The Reunion (31 page)

“Tom, I’m…” she began, but Tom ignored her and continued talking.

“I knew something was wrong. I was too sleepy for only having had a couple of drinks. I woke up and found Glory gone. Scared me. I wondered at dinner how she knew so much about the murders. I had to find her before she did something bad. Guess I was too late.”

“You suspected she was behind the murders? Was she always…” Zach paused as if to find the words.

“Unstable?” Tom finished. “Yes. I married her two weeks after she graduated high school. I’d known her for years through the church. She used to talk and confide in me. Her father was a verbally abusive SOB. He thundered and thumped the Bible, but her mother doled out the physical punishment—cane beatings and belts. Glory showed me the welts on her back. I thought if we got married, I could protect her. It worked for years. I didn’t suspect anything until last night. Guess I didn’t do such a great job.”

Meghan blinked tears from her eyes. Never had she heard anything so noble or so tragic. She sniffed. Zach’s arm encircled her waist. He fumbled in his jeans pocket and shoved a handkerchief into her hand. She daubed her eyes.

“You did your best,” Zach said. “When did it fall apart?”

“When she found Divine’s diary. We moved into the family home after her mother died. The woman never threw anything away. Boxes and boxes of crap were stored in the attic and the basement. Glory was clearing stuff out and found the diary. She told me it contained ordinary, everyday girl-talk and chit-chat. I should have known better. Divine didn’t indulge in chit-chat. If she kept a diary hidden from her family, then she had something important to say.”

“Have you found it yet?” Ray demanded. “I’d like to read it when you do.”

Tom nodded. “You will. Glory became withdrawn, but when Eileen called to ask if I’d sit on one of the reunion committees, Glory leaped at the chance, volunteering to help locate lost classmates. I thought it was a blessing in disguise. It got Glory interested in something again.”

“She found Tami and Eddie,” Meghan said. “We know why she sought revenge. Suzanne told us about the practical joke that got out of hand.”

“I know about the prank. It’s in the diary. But Suzanne couldn’t tell you why Divine committed suicide because she didn’t know.”

“Know what? You’ve read the diary?” Ray asked, his eyes boring into Tom’s, and then shifting to Zach.

Tom returned Ray’s stare. “I found it on the desk when I woke up from the drug. It was open to the last page. I read enough to know Meghan was in danger. That’s when I went to Zach’s room to inform him and help with the search.”

“Why did she kill herself?” Zach wanted to know.

Meghan wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer. Ray and Tom stood twenty feet apart staring at each other like two gunfighters about to draw. Zach’s arms contracted, biting into her waist as he tensed.

Tom broke eye contact with Ray and turned his attention back to Meghan and Zach. “She wrote everything that happened in the diary. All those flyers and graffiti paid off. While walking home from church one night, Divine accepted a ride from the wrong person. She was raped.”

Meghan gasped. “Raped? And no one suspected?”

“Who did it?” Zach said in a hoarse voice.

Meghan sucked in a startled breath, looked at Zach, and then Ray. “Did you catch the bastard?”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it. Neither Divine or her parents ever reported anything like that,” he denied emphatically.

“Given her background, I can see how she’d keep it to herself,” Zach commented.

“She told someone,” Tom confirmed in a quiet voice. “She told a member of the Methodist Church—a teacher at the high school.”

“Clara Sylvester.” Meghan guessed in a hushed tone.

Tom nodded. “According to the diary, when Divine feared she was pregnant, she broke down and confided to Ms. Sylvester. But Clara Sylvester didn’t believe her, called Divine a liar and unbalanced.”

“Now, we know why an old woman died,” Zach said.

Ray waved a dismissive hand. “I doubt any of this is true. Surely her parents read the diary. If the Prescotts didn’t contact Sheriff Hilliard, then I’d have to believe they thought it was bunk.”

“Neither Jonah or Sarah Prescott read it. Their daughter committed the ultimate sin—taking her own life. I’ll bet Divine’s things were packed and stored the next day. The diary is a large spiral notebook. It looks like any other high school composition book,” Tom told them.

“Did she name her attacker?” Zach insisted in a low voice.

Tom turned to nod at the deputy who stepped into the room, and then returned his gaze to the two men. Zach shifted his weight on the sofa. The sheriff licked his lips.

