Vows of Silence

by Debra Webb

  But that would be a mistake.

  “All right.” He straightened away from the counter and started to button his shirt. “There’s something you should know, Lacy.”

  The way he said her name made her shiver. She steeled herself for the impact of looking at him directly. The blatant desire on his face shattered the last of her fortitude. How could she possibly walk away from this man again?

  He licked his lips as if remembering her taste and then, as if he’d flipped some sort of internal switch, his entire demeanor took on a professional air. All traces of intimacy were gone. She blinked, certain her eyes must be playing tricks on her.

  “We discovered more human remains day before yesterday.”

  At first his statement didn’t make sense, then, suddenly it did. “Another body?”

  He nodded. “At least what’s left of it.”

  A premonition of doom enveloped her. “Who?” The word was scarcely a whisper…a breath of sound.

  “Pamela Carter.”

  Lacy grabbed for the closest chair. The conversation she’d had with Pamela’s father filtered through her mind like a haunting melody. She just left for work one day and never came back.

  “We haven’t released that information to anyone except her father,” he warned. “I’d like to keep it quiet for another day or two.”

  Lacy gathered her wits. There were things she needed to know, if Rick would share any other information. “Do you know what happened to her?”

  “We believe she was shot with a small-caliber handgun.”

  Lacy couldn’t draw in a breath. She had to know the rest. “Have you estimated when this…happened?”

  He lifted his broad shoulders and let them drop. “Can’t be certain but judging by a receipt we found in what was left of her purse, about ten years ago. Probably the same day she failed to show up for work.”

  Pressure pushed against her from the inside out as if she might explode at any second. “Do you think her murder is related to Charles’s?”

  He nodded. “I’m positive of it. The ballistics on the slug we found with her remains was a match to one of the slugs discovered in the trunk of Charles’s Mercedes.”

  Lacy started to shake inside. She prayed she could prevent the tremors from becoming visible but she wasn’t sure. “I’d like to go now.”

  When he started for the kitchen door, the telephone rang.

  Lacy struggled to maintain her composure until he’d completed his call. She had to get to the girls. Had to tell them about Pam. This changed everything.

  The idea that Melinda had left the hospital the day Charles disappeared thumped her memory, but Lacy refused to believe that Melinda would have hurt either Charles or Pamela. No way.

  But someone had.

  Someone who had wanted them both dead.

  “Thanks, Kilgore.” Rick ended the call and settled his steady gaze back on her. “That was one of my men who’s been standing by at the lab to relay any information we learn about Pam’s remains. There’s a new development.”

  This could only be worse news.

  “There’s confirmed evidence to indicate Pam was about four months pregnant.”

  But her sister, Carmen, the oldest, claims Pamela was pregnant by Ashland. Guess we’ll never know.

  “Charles got her pregnant.” Lacy hadn’t realized she’d muttered the words aloud until Rick reacted.

  “Who told you that?”

  Lacy hesitated. Why lie? He knew she’d been to see Pam’s father. “Her father said Pam told her sister Carmen that she was pregnant by Charles.”

  Rick looked surprised by the news. Lacy couldn’t help wondering why Pam’s father wouldn’t have shared that bit of information with the chief. It could have been relevant to Pam’s case.

  Surely Pam’s own father hadn’t killed her…and then maybe Charles for getting her pregnant.

  Or maybe it was about the money.

  No, that didn’t make sense. If her father had taken the money Charles had withdrawn ten years ago he wouldn’t be living in poverty now.

  Would he?

  “I don’t want you to talk about this to anyone,” Rick reminded her. “The media has made a big enough circus out of this. Details like these will only hurt Melinda and the children.”

  Of course she wouldn’t tell anyone.

  Not even Kira or Melinda…or would that be another mistake that would come back to haunt her?

  “If I tell anyone,” she said honestly, “it will only be Kira and Melinda.”

  He pushed his fingers through his hair. “Are you sure you want to tell Melinda?”

  Lacy shook her head. “No, I don’t want to tell her. But it would be better coming from me than to let her learn it from some newspaper article when it gets out and you know it’ll get out.”

  He nodded vaguely. “Guess you’re right about that.”

  “I’d like to go please.” She had to get out of here. She couldn’t stand around chatting as if last night hadn’t happened. As if every part of her wasn’t begging to have a repeat performance.

  “Sure.” He grabbed his keys on the way out.

  When they’d settled into his truck, he unlocked the glovebox and pulled out a weapon in a leather case.

  Lacy hadn’t ever noticed him wearing a sidearm. It startled her now.

  “I don’t wear it often,” he explained as he hooked it onto his waist. “But today feels like a good time to take precautions.”

  She wasn’t the only one who was worried. She wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or not.

  Once they were in his truck and he’d shifted into Reverse to back out of his driveway, he said, “About last night.” His gaze connected with hers and she felt his heat clear across the cab. “Last night was special to me. No matter what happens, I want you to know that.”

  They didn’t talk any more after that. He drove her home and she got out. She wanted to pretend that life could somehow be normal again, just for a moment, because she had a terrible feeling that might be impossible.

