“Everything will be gone soon,” he said heavily, echoing her thoughts. “Not just my memories now, but the house, and all that’s familiar to me.”
A tear slid down his face. Lauren put her arm around his shoulders, feeling the frailness of his body. She wished she could tell him it would be all right, but nothing would be the same for him again after this night. Maybe they could rebuild, but that would take time, and who knew how much time her father had left?
“We’d like to take your father to the hospital to check him out,” the paramedic told her.
She nodded. “Dad, you need to go with them.”
He shook his head. “I have to stay here. This is my home and Abby’s, too.” His voice cracked. “Her room will be destroyed, all of her things. I can’t stand it. I’m losing her again.”
His eyes were filled with so much grief, she could hardly look at him, but she couldn’t turn away. He needed her. “They were just things, Dad. Abby was more than what was in her room. She was a vibrant, beautiful girl, and her spirit is everywhere. It’s in all of us.”
“I won’t be able to remember her without the reminders. I need to see her things.”
“No, you don’t. She’s in your heart, not just in your head. I know, because she’s in mine, too.”
Her dad sighed and gave her a sad smile. Then he leaned over and kissed her cheek. “You’ll remember her when I can’t, Lauren. Promise me that.”
“I’ll never forget her. I couldn’t. Now, you should go to the hospital.” She helped him to his feet.
He paused, his hand on her shoulder. “You’re in my heart, too, Lauren. Don’t ever doubt that.”
She bit down on her bottom lip as the paramedic helped him into the ambulance. She didn’t like how weak he sounded, how resigned, almost as if he were giving up. She didn’t want to lose him yet; they were just getting to know each other again.
“Are you all right?” Shane asked.
She shook her head and turned into his arms, burying her face against his solid chest. He held her for long minutes, and amid the chaos of the fire and the trucks and the milling neighbors, she felt safe and protected.
She didn’t want to let him go. She didn’t ever want to let him go.
Lifting her head, she gazed into his eyes. “How did you know to come to the house?”
“I was lucky—and almost too late,” he said, anger in his eyes. “I never should have left you alone tonight. After what happened to Mark Devlin, I should have stayed by your side.”
His words struck her hard. She hadn’t had time to think about how the fire had started. She’d assumed it had been an accident, that her father had left something on the stove. But the flames had been everywhere. “Do you think this was deliberate?”
“It’s a possibility we can’t ignore. You did find Abby’s diary there,” he pointed out. “Do you know who killed her now?”
“I’m guessing Tim Sorensen,” Lauren replied. “But it wasn’t Abby who had the affair with him, it was Lisa.”
“Are you serious?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes, it’s all in her journal. Abby wanted to stop it. I think she went to the high school that night to confront Mr. Sorensen, to tell him that she was going to turn him in, and he killed her.”
“Tim Sorensen didn’t kill your sister,” Chief Silveira interrupted.
She turned her head, shocked to find him so close. She hadn’t seen him arrive. “How do you know that?”
“Because I’ve spent most of the day checking out his alibi. It’s airtight. He was out of town at a symposium that night. There were plenty of witnesses to verify his whereabouts.”
“Then why would his wife run Mark Devlin down?”
“She said she didn’t like Mr. Devlin’s insinuations.”
“You don’t hit someone with your car unless you’re afraid of something serious,” she said.
But maybe Erica wasn’t afraid that Devlin would implicate her husband—maybe she was afraid he would implicate her, Lauren mused.
If Abby had gone to Tim’s house, she could have told his wife about the affair. Maybe that’s how she’d tried to stop it.
“What about Erica? Did she have an alibi?” she asked.
“Mrs. Sorensen was allegedly at home with a small baby. We’ll continue to investigate,” Joe said. “Not only the accident, but also your sister’s murder, and now this fire. I’ll let you know what we come up with. In the meantime, do you have friends you can stay with?”
“She’s staying with me,” Shane said, tightening his arm around her.
“Good. Keep her safe.”
