Young Ladies of Mystery Boxed Set

by Stacy Juba

  As if in a trance, Eric stumbled over to the chair, loosened the ropes and tossed them aside. Kris stroked the burns on her sore arms. Was it possible his shock was genuine and he'd loved her all along?

  More likely, he was a smooth operator like his father. She couldn't think about this right now. Kris wobbled to her feet and sank back down as dots electrified in front of her.

  "He whacked me over the head," she heard herself say.

  "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Eric circled Kris, examining her. "I'll drive you to the hospital so you can get checked out."

  He helped her stand and supported her by the waist. She'd play along with him, act like she bought his innocence.

  "What did he tell you?" Kris asked.

  "That you accused him of killing Diana. He wouldn't say whether it was true. It ... it can't be true, Kris. He's panicking, right?"

  She rubbed the bump on her head, sticky blood gumming her fingertips. "Yeah, because he has something to hide."

  "I don't understand. My dad's never hurt anyone. There's got to be an explanation. There has to be."

  "I’m calling the police." Kris stumbled into the living room. She stopped short. Michael crouched on the last step of the spiral staircase, head buried in his hands.

  "He's been like this since I got here. Dad. Tell me what's going on." Eric strode over to his father.

  Michael clapped his palms on his knees. He looked at Kris, the color gone from his face. He spoke in a monotone. "I never wanted to hurt you. I tried warning you off with phone calls, but you wouldn't listen. Then when you came here today and dredged all this up, I lost it. I didn't know what I was doing. I found you on the floor and was afraid I’d killed you. I'm sorry for hurting you."

  Kris didn't answer. Her bump ached and periodic stabs of pain shot through her head. Eric was right about one thing. She'd better visit the emergency room in case she had a concussion. Holly would probably treat her wounds. Kris restrained a hysterical laugh.

  "Please believe that my son wasn't involved," Michael said. "This was my secret. My mistake."

  "Did you murder Diana?" Eric asked.

  His father turned to the front door, his eyes startled. "We have to-"

  "Tell me. Did you murder Diana?"

  "Yes," Michael whispered. "Yes, I killed her."

  "Michael, no."

  Cheryl and Irene were frozen in the entranceway, dangling their shopping bags by the handles. Kris blinked. She hadn't heard a car engine. Then again, she'd been distracted.

  "No," Cheryl repeated, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

  "You heard me," Michael said. "I killed her."

  "No." Cheryl dropped her bags and faltered toward them. "Michael didn't kill Diana. I did."

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  25 Years Ago Today

  The Rev. Brian J. Roy is ordained at Sacred Heart Church in Fremont by Bishop Sherman Harrington.

  Kris stood transfixed in the middle of the room. How could Cheryl be the murderer? It didn't make sense. Not Diana's own sister.

  Cheryl fell to her knees at the door.

  "Honey, don't do this," Michael said.

  Irene knelt beside her daughter. "You couldn't have killed your sister. It's not possible."

  "She came to see me that night," Cheryl said in a hazy voice. "Michael was at work and Eric was asleep. I was restless, so I was in the basement unpacking boxes. Then Diana knocked on the door. I asked her to help me and we went downstairs. But she'd come to tell me something bad."

  "Honey, don't," Michael pleaded.

  "She told me terrible things. Diana said that a year before, she'd had an affair with my husband."

  An affair. After Alex Thaddeus and before Vince or Jared. Raquel was right, Diana did have a secret relationship. One of betrayal.

  Cheryl raised her head. "All those times she was babysitting at our old apartment, Michael was coming home at lunchtime and they were ..." Her eyes welled.

  "What hurt the most was that I'd suspected Michael was having an affair. I had confided in Diana, never guessing the other woman was her. She lied to my face and told me I was paranoid. I confronted Michael shortly after that, and he said he was distant because of work stress. I accepted it. When Diana confessed, I felt like the world's biggest fool. She apologized, saying she had known it was a mistake, but that she'd been lonely and he filled a vacuum in her life. She said she'd ended it after we talked as she couldn't take the guilt."

