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Authors: Catie Rhodes

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BOOK: Black Opal
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“I bought it at a pawn shop in Houston.” Lisette dragged each word out, enunciating each syllable.
Smartass.
I wanted to kick her in the hoo-ha.

“I understood you the first time. I just can’t believe what I’m hearing.” Dean rubbed his face and gave his head a quick shake. “How did you have Shayne’s ring the entire fifteen years we lived together and not tell me about it?”

This must have been how they sounded when they fought. Part of me wanted to be somewhere else. I didn’t want to see the side of Dean who once lived with this woman. But I loved train wrecks and couldn’t look away.

“It’s not Shayne’s ring.” Lisette raised her voice. “It’s
my
ring. It had nothing to do with you.” She widened her eyes and shrugged.

“Don’t play innocent.” He swatted the air in her direction. “We both know you’re not.”

Lisette snorted at Dean. She might as well have dared him out loud to expose her running around like a cat in heat. My mouth itched with longing to out her. I squirmed, doing everything but putting both hands over my mouth. Lisette turned on me.

“I can’t believe you snuck in there and went through my things.” She pressed her lips together, arranging her face into a sympathetic expression. “It might be difficult for someone like you, someone from a broken home full of murderers, to understand why that was wrong, but it was. I feel sorry for you.”

I fumed, and one hand curled into a fist. I wanted to rear back and knock that self-righteous look right off her face. One glance at Julienne told me I couldn’t do that. I had to play this right or risk looking like that bad guy. Or girl.

“You’re one to talk about doing the right thing.” I raised my eyebrows at her.

“Peri, I assure you I have never, ever gone into someone’s purse and taken stuff out of it.” She pulled her shoulders back, trying to regain her composure.

“You’ve done worse. Let’s talk about Shayne.” I rushed the next words, trying to get them out before Lisette had a chance to speak. “Why don’t you tell Shayne’s mother and brother the stuff you did to her the last few weeks of her life? The rumors? The garbage in the locker? Any of that sound familiar?”

“You shut up.” She bared her perfect teeth at me. A vein pulsed at her neck. Forget that cool as iced shit routine. I fought not to smile.

“I found a diary of Shayne’s upstairs.” I directed this to Dean and Julienne, making eye contact with each of them in turn. “In it, she talked about the way the original Mean Girl here terrorized her from junior high until the time she died. There’s some damn interesting stories in there.”

Shaking her head, Lisette turned away from me and spoke to Julienne. “She’s lying. Don’t listen to her.”

Julienne all but waved her away, her attention focused on me.

“You remember getting upset with Shayne because you thought she’d done drugs at school?”

Julienne put her hand over her mouth and nodded.

“Lisette doctored her food. Brought her sugar cookies from some bakery. Sliced Heaven? No. That’s not right.”

“Slice of Heaven,” Dean said. “Shayne loved their iced sugar cookies.”

Julienne gasped and stared at Lisette with her mouth open.

“You want me to tell them what y’all were fighting about, Lisette?”

“I am warning you. Shut. Up.” Lisette faced me now, leaning forward with her fists clenched at her sides, her body tensed like an animal about to launch itself at prey. “You have no business in this room, in this house, with my ex-husband.”

I smiled, and her face went white. “Do you think you’d still be welcome here if they knew what I know about you?”

Lisette leapt over the coffee table the way King Kong rose over the Empire State Building, hands outstretched and curled into claws. Adrenaline and a lifetime of fistfights took over. I grabbed her hand and yanked her past me. Her momentum carried her into the wall. She slid to the floor and screamed a hoarse, pain-filled cry at the high ceiling. She turned to us, her face twisted into a hideous caricature of fury.

“Yes,” she gritted out. “I knew it was Shayne’s ring. And I didn’t care why it was at the pawn shop.” She slapped her hands down on the floor in front of her. “She had everything, everything I wanted. This family, this house. People who really loved her. I wanted someone to love me the way everybody loved Shayne.”

Lisette wilted, her dark eyes filling with tears. Her lips trembled, and her face twisted as she began to wail.

Dean goggled at his ex-wife and glanced at his mother and then at me, as though for confirmation this was really happening. We stared at Lisette as her crying turned into half-hysterical shrieks. Julienne Turgeau covered her face. Her soft sobs played like background music.