As the chief got into his car and drove away, Lauren realized she’d been so caught up in her dizzying thoughts that she hadn’t told him about Abby’s diary. It was just as well. She wanted to read through it one more time before she gave it up to the police.
“If Tim Sorensen didn’t kill Abby, then maybe his wife did,” she said to Shane. “She might have thought Devlin was getting too close to her. It’s hard to believe, though. Why would she kill Abby for telling her that her husband was having an affair with another student? Why wouldn’t she have gone after Lisa?”
“Maybe she snapped,” Shane suggested. “Maybe she saw Abby as the biggest threat, because she wanted to expose the affair.”
“But Lisa was the one having the affair,” she reiterated, her mind stuck on the things that weren’t adding up. “Lisa came by here the other day. She almost fell over when she realized that Abby’s room was exactly the same; she’d thought that my parents cleaned it out years ago. She asked me if I’d found the diary, so she knew it was still missing. She was worried that it would come to light.”
With each word that Lauren spoke, a certainty began to grow in her head. “Where’s your motorcycle?”
“Right over there,” Shane said. “Lauren, we should go to the police.”
“No, this is personal. Lisa grew up in my house. She was practically Abby’s sister. I want to see her face. I want to look into her eyes. I want her to tell me the truth. If you won’t take me, I’ll drive myself.”
“I’ll take you,” Shane said. “I have a few questions for Lisa, too.”
TWENTY-TWO
It was only a five-minute ride to Lisa’s house, and as they drove down the familiar streets Lauren remembered all the times Abby had walked or ridden her bike to see Lisa. They’d had so much fun together during childhood. Their friendship had been deep and loving.
Shane parked in front of Lisa’s house. There was a light on upstairs and Lisa’s car was in the driveway. Lauren ran up to the door, impatient to get the answers she’d wanted for so long. She rang the bell and pounded on the door, shouting Lisa’s name. She heard Shane calling the police from his cell phone. She didn’t care if they came, but she was going to talk to Lisa first.
“I smell gasoline,” she said, wrinkling her nose. She lowered her face. The door handle reeked of gas. “We have to get in there.”
“If she set fire to your house, we should wait for the cops.”
“If she didn’t set the fire, then maybe whoever did is after her, too. Tim Sorensen is still roaming free.”
Shane drew in a breath. “Good point. Give me some room.” He moved back a few steps, then tackled the door like the linebacker he’d once been. It groaned on the first hit, then snapped open on the second. They stumbled inside.
Lisa came flying out of the kitchen, her dark red hair tangled, her eyes wild, her face white, and her hands covered in dripping wet towels. She saw Lauren and froze in her tracks.
“What happened to your hands?” Lauren asked, but she already knew the truth. She’d been trying to convince herself that the only thing Lisa had done wrong was sleep with her volleyball coach, but that wasn’t the case. “You burned them, didn’t you?” she said. “You burned them when you set fire to my house.”
She moved toward Lisa, who immediately began backing away, but there was nowhere for her to run.
�
�My God!” Lauren cried. “You could have killed me. You could have killed my father! How could you do this to us? We were your family. Abby was like your sister.”
“Abby turned on me,” Lisa said bitterly. “She betrayed me. She was going to ruin everything.”
“You mean she was going to tell everyone that you were having sex with Coach Sorensen.”
“He loved me. He loved me like no one else loved me!” Lisa cried. “You didn’t know what it was like to grow up in this house. You didn’t have to watch my mother bring men in and out. You didn’t have to lock your bedroom door in case one of those men decided to take a side trip in the middle of the night. You and Abby had the perfect family.”
“Abby loved you,” Lauren said, still in shock, even though the truth was right in front of her. “She loved you, Lisa.”
Lisa shook her head. “You’re wrong. She hated me when she found out what I was doing. And you know why? Because Abby wanted him for herself. She didn’t like the attention he gave me. She was used to being the star.”
“That’s not true,” Lauren said. “You’re not going to turn this on Abby.”