  Michael hunched forward on the bottom stair, gripping the brass railing. Irene's elbows drooped. Cheryl held them up, speaking faster.

  "I felt myself getting angrier, like this red hot fire was racing through my mind. Diana told me Michael had been harassing her for months, long after she'd broken it off. She said he'd flirt with her at family dinners, and come home while she was babysitting. At the drugstore she found notes in her car, or he'd be out there, urging her to start up with him again. She and Michael worked in the same plaza, so she took the bar job to get away."

  Eric's mouth hung wide open. Kris wanted to run out the door, away from this emotional chaos, but she was paralyzed and fascinated at the same time.

  "I couldn't believe what she was saying." Cheryl choked out another sob. "She insisted that my husband was obsessed with her. I knew Michael had been crazy about Diana, but I thought he treated her like a kid sister. Michael and I fought a lot back then, Mom, mostly about money. I never told you about the arguments, or my fear that he was cheating on me, because I didn't want to worry you.

  "He resented that he had to give up his band when I got pregnant with Eric. We weren't planning a baby so early, but I wanted one so I skipped several birth control pills. When I got pregnant again, the stress got to him and he started bothering Diana more. It was Michael who was calling Diana at the bar, not Jared. She lied because she was trapped. Caught in her own deception. She felt so guilty about the affair, Michael was sure she'd keep quiet."

  Irene glared at her son-in-law with sudden fury. "Why? Why did you hurt my girls?"

  Michael slid his watch back and forth. He studied the carpet, as if its concentric pattern held answers. "Diana still hadn't gotten over Alex Thaddeus. She confided in me, and that brought us closer. I loved Cheryl, too, I loved them both."

  Kris elevated an eyebrow. Yeah, right. Michael probably had plenty of affairs over the years.

  "What did you do to my baby?" Irene asked through clenched teeth.

  "It was me, Mom, I told you." Cheryl peered up at her. "When Diana said all this, something came over me. Michael had a couple of 2 x 4s in the basement, to build a shed when the weather got nicer. You know the shed in the backyard? I grabbed a piece of wood and beat her over the head. I think she struggled, but she was weakened from the blows. I don't remember it clearly. Once I realized what I was doing, it was too late. Diana was unconscious, and there was blood all over the place ..." She sobbed again, shoulders rising between her hiccupping breaths. "I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry. I loved her, I really did."

  Irene vigorously shook her head. "That's not possible. You couldn't have killed your own sister. You couldn't have lied all these years."

  "I didn't know what to do. I thought about calling an ambulance, but she was already dead. Michael came home and found me crying over her body. He said we shouldn't go to the police. I was in a daze, Mom." Cheryl touched her mother, who blanched. "We didn't have neighbors, so he said no one would see us carry Diana out. I couldn't bear looking at her. I wanted to cover her in a blanket, but Michael said that could be traced. So I used a garbage bag. I didn't want her to ... to be cold in case it snowed. I wasn't thinking rationally.

  "We waited till 1 a.m., when there would be less people out." Cheryl swallowed. "Michael put her in our car, and I drove Diana's Chevy. I wore gloves so I wouldn't leave fingerprints. We dropped off the car at that old restaurant. We didn't know what else to do with it. Then we brought Diana to the woods near the college. She had told me how awful she felt about pinning the phone call
s on Jared, so we figured he'd be the best suspect. We didn't know that he was the last person to see her alive. Besides me.

  "When you called looking for her, Mom, I almost told you right then. Lying to you broke my heart. Then all those hours until she was found ... I kept waiting for the police to figure it out. When they questioned Michael and me, I was sure we didn't sound convincing, but they didn't catch on. I half-hoped they'd accuse us, so I wouldn't have to decide about turning myself in. I might have spilled everything, but Michael was an accessory. I was afraid of what would happen to Eric and the baby if we went to prison. But the guilt ate away at me and I lost weight. Then I had the miscarriage."

  She whirled toward her son, beseeching him. Eric had paled whiter than his grandmother.

  "You were all I had left, and you were so dependent on me," she said. "I pretended that it had happened another way, that Jared killed Diana. I tried to block it out. After awhile, no one mentioned Diana except Mom, and it got easier to pretend. But I've thought about her every day of my life. Please don't hate me, either of you."

