Forbidden Falls (Virgin River #9)(101)

“Sure. Everything okay?”

“I’m going to brief you on the hearing and some other details.”

When Ellie told Noah, he said, “It’s almost over, Ellie. This can only go one way for you.”

Ellie had quite a few questions for the man who was creeping into her bed night after night, questions she was not planning to ask. What should we do about us? was first on her list. When he said he loved her forever, that he loved her with his whole heart, that her children were his priority, too, was that a suggestion that they marry? There was no way she’d ask him. And waiting to see what Noah would do next was almost as hard as waiting for her children to be legally returned to her.

Noah was managing to keep up with everything despite the increased activity in the church. He had a couple of counseling sessions with Vanni and Paul while they waited for their adoption paperwork to be filed and found them to be coping better all the time. Ellie was still giving Vanni a hand a couple of mornings a week, for which Vanni was enormously grateful. He’d meet with Shelby and Luke and Father Demetrius from Arcata to discuss the particulars of their wedding service. Noah managed to get over to visit his friends in the woods. As well, he was kept busy with a couple of elderly women in town who appreciated being looked in on now and then.

Ellie sat in a chair facing Brie’s desk, listening to her lawyer’s briefing on the hearing that would take place.

“All set with a conservative outfit to wear to court?” Brie asked.

“Uh-huh. Vanni hooked me up.”

“I believe the judge will decide to make this whole thing go away before he comes under public criticism for the corners he cut with his last decision. An attorney ad litem has been assigned to the children, protecting their interests, and I don’t expect your ex-husband to make an appearance. Based on his ‘incident’ with locking the children in the house, I suspect he’s done with this particular mischief.”

“Really? You think?” Ellie asked hopefully.

“There have been a few developments, Ellie. I phoned Dr. Arnold Gunterson of the University of Maine. The poor man was understandably upset and confused by anyone’s desire to use his name and credentials, but when I explained the circumstances of the custody situation, the locking of the children in the house, it jogged his memory. It seems a former student from almost twenty years back had some real issues in that same area. He was a very troubled young man. As he was growing up, his parents disciplined him by locking him in the cellar or the closet. A cellar during a Maine winter, Dr. Gunterson explained, can be brutal.”

“Oh, God,” Ellie said. She scooted forward in her chair. “The basement,” she said, remembering. “Once, only a few days into our marriage, Arnie said something at dinnertime…He said that bad children were locked in the basement. I really freaked out at that comment. I pitched a fit. I unloaded on him, told him that if he ever tried anything like that on my children, I’d have him behind bars. And if he ever said anything like that again, we’d be gone. It was one of the only times he ever backed down without a fight. He said it was just talk—he’d never do anything like that. I’d almost forgotten…”

“The student Dr. Gunterson remembers is named Robert Beck,” Brie said. “Dr. Gunterson imagines he was studying psychology to see if he could get a handle on what damage had been done to him, growing up. He was obsessed with Dr. Gunterson, a kind of hero worship that ended just shy of stalking. Beck taught young children for a short time in Maine, but was terminated for treating the kids too harshly. He got in trouble for locking one child in the closet in his classroom. He spent some time in a psychiatric hospital, and that was the last Dr. Gunterson heard about him. A little further checking turned up some minor scrapes with the law. Our sheriff’s department will arrest him for fraud and identity theft, but whether there’s any extradition remains to be seen.

“I have no idea how long he’s been using a second identity as Arnold Gunterson,” Brie went on. “I don’t know if it’s been months or years. He was hard to trace because he got his driver’s license and vehicle registration in his legal name, rented his house and took his job using his false identity. Frankly, Dr. Gunterson would like to have sole use of his identity, but he’s not anxious to see Beck again.”

“After we got married I realized he was weird,” Ellie said. She swallowed. “Turns out he was once a frightened child. An abused, frightened child.” She shook her head sadly.

“Treating people the way he’d been treated. I can’t tell you how often that’s the case,” Brie said.

“Yes, Noah said as much. He said that mistreating my kids wouldn’t bring Arnie relief, it would make his life more miserable, but that probably wouldn’t matter. Oh, Brie, thank God my kids weren’t hurt any worse than they were!”

Brie was writing something down on a piece of paper. “I’m sure they’re getting along fine, now that they’re reassured you’re near and they’re safe. Just the same, make an appointment with this counselor. Get them evaluated. No point in borrowing trouble. And I’ll see you in court at nine o’clock Friday morning.”

Ellie stood. “Are you sure he won’t give me any more trouble about custody? Because no matter what a judge says, I can’t let my kids be alone with him. Not ever.”