by Sara Rosett
We reached the main highway. I moved into the lane that arched to the east and merged with the traffic on the interstate. Only about ten minutes until we reached my house. My hands were slick on the steering wheel and my mouth felt dry. Could I use the EpiPen on her? I discarded the idea. It would be too hard to get it out of the amber tube and I didn’t know what it would do to her, if anything. Better to keep her talking.
“Where’s your mom?”
Diana shrugged. “Took off for Canada. She’s always been like that.” Her voice turned bitter. “She’s never been able to settle down. Make a home, a life. We moved eighteen times when I was in school. Can you believe that? What kind of mother would do that to her child?” I murmured sympathetic noises and she continued, “I certainly wouldn’t. I know what my kids need. Security, a stable home.” Her breathing went raspy. “I’m a good mom. I’m not about to lose everything I’ve worked for. Not for them and not for me.”
“But how was Cass a threat to you?”
Diana looked at me like she thought I was the biggest imbecile she’d ever seen. “I wasn’t about to let Cass blab that there might, might, be an earlier easement that completely restricted development.”
“How did you know Cass knew about that easement?” I asked.
“She was stupid enough to call me and ask about it while she was at the county requesting copies of everything she could get her hands on about the land.”
I remembered Debbie, the clerk at the county records office, and her irritation that Cass wouldn’t get off her cell phone. I reviewed the past weeks and a few things fell into place.
“So it was you searching Cass’s house and garage.” She lifted one shoulder in acknowledgment.
“Why did you trash their house?”’
“I couldn’t find the box. The box that was in your car.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw her hands tighten on the gun. Livvy started crying. Diana raised her voice. “It could have been anywhere. It was just a bundle of paper.”
Anger seemed to radiate from Diana. I gripped the wheel tighter and tried to distract her from thinking about that box in my car, so close, but just out of reach. “You took the DVD player to make it look like a burglary. Nice touch. It threw the police off.”
She took a deep breath, sat up straighter, and regained control of herself. “Of course it did.” A tiny smile turned up the corners of her lips. “I dumped it in the first trash can I came to. Pure luck it was Gwen’s.”
When Diana couldn’t find the box at Cass’s, she assumed it was at my house with the garage sale things and searched there. “How did you get into our house?”
“I took the extra key off your key holder while you thought I was setting up for the garage sale,” Diana said.
I decided not to bring up the failed attempt to poison me. She probably added the antifreeze to my cup while she was searching.
After a few beats of silence she spoke again. “Cass was infuriating. She wasn’t about to let it go.” Diana was still thinking about Cass. The break-ins had been minor things to her. “She would have told everyone. You know how she was, couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it.” Diana rolled her eyes, like how childish can you be? “One little thing and she couldn’t keep from talking about it. I’ve kept secrets all my life. It’s not that hard.”
I raised my eyebrows in a silent question. Diana didn’t look like the type of person who had secrets in her past.
“Do you think I always dressed like this, acted like this? You’ve met my mother.” Diana’s attention focused on the drenched trees that formed a corridor on each side of the interstate. She gave a little half-laugh and shook her head. “We were classic trailer park trash. I hated it and was not going to keep living that way.” She watched the trees for a few miles. I tried not to break the reminiscent spell. Diana was distracted and if I could get to the turnoff for Rim Rock Road, there were businesses, gas stations, and a convenience store. Maybe I could do something there. I said softly, “But your mom said something about tennis.” Tennis matches brought to mind country clubs, not trailer parks.
“It was part of P.E. in middle school. I was good, so I got on the tennis team. My coach knew where I came from and told me I could get a scholarship, if I worked at it. So I did. I played in high school and during my junior year I got a job at the local country club working in the locker room. For the first time, I saw another way of life. Those women could lose a diamond tennis bracelet and not even care because they had another one at home. They looked spectacular, even if they weren’t beautiful.
“Security and stability, that was what they had. I didn’t put it into words then, but I knew I wanted to be like them. It’s funny. I haven’t thought about this in a long time. It seems almost like I’m talking about another person, not myself.
