Colby Agency: Small-Town Secrets Part 7

"We will get through this," Lucas reiterated. "No one is going to touch my family." The pause that followed punctuated the emotion in his tone. "I'll call you tonight, Victoria."

Warmth filled her chest, chasing away the fear. She had Lucas. She had her extended family here at the agency, as well as Thomas Casey and his specialists. Victoria had every reason to be strong and confident. "Until then," she said in parting.

When the line closed, Victoria reclined in her chair and took her first deep breath of the day. Everything was going to be all right. No one was going to hurt her family ever again. She was far too aware of evil's reach...She'd learned that lesson the hardest way of all when her only child, her son, went missing more than two decades ago. Evil had s.n.a.t.c.hed him at age seven, and she hadn't been able to find him. Jim was missing for nearly twenty years. During that time he was tortured, enslaved...and worse.

She would not allow his child to suffer that same tragedy.

As if fate had deemed that moment the perfect opportunity to counter Victoria's firm vow, Mildred burst into the room.

"Nicole is on line one." Mildred glanced from Victoria to Ian and back. "She says it's urgent."

Fear resurrected in Victoria's heart. Ian put the call on speaker before she had the presence of mind to react.

"What's going on, Nicole?" he asked, an edge in his tone.

Tension seemed to push the very air out of the room.

"We have a fire alarm," Nicole explained, the chatter of excited children and the high-pitched shrill of the alarm in the background. "According to the director this is not a drill."

Victoria's heart surged into her throat.

Before she could speak, Nicole went on, "I'm holding Jamie's hand. She's right beside me. We're filing out of the building with her cla.s.s. Brad and Elaine are searching the grounds for anything or anyone out of place."

Victoria pushed back her chair and stood. "I'm on my way." She could not sit here and wait to see if this was a mere coincidence. She had to be there.

She needed to see with her own eyes that Jamie was safe.

"We'll be there in ten minutes," Ian told his wife before rus.h.i.+ng to catch up with Victoria at the door. "Don't worry," he said with a hand on her arm. "No one's getting to Jamie without going through Nicole first. You know that."

Victoria tried to nod, but her muscles simply wouldn't cooperate.

He was right. Anyone after Victoria's granddaughter would have to step over Nicole's dead body to accomplish their goal.

Even knowing that her best agents were on top of the situation, Victoria was terrified.

Chapter Nine.

Brighton, Indiana Chief Gerard and Mr. Bellomy stood in the middle of the defaced room. Spence had pulled loose the plywood covering the windows. The morning sun filled the s.p.a.ce, highlighting the ugly images and threatening messages.

From the doorway, Spence watched the two men. Mr. Bellomy was clearly and genuinely stunned. He had not seen this before. According to Gerard, this vandalism had occurred the night after the Halls left Brighton. Gerard had gone through the motions of investigating the malicious act, and then he'd padlocked the room to prevent anyone who might sneak into the house from stumbling upon this ugliness. He'd boarded up the windows, even going so far as to nail the sashes shut. From that time forward, Mr. Hall had asked his neighbor to keep a close watch on the place.

"So," Spence ventured as the chief moved toward the door, "you concluded that this was nothing more than an act of vandalism."

Gerard didn't make eye contact as he waited for Spence to step aside so that he could exit the room. There was more to this than a random act of mischief.

"The wife and I heard the talk," Bellomy murmured, more to himself than to anyone else, "but we thought it was just foolishness."

"Talk?" Spence looked from Bellomy to Gerard. "There was talk like this?" He jerked his head toward the room.

Bellomy wandered into the hall, apparently wanting to hear the chief's answer as well.

Spence had sequestered Dana to the neighbor's house. Mrs. Bellomy promised to make her hot tea and keep her away from this.

"You know how kids are," Gerard protested. "When something terrible happens they liken it to some movie they watched. The Devil. You know."

Who was this guy kidding? "Give me a break, Chief. This goes deeper than that."

Gerard removed his cap and swept a hand over his balding head. "There was an incident or two before the murders."

"What kind of incident?" Spence prompted.

"The month before the...murders," Gerard began, "Patty Shepard's cat went missing. When the child found it, the poor animal had been mutilated and hung by its neck from a tree."

When the chief didn't continue, Spence again prodded, "This relates to the murders how?"

Gerard shrugged. "Mr. and Mrs. Shepard insisted that Patty and Dana had been arguing at school. Evidently Dana thought Patty was making fun of her. Several other students contended that Dana promised to get even."

"You think Dana mutilated the girl's cat?" And the investigation at the time of the murders didn't think that might be relevant? Admittedly, Spence didn't want to believe Dana Hall was capable of such an act, but he couldn't be certain. He'd known her a sum total of seventy-two hours. These people had known her, at the time, her entire life. If there was any chance whatsoever that she was capable of that kind of cruelty, she should have been viewed in a different light during the homicide investigation.

"Dana denied any knowledge of the act," Gerard countered. "Her parents were mortified. There was no history of that kind of behavior." He turned his hands palms up. "Like I said, kids jump to conclusions, overreact. Anyone could have killed that cat. But because Dana and Patty were on the outs, that's the story that was told."

Spence wasn't dismissing this information so easily. "You said a couple of incidents."

Gerard heaved a sigh. "Mr. Spencer, Dana Hall, like her sister and the other two girls who were murdered, was a good girl. Dana didn't go around killing animals, and she certainly didn't kill anybody."

Spence considered his visit from Lorie Hamilton and the waitress Ginger's comments. He wasn't so sure it was as cut-and-dried as the chief wanted to portray.

"But there was another incident," he pushed.