“You don’t know what’s true.”
“I know she didn’t have sex with the coach.”
“No, because he was in love with me. Tim was the man Abby couldn’t have. He’s the one she wrote about in her diary.” Lisa stopped abruptly, her gaze narrowing. “You found it, didn’t you? That’s why you’re here. I knew it was in the house. I tried to look after she died, but you wouldn’t let me in. You and your parents, who supposedly cared about me, had no use for me after Abby died. I wasn’t part of the family anymore.” She spat out the last part of her sentence.
“So you decided to burn my house down, just in case the diary was there?”
“I figured everyone would think your father had done it.”
“But you didn’t count on burning your hands.” Lauren saw Lisa’s gaze slide toward the bedroom. Through the open door, she could see the suitcase on the bed. “You were going to run.”
“Who says I still won’t?” Lisa challenged.
“I do,” Shane said, stepping in front of her.
“Always the big hero,” Lisa said sarcastically. “Why would you help her? She didn’t stand up for you when they accused you of murdering Abby.”
“As I recall, you were more than happy to tell the police that I’d been hitting on Abby, even though it wasn’t true,” Shane said. “You wanted me to go to jail for her murder.”
“Better you than—” Lisa cut herself off.
The truth suddenly hit Lauren between the eyes. Tim Sorensen had an alibi. Erica Sorensen was supposedly home with her baby. But Lisa . . .
“You? You did it? You killed Abby?” She flew across the room and grabbed Lisa by the shoulders, ignoring her scream of pain as Lisa’s burned hands were pinned between them. “Say it! Admit it, damn you!” Furious tears blurred her vision. “How could you kill your best friend?”
“I had to—she was going to ruin everything! I tried to talk to her. I begged her to just leave it alone. We weren’t hurting anyone, it wasn’t her business. And Tim—he would have lost everything. He was so scared.”
“He knew that you did it?”
“He told me to find a way to stop her. He knew she’d caught us because of that damn camera she always had in her hand. She loved sneaking up on people and taking their picture. That’s how she found out about us.” She drew in a ragged breath. “Don’t you get it, Lauren? I loved him, and he loved me, and he was the only one who did,” she sobbed.
Filled with a violent rage, Lauren wanted to put her hands around Lisa’s throat and strangle her like Lisa had done to Abby. How terrified and angry her little sister must have been when Lisa had gone after her. How betrayed she must have felt.
She grabbed Lisa’s throat, saw her eyes widen in shock. “How does it feel?” she asked, squeezing her fingers around her neck. Lisa tried to struggle, but her hands were too burned to fight.
“Stop her,” Lisa begged Shane.
Shane moved toward her. “Lauren, let go,” he said firmly.
“Why do you care what happens to her? She wanted you to go to prison,” Lauren said.
“I don’t care about her—I care about you. The police are coming. They’ll arrest her. ”
Lauren didn’t want to let go. She wanted Lisa to suffer the way Abby had.
“Lauren, your dad needs you. He can’t lose another daughter,” Shane told her.
His words finally got through to her. She let go and Lisa slumped to the ground, crying hysterically that it wasn’t her fault.
Then Joe Silveira and two uniformed cops came in.
“Lisa killed Abby,” Lauren told him. “She did it to save herself and her lover, Tim Sorensen. Abby was going to reveal their affair.”
She looked back at Lisa, who was being hauled to her feet by one of the officers. “Do you know what Abby wrote in her diary, Lisa? She said she was worried about you—that she loved you, and that she didn’t want you to ruin your life. She didn’t want to hurt you; she wanted to save you. And you killed her.”
“I’m sorry,” Lisa whimpered. “I’m sorry.” The officers led her away.
“You found her diary?” Joe asked, a somber expression in his eyes.
“Tonight. I forgot to tell you earlier. Lisa guessed it was in the house; that’s why she set the fire. She was going to leave but she hurt herself, and that delayed her escape.” She looked around. “Where’s my purse?”
