Of Guilt and Innocence by John Scanlan

developed eleven years ago. He started out small, purchasing computers in bulk by traveling to estate sales or auctions. Occasionally, in the early goings, Lisa would travel with him and they would make mini-vacations out of the trips, but she had stopped going when Ashley was born. In those early days his business was run from home and the computers he purchased he would repair if needed and resell online. Eventually Tom was able to move his business in to a strip mall in the heart of Boca Raton and he began repairing personal computers as well. He gave customers the option of dropping their computer at his shop or he could come to their homes and fix them there. Even now that he had two full-time employees under him he was still the one to make the house calls to repair computers for customers.  
    He had always been perceived to be a very nice man, charming, too. He was thought by most to be very handsome and clean cut; an image he enjoyed and worked to maintain.  
    Tom and Lisa had been together since their freshmen year at Florida Atlantic University. They married shortly after graduation but did not have Ashley until some time after that. After college, Lisa took a job at a local dentist’s office as a hygienist; a position she still occupied thirteen years later. She made good money working there and enjoyed her job. It was not as much as Tom brought in, but it was enough to contribute to the Wootens’ lifestyle of living comfortably in a beautiful home and a nice community.
    Like Tom, Lisa had also aged gracefully throughout the years. Her blonde hair was always done as if she had just walked out of a salon. Her deep blue eyes still sparkled and her smile, which she flashed quite a bit, lit up her face.     
    And then there was Ashley. Ashley was an only child by choice. They had discussed having another child, possibly more than just one other. But, ultimately they decided one was all they needed to make their family complete.
    To those who knew them, the Wootens were the picture of the All-American Family. But now it seemed that picture had been torn to shreds. The portrait of who they were just a short time ago—successful, picturesque, happy, complete—was now gone. They just hoped, as they continued searching down street after street, it wasn’t too late to get it back.

 
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    CHAPTER 5
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    Louis was halfway home from his trip to Boca Raton, meandering down back road after back road, going exactly the speed limit. Louis had learned a lot of things while in prison, the utmost prevailing lesson being to limit his interactions with the police. He knew people were after him now: people he had never met or would meet.  People he had never wronged or would wrong. He was sure they would look for ways to hurt him, rather than help him, because of what he stood for, because of the title he carried due to his conviction. Sexual Offender. And so he did everything cautiously—including driving.
    Prison life was very difficult on Louis. Aside from being an introvert all his life, Louis was branded a pedophile and thus had a target on his back from day one. He was beaten regularly; each time he offered no resistance, just tried to cover his face. He was preyed upon time and time again, just as he had preyed upon his victim. No one had sympathy for him, no one intervened. The only people he could talk to or associate with were other inmates who had been incarcerated for the very same sort of crimes. Never having friends, or even desiring them in his entire life, even that was difficult at first.
    When he first went to prison, Louis wasn’t sure which way his life would go. He was at a crossroads of sorts. He thought he would eventually get out, although being murdered while serving his time was a real possibility, and at times he thought for sure it was imminent. But still, he wondered what type of life he would have if he did make it through his incarceration. He