Dean grabbed the ring off the table, stalked over to Lisette, and knelt in front of her. She took her hands off her face and stared at him with wet, wide eyes.

“I did love you. But you cheated on me with every one of my friends. You cleaned out our bank accounts, and I lost the house because of you.”

Julienne gasped. I was too riveted to the horror show in front of me to react.

“You knew it was wrong to have this.” Dean shook the ring in his ex’s face. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have hidden it from me our entire marriage. Why are you like this?”

Lisette rose. Walking a little unsteadily, she went into the coat room. She knelt in full sight of us all and pushed her belongings back into her purse, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. She got control of herself and wiped her face with a white, lacy hanky. Finished, she stood and walked into the parlor, stiff and self-righteous.

“I’m glad this is finally over.” She spoke to Julienne. “I wanted to tell you so many times why Dean and I broke up.”

“It’s far from over,” Dean said. “You broke the law when you bought this ring and didn’t turn it over to the police. They might have been able to go back to the pawn shop, track down the killer. But, because you can’t think about anybody but yourself, you obstructed justice. I’m calling Sheriff Braezeale. You’ll tell him what you remember.”

“The hell I will,” she said. “Let me leave right now, or I will rake your family’s name through the mud, destroy your reputation.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Dean stood in front of the door, his arms crossed over his chest. He motioned me to stand in front of the other set of double doors leading out of the parlor.

Lisette marched toward me, and I doubled up my fist. “Think I won’t hit you?”

She gasped and narrowed her eyes. “You are so low class.”

I reared back my fist, but Julienne materialized next to Lisette and gripped her arm hard enough to illicit a whimper. “Go sit down. Now. We are going to call the sheriff, and you’re going to tell him everything you remember about obtaining my daughter’s ring. And when you are finished, you will leave my home—and this ring—and never come back. Do you understand?”

“I can ruin your reputation in this community,” Lisette had the nerve to sneer.

“Call your lackeys on me if that’s what you need to do. But who do you think people in our social circle are going to believe?” Julienne leaned into Lisette’s face. “Me, a well-respected member of this community, or you, the neurotic daughter of a drunken whore?”

Lisette said nothing more and went back to her chair. Dean called the authorities.

###

Julienne, Dean, and I stood at the parlor window and watched Lisette waving her hands at Sheriff Braezeale, who looked twenty years older than when I first met him. No doubt she was trying to convince him she didn’t need a ride to his office to make her statement. Finally, shaking his head, he gestured toward her Mercedes and got into his cruiser and eased down the driveway. Lisette sat behind the wheel of her car and reapplied her makeup as though the sheriff wasn’t waiting for her to follow him to his office where he may or may not arrest her for obstruction of justice. I wanted to laugh at her, but it wasn’t funny. Not really.

“Was she ever investigated for the murder?” I spoke to Dean, but Julienne answered.

“She was at cheerleading practice. The other kids, the faculty sponsor, all saw her.”

“And I saw Shayne during those hours,” Dean said. “She was upset, twisting her ring, and I teased her about it. She went for a walk. I never saw her again.” His voice broke on the last sentence.

“After cheerleading practice, Lisette helped me cook supper,” Julienne said. “By the time it was ready to eat, we figured out Shayne was missing. She didn’t have a chance to do it.”

Silence took over the room. Dean hunched his shoulders and frowned. Julienne played with Shayne’s ring.

“I wish Shayne had lived,” Julienne whispered. “I wonder what she would have done with her life.”

“Probably the same as all of us,” I said. “Did some things she wished she could take back. Did some things she was proud of. Wondered what to do in between. But she’d have been alive.”

“I miss her every day,” Dean said.

Julienne and I both looked at him standing there with his hands shoved in his pockets. I stroked one arm, and he pulled me into a hug.

“I am sorry,” I said into his ear. Breaking the hug, I spoke to Julienne, too. “I owe both of you an apology. I caused major upheaval in your family and didn’t even solve Shayne’s murder.”

“Don’t say that.” Julienne sat on the love seat. Dean and I followed and took a seat on the hard-as-a-rock-but-beautiful antique sofa. “We can put some sort of closure to Shayne’s disappearance. Maybe we’ll catch the killer. Maybe we won’t. But this is a form of closure. All those years, I worried she’d been kidnapped.”