“I remade myself. I paid attention to how those women dressed, did their hair, their makeup. I got my scholarship.”
I concentrated on the road while I ran over my impressions of Diana. She always seemed perfect, exact in her words and her appearance. At times, she even reminded me of a mannequin, a flawless exterior, but inside she was plastic and artificial. She was too perfect to be real. Her nail polish never had a chip, her shoes never had a scuff mark. At least now that I knew Diana’s perfection was a carefully maintained act, I didn’t have to feel like I fell short. She was an impersonation.
But that realization didn’t help me now. I mentally kicked myself for not exploring her flawlessness. It made me uncomfortable, but if I’d pursued it, I might not be chauffeuring a killer. I focused on Diana again to keep her talking. “How’s Jeff involved in this?”
“Not at all.”
“But he’s your registered agent for Forever Wild.”
“Oh, that. Whatever. He’s just on the paperwork. We paid him five hundred dollars, a one-time fee, to file the paperwork.” Diana rolled her eyes again. “But, of course, Brent had to go and screw that up, too. I told him always use the debit card. Cash. Cash. But no, he forgot to make the withdrawal, so he just wrote a check. No big deal, he said. But, wouldn’t you know—Jeff took the check to the squad, Cass saw it, and it set her off.”
So the check had Forever Wild printed on it. That’s what Cass was so upset about, not a hunting lease like Jeff said. But if Jeff was only peripherally involved, why did he lie?
I hit the blinker and slowed for the exit ramp. Diana shifted in her seat, more alert and watchful. It only took a few minutes to drive the climbing, winding road to my street, but it seemed to pass in seconds. What am I going to do? I searched frantically for options, but couldn’t think of anything. I couldn’t wreck the Cherokee or make a run for it, not with Livvy strapped in the backseat.
I pulled into the driveway and searched the sidewalks for a walker, a jogger, anyone. The neighborhood was quiet except for the rain pounding a steady rhythm on the Cherokee. I turned to her. “You can’t do this. You know three deaths in the squadron within a few weeks won’t be overlooked. It will be investigated.”
“Three?”
“Cass and Friona.”
“Oh, Friona.” She flicked her hand. “I’d almost forgotten about her. That was tedious. It was so boring waiting for her. And messy. I don’t want to have to do that again,” she murmured to herself. “No blood this time. I don’t have time to change.”
I tightened my grip on the door handle, so stunned that I couldn’t move. She’d just admitted to killing Friona. Her precise, analytical assessment of why she wouldn’t kill me with a knife chilled me. To Diana, killing wasn’t wrong, it was just too messy with a knife.
Lost in thought, she gnawed on her fingernail. Then she seemed to come to a decision and roughly nodded her head. “Suicide.” My look of disbelief must have shown on my face. “You’ll leave a note,” she said. “You’re distraught, exhausted, overwhelmed with the responsibility of raising your daughter. All that, on top of the move—it was too much for you. They’ll conclude post-partum depression.”
“I would not do that. Mitch will know. I’d never do that to him or Livvy.” Diana’s face was hard, her eyes stony. I tried another approach. “We don’t own a gun. I hate blood, so I’d never slit my wrists, and there aren’t any drugs in the house because I’m breast-feeding.”
Diana stopped chewing on her thumbnail. “Stop it!” she shouted. “Stop talking. You’re making me nervous.” Great, I was making a crazy woman holding a gun on me nervous. “I need time to think and to make a plan. Pull in the garage,” she ordered. She seemed to calm down a bit. “There’s other ways.”
“The garage door is broken,” I lied.
“All right. Get out. Get the car seat. I’ll follow you.”