“Yes. On the last page, written just before she hanged herself. But it wasn’t the last entry. Glory had several additions, including the details of how she killed Tami, Eddie, and Clara. I found three obits stuck in between the pages. She also listed six names—five of them crossed out with heavy pencil strokes. Tami Robinson, Eddie Mancuso, Clara Sylvester, Dave Coryell, and Suzanne Wayland. Meghan’s name was penciled in with a question mark beside it, like an afterthought.” Tom paused and closed his eyes. “The last name is Ray Armstrong. You’re responsible for Divine’s death, Sheriff. You raped her. It’s there in Divine’s handwriting.”

Ray’s expression was a cross between incredulous and outraged. “What? You’re nuts!”

A sharp pain slashed through Meghan’s head and the room spun at Tom’s accusation.

Ray? Divine named Ray as her assailant?

She shuddered. Had the poor girl been as crazy as her younger sister?

“You were the one person in Grandview, Divine Prescott would have trusted. She’d have accepted a ride with a deputy sheriff, especially in view of the obscene phone calls those flyers and the graffiti produced,” Zach said.

“That’s insane! I never touched Divine Prescott, and if she says I did, she’s lying. No wonder Clara didn’t believe her,” Ray stated. A line of sweat coated his upper lip.

“Clara Sylvester was your mother’s cousin. You could do no wrong in her eyes,” Tom insisted. “She was involved in each of your election campaigns. I can’t imagine why Divine would tell her anything.”

“Because Clara had the knack of inviting confidences, of listening and saying the right things. That’s what made her such a good Methodist youth advisor,” Zach told him. “Divine either didn’t know, or forgot about, her devotion to the Armstrong family.”

“This is nuts. Are you going to believe me or the ramblings of a clearly deranged young girl? After twenty years? There’s no proof.” His voice changed from angry to scoffing.

“Divine was eighteen, so that eliminates statutory rape. There’s no statute of limitations on rape if force, a weapon, or drugs are involved. It had to be force. Divine wouldn’t have consented. Did you handcuff her to the door? Did she scream and kick? Maybe beg?” Tom asked softly.

“You’re crazy and still don’t have any proof!” The sheriff wiped the sweat from his lip with his shirt sleeve.

“The Wednesday evening youth meetings were over by eight-thirty. If Divine stayed to help close up like she often did, then she would have been on her way home by nine or nine-thirty. It was summer. In those years, Grandview was on that double daylight savings time. Nine o’clock would be dusk. I’m sure someone must have seen the patrol car—maybe even noticed Divine getting in,” Tom continued.

Ray slapped his hat on his head and glared at all of them, then strode to the door.

“A lot of years have passed. I doubt if anyone would accurately remember one specific summer night twenty years ago. You have no proof,” he repeated, and then left.

“He’s right,” Meghan said breaking the silence the accusation and Ray’s departure caused. “An old diary of a parentally abused girl who killed herself is not proof. And there’s no DNA evidence.”

“I know,” Tom replied. “But I called in the State Police to investigate. I’ll let them take over.” He shook his head, and then nodded toward the deputy. “I hoped he’d confess and could be locked up today. Guess that was wishful thinking. Ray’s probably right. No one will remember.”

The deputy, silent until now, finally spoke. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that. I joined the force a couple of years after Ray. Whenever he was on patrol, he always stopped between eight-thirty and nine o’clock at The Cozy Corner Café for coffee.”

“That’s only two blocks from the Methodist Church,” Zach added.

“And the route Divine would have taken home,” Meghan reminded him. “Oh, my God, I feel sick.”

“Don’t we all,” Tom said.

“Are you saying Ray was the main target and that the others were…what, practice?” Zach wondered.

Tom heaved a tired sigh and shrugged. “I don’t know. She hated them all. If they hadn’t harassed Divine, she’d have never been raped.”

“When did you start to suspect Glory?” Zach asked.

“When Eileen found Annabelle’s body. Glory had disappeared from the ballroom. In spite of her reunion duties, she’d been brooding and morose the last three months. I worried the medications weren’t helping. Obviously, she’d stopped taking them. She told me she was fine, just nervous about the reunion. I wanted to believe her. But she knew so many details about Tami and Eddie’s deaths, it made me uneasy. At first, I thought Eileen had told her, but when I cornered her in the bar later, she claimed the police from California and Texas only asked if the invitation was legit.”

