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CHAPTER TWO
THE DEATH OF PAUL RYANN and his family made all the local broadcasts and was the biggest headline in the paper. Dani was unaware of the media, however, because she refused to leave her room. She sat staring out the window, her mind unable to accept what she knew in her heart to be true.
But the screams…she could still hear them. Not from the victims, but from friends and neighbors who’d watched in horror as the roof collapsed just seconds before the fire trucks arrived. And then hours later, the horror had turned to stunned disbelief as the three bodies, what was left of them, had been carried out of the rubble and loaded into an ambulance. An ambulance that would take Paul and his parents straight to the morgue.
Through her open window, Dani could still smell the smoke and the stench of singed flesh. The scent clung to her nostrils, her sinuses, her memory….
She put a hand to her mouth. Oh, God. She was going to be sick again.
Pressing her fist tightly to her lips, she willed away the nausea. It worked. She didn’t throw up this time, but the effort left her weak and trembling and wanting nothing more than to crawl back into bed and pretend last night had never happened.
And it would be almost too easy to forget, because her memories were already growing hazy. She could barely even remember getting home. Someone had driven her, she thought. A neighbor who had solicitously walked her up the porch steps, knocked on the door and explained to her parents what had happened.
But rather than being shocked by news of the tragedy that had befallen one of his neighbors, her father had seemed far more outraged by Dani’s disobedience, perhaps because she’d never done anything remotely like sneaking out of the house before. He’d immediately launched into one of his tirades, but her mother had grabbed his arm to silence him. “Stop it, Carl! Can’t you see she’s in shock? We have to get her to bed.”
Dani had only a vague recollection of being led upstairs to her room, of her mother helping her to undress and climb into bed. Her mother had sat with her for a while, but then when Dani had pretended to drift off, she’d tiptoed out. Afterward, Dani had lain in bed for hours, trying not to think about what had happened. Why it had happened…
Sometime in the late afternoon, she’d finally managed to drag herself out of bed and dress, but even then, she didn’t go downstairs. Instead, she’d curled up in the chair at the window—and had been there ever since.
Over the lingering odor of smoke, Dani could still smell the rain. Sometime before dawn, the storm had hit, but by then it had been too late. The fire had already done its damage.
“So you’re finally up, huh?”
Dani turned with a start at the sound of her brother’s voice. She hadn’t heard him come in. Didn’t even know if he’d knocked. He stood now in the doorway, one bony shoulder propped against the frame, dingy blond hair falling across his face as he gave Dani a look she couldn’t quite decipher. She thought for a moment there might be a flicker of sympathy in his dark eyes, but it was only a trace. And maybe nothing more than her imagination, because in the next instant, the insolent mask was firmly back in place.
“There’s a cop downstairs. He wants to talk to you.”
“What about?” Dani asked in surprise.
Nathan shrugged. As usual, he was barefoot and disheveled. The faded T-shirt he had on looked as if he might have slept in it, more than once. “The fire, I guess. You were there, weren’t you?”
A premonition prickled the back of Dani’s neck. She stood and smoothed the wrinkles from her khaki skirt as she walked slowly toward the door.
Nathan backed into the hall to allow her to pass, and as she brushed by him, he said, “So you snuck out of the house last night. Guess you’re not little Miss Perfect, after all.”
The bitterness in his voice sent a shiver up Dani’s spine.
SHE TRIED TO STEADY her nerves as she walked down the stairs. There was nothing to be afraid of, she told herself. The authorities were probably talking to everyone who’d been at the scene last night.
The officer was waiting for her in the living room, and he rose when she entered. So courteous, Dani thought. Just like Paul. And then she had to blink back sudden tears.
He gave her an encouraging smile, which helped put her at ease. He had a familiar face. Dani had seen him around town a few times, and he’d even come into the store where she worked once or twice.
He wore his dark blond hair closely cropped, and his khaki uniform was pressed and spotless. Dani remembered thinking the first time she saw him that he had the darkest eyes she’d ever looked into. And such a nice smile. He’d flirted a little that day in the store, and Dani and the other girls had been flattered by the attention of a good-looking older man. Older to them, at least. He appeared to be in his early twenties, and Dani found his casual manner somehow reassuring.
But her calm fled the moment she caught a glimpse of her parents. Her father sat stony-faced and silent in his armchair by the window while her mother, a petite blonde, perched delicately on the edge of the sofa, hands clasped in her lap. Dani stared at her mother for a moment, hoping for a smile or some soft word of support, but instead Rena Williams studied her hands almost furiously, as if she were somehow afraid to meet her daughter’s gaze.
Her father said gruffly, “Canton here wants to ask you a few questions about last night.”
“Okay,” Dani murmured.
The man gave her a disarming smile as he motioned her toward an empty chair. “Have a seat, Dani. This won’t take long.”
She sat and pressed her knees together. They were trembling.
“I understand you were a witness to the fire at Belmont House last night. Enid Caldwell said she drove you home. Said you were pretty shaken up by what happened.”
Dani nodded. Her throat was so tight she was afraid she might not be able to speak.
“Your folks tell me you left the house without their knowledge. Mind telling me why?”
“I…went to meet a friend.”
“What friend?”
She swallowed. “Paul.”
Canton’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “Paul Ryann?”
“Yes.”
“Why were you meeting him?”
“He asked me to.”