  Irene pushed Cheryl off her and staggered. "I won't believe this. I won't. Dizzy. I feel dizzy."

  Eric caught his grandmother before she fell. Kris moved out of the way as he lowered Irene onto the couch.

  "Couldn't have happened like that," Irene mumbled, burying herself in a blanket. "Won't believe it."

  "I'll get her a drink." Kris escaped to the kitchen, poured a glass of orange juice and leaned against the refrigerator.

  Cheryl had killed Diana. For twenty-five years, she and Michael had lived a lie. He couldn't love his wife, not if he had cheated on her. How could Cheryl love him after his obsession with her sister? Kris pressed at her deepening headache. How could they have stayed together? Sentenced to a lifetime of silence. Partners.

  Cheryl didn't mean to kill her sister. She'd been consumed by jealousy. Like Kris with Nicole. But it wasn't the same.

  Kris reeled toward the living room. Her hand shook and the orange juice dribbled. She stopped to control herself, then extended the glass to Eric. He helped his grandmother sit and cupped the rim to her lips. Irene waved it away.

  One mistake had ruined a family's lives forever. Now Kris carried the burden on her own shoulders. Her mind and heart twisted for some way out.

  Michael eyed Kris. "What if we paid you to keep quiet?"

  His words stung like a slap. She could tell the police, or she could leave and never look back. There was no in between. Kris felt her stomach drop as if in an elevator. She looked at Eric. He'd been uninvolved in the lies. She believed that now. In the end, it didn't matter. He would side with his family.

  This was goodbye to love. But she had no choice.

  "I have to do right by Diana. I think Cheryl should turn herself in." Kris was surprised at how quiet and firm her voice sounded.

  "No," Eric said.

  "Yes," Cheryl replied. "I want to call the police."

  "Cheryl, you can't!" Michael paced, grabbing the sides of his neck.

  "Mom, no," Eric said. "You'll wind up in prison."

  "I need to do this. I won't tell them everything. I'll say I covered it up by myself, so your dad won't get in trouble."

  "You're talking crazy," Michael said. "Do you really think they’ll buy that? You can't go to the cops."

  "Yes, I can." Cheryl turned to Kris. "When you came into our lives, I didn't think you'd find out, but I told myself that if you did, I'd accept the consequences."

  "Hasn't the guilt been enough punishment?" her husband demanded. "Think about the publicity. And a trial. Do you want to go through that? What if they send us to jail? These are our lives you're messing with, Cheryl."

  "Have you ever wondered what we would have done if Jared had been arrested twenty-five years ago? If he'd been convicted of a crime he didn't commit? We would have let him take the blame, and ruined an innocent man's life."

  No one spoke. Irene shuddered on the couch. Kris couldn't tell whether she was listening, or lost in her own thoughts.

  "But he wasn't arrested," Michael said.

  "It could've happened. I'm tired of feeling badly about myself every time I look in the mirror. Eric's grown now, so I have to make amends." Cheryl let out a quavery breath. "Can someone get me the phone?"

  "Mom, no."

  "Damn it, Cheryl, at least take time to think about this. You don't have to call this minute. Think how it will affect your mother, for God's sake. And your son."

  "My mother hates me." Cheryl strode toward the kitchen, her husband close behind. "I want her and Eric to know that I did the right thing."

  Kris had stood still. Now, she reached for her jacket. She didn't belong here. She'd drive to her sister's house and see if Holly or R.J. were home to evaluate her injuries. If not, she'd go to the emergency room.

  "Why did you have to dig this up?" Eric asked. "Why couldn't you mind your own business?"

  His face resembled the busts in Alex Thaddeus' office, except chiseled with too many emotions, as if the artist couldn't make up his mind. Shock, fear, sorrow, regret. Kris saw them all. Except hope.

  "I didn't know it would lead to this. I was trying to help."

  "You suspected my father was guilty, and you didn't tell me. You thought I was guilty, too."

  Hot tears glazed her eyes. "I didn't know what to think. What to do."