“No wonder Glory fainted when Suzanne strolled out from behind the plants. Her first failure. She must have gotten one hell of a shock,” Meghan concluded. “I wonder how she enticed Dave to Suzanne’s room.”

Tom walked over to a chair and sat. His face twisted, and he blinked his eyes rapidly but failed to suppress the tears.

“I spent several hours with her, our lawyer, and the doctors this morning. She’s holding nothing back. She slipped the room key into his coat pocket in the bar. Dave was drunk. When he found it, he expected Suzanne.”

“So, she zapped him with the stun gun and had an easy victim,” Zach said. “Did you know about the stun gun?”

Tom shook his head. “Never had a clue.”

“And she was sitting next to me in the lobby when the subject came up. Remember? She high-tailed it out of the room shortly afterward,” Meghan replied, turning to Zach.

“She ditched it, and then stalked Suzanne,” he finished.

A strangled sob escaped from Tom’s throat.

Meghan shifted in her seat to ease aching muscles. “And Suzanne played right into her hands by trying to run. Poor Glory, both verbal and physical abuse.”

Tom wiped his eyes. “Divine was her protector.”

“Protector? In what way?” Zach inquired.

“Old man Prescott preached fire and brimstone every night believing the Devil was in both of his daughters. But her mother was crazy, and I mean the certifiable kind of crazy. It was her duty to beat the evil out of her daughters. The girls feared her.”

Meghan groaned. “Oh, God. None of us ever suspected.”

“The clothes they wore would hide the bruises and welts. It still doesn’t explain the protector part,” Zach said.

“The abuse brought on nightmares. Glory would wake up screaming in the middle of the night. When her mother came in, Divine would take the blame. In Sarah’s twisted mind, the Devil was still in residence, so Divine took the beating for her sister. Glory was twelve when Divine killed herself. There was only one target for the next six years.”

“God, how warped can a person get?” Meghan demanded angrily. “How could she do that to her own children?”

“She believed that because they were women they were therefore a constant temptation to men and the Devil. Told her daughters that Satan was a coward and would leave to avoid the pain.” Tom buried his face in his hands. “I honestly thought I could help by marrying her. It worked for a while, too. Glory knew she was safe with me. I replaced Divine. I should have taken the diary away from her and burned it.”

“Glory would still be disturbed,” Meghan told him in a gentle tone.

“Yeah, but five people would still be alive.” Tears filled his eyes again. “If I had been more observant, I might have seen it coming.”

Zach shook his head. “How? You had no idea what she was planning or that she’d gone to Malibu and Texas while you were in Chicago. It’s not your fault. You did everything you could.”

“I suppose, but I’ll never get rid of the guilt.” He raised his eyes to Meghan. “She hadn’t planned on ditching the stun gun, and wanted me to thank you for warning her. She’s read your books and knows you have an eye for detail. She was afraid you’d remember her big purse. Then she realized you had linked Tami and Eddie’s deaths to the reunion and had questioned other people. She decided to eliminate you, Meghan.”

“I’d still be around,” Zach reminded him.

“She saw how it was between the two of you. In her mind, you’d be too upset about Meghan to cause any harm.”

Tom rose, walked stiffly toward the door, and turned hesitating as if about to speak. Instead, he shook his head and left with tears running down his face.

Meghan’s eyes welled. “God, I feel so sorry for him.”

“I guess if my wife turned out to be a mass murderer, I’d come apart at the seams, too.”

“Do you believe Divine’s diary?”

Zach nodded, tightened his arm around her waist, and kissed her temple.

“It was her suicide note. People generally don’t lie when they’re about to pull the plug. I just hope the state police can bring Ray to justice. Ray acted guilty as hell. I think he knew twenty years ago why Divine killed herself.”

She rested her head on Zach’s shoulder. “You think she told Ray about being pregnant?”

“What would you do?”

She drew in an angry breath. “I’d confront the son of a bitch. He was already married at that time, wasn’t he?”

“Had a kid, too. I’ll bet she told him, and he refused to believe it or convinced her to get rid of it.”

“No, not Divine,” Meghan said emphatically. “Abortion was a heinous sin. If she was pregnant, everyone would soon know, including her parents. Can you imagine her mother’s reaction to
that
?”