“Were you two in the habit of meeting so late at night?”
She shot her parents a glance. Her father glowered in response, but her mother’s gaze was still on her hands. What was her mother thinking? Was she upset? Disappointed in her daughter’s behavior? Guess you’re not little Miss Perfect, after all.
“Dani? Had you two met like that before?” the officer pressed.
“No. That was the first time.”
He paused. “What exactly was your relationship with Paul Ryann?”
“We’re friends.” Were friends. Dani suppressed a shudder as her mind conjured an image of that figure in the upstairs window. The way he’d reached out to her…
“Was Paul your boyfriend?”
His tone, so brusque and accusatory, frightened Dani. She said hesitantly, “We hadn’t been out or anything like that. But I knew he liked me.”
Something flashed in Canton’s gaze. “How did you know he liked you? Did he tell you?”
“He sent me letters.”
“Love letters?”
Dani glanced at her father again. He was still scowling, but now there was a glitter of suspicion in his eyes that chilled her blood.
She tore her gaze away. Something was very wrong here. Her heart began to pound in agitation.
“Did Paul Ryann send you love letters, Dani?”
“I guess you could call them that.”
“Then the two of you were a little more than friends, wouldn’t you say?”
“No. I mean…he never said anything. About liking me, I mean. He didn’t even sign the letters, but I knew they were from him.”
“Wait a minute.” The officer’s gaze sharpened. “Are you telling me you’ve been receiving anonymous letters? What made you think they were from Paul? A popular girl like you must have dozens of admirers.”
A dark chill seeped through Dani’s veins. “I…just knew.”
“You never asked him if he was the one who’d sent them?”
“No.”
“I’d like to see those letters,” Canton said after a moment. When Dani started to rise, he put up a hand to stop her. “You can get them when we’re finished. I still have a few more questions.”
Dani sat back down. Her knees were shaking so hard now she could hardly keep them together.
Canton leaned forward, his gaze relentless. Distrustful. How had she ever found his appearance and manner reassuring? Now his casual behavior seemed contrived, his smile calculated, and suddenly Dani didn’t trust him.
“It might interest you to know that I’ve spoken with a few of your classmates. It’s funny, but none of them mentioned anything about Paul’s infatuation with you. In fact, the way I heard it, you two were pretty fierce rivals. Before he and his family moved here, you were the top student at your school, weren’t you, Dani? You were in line to receive the Belmont Award, which is, as I understand it, worth thousands of dollars. A kid like Paul didn’t even need a scholarship, whereas to someone like you, the Belmont could mean the difference between attending a prestigious Ivy League university and a mediocre state school. A part of you had to resent that.”
Dani stared at him in horror. For a moment, she couldn’t even breathe. Then she said in a terrified whisper, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Of course, you didn’t, she expected her mother to offer in her defense, but instead, it was her father who spoke. He rose slowly from his chair and crossed the room to stand behind Dani.
“That’s enough, Canton. I agreed to let you come in here and talk to my daughter because I didn’t think there’d be any harm in it. But now I see which way the wind’s blowing, and I don’t much care for what I smell. You want to build a name for yourself in this county, do it at someone else’s expense. From now on, we’ll let our attorney do the talking. You understand me?”
Attorney! Since when did they have an attorney? And, dear God, why did she need one? What kind of trouble was she in here?
Dani put a hand to her mouth as the nausea rushed back up her throat.
“If that’s how you want to handle it.” Canton rose. “I think you’re making a big mistake, but there’s not much I can do about it.” His gaze dropped to Dani. “I’d still like to take a look at those letters while I’m here, and…oh, yeah…” He pulled something from his pocket and held it out in his palm. “Do you recognize this?”
Dani leaned forward to get a better look. Then her hand flew to her throat. “Where did you get that?”
“Then you do recognize it?” A triumphant smile flickered briefly across Canton’s lips before he managed to suppress it. “I take it this necklace belongs to you.”
Dani stared down at the glittering chain cradled in his palm. Attached to the chain was a tiny gold “number one” charm her mother had given to her when she’d finished her junior year at the top of her class. The necklace was one of Dani’s most prized possessions; every time she looked at it, she remembered her mother’s face glowing with pride.
If only she could see that same sparkle in her mother’s eyes now. If only her mother would look at her…
Dani lifted her gaze to Canton’s. “I…thought I’d lost it. Where did you get it?”
“George Hendrix found it at his place. You know George, don’t you? His farm is just down the road from Belmont House.”
“We know Hendrix,” Dani’s father said coldly. “Just get to the point.”
Canton shrugged. “Well, it seems George found the necklace yesterday morning out by his fuel tank. But the strange thing was, two of his gas cans were missing and he thought someone had tampered with his pump. He didn’t report it, though, until he heard about the fire early this morning. Then he brought the necklace down to the station because he thought it might be evidence.”
Evidence of what?
Dani’s heart was beating so hard now, she thought everyone in the room must surely be able to hear it. But somehow she knew it was important to keep her composure. Somehow she knew it was crucial that she not let Canton see how scared she truly was.
“You see, we don’t think that fire was an accident. We think it was deliberately set. We think someone stole gas from George Hendrix’s tank, night before last, stashed the cans in the woods, and then went back last night to start that fire.”
Her mother gasped, and it was the first sound she’d made since Dani had come into the room. Her gaze lifted, and the terror in