  About two that afternoon Lacy felt ready to face the others so she drove over to Melinda’s. She’d had a long, hot shower to wash away the last of last night’s memories. And she’d gotten right with what she’d done. She had needs the same as anyone else.

  She pulled into Melinda’s driveway and got out of her Explorer. She wasn’t scheduled to relieve Kira until six. That was the new schedule. Six in the evening until six in the morning and vice versa. Kira had left the message on Lacy’s parents’ answering machine. She’d sounded calm. Like Lacy, she was apparently trying to make the best of things.

  Even if everything felt wrong just now if she let herself really dwell on it.

  Shaking off the troubling thoughts, she didn’t bother knocking at Melinda’s, just opened the door and stuck her head inside. “Hey! I’m here.”

  When no one answered she walked straight to the living room. That Kira and Melinda stood there glaring at each other took her aback. Clearly, she’d walked into a very intense conversation.

  Melinda was the first to recover. She pushed a smile into place and met Lacy in the middle of the room for a hug. “I’m glad you’re here.” She pulled back. “You okay today? You look rested.”

  “I’m good.” Lacy looked from Melinda to Kira, the undeniable instinct that something was very much amiss tugging at her. “Is everything all right here?”

  Melinda ushered her to the sofa, her movements almost mechanical. “I didn’t sleep very well last night, but otherwise I’m okay.”

  Kira wouldn’t look at Lacy. “What about you, Kira? Did you get any sleep?”

  Kira still didn’t make eye contact. “Are you going to tell her or am I?” she demanded of Melinda.

  Dread surged inside Lacy. Something had happened. Oh God. What now?

  “What’s going on, Melinda?”

  “Kira received one of those calls last night.”

  Fear abruptly replaced the mounting dread. “God,
what did he say?” Though they had no idea who the creep was it was just easier to say he. In one way Lacy was relieved that she wasn’t the only one getting the calls now.

  Kira faced her then, fury tightening the lines on her face. “That you were plotting to blame everything on us.”

  “That’s insane!” Lacy couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.

  “Is it?”

  “Wait, Kira,” Melinda urged. “You know Lacy would never do anything like that.”

  “Do we?” she demanded, unconvinced.

  “Kira, how can you believe someone like that? Don’t you see what they’re trying to do?” Lacy urged. “The point is to tear us apart.”

  “The point is murder,” she threw back at Lacy. “Cassidy is dead. According to our wacko caller, one of us is next.” She pointed to Melinda and then herself. “He said you were conspiring with Chief Summers to pin the whole thing on us. And, personally, I’m beginning to believe him. You’ve been acting weird since we arrived.”

  “Kira, please,” Melinda pleaded.

  “Where were you last night, Lace?”

  Lacy wanted to refuse to answer the question but she knew that any attempt to hide her actions last night would be futile. Kira already knew.

  “I was with Rick.”

  Melinda stared at the floor a moment then said, “Kira called your house around midnight to see if your folks had made it home and to touch base with you. No one answered.”

  “What did you tell him?” Kira demanded.

  Lacy turned to Kira. “I didn’t tell him anything, Kira. We had sex. Several times,” she added. “We didn’t do any talking.”

  “You really expect me to believe that?”

  “He was my first,” Lacy admitted out loud for the first time in her entire life. “The summer before my senior year.” She looked from Melinda to Kira. “I was the only one who was still a virgin and I wanted to change that. He and I had been flirting…sort of…forever, it felt like. So I chose him.”

  “I knew it,” Melinda murmured to herself, it seemed. “I knew he’d always had a thing for you, now I know why.”

  Lacy wondered why Melinda was behaving as if nothing bad had happened. Unreal somehow. Delayed shock? Cumulative stress?

  “That’s also why he’s been following you,” Kira added, her words bitter. “He thinks you’ll be the one to break. Do you really expect us to believe that you shared his bed last night and didn’t spill your guts?”

  Fury kindled deep in Lacy’s belly. “Did you tell Brad anything the other night when you were out with him? Does Brian know you’re cavorting with your old lover?”

  For one endless beat, Lacy was sure Kira would burst into tears, but she reined in the emotion. Lacy hated herself for stooping that low, but Kira had goaded her into it.

  “He would have been my first,” Kira said, her voice wobbly but her expression fierce. “But Charles, the son of a bitch, beat him to the draw.”

  Melinda swayed. “Why didn’t you tell me this?” Again her tone sounded strange, almost monotone.

  Kira turned to her, tears rolling down her smooth cheeks despite, or maybe because of, her anger. “I didn’t want you to ever know. You were so blindly in love with him. When he found out about Brad and me, he used it to make me do what he wanted. You know how it was then. My folks would have grounded me for life if they’d found out I was seeing a white boy. They would probably have sent me away to boarding school.”

  Kira was right about that. Ashland was just now beginning to overcome the legacy of racism.

  Melinda laid a consoling hand against Kira’s arm. “It was my fault. I was stupid for not seeing what he was.”

  Lacy moved up next to her and put an arm around her for support. “You were in love, Melinda. You couldn’t see past that.”

  “He did the same to Cassidy,” Kira said quietly. “He found out about her sexual persuasion and he used it to get favors from her, as well. Brad always thought it was Cassidy putting a wedge between us. He never knew the truth.”

