by Debra Webb
“We thought we’d visit your sister,” Ginger said as she walked backward around the front of the car. “And her friends.”
Dana’s mouth was as dry as sand. Just words. Words can’t hurt you.
Lorie came up behind Dana and pushed her toward the small, lonely headstone that belonged to her sister. She blinked back the tears. Her chest was so tight her heart could hardly beat. When her daddy had killed himself, her mother couldn’t bear to come here and bury him next to Donna. Dana had been too numb to argue. She’d been a kid. Too much tragedy. Too much trauma.
She’d asked herself, though at the time, should she have killed herself? The pain would have stopped. But she’d never had the guts to do it.
She was a coward. She’d always been a coward.
“There.” Ginger pointed to Donna’s headstone. “See what you did.”
Dana looked at her sister’s eternal marker. Beloved daughter…cherished sister.
“That should’ve been you,” Lorie snarled. “You were the one who hurt everything you touched.”
Dana stared at the woman. As hard as she tried not to be injured by the words, they pierced straight through her heart. “I can’t remember any of it.” It was true. If she’d hurt someone’s pet, she could not recall the act. Just like that night…the night her sister was murdered.
“Donna told us,” Ginger shouted. “How can you keep pretending? Your own sister told us you killed Patty’s cat.” Her lips trembled. “She described in detail how you bragged to her about luring Pepper, my sweet puppy, into the woods behind your house.” She shuddered visibly. “How could you do that to a poor helpless animal?”
Dana shook her head. “I was afraid of dogs.” How could she have gone to Ginger’s house and stolen her dog, walked it all the way back to her house and then…?
She didn’t. That was the answer.
“Are you saying your sister lied?”
That wasn’t possible. “No, I’m saying you’re lying. Donna wouldn’t have done that.”
Ginger and Lorie laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” Lorie demanded.
Dana didn’t understand. None of this made sense.
“Your sister hated you,” Ginger said. “She told us all about how pathetic you were. She didn’t even like Sherry and Joanna. She only kept them around because they let her be the boss.”
This was insane. “I don’t believe you.” Dana started to shake inside. They couldn’t be right.
“Not long before she died, Donna said she was afraid of you.”
Lorie couldn’t be right. “She wouldn’t have said that.” Sharp, stabbing pains were hammering at Dana’s head. She resisted the urge to squeeze her eyes shut against the building agony.
“We felt really bad for her when she didn’t make the squad,” Ginger said as she sat down on Donna’s headstone. “But that’s the breaks. She just wasn’t good enough.”
“She was so pathetic,” Lorie chimed in. “We told her not to worry. If Sherry and Joanna died, she would be the only alternate.”
Sherry and Joanna had died.
“Did you think you could make your sister love you if you cleared the way for her to be on the squad?” Ginger demanded.
“What?” Dana backed away a step. “This is insane.”
“No,” Lorie corrected. She pointed at Dana. “You’re insane. Donna was worried that you were responsible. She was afraid to go to sleep at night in that room with you.”
No. It wasn’t that way at all. “You’re wrong.” The pain in her head had Dana rubbing at her temples. She shouldn’t have come. All they had given her was lies. This couldn’t be right.
“And then Patty conveniently fell down the stairs at school and broke her leg.” Lorie claimed the step Dana had retreated. “That made room for an alternate to step up and be on the squad. Donna was the only alternate left.”
Ginger stood, moved in next to Lorie. “The kids who saw it say you pushed her.”
Dana couldn’t hide her trembling now. She’d wanted to be strong. To stand up to whatever they threw her way. She was failing miserably. Her head was exploding.
“I didn’t…” Dana turned to Patty. “I didn’t push you. I didn’t do any of this.”
Patty just stared at her, looking almost as upset as Dana.
“The chief let you get away with killing three people,” Lorie accused. “Just because he was friends with your father and felt sorry for your family. You were just a kid. How could they send you to prison? Your parents were already devastated.”
“Death row is where they should have sent you,” Ginger blasted. “You should just stop feigning amnesia, Dana. We all know the truth. You aren’t the only one who wants this over. We’ve,” she said as she banged on her chest, “tried to get on with our lives. But then you had to come back.” She moved even closer to Dana. “Since you’re here, you can make this right by going to the chief and telling him the truth.”
This couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be.
Images of her holding that pillow…of pressing it down onto her sister’s face exploded in Dana’s brain.
Let me pretend to be you.
No, Donna, that’s silly. I don’t like it.
Frames of her childhood flashed like a movie reel before her eyes. Her and Donna running through the woods. Laughing. Playing games.
I’ll be you and you be me.
Donna loved to fool people with that game.
“We’re to blame, too,” Patty abruptly shouted.
Lorie and Ginger glared at her.
Dana turned to the woman who had been quiet until then.
Patty sucked in a ragged breath. “If we hadn’t joked and told Donna that she would be on the squad if…if Joanna and Sherry were out of the way…none of this would have happened.”
“How were we—just kids—” Lorie shouted back “—supposed to know she’d mention it to her psycho sister?” Lorie turned her furious gaze on Dana. “How could you do it? Sneak into their rooms while they were sleeping and suffocate them with their own pillows?”
