The Ex Who Wouldn't Die (35 page)

"
But s
he never said why they were breaking up?"

"Never. When I pushed her on it, she asked me to pray with her. Dianne had never been super-religious. She went to church once in a while, but in
all the years I'd known her,
she never asked me pray with her until that night
."

"What did she pray about?"

"
Forgiveness.
She beg
ged
God to forgive her, then she cr
ied
some more and sa
id
she knew He never would."

"Forgive
her?
"

"Yeah. Whatever happened that night, she felt guilty about it. She finally calmed down enough to go to bed, but I woke several times and heard her
sobbing
.
Then s
he got up about four, took the
yellow sundress
down to the common room and burned
it
in the fireplace."

"Wow."
Amanda realized she was sitting on the edge of the sofa, gripping her glass of tea as if trying to crush it. She took a sip and set it on the coffee table, then leaned back
, trying not to appear overly anxious
.

"Yeah,
" Sandy said,
"
that was my reaction. She never talked about it again, but from th
en
on, she went to church every time the doors opened, and she had bad dreams. Cried in her sleep
almost every night
, and sometimes she talked.
"

"Yes?" Amanda leaned forward
, anticipating the words…
death, murder
. "What did she say?"

"Dianne was a good person. Whatever happened, she had nothing to do with it. That man is the devil incarnate." S
andy
straightened, set her jaw
. "Over and over, she begged somebody to stop. One night
, I'll never forget,
she sat bolt upright in bed and shouted,
He's dead! You killed him!
"

Amanda shivered and looked at Charley. He shrugged. "So Dianne wasn't his first murder. Doesn't surprise me."

Amanda supposed it shouldn't surprise her, but somehow it did. How many people had the mayor of Silver Creek killed?

"Did you tell the police about this after Dianne was shot?" she asked.

Sandy shook her head. "No. There didn't se
em any point in
telling a story that would put Dianne in a bad light…drugs, blood on her dress
.
It didn't seem important since
t
hey said she was killed by a transient."

"But now you're not sure?"

Sandy bit her lip and again shook her head. "I don't know. Greg called
before you got here
and said you thought
maybe
Kimball had something to do with her
death
."

Amanda shifted uncomfortably on the comfortable sofa. Even though Kimball had all but admitted to Dianne's murder, she felt uneasy at the thought of coming right out and saying he'd done it.

"Tell her!" Charley ordered. "Sandy, he killed her!"

"Do you know of any reason Kimball would want to get rid of Dianne?" she asked.

"Maybe."

That got Amanda's attention. "
Really? What?"

"After that night in college, Dianne went to church
regularly, and she
tried to help people. I think she
was trying
to atone for whatever happened. Then just before she died, she started talking about how one could never be forgiven for their sins if they didn't confess." She paused, drew in a deep breath. "I think she was going to confess about that night, maybe about Kimball murdering somebody. I think he killed her to keep her quiet."

***

Amanda
set some new speed records as she
rode home from Sandy's house.
Every headlight coming toward her could be driven by Kimball or the creepy man at the high school. Every tree along the roadside could hide someone aiming a gun at her.

Dianne and Kimball had taken drugs that night in college, and someone had died, likely been murdered by Kimball while Dianne watched and begged him to stop. She'd been close enough to get blood all over her yellow sundress, close enough to see the entire incident, and Kimball had killed her to keep her quiet
about it
.

That knowledge emphasized his threat to her, made very real the possibility that he could and would kill her. Not like she'd be his first victim. He had experience at this murder thing.

It was dark when she got back to the Randolphs' house. The family sa
t in the living room, reading and studying.
Amanda waved to let them know she was home, then went straight to her room.

"
Did you see anybody following me?
"
she asked, pulling
off her motorcycle gear
.

"
No. Was I supposed to be looking
for somebody
?"

"Uh, yeah! You keep saying you're here to help me. Warning me if somebody's trying to kill me would be a good start." She
went over to stand beside the window, staring out
into the darkness. The first evening she
'd been there
, the night
was
soothing with its soft breezes and relaxing sounds. Now it was frightening with the darkness cloaking secrets, emitting sounds she couldn't iden
tify.
In the warm, cozy bedroom, she shivered.

"Whose blood was on that yellow sundress?"
she wondered, and didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until Charley answered.

"
Whoever Kimball murdered that night.
"

Couldn't even talk to herself anymore. Never a moment's privacy.

"The man's evil," Charley continued.
"
He deserved to be blackmailed."

Amanda scowled and started to berate Charley, but a movement of shadows among the trees caught her attention. She pressed closer to t
he window in order to see
past the light in the room
but saw nothing more. Had she really seen movement, or was she being
paranoid
, so worried that Kimball was coming after her that she was seeing threats in an innocent man hanging around the school yard and shadows in the trees
?

She could ask Charley to flit outside and look around. But then she'd have to admit she was scared, and that wasn't going to happen.

She
turned
away from the window,
away from the view of th
e moonlit trees outside,
and sat in the wooden chair
of Charley's old desk.

What was the matter with her? She wasn't going to let some control-freak, power-hungry tyrant creep her out. Nor was she going to let him murder her, not when there were still
Cokes to be drunk and motorcycles to be ridden.

"I think we have enough to talk to that obnoxious Detective Daggett again. Tell him what we learned about Dianne
and the incident in college
.
He can check the records for unsolved murders on that night
.
"

"Really? Would that be the same detective who thought you were nuts that night you told him I wasn't dead and I'd been visiting you, and then you talked about psychic visions?
All of a sudden, you want to talk to that jerk? Why?
You scared, Amanda
?"

"Absolutely not!" That was a lie, and both of them knew it. "I just think I'm not very good at this do-it-yourself murder investigation stuff. I need a little help."

"We're making progress! This is no time to wimp out."

"That's easy for you to say! You're already dead. You have nothing to lose!"

"
Yeah, I do, actually. What if I'm stuck here until I help you solve my murder?
This in-between business isn't a lot of fun. Sure, it's nice to be able to fly and go through walls, and my knee doesn't hurt anymore. But I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't ride motorcycles, I
have to wear
the same clothes every day.
Don't you care if I make it to the other side?
"

"Not really." Except she did want him to go away from her. "What else can I do if I don't talk to the cops?
We kind of know what happened, but I don't know where to go from here
. I'm fresh out of ideas."

"Fortunately, I'm not. We can
set a trap.
You told
Kimball
we've got his murder weapon in a safe deposit box. S
o
we
buy an unregistered
gun from one
of my old buddies, then tell Kimball
we're going to give
hi
m back his
g
un
, y
ou meet him wearing a wire,
hand him the fake gun,
and we get him to confess."

Amanda's eyes widened. "Buy an unregistered gun? Wear a wire? That's insane!"

"I know some guys—"

"I have no doubt you know some guys who could fix me right up with an illegal weapon, but I really don't think I want to
go there
."

"You got a better idea?"

"Yeah.
Y
ou leave so I can go to bed.
Let me sleep on this.
"

Charley shrugged and disappeared. Knowing him, he was probably still watching. She flipped off the light before changing clothes and
felt compelled to look out the window one more time. With the room dark, she'd be able to see outside better
, assure herself that no one was out there
.