell him in person and so he'd agreed, and now Connie was just thinking about how to phrase what she wanted to say to him. What on earth could she say that would even partially explain this?

As Connie went over everything in her head, she realised how difficult it was to try to prove that it wasn't Grace who did it. Everything, from the missing equipment being found in her room, to both Connie and Jacob being out of the house at the time of the murder and so leaving Grace alone too, to the fact that the stab wounds looked like they came from someone smaller than Sam. Everything seemed to add up and Connie hated that more than she hated being incriminated for the crime herself. Grace would probably have also been small enough to bypass the cameras too, and so that would potentially explain why no one was seen entering the building after Connie.

Rather than focusing on who may have done it, Connie had chosen to focus on who definitely didn't, and Jacob was certainly at the top of that list. She had visited every single shop on both sides of the street that night, and she'd found that he had been in to two, and there was footage of him window-shopping outside a few others. Finding out which two he had been in had made Connie cry, and she smiled as she thought back to the memory.

"Are you alright ma'am? Did ya find what you were looking for?" The manager asked, while passing Connie a white laced handkerchief. She wiped her eyes softly, smiling happily.

"Yes, I did, thank you. Would you mind if I made a note of the times so I could tell the police to come back to you? My boyfriend has been wrongly imprisoned, and this footage was taken two minutes before the alleged incident. It could help to prove his innocence."

"That young chap there?" He asked, leaning forwards and pointing at Jacob on the screen. Connie nodded happily, and the manager smiled.

"I spoke to him myself," he said, remembering the conversation. "You'll see it on the footage. He was a lovely chap - said he just came in for a browse, which isn't something many people do in this shop." The shop that Connie had found the evidence in was called 'Baby Steps' and sold a variety of posh-looking baby clothes, prams, and other accessories.
    "I asked him when his wife was expecting," the manager continued. "I guess I just assumed - usually we only get guys coming in on their own when their wives are pretty much ready to pop."

"What did he say?" Connie smiled.

"He said that he wasn't lucky enough to have made her his wife yet, which made me smile. I remember saying to myself that this man is a guy who loves his girl very much, and now I can see that that love goes both ways." Connie nodded, wiping her eyes again.
    "But what really made me smile about this chap was when he said that you weren't actually pregnant at all, but looking at shops like these made him think about how much he'd love to have a future with you." That made Connie properly begin to cry, and the manager put his arm around her apologising profusely.
    "If you don't mind me asking love, what do the cops think he did?"

"My ex-partner was murdered in his flat."

"The one that was torched?" Connie nodded. "No, that can't have possibly been him. He's such a nice chap."

"He is," Connie replied. "They originally thought it was me, and so Jacob made up some story about being drunk and not knowing where he was to get me out of trouble. He risked his life behind bars to save me, and there's nothing I can do to catch the person that really did it."