"Another girl's dog went missing," Gerard confessed. "The animal was never found." He shook his head. "The dog could have run off, been picked up by someone pa.s.sing through. We don't even know that it was harmed in any way."

"But Dana was somehow tied to the incident," Spence suggested.

"The girl, Ginger Ellis, insisted that Dana threatened to get her for copying one of her papers and claiming the story was hers. Dana received an F on the paper. Her teacher accused her of plagiarism."

Spence couldn't believe what he was hearing. "And no one looked at this as relevant to her sister's murder? Typically sisters jump to each other's rescue. You didn't find it questionable that Dana had these troubles and then her sister and friends end up murdered."

Murder never occurred without motivation.

Never.

All one had to do was find the motivation, then the suspects stacked up like a deck of cards.

Gerard and Bellomy shared another of those secretive looks.

"I should get home and check on Dana," Bellomy announced before pus.h.i.+ng past Spence.

When the front door slammed behind Bellomy, Gerard moved in close to Spence.

"Now you listen to me, Mr. Spencer," Gerard stated in warning. "The citizens of Brighton were torn to pieces by those murders. I'm not gonna watch you or anybody else stir that ugliness all over again. I'm telling you, the killer was a stranger. Somebody pa.s.sing through. You won't find any killers here. Let it go. Dana needs to put the past behind her and focus on the life she's been blessed with."

Spence resisted the urge to shake his head. "You know, Chief, I always thought a man of the law served justice, no matter the cost. Obviously I was wrong."

Gerard's glare bored into Spence's. "You're wrong, all right. Wrong to bring her back here. Folks don't want to look at her. She reminds them too much of the past and the pain they've all fought hard to put behind them."

With that, Gerard walked out.

Spence wandered up the stairs and checked the other rooms. The one Dana and her sister had shared was the only one defaced.

Outside he stood on the porch and surveyed the house across the street. He found it strange that the Bellomys lived right across the street but hadn't been aware of the vandalism. Or that Mr. Hall had asked Mr. Bellomy to look after the place without mentioning what had happened.

Even more unbelievable was the chief's dismissal of the incident. Had he even bothered to investigate the vandalism before sealing off the room?

Probably not. The chief had decided the case would go unsolved when no evidence of a stranger had been collected. Spence doubted he had seriously looked at anyone who knew the victims.

There had to be a reason.

As easy as it would be for Spence to presume the man simply hadn't done his job, he didn't get that kind of vibe from Chief Gerard. This was about covering up the truth. The question was, why?

Dana stepped out onto the porch across the street. Spence studied her movements as she folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the nearest post. Her gaze roved the house that had been her childhood home, eventually landing on him.

The answer to that one pivotal question, as well as several others, waited behind that mental wall she had erected.

He had to find a way around that wall.

Taking into account what he'd just learned, the truth might impact her world in a way she hadn't antic.i.p.ated before now.

The seemingly perfect life Dana had led as a child was, it seemed, nowhere near perfect.

Spence had to ask himself a couple of hard questions. Was Dana Hall s.h.i.+elding herself from the past because she was a murderer? If he breached that wall, would the memories he unleashed send her over an edge from which she might not be able to return?

He needed expert advice.

That was the thing about the Colby Agency. Victoria employed only the best...from all walks of life.

Dr. Patrick O'Brien didn't practice psychology anymore, but he was one of the agency's top investigators. One call to him and Spence would know exactly where to go from here.

If Dana Hall were lucky, it wouldn't be to a psych ward...or prison.

Chapter Ten.

Dana didn't understand any of this. Why would someone do this to her room? To her home? An ache had started behind her forehead, deep in her skull.

Was it possible that someone had hated her and Donna enough to do this and Dana couldn't remember? That seemed impossible.

Did the person responsible for this have anything to do with Donna's death? Or Sherry's? Or Joanna's?

The whole situation got more confusing with every pa.s.sing hour.

Dana wandered down a step. She watched William Spencer pace back and forth on the porch across the street, his cell phone pressed to his ear. Was he calling to inquire how to handle the case now that other issues had come to light?

None of it made sense.

She descended the final step and walked slowly along the sidewalk until she reached the street.

Mr. and Mrs. Bellomy had wanted her to stay, not to go back across the street. But Dana couldn't pretend anymore that she could ignore the past. She had to find the truth-whatever it was.

Then she would deal with the consequences.

This morning...seeing the horrible images and words someone had scrawled across her bedroom walls, Dana understood that she couldn't be a coward anymore. It was past time to do this and do it right.

Her sister and her friends deserved to have their killer brought to justice.

No matter who the killer was.

Her cell phone vibrated. She jumped. Calm down. It was probably her mother again. If she kept avoiding her calls, she would definitely show up here. Dana slid two fingers into the pocket of her jeans and tugged out her cell phone.

Deep breath. Just do it. "h.e.l.lo."

"Dana, what're you doing?"

Her mother. "Mom, I'm doing what I should have done years ago."

"I'm on the verge of rus.h.i.+ng to Brighton and bringing you home. You don't-"

"Mom." Dana took a moment, reminded herself that this was her mother and no matter how furious and frustrated she was, she had to remember that this was an act of love. "No matter what you do, I'm going to finish this. So just stop. I'm a grown woman. I don't need your permission to do what I know in my heart I have to do."

There were a lot of questions she could ask her mother, but that would only make bad matters worse. Her mother would refuse to discuss any of it. The less ammunition she gave her mother, the better.

The back and forth went on for a minute or two more before her mother gave up. Dana slid her phone back into her pocket.

The words on the wall of her old bedroom flashed in front of her eyes. She had to know what happened.