  Dear God, Charles was an even worse monster than Lacy had believed.

  Melinda turned to Lacy. “What about you, Lacy? Did he hurt you like that?”

  Lacy shook her head, thankful to be able to do so. “He must have known I wouldn’t be able to keep the truth from you.”

  “Of course not,” Kira said bitterly. “The perfect Lacy would never do such a thing. What makes you any better than me or Cassidy?”

  Lacy’s emotions reeled, bruised all over again by the impact of her friend’s words. “Nothing. I just meant I assumed that was his reasoning, since he didn’t attempt anything like that with me.” At least not until ten years ago, but she wasn’t about to mention that morning. Not with the tension already thick enough to cut with a chainsaw.

  “Seems pretty convenient that Charles never hassled you, and now that his body is found, the chief of police is suddenly your secret lover.”

  She honestly thought that Lacy had tried to make them look bad in front of Rick.

  “I don’t know why you’re acting this way, Kira, but I haven’t done anything to deserve the third degree. This caller is probably the person who killed Cassidy, why would you listen to anything he said?”

  “The caller said you intended to blame all of this on Melinda and me. He was warning me. You have to admit it looks pretty bad for you, Lacy. Especially considering that Cassidy is dead now and she’s the one who knew the truth.”

  What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  “What’re you saying, Kira? What really happened? What did Cassidy know that the rest of us don’t?”

  Kira threw her hands up. “I’m finished here.” To Melinda she said, “I’ll see you at six in the morning.”

  “Kira, wait,” Lacy urged. She didn’t want her to leave like this.

  When she didn’t stop, Lacy followed her to the door. “Don’t walk away with things between us like this, Kira. You know this isn’t right.”

  She looked at Lacy one last time before she walked out the door. “I know one thing, Lace. You’re going to take us all down with you and I don’t think I can forgive you for that.”

  The door slammed behind her, but the words were still ringing in Lacy’s ears.

  Kira didn’t trust her. Somehow she believed Lacy was to blame for all of this. It was insane.

  “Come on, Lacy,” Melinda implored with something resembling real emotion. “Let’s put this behind us for a while. We can’t let any of it get to us. Cassidy would want us to stick together. We have to try.”

  At least she had that part right.

  Kira couldn’t recall ever being this angry. Well, except for the day she had found out what Charles had been doing to Melinda. The whole sick relationship had given her flashbacks about what he’d done to her.

  Her tires squealed as she spun out of Melinda’s driveway. She needed to cool off. She had to think. Why the hell would Lacy lie so blatantly? And if she was honest with herself, she would have to say that Lacy had looked totally shocked. Maybe Cassidy had been wrong about Lacy. Maybe their psycho caller was wrong.

  Kira wanted to believe Lacy. But it was hard knowing what she knew. Maybe she should just tell Lacy everything and see what she had to say for herself. But she’d promised Cassidy that she wouldn’t ever tell.

  What the hell was she supposed to do?

  Her cell phone rang and Kira cursed the damned thing. She was sick to death of Brian calling. If this was him she was going to tell him to go to hell…to never call her again. She should have known things would never work between them. He was just too damned possessive.

  She dug the phone out of her purse and checked the screen. Blocked Call. Fear fired in her blood. What if it was the one who’d called last night?

  Only one way to find out.

  Kira swallowed back her trepidation and punched the button to accept the call. “Hello.”

  “She denied everything, didn’t she?”

  The caller.r />
  Kira wet her lips and tried to think what she should say to this psycho.

  “That’s all right, you don’t have to answer. I know she did.”

  Kira looked around the neighborhood as she drove along the street. Who the hell was this freak? She’d demanded an answer to that question last night, but she hadn’t gotten anywhere.

  “What do you want?” She tried a different tactic today.

  “I have the proof you need to protect yourself, Kira. I wanted to give it to Cassidy but someone killed her first. Maybe I should give it to you.”

  Kira was uncertain about a lot of things, but protecting herself wasn’t one of them.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  Chapter 15

  Lacy couldn’t just sit around Melinda’s house and do nothing. She had to try to figure this thing out. There had to be a reason Kira felt the way she did.

  Melinda was no help. She kept insisting that she had no idea what Kira meant. But Lacy had a feeling she knew exactly what the other two had been insinuating all along.

  Every instinct warned Lacy that time was running out for all of them. She had to devise a way to prod reactions that she could ultimately control.

  The only option she felt at her disposal was to approach Bent Thompson. She hadn’t seen him since the day Rick had told him to stay away from her, but he had to be out there somewhere. Watching.

  The idea that he could have been the one to kill Cassidy made her shudder.

  Surely he wouldn’t have been so blatant about following her, especially considering Rick had caught him, if he’d intended to murder one or all of them. That would be pretty stupid.

  She couldn’t talk to Rick. He would only use anything she said or did against her.

  Lacy refused to consider how real last night had felt. Part of her had been convinced that he had deep feelings for her. But then he’d turned it off this morning just as suddenly as he’d switched it on. No matter what he’d said, his actions had spoken far louder.

  She was obviously a bigger fool than even she had known.