Chapter
Twenty-nine
The rain splashed my face as I opened the back door of the Cherokee. I could hear Rex’s barks and whines. He was ready to get out of the basement. We were going to buy a kennel, but hadn’t done it yet, so he was back in the basement since the weather was too bad to leave him outside. Diana awkwardly climbed over the console and got out the driver’s side. She kept the gun on me the whole time. She stood with her back against the Cherokee and watched the street while I struggled with the releasing mechanism of the car seat. “What’s taking so long?” she asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw she was drenched. She had to use her coat to cover her gun, so her hair was plastered to her head and her cardigan, soaking up water, hung heavy from her shoulders.
“There. It was stuck.” I flipped a thick blanket over the car seat and slammed the door. A car swept down the street, splashing water. Diana stuck the gun into my lower back around the vicinity of my kidney and pushed me toward the house and away from the street.
She marched me to the door. I started up the steps. It’s now or never. If I go in that house, I’m not coming back out. Excited barks sounded and Rex, a furry, wet, black shape, rounded the corner of the house. He had escaped again. I was only slightly surprised. We didn’t seem to be able to keep him confined anywhere. I looked back over my shoulder and saw Diana glance at Rex.
I raised the car seat and rammed it into Diana’s chest. She clutched at the car seat, missed, and landed with a hard splash on her back on the sidewalk. The gun arched through the air and plopped into the grass a few feet away. I dropped the car seat and ran down the steps. Rex danced back and forth between us, unsure how he could join us in our game. Diana grabbed my ankle and I fell. Stinging pain exploded from my right knee and radiated through my leg. I heard Rex growl behind me.
Diana made a wheezy, hollow sound as she tried to get her breath back. She rolled over into a crouch and looked for the gun. Water from the grass soaked through my jeans to my knees as I scanned the ground. I concentrated on the fresh, earthy smell and tried to ignore the sharp pain that stabbed from my knee up my leg. I saw the dull glint of the gun and scrambled for it. A rumbling growl sounded behind me. Diana roughly shoved me away from the gun.
Before I could get up, Diana half-wheezed, half-screamed. She writhed, trying to get away from Rex. He gripped a corner of the sleeve of her cardigan in his teeth. With his paws planted, he used his weight to pull Diana away from me. He twisted his head back and forth and I heard a muted ripping sound as the material tore at the shoulder seam. Diana shrugged out of the cardigan and Rex lunged for another bite. Angling across the yard, Diana grabbed the lowest branch of one of the pines in our yard and scrambled up.
Rex danced around the base, delighted with this giant squirrel he’d treed. I heard footsteps splashing up the driveway and I focused on plaid rubber boots coming toward me. Mabel pushed back the hood of her orange poncho and calmly asked, “What’s all the fuss?”
I realized Diana was screaming at me to call off my attack dog. She yelled she was going to sue me for not keeping my dog restrained.
I pointed at Diana. “She tried to kill me.”
Mabel lifted her poncho, unzipped her fanny pack, and punched three numbers on her cell phone.
I made my way on noodlelike legs to the Cherokee. I opened the door and Livvy’s screams filled the air. I gripped the door as a wave of relief surged over me. She was crying; she was fine. I was thankful that the rain had covered the noise when I left her there. Mabel reached in, picked Livvy up off the floorboard, and handed her to me. Too shaky to stand, I climbed into the backseat of the Cherokee and cuddled Livvy until she popped her thumb in her mouth.
A car screeched into the driveway. I assumed it was the police or an ambulance until Mitch elbowed Mabel out of the way and leaned into the Cherokee. “What’s going on?”
I glanced at the tree. “It’s a long story.” My voice quavered. It was as shaky as my legs. “What are you doing home? I thought you had a class.”
“Canceled. The instructor’s wife went into labor, so he dismissed us. I didn’t have anything else to do at the squad, so I thought I’d come on home.”
“Slacker,” I teased in a more steady voice. “Taking off in the middle of the afternoon. I’m glad to see you, though. You can explain this to Thistlewait. I’m sure he’ll show up here soon.”
“He opened the basement window.” Mitch took a bite of his double chocolate ice cream and waited for a reaction.
Abby’s voice was incredulous. “A basement window? Those are at least six feet off the floor.”