“It’s here,” Shane said, retrieving it from the floor where she’d dropped it.
She pulled out the diary and handed it to Joe. “I’d like to get it back when you’re done with it. It’s the only thing of Abby’s that I have left.”
“No problem. Are you all right?”
She let out a sigh. “No, but I will be. I just want to make sure that Lisa pays for what she did.”
“She will,” Joe promised.
“Let’s go, Lauren,” Shane said gently. “You’ve done all you can do. The rest is up to the police.”
* * *
Before going to the boat, Lauren went to the medical center to check on her father. He’d been admitted for observation and was dozing in his room. Oxygen tubes ran into his nose, but he seemed to be breathing normally. The nurse had told her that barring any unforeseen developments, he’d be released in the morning.
Lauren studied him quietly for several minutes and was about to leave when he opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, then his gaze settled on her face.
“Lauren,” he said, relief in his eyes. “I couldn’t remember what happened to you. I was afraid. No one knew where you were.”
“I’m here.” She smiled at him. “Are you doing okay?”
“I was dreaming about the old days in the house, when we were all together—you, me, your mother, David, and Abby. We had some good times.”
“We did,” she agreed, battling a surging wave of emotion. She didn’t know how much more she could take tonight.
“Your mother loved that house. I remember when we first moved in, we painted all the rooms together. She’d get more paint on her face and clothes than on the walls, but she didn’t care. She was so happy then.”
“Dad, let’s not do this now.”
“I want to tell you everything,” her father said.
His words echoed Shane’s from earlier that night. “We can do that later. You need to sleep.”
“I don’t know how much time I have left.”
“Don’t talk like that. You have more good days than bad.”
“That could change at any moment. I know you don’t want to talk about the past—”
“Yes, I do,” she said. “I want to hear all of your memories. I want to write them down and pass them on to my kids and David’s kids.” She saw happy tears gather in his eyes, and it was all she could do to hang on. “I know it’s important to you, and it’s important to me. Even if you forget us, we�
�re not going to forget you.” She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Get some rest, Dad. We’ll talk in the morning.”
Shane was waiting for her in the hallway. When they walked down the quiet corridor and out of the hospital, she stopped in the front courtyard and drew in a deep breath of fresh air. A million stars surrounded a brilliantly full moon that was dipping toward the horizon. Dawn was approaching.
“Let me take you to my boat or wherever you want to go,” Shane said.
“I just want to sit for a minute,” she said, walking over to a nearby bench.
Shane took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders.
“Now you’ll be cold,” she said with a smile.
“I’m a man. I can take it.”
“You never told me why you came back to my house tonight,” she reminded him.
“Haven’t you had enough talk for tonight? You must be a little overwhelmed right now.”
“That’s an understatement. But I don’t think I could sleep even if I tried.”
“Did you tell your father about Lisa?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. I still can’t believe she’s the one who killed Abby. I never in a million years would have thought it was her.”
“She was a mixed-up girl, desperate for love,” Shane said. “The most ironic thing of all is that the man who’s responsible for all of this is going to lose the least.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Tim Sorensen had sex with a fifteen-year-old student. But it was Lisa who killed Abby, because she wanted to protect him and their relationship. And it was his wife who ran down Mark Devlin, because she also wanted to protect him. Erica knew her husband was having an affair; she was just mistaken in thinking it was Abby and not Lisa.”
“So Lisa gets tried for murder and Erica for attempted murder—and what happens to Tim?”
“I’m sure he’ll lose his job.”
Lauren shook her head in disgust. “That doesn’t seem right. He should go to jail, too. He had sex with an underage minor.”
“Thirteen years ago. I wonder what the time limit is for statutory rape.”
“Lisa would probably say it was consensual just to save him. I can’t believe that Abby felt sorry for her. I wanted to kill her. I’ve never felt such rage before. Were you worried you were going to witness a murder?”
On Shadow Beach Page 26