“Me too.” Dean turned to me. “Especially after I went into law enforcement. The things human beings do to each other.” He took my hand. “Sometimes I’d wonder what happened to Shayne. Almost drove me crazy. Besides, I think you’d have found your way down here one way or the other.”

Puzzled, I stared at him.

“The day I left Gaslight City, I forgot my wallet because…” He trailed off and shook his head. “Never mind.”

“No,” Julienne said. “I think something made Peri join us this week, and you’re going to tell us what happened.”

Dean hunched forward, digging his elbows into his knees and wincing, probably at the pain it caused his injured leg. “After I signed off patrol, I went home and got out of my uniform.” He glanced at me. “You know my routine. I take off the pants and then empty the pockets onto my dresser. Well, that day, before I could do that, I heard someone scream my name. A woman. She said, ‘Help me, Dean, please help me.’ I swear that’s what I heard. I yanked my pants back on and ran outside. Nobody was there.” Chillbumps rose on his bare arms.

“When I came back in, an old photo album I hadn’t even unpacked was laying on my bed. It was full of pictures of me and Shayne as teenagers. Ended up, I got distracted and then had to hurry. Anyway, I broke my routine and forgot my wallet.” He snorted and shook his head. “I hate stuff like this, stuff I can’t explain.”

So he did. But I thought he loved me. Our eyes locked and a little understanding passed between us. His eyes told me what he loved about me was enough. I felt tingles of elation. For just a moment, I was willing to believe in unicorns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows.

Julienne slipped Shayne’s ring onto her finger and held it up.

“Here’s my story,” she said. “The night before Rick hurt himself, I had a dream, and I rarely dream. In the dream, Shayne brought a friend home from school, a little black-haired girl.” She glanced at me. “She introduced her as Terry. But now I think she may have said ‘Peri.’ So I think she wanted you here, to help us settle things and move on. Perhaps Lisette will finally help solve Shayne’s murder. Though she couldn’t have done it, no telling what she knows.”

I couldn’t help remembering Shayne’s reaction to Lisette’s humiliation. It hadn’t been one of relief. Shayne took spiteful pleasure in the whole scene. After reading her journal, I understood why. But I also wondered if that little drama hadn’t been an “Eff you” from beyond the grave.

“I really hope Shayne can rest now,” Dean said. “And, if she isn’t satisfied, she needs to act quick.”

“Why is that?” Julienne said.

“Because me and Peri are going back to Gaslight City. Tomorrow morning. I called Ricky while Lisette and Sheriff Braezeale were screaming at each other. He’s coming over. We’ll do as much as we can. But Alicia wants him home for the weekend. The boys have sporting events to get to.”

“That’s the right thing to do, son.” Julienne nodded. “Your daddy can damn well live with not having things exactly as he wants them. This place’ll get cleaned up—and things put back to rights—when it gets done.”

I had forgotten about Dean’s father in all the hoopla. “How is he doing with…everything that’s happened?”

“Raising hell. Furious not to be part of it.” Julienne snorted. “You just wait until you meet Big Rick. He makes Dean look lighthearted.”

“That’s the truth.” Dean stared at the wall, lost in some memory. When he turned back to me, he had a smile on his face. “Go pack your things. Let’s go home.”

We exchanged a smile, that secret smile only lovers share. Even though he didn’t love everything about me and never would, I wanted to be with him. Things would play out between us the way they did. That’s all life was, really. Just a chance for things to go the right way.

“There’s one more thing.” I spoke to Julienne who turned to me and forced a smile on her exhausted face. I took off the necklace and handed it to her with a weak smile. “Sorry.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Don’t be.” She took the necklace and slipped it into her slacks pocket.

I skipped out of the room, for once not lost. It sucked because just as I figured this place out, it was time to go home.

15

I made my way back to Shayne’s room. The nagging sensation I’d missed something wouldn’t leave me. I tried to ignore it because I wanted to go home. I couldn’t wait to see Memaw and tell her the less freakout-worthy parts of this little vacation. I’d been away from her too long, missing out on the precious little time we had left.

I set my overnight bag on the bed, leaning it against the wrought-iron headboard, and took one more good, long look around the room. There was nothing here to tell me what happened to Shayne. Maybe nobody would ever know.

BOOK: Black Opal
12.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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