Small-Town Secrets

by Debra Webb

  “How can you say that?” Lorie demanded. “Look what she did to FeFe!”

  Patty’s face turned grim. “That was a long time ago. This isn’t about that.”

  “It is,” Ginger argued, “if she’s psycho.”

  “My question,” Spence cut in now that emotion had overridden logic, “is, why weren’t any of you questioned about the murder of Donna Hall?”

  Three startled gazes collided with his. Ginger was the one who spoke first, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Spence turned his palms up. “You,” he said to Patty, “believe Dana mutilated your cat.” He shifted to Ginger. “You said she was responsible for your missing dog.” His gaze settled on Lorie then. “You were head cheerleader, and you’re convinced she killed the two alternates for your squad. Seems to me,” he concluded, “that all three of you had motive for wanting to get even. Maybe you killed the wrong sister. Dana and Donna were identical twins after all. It was dark. You could have mistaken Donna for Dana.”

  Silence seemed to echo across the park. As if everyone gathered in the long, green space had paused to hear the women’s response.

  “Is that why you’re meeting this morning? To make sure you have your stories straight?”

  Ginger and Lorie started talking at once. Each adamantly denying his ridiculous theory. Patty just stared at him, her face pale with disbelief.

  “One of you,” Spence interrupted the chaos, “or maybe all of you, knows something. Don’t think this is going away. I won’t stop digging until I know exactly what happened. So, if you’re hiding anything, I would come clean soon. Trust me, if I can’t find the answers I’m looking for, I will take this to the FBI, the way Gerard should have done sixteen years ago.”

  Before either of the three could speak, Spence added, “You know where to find us.” He touched Dana’s elbow and gestured toward the car. “Let’s go.”

  Not one of the three said a word as Spence and Dana walked away.

  That was good. The exact reaction he’d wanted. Now they would seethe and worry. One would break.

  His money was on Patty.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Dana’s mind was still reeling with the clash of emotions in the park when the blue lights appeared in the rearview mirror.

  “That took longer than I’d expected,” Spence commented as he pulled his rented car to the side of the street. He turned to Dana. His dark gaze settled on hers. “Don’t worry about this. There’s only so much he can do. Just stay calm, and don’t let him get to you.”

  Dana nodded her understanding. She tried to slow her breathing, to calm her racing heart but that wasn’t happening with Chief Gerard striding toward the driver’s side of the car.

  Not once in her life had she gotten into trouble with those in authority. She’d been accused of trouble as a kid back in school, but it had never amounted to anything more than talk. Even after Donna’s murder, she had been treated as a victim…not as a criminal.

  That was no longer the case.

  For years Dana had suffered with the nightmares…with the questions and fears that she was responsible for her sister’s death. But for the first time in all those years she realized that, as Spence said, something was very, very wrong with the way the investigation of her sister’s murder had been conducted.

  Chief Gerard was hiding something or covering for someone.

  Maybe it was her.

  Maybe it wasn’t.

  Either way, she needed to know the truth.

  Spence powered his window down. “Good morning, Chief.”

  “Mr. Spencer.” Gerard pushed the brim of his hat up his forehead. “I’ll need you and Miss Hall to follow me down to the station house.”

  “Are we under arrest?” Spence asked bluntly.

  The chief scratched the forehead he’d bared. “I guess that depends on whether or not the three of my citizens you keep harassing wish to press charges.”

  Dana bit her lip to hold back a gasp. Surely he wouldn’t arrest them. This was insane. She’d been treated like a monster since she got here. Her family home had been vandalized and burned to the ground. She was still the victim and no one seemed to get it.

  Spence acquiesced with a nod. “We’ll be right behind you, Chief.”

  Gerard stalked back to his cruiser, climbed in and whipped back onto the street. He was not a happy camper. Dana wrung her hands. She’d taken two weeks’ vacation from work. Maybe she was going to need a lot longer.

  “He’ll growl, make a fuss,” Spence said, drawing her attention back to him. “But we haven’t crossed the line yet. We’ll be fine.”

  For the first time in a long time, Dana wasn’t afraid. She trusted Spence. He knew what he was doing. Most important, he was on her side.

  AT THE POLICE STATION, Dana held her head high as she and Spence followed the chief down the long corridor to his office.

  Chief Gerard paused before reaching his office. He turned back to Spence. “We’re going to need a statement from each of you.” Gerard reached for the door to his right. “Mr. Spencer, if you’ll have a seat in here.” The chief gestured toward the end of the corridor. “Miss Hall, you can follow me to my office.”

  What was this? That old, too familiar fear trickled into her veins.

  “Miss Hall is my client,” Spence challenged. “We’ll give our statements together.”

  “This is my town, sir, and we’ll do things my way here.”

  Dana stepped forward. “That’s fine.” She glanced at Spence. “I’ll be okay.”

  “Of course you will,” Gerard assured her. “This is just a formality.”

  Dana didn’t give Spence time to argue. She walked directly to the chief’s office. She wasn’t afraid of what he might say. She was way past that. This had gone on too long…way too long.