“We’re changing his name to Houdini,” Mitch joked. He’d passed his check ride that morning and was in a good mood.
I put my fork down beside my chocolate raspberry torte. I liked my Hershey Kisses, but this was serious chocolate. “Don’t keep them in suspense any longer,” I said. “Rex jumped up on the dryer, and, well, you know how the dryer vent in our basement is fixed to go out one of the windows?”
“Just like ours,” Abby said. The basement windows of the bungalows in our neighborhood opened at an angle and had three horizontal panes. With one pane removed, the dryer vent went in the opening and plywood filled the rest of the pane.
“He jumped on the dryer, pushed the plywood out, the vent tube fell off, and then he wiggled out the opening,” I said.
Abby took another drink of her cappuccino and said, “He’s never liked that laundry room in the first place.”
“Considering he shredded the linoleum the other time we left him in there, I guess not.” I laughed. “He won’t be staying down there anymore.”
“Joe’s not taking Rex with him?” Abby asked. Joe’d put in for a transfer to a new base.
“No, he didn’t want to take Rex. Too many memories. Looks like we have a dog for good.” Mitch smiled.
I stretched my leg under the table. Even after twenty-four hours my knee ached and it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. It was Tuesday evening, one day since the showdown in my yard. After dinner, Mitch and I had walked to the neighborhood café and bakery, Cobblestone, with Abby and Jeff. It was the perfect place because it had something for everyone: ice cream for Mitch, chocolate for me, and coffee for Abby and Jeff. It was a relief to talk freely to Abby and Jeff. The tensions and undercurrents were gone.
“The whole thing was so bizarre. I can’t believe it happened,” Abby said.
I took my last bite of the torte and said, “I can’t either. I feel like it was a dream. No, a nightmare.” But the ache in my knee reminded me it was real.
“What’s going to happen to Brent?” Abby asked.
“The police found him at his house yesterday afternoon, right on time to pick up Diana per her orders. Apparently, when he realized that Diana hadn’t killed me, he started talking and hasn’t stopped. Of course, he’s saying Diana planned everything and did it all herself,” I said sarcastically, which basically backed up what Diana had told me, but what else would he do? He’d never admit to any of it.
“What’s going to happen to Diana?” Abby asked.
“They’re untangling the jurisdictions, but everyone wants her,” I said.
“Why?” Jeff asked.
“Cass died on-base, so the OSI wants to interrogate her. The
Vernon police want her because of Friona. Brent says Friona tried to blackmail Diana. Get this, Friona saw Diana in the Vincents’ house while Joe was out of town for the funeral. Diana was there searching for the box they mistakenly gave to the garage sale.”
“But Friona worked for them, too?” Abby asked. “This is too confusing.”
“It is,” I replied. “They drafted Friona, just like they drafted Jeff, to be the official name on the paperwork to hide their involvement in the corporations that were buying land and granting easements.”
I left the statement hanging. I knew Jeff had talked to the OSI again and they’d released him, but I didn’t know if he was cleared or still under investigation.
Jeff wiped his hand over his face. “Yeah. I didn’t know what I was getting into. Brent asked me to be Forever Wild’s registered agent. He said his brother-in-law lived in Seattle and was a developer who wanted to expand his business over here in Vernon. Brent said there’d be a huge hassle if his brother-in-law found out Brent and Diana were involved in a development here. He wanted to keep the whole thing quiet. He said I’d be doing him a favor. I’ve known Brent since the Academy. He was in my squad.” Jeff shrugged. “Not one of my better investment decisions, let me tell you.”
“But your argument with Cass. Why did you say that there were different ways to do things?”
“She saw Forever Wild on the check and lost it. I tried to calm her down. You were there and saw the whole thing. A few months after I filed the paperwork for Brent, I asked him how things were going. He said there was some opposition. People, like Cass, who didn’t want any progress. He described how the development would preserve open space. It sounded good to me. But I knew she opposed any development and I tried to tell her there were other viewpoints besides hers.”