  "You can go."

  "I'm sorry it turned out this way." Kris paused at the door, looking back at him one last time. Eric turned away. Her gaze lingered on Irene, balled into a fetal position on the sofa. Happy Birthday.

  Kris walked out of the house, out of their lives.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Feb. 12

  Sister Confesses To 25-Year-Old Murder

  By BRUCE PATRICK, Staff Writer

  FREMONT - Cheryl Soares, a former teacher at Fremont Jr. Sr. High School, has been arrested and charged with the murder of her sister, Diana Ferguson, whose death has baffled authorities for 25 years.

  A recent article written by this reporter sparked the surprise confession. According to police, Soares turned herself in Saturday afternoon. Her husband, Michael Soares, has been arrested and charged as an accessory. Diana Ferguson, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress, was found bludgeoned to death in the woods behind Fremont State College. Her body was wrapped in a garbage bag.

  For more than two decades, her murder has remained an unsolved mystery. Now police have learned that Cheryl Soares killed her sister in a fit of rage.

  During a press conference yesterday, Lieutenant Gerald Frank said that Diana had driven to her sister's house and confessed to an affair with Michael Soares. According to Frank, her sister grabbed a 2 X 4 in the basement and smashed it over Diana's head. When Michael Soares arrived home from work, he helped his wife cover up the crime, Frank said.

  The couple allegedly dropped off Ferguson's car at an abandoned restaurant, apparently hoping to confuse police. When Cheryl Soares' worried mother, Irene Ferguson, called her daughter around 2 a.m., Diana's body had already been dumped in the woods, Frank said.

  Although many suspects were questioned over the years, primarily old boyfriends, police never had enough evidence to make an arrest. Frank admitted that Soares' confession came as a shock.

  "She was always the grieving sister," he said. "Her mother was so vigilant about finding the killer. It breaks my heart what this will do to the family."

  Since the Soares were the first residents in the Brandywine Estates subdivision, they had no neighbors to see them carrying the body.

  "It was the perfect crime, by accident," Frank said. "They panicked and got rid of the body as fast as they could."

  Cheryl Soares owns the secondhand bookstore, Treasures in the Aisles, and is president of the Greater Fremont Area Women in Business Association.

  Michael Soares is a sale representative for Flex Fitness Products in Waltham, and has been active in the town Over-30 Softball and Basketball leagues. The couple's son, Eric So
ares, teaches music and band at Fremont High, where his mother was an English teacher for more than 17 years.

  Principal Stephen White, who was on the faculty with Cheryl Soares, says he was shocked by the new revelations. "I remember working with Cheryl when her sister was killed," he said. "She was a wonderful teacher, and seemed so devastated by Diana's murder. I'm sure this will stun many people."

  Attorneys for the Soares had no comment on the case, which is scheduled for arraignment later this week in Middlesex Superior Court. Irene Ferguson also would not comment.

  "I have no doubt that Cheryl has agonized over this for years," said Lieutenant Frank. "Most murders are done in an irrational fit of anger. But justice deserves to be served."

  ***

  April 24

  Public Outraged By Slashed Murder Charges

  By BRUCE PATRICK, Staff Writer

  FREMONT - In a random poll, most residents are angry that Cheryl Soares will serve no time for killing her sister 25-years ago.

  Earlier this week, Judge Sheila Wylie of Middlesex Superior Court accepted a plea bargaining deal that dropped the murder charges to involuntary manslaughter. Instead of serving jail time, Soares was sentenced to 10 years probation.

  Her husband, Michael Soares, who allegedly helped her cover up the murder, has been sentenced to five years probation.

  In February, Cheryl Soares confessed that she had killed her 21-year-old sister in a jealous rage. According to police, Diana had gone to tell her sister that she'd had an affair with Michael Soares.

  The confession came days after the Fremont Daily News published a story by this reporter, stirring up renewed interest in the case.

  Cheryl Soares, who at the time was a substitute teacher at Fremont Jr. Sr. High School, allegedly bludgeoned her sister to death with a 2 X 4 she had found in the basement. She and her husband dumped the body in the woods behind Fremont State College.