  She settled into the chair in front of his desk and waited. Crossing her ankles to prevent her foot from tapping, she arranged her hands in her lap.

  Stay calm. Remember, you’re after the truth.

  Whatever that might be.

  Dana sat up straighter when Chief Gerard entered his office. He closed the door. She jumped before she could catch herself. Thankfully he didn’t appear to notice. When he’d taken the seat behind his desk, he braced his elbows on the chair arms and steepled his fingers. Then he studied her at length.

  She didn’t look away. He represented the authority in this town. She was attempting to find the truth. He should be helping her not fighting her.

  “Miss Dana, we have ourselves quite a dilemma here.”

  He paused for her to respond.

  “I’m not sure I understand what you mean, Chief.” Whatever he wanted to know he would have to ask. She wasn’t giving anything voluntarily.

  “Your mother’s home burned. You and your friend, Mr. Spencer, have been going around upsetting the citizens of Brighton.” He moved his head side to side. “I truly don’t know what to do. I’ve issued verbal warnings and Mr. Spencer appears determined to ignore them.”

  “Talking to Lorie and the others this morning was my idea.” Dana clamped her mouth shut. She’d said it. Let him think what he would. Spence was helping her. She intended to help him.

  “I see.” Gerard tapped his lips with his fingertips. “So, you’re the one who’s responsible for all the trouble.”

  The way he said the words…the way he looked at her. Fear crawled up her spine.

  “Dana, I think it would be best if you went back to Chicago and put this behind you once and for all, just as I’ve told you already.”

  A blast of fury kicked aside the fear. “I’m not leaving until I know what happened.” Okay, two could play this game. Dana leaned forward, braced her forearms on the edge of his desk. “You know what happened, Chief. Why don’t you just tell me who you’re covering for? I can’t imagine why you’d conceal the identity of a killer, but somehow it feels exactly as if that’s what you’re doing.”

  Gerard pushed back from his desk and
stood. “One of my deputies will come take your statement.” He adjusted his utility belt. “The fire marshal wants to speak with you about the house.” He stepped around his desk. “Get comfortable, Miss Hall, this might take a while.”

  EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS later, Chief Gerard allowed them to leave.

  Dana felt ready to explode with frustration. She’d been questioned over and over about the fire…about every move she’d made since her arrival back in Brighton. Gerard hadn’t even allowed her to eat lunch with Spence. One of the deputies had brought a sack lunch to her in the chief’s office. That was where she’d stayed for the duration.

  “Tell me about yours,” Spence said as he started the car, “and I’ll tell you about mine.”

  Dana smiled her first smile since waking up in his arms this morning.

  She was getting entirely too comfortable with having him around.

  “He asked me the same questions over and over. Who have we spoken to? What did we talk about?” She closed her eyes and tried to calm the whirlwind of questions and answers still ravaging her thought process. “What happened in the house prior to the fire? Etcetera. Etcetera.”

  “Ah,” Spence said with an understanding nod, “I got that same script. Same questions asked fifty different ways.”

  All that and they didn’t know any more than they had before they got here. No, that wasn’t true. They knew there were secrets and lies…even in a small, refined town like Brighton.

  Dana had to admit she was glad to see the motel. She was exhausted. A shower and sleep would be amazing.

  “Get what you need from your room,” Spence told her. “I’ll order a pizza or something.”

  They’d decided she would be staying in his room, but she hadn’t taken the time to get the rest of her stuff from room twelve yet.

  Dana fished for the key in her purse. Spence waited for her to go into twelve before entering his room, eleven. She’d just closed the door when her gaze collided with a wild one staring directly at her.

  She told herself to scream, but no sound came from her throat.

  “Uh…sorry.” Samuel Henagar, the former school janitor, pointed to the bathroom door. “Your toilet was running. I just came in here to fix it.” He sidled around her to reach the door. “Wastes a lot of water running like that.”

  Dana remained frozen until he’d exited the room and she heard his footsteps echo all the way to the office.

  The pathetic squeak that issued from her throat then made her want to kick something. A serial rapist could have been in here and Spence would never have known unless the rapist had made noise.

  Dana had totally freaked.

  She scrubbed her hand over her face and reminded herself that a shower would make her feel like a new woman.

  She hoped so. She was getting pretty sick of the old one.

  The telephone on the table beside the bed rang insistently. Dana pressed her hand to her chest. She was sick of being startled. She was sick of everything about this place.

  She picked up the receiver. Prayed it wasn’t her mother. “Hello.”

  “Meet me alone, and I’ll tell you everything.”

  Female…Lorie. “Lorie?”

  “I want this over.”

  Dana would have to be out of her mind to meet this woman alone. They’d known each other as kids, but they were all grown up now. Not to mention she never cared for Lorie’s better-than-you attitude.

  “Sorry, I can’t meet you alone.” Anticipation whipped through Dana. She wanted to know what those women knew. But she couldn’t be stupid. “Mr. Spencer will have to be with me.”

  “Then I guess you’ll never know the truth.”

  The simple statement echoed through Dana’s soul.

  “Why do we have to meet alone?”

  Hesitation.

  What if she’d changed her mind? Dana might have had a chance to know and blown it.

