Sweet Violet and a Time for Love by Leslie J. Sherrod

any of the victims,” I repeated, deciding, knowing that I would have to leave it at that. To give more information would open a door I wasn’t sure how to close. I shut my eyes, wanting to block out the questions I had, the answers I didn’t know how to get. I wanted the trial to be over; to hear Delmon pronounced guilty; to go on my trip with Leon; to finish getting ready for the baby.
    To talk to my son Roman about the announcement he’d made that had torn my heart apart, ruined our relationship.
    Too much happening in my head to be on the stand.
    â€œMs. St. James, are you still with us?”
    I searched my brain, tried to figure out what words to say. The morning of Ms. Marta’s death came back into my head.
    I remembered coming back home following the first victim’s death.

Chapter 11
    Seven Months Earlier
    â€œOh, you’re home.” I almost jumped when I saw Leon. I’d just left the crime scene at A New Beginning House. I still had on my church clothes from the service I’d never made it to, the one Leon thought I was leaving to go home and rest because of illness.
    â€œAnd you weren’t home,” was Leon’s reply.
    I shut the door behind me as I entered our condo, trying to figure out how to respond to the sight of my husband stretched out across the sofa.
    â€œThought you were sick, babe, coming home to rest.” He said it lovingly, not accusingly as his large legs swung together and he got up from the sofa. “I was too worried about you to sit through service, so I had one of the church van fleet drivers drop me off. Thought you would be here.”
    â€œI did too.” I dropped the clear plastic bag of Frankie Jean’s things next to a large potted plant we kept in the foyer and joined him on the sofa. “I don’t even know where to begin to explain.” It was the truth. Did I tell him about the crime scene I’d just encountered? Another wave of nausea rolled through my stomach.
    I was going to have to tell him about the positive pregnancy tests soon. No way around it.
    â€œI see you still have that patient’s bag.” He nodded at the bag that had landed on the floor with a loud plop. I’d put the black handbag that the young girl Amber had given me inside the bag with the housecoat and worn slippers. The fact that the bag was sitting next to our potted plant and not in the garbage somewhere told Leon everything he needed to know about my intentions.
    â€œOne thing I love about you is your heart, your passion.” He stroked his goatee slowly as he spoke. Back in his green pajama bottoms and a sleeveless white tee, it was obvious that he had planned to come home and rest alongside me. “I admire your desire to help and not to rest on a matter until you see it all the way through. At some point, though, you’re going to have to put that same determination into taking care of yourself.”
    â€œI am taking care of myself.”
    â€œNo, you are trying to save the world. Admirable, but impossible.”
    â€œWell, I did stop a terrorist.” I reminded him of the events of last year. “My determination then saved lives.”
    â€œYou have a point, but right now, I’m not talking about terrorists attacks. I’m talking about that bag you just dropped on the floor. I know you well enough to know you are about to get involved in a way that is unnecessary, and, for once, I’m asking you not to.”
    â€œWhy would you not want me to return someone’s property? Being homeless doesn’t make anyone less worthy of dignity.”
    â€œSienna, it’s not going to stop at returning the bag. This is only the beginning, and we both know it. You have a knack for getting too involved and then finding yourself in danger.”
    â€œLeon, I think you are overreacting. It’s a bag with a housecoat and slippers.” And a purse. I left that part out. “I’m just going