The tidal wave of pain that washed through Dana’s skull made her jerk. She tried to shake it off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Donna said—” Ginger picked up where Lorie left off “—that she read the details in your diary. She said you sat on top of Sherry and Joanna, held their arms down with your knees. You bragged that they barely struggled since you’d caught them in deep sleep.”
“And when Donna was murdered,” Lorie added, “your journal was conveniently missing.”
The journal. Dana remembered the journal, but she didn’t remember any of this. Why would Donna tell such things?
“We should have left Donna alone,” Patty said, her face in her hands. “They’re all three dead because we went too far.”
“But now we’re making up for it,” Ginger suggested. “We’ll make sure their killer is brought to justice. That’ll make it right.”
“Nothing will ever make it right,” Patty shouted. “Don’t you understand? Those girls are dead because we kept playing those stupid head games. This is our fault, too.”
Dana closed her eyes. Tried to block the voices, the images.
This couldn’t be right.
She couldn’t have killed three people.
She couldn’t have done all those other things.
But if she wasn’t the one…that meant her sister was a liar…
And a killer.
Chapter Eighteen
Spence was waiting in the parking lot when the chief arrived. The man had scarcely gotten out of his car when Spence demanded, “Lorie Hamilton. Patty Shepard. Ginger Ellis.” Spence cut through the air with his hand. “They’re all involved in this. Dana’s with them.”
The startled expression that claimed the chief’s face signaled that he understood this could turn out very badly. “How do you know she’s with them?”
Why was this guy still pretending his citizens weren’t dangerous? “
Henagar saw them take Dana.”
Gerard’s gaze narrowed. “Did she go with them willingly?”
This was ridiculous! “Bottom line, Chief. Do you want another homicide to investigate?” The man blinked. “Because that’s what you’re going to get if we don’t find them before someone snaps.”
“You believe Dana is that close to the edge?”
Dana! It always came back to her. Couldn’t the man see what was right in front of his face? Calm down. Spence had to remind himself of his boundaries in this case. He needed Gerard to cooperate. “Any one of those women could be teetering on the edge. There’s something between them. Something about those murders. Right now, whatever that simmering issue is, it’s about to detonate.”
Gerard held up his hands. “All right. All right. We’ll get a search under way. Check their homes. The scene where Donna’s body was found. They can’t have gone far. We’ll find them.”
Spence rounded the hood of the chief’s car. “Let’s start with the Hall home.”
Gerard didn’t argue. He put in the necessary calls to his deputies en route. The chief was right about one thing: Dana was on the edge. She’d carried this burden a very long time. She could very well snap. But she was not the only one.
On the edge or not, Spence wasn’t ready to believe for a second that Dana was capable of murder.
But he couldn’t say that about the other three.
Seven women, three were dead. One of the survivors could very well be responsible for the deaths of the others. The only question was, which one?
The sound of the chief’s cell phone buzzing cut through the tension building inside the car. He dragged it from his belt. “Gerard.”
Spence clenched his jaw and waited out the call. The chief’s curt responses gave away nothing.
When Gerard had closed his phone, he glanced at Spence. “Patty’s car was found in a church parking lot.”
“Abandoned?”
Gerard nodded. “No indication of a struggle or…anything else.”
That was the way the search went. Ginger’s SUV was at home. Lorie’s minivan was in the elementary school parking lot. A precious hour had passed before Patty’s mother was interviewed and related that her daughter had borrowed her car that afternoon.
The women had planned their little outing.
Not a good thing.
By the time Gerard and Spence had made it to the Hall property, he was damn worried. They had to find Dana. Now.
When the chief had surveyed the property around the charred remains of the house, he turned to Spence. “I don’t think there’s any point in stumbling around in those woods. There’s no vehicle here. Wherever they are, they arrived in a car.”
Spence’s attention landed on the Bellomy house. A single light glimmered through a downstairs window. “We should check with the Bellomys. If anyone has been over here tonight, maybe they saw something.”
Gerard shook his head. “The Bellomys go to bed pretty early. I doubt they’re still up.”
Spence wasn’t about to let the chief’s seeming indifference deter him. “I guess I’ll find out.”
“You’re wasting our time, Mr. Spencer,” Gerard called after him.
Spence kept walking. No one in this town appeared to get it. At least one person knew the truth and that one person was with three others who wanted that truth. Problem was, when the truth came out, Spence had a bad feeling it wasn’t going to be what any of them expected.
He pounded on the front door twice before he heard stirring about inside.
“Mr. Spencer, I really don’t think we should bother the Bellomys.”
Spence ignored the chief who’d walked up behind him as he banged on the door a third time.
The night sounds amplified in the silence.
Spence was just about to bang on the door again when it opened. Mrs. Bellomy pushed her eyeglasses into place and peered out at the two men waiting on her porch. The robe she wore proclaimed the chief’s accuracy about her having been in bed.
“Louise, I’m sure sorry about this,” the chief began.
“Mrs. Bellomy,” Spence interrupted, “is Mr. Bellomy home?”
Louise Bellomy looked from one man to the other. “What’s going on? I…” Her gaze settled on Spence. “He’s not in the bed. Has something happened?”
Spence turned to Gerard. “Have your deputies look for Mr. Bellomy’s truck.”
Mrs. Bellomy stepped out onto the porch. “Is his truck not in the garage?”
“I’ll check, Louise.”
The chief strode down the steps and across the yard. He was wasting his time. The truck wouldn’t be there any more than Mr. Bellomy had been in the bed with his wife.
“Mrs. Bellomy, does your husband carry a cell phone?”
The lady shook her head. “I don’t understand. What’s happening?”
That was one question for which Spence would love the answer as well.
When the chief reappeared, he was on his phone giving his deputies the order to look for Bellomy’s truck.
Spence turned to stare across the street at the sad remains of the Hall family’s home.
Mr. Bellomy had lived right across the street sixteen years ago. He’d known Dana and Donna their whole lives. He’d likely seen things no one else had.
Did that make him friend or foe?
“GET THE BAG from the car,” Ginger ordered, her gaze fixed on Dana.
“What’re you doing, Ginger?” Patty asked, her attention divided between Dana and Ginger. She was nervous. Afraid.
Dana’s headache had receded. She felt numb again. With the return of the numbness, the fear had vanished once more. Whatever these women decided to do to her she probably deserved.
If all they said was true…
“Just get it!” Ginger yelled at her friend. “I want this over.”
Lorie ran to the car and scrounged around in the front seat. Patty backed away from where Ginger stood with Dana.
Dana was tired. Her knees felt ready to buckle. She did the only thing she felt able to do. She sat down on her sister’s grave and waited on her fate.
She regretted very much that she had allowed Spence to believe in her. He would be disappointed when he learned that he’d made a mistake standing up for her.
Lorie thrust the backpack at Ginger. “What do you want me to do?”
A good friend to the end. Dana watched the women. She’d never had a friend like that. Even her sister had avoided her at school.
Dana had been alone.
Just like now.
“I’m telling you,” Patty argued, “I’m not having any part in this. I’m calling Chief Gerard.” She fished in her pocket for her phone.
“No you’re not,” Lorie commanded. She stalked up to her friend. “You’re just as much a part of this as we are. You’ll do what you have to. Then, this will finally be over.”
“Or maybe,” Ginger tossed out, “she wants the FBI to get involved. Then everyone will find out what we did.”
Patty started to cry. “I can’t do this. I just can’t.”
Dana almost felt sorry for her. She just wanted to go back home to her little house and her life. She didn’t want to relive the past.
But what did Ginger mean “what they did”? Instinct tugged at Dana’s failing reserve of fortitude.
Lorie pulled a notepad and a pen from the bag and tossed both onto Dana’s lap. “Write your confession.”
The three words rung in the night air.
“That’s all you have to do,” Lorie urged, her own fear showing now. “Then we’ll call the chief and this will be over and we can all finally put it behind us.”
“If you don’t,” Ginger said as she grabbed the bag from Lorie and pulled out a handgun, “then we’ll…we’ll use that concrete vase—” she used the gun to gesture to a nearby headstone “—to bash in your skull. The same way you did your sister’s.” The gun shook in her hand.
Dana’s heart bumped against he
r sternum. She couldn’t have done this! Why did they keep saying those awful things? She could probably get up and run. Ginger wouldn’t shoot her. She was bluffing. She might be able to outrun Ginger and Lorie. Patty probably wouldn’t even try to catch her.
But Dana wasn’t going to. She wanted this over, too.
Her own sister had hated her enough to tell horrible lies on her.
A moment of clarity struck with life-shattering force.
Lies. That was what those stories had been. Dana hadn’t hurt anyone’s pets. She hadn’t done any of that stuff they said she did.
Donna had lied.
Only the person who killed Sherry and Joanna would have known all the ugly details.
Images flashed in Dana’s head. The pillow…Dana clasping it in her hands…holding it over her sister’s face. Die.
If Donna killed Joanna and Sherry that would mean…that Dana killed her sister. That was the only explanation.
More of those terrifying images flashed one after the other. First she tried to suffocate her with the pillow…then she picked up the rock…
But Dana hadn’t picked up a rock.
She’d been scared to death. Scrambling across the wet grass. Her nightgown had been plastered to her legs. She’d tried to get away.
“Put that gun down, Ginger.”
All three of the women standing over Dana whipped around at the sound of the deep male voice.
Dana blinked. Mr. Bellomy? What was he doing here? Had he come to make things all right? The way he had that night.
Dana jerked with the memory.
She’s alive! Everything’s gonna be all right, honey.
“She has to tell the truth,” Ginger argued. “Something has to be done!”
Mr. Bellomy glanced at Dana. “Just put the gun down, Ginger.” When she didn’t, he pleaded, “Put the gun down and I’ll tell you the truth.”
Dana tried to follow the conversation. Mr. Bellomy knew the truth?
Blue lights abruptly throbbed across the night, slicing the darkness.
“Oh, God, it’s the police,” Lorie murmured. She dropped the backpack.
Patty slumped to her knees and started sobbing.
The gun slipped from Ginger’s hand. Plopped on the soft grass.