  “I’ll tell you everything, for your own information. Not for anyone else’s. Alone. No negotiations.”

  “I’m not sure I can get out of here without him knowing,” Dana confessed. There was only one door and that was right next to his.

  “Climb out your bathroom window,” Lorie ordered. “I’ll pick you up in the back alley.”

  Two thoughts collided in Dana’s brain just then. First, Lorie had definitely been the one to break into Dana’s motel room. Second, this could be the biggest mistake of her life.

  But she had to know.

  If she learned the truth, it would be worth the risk.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dana stared at the window for a whole minute before she could touch the lever that would open it. If she didn’t hurry, Spence would be knocking on her door. She’d locked the door, but it wouldn’t take him long to get the key and be inside. Or to knock it down.

  She had to do this.

  She had to be strong. This once.

  Do it.

  She opened the window, took a breath and climbed through.

  It was a tight squeeze. She should have taken off her jacket.

  Her hands hit the ground first.

  Banging on the door to her room sent her heart cramming against her rib cage.

  Hurry!

  The rest of her body tumbled to the ground.

  She scrambled up and ran.

  Which way?

  She scanned the dark alley.

  Headlights came on to her right.

  Run!

  She didn’t pause to think. She just ran.

  She reached the front passenger door first.

  “Get in the back!”

  Ginger. She was in the front passenger seat.

  Dana almost tripped getting to the back door. She wrenched the door open and threw herself in.

  Tires spun and the car shot forward.

  Dana glanced around the car as they passed under a streetlight. Patty was driving. Lorie was in the backseat with her.

  They were all here.

  The three girls who’d made her life miserable the weeks and months before her sister and the others died.

  “Where are we going?” Dana hated that her voice sounded so small and weak. She wanted to be strong.

  Ginger looked back at her. “You’ll see.”

  SPENCE RAMMED his shoulder into the door. It didn’t budge. Damn it.

  Was she in the shower?

  He shouted her name again.

  Still no answer.

  “What’s going on here?”

  He turned to find the motel manager hovering a few feet away.

  “I need the key to this room.”

  Henagar reached for the ring of keys on his belt. “Won’t do you no good to get in there.” He rammed the key into the lock.

  “Why do you say that?” Spence demanded. Frustration with a hefty dose of fear had already ignited inside him.

  Henagar hitched his thumb behind him. “She went out the window into the alley. Got in a car with some other people and took off.”

  “Can you describe the car or the occupants?” Spence pushed the door open and went into the room.

  “Nope.” Henagar leaned on the doorjamb. “Too dark.”

  “You didn’t get the license plate or anything?” Damn. Damn. Damn.

  Henagar shook his head.

  Dana’s purse was on the bed. He checked it. Her cell phone was inside. No recent calls except for the three from her mother.

  “Did you see which way they went at the end of the alley?”

  Another indifferent shake of his head.

  Of course not.

  Spence walked to the bedside table and picked up the receiver. He entered the necessary numbers for the chief. Two rings and the other man’s weary voice came across the line. “Gerard, we’ve got a problem.” Spence wasn’t going to waste time explaining what Henagar had just told him. “I’m at the motel. Dana Hall is missing.”

  The chief assured Spence he would be right there. Spence dropped the receiver back into its cradle. He
turned back to Henagar. “And you didn’t see anything else?”

  “Didn’t have to see nothing,” Henagar said. “I know who it was.”

  Well, hell. “Who?” Spence demanded.

  “The same ones who always had it in for Dana. The cheerleaders. They always picked on her. That sister of hers let ’em. Added fuel to the fire, if you ask me.”

  “Do you mean Lorie Hamilton, Ginger Ellis and Patty Shepard?” He’d known those three were hiding something.

  Henagar nodded. “They always ran everything in school. If anyone gave ’em any trouble, they got their vengeance.”

  “What kind of vengeance?” Tension throbbed like a second heartbeat inside Spence. Memories of the little boy he’d helped rescue, only to have him returned to his mother, kept flickering one after the other inside his head. He wasn’t having any repeats of the past.

  Henagar shrugged. “They liked to embarrass the ones who didn’t worship them. You know, make them sorry they were alive.”

  Spence could just imagine Dana—invisible, misunderstood Dana—being tortured by those bitches.

  “Do you have any idea where they might take her?”

  “Could be most anywhere. They’re sneaky like that.”

  Spence walked back outside, set his hands on his hips and surveyed the deserted street. They could be anywhere.

  And Dana was vulnerable.

  She could break down completely…could end up dead.

  Or, she could lash out.

  Was that what happened sixteen years ago?

  No. Spence shook his head slowly, firmly. Dana Hall didn’t possess the necessary quality to kill anyone, not even in self-defense.

  The killer was here though.

  And it seemed a whole lot of people wanted to keep his or her identity a secret.

  PATTY DROVE deep into the only cemetery in town.

  Dana felt numb, but she wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t going to give them that much power. She had to be strong.

  The car jerked to a stop and the women piled out. Dana got out a little slower. Take it slow, concentrate. This was her chance to learn the truth.