Chapter 38

Harmony

Harmony sat in the booth beside Nolan as the officer took statements from the customers. The other cop had already left with Alan in the backseat of their squad car.

Jolene flipped the sign to read closed and brought everyone sequestered inside the restaurant another round of coffee.

“Does it hurt real bad?” Harmony asked Nolan, wincing as she watched him wipe away the last drops of blood from his nose.

He sucked in air through his teeth and tried to smile, but his face was too swollen to complete the gesture. “Nah, I’ve been in way worse scrapes than this.”

Somehow Harmony doubted that, but she didn’t argue the point. This wonderful man had taken quite the beating on her behalf and now minimized his pain to help assuage her guilt.

The female police officer came to speak with them then, and Harmony scooted over to give her space to sit in the booth beside her.

“What a start to the morning,” she said with a fleeting grin, then cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes at Harmony. “Can you identify the man who caused the altercation here today?”

“Yes, he’s my ex-boyfriend, Alan White. He lives in Mobile, Alabama, but he came here today looking for me.”

They exchanged particulars about her history with Alan, what they’d been to each other, what had caused her to run away.

“Were you aware that this same Alan White was arrested in multiple states for prior incidents of domestic abuse and one previous case of assault?”

A sinking feeling swirled in Harmony’s gut, but she forced herself to keep her voice steady. “I had no idea, but it makes sense.”

So she hadn’t been the only one. How many other poor women had been scared and manipulated by Alan? Who were they, and how were they faring now? Had they managed to escape or…? No, she refused to think the worst.

The officer nodded. “Seems his record goes back clear to his eighteenth birthday. They’re sealed before that, but it’s possible he had some juvenile infarctions as well.”

Harmony head spun as she tried to make sense of it all. Yes, Alan had been cruel to her when they were younger, but he’d been so charming and kind when they’d found each other again as adults. He hadn’t grown kinder—just became better at hiding the darkness.

“How did he get by so long with hurting so many people?” she asked, needing to know, needing to understand how this could have gone on for so long.

The officer shook her head slightly, but kept her voice professional. “It seemed he’d stay focused on one victim for a couple years before moving on to the next. He’d get brought in, but no one ever pressed formal charges. A lot of folks are afraid to go through with it, but after he paid a visit to your house, we did some digging and saw a clear pattern of behavior there. Tell me this, how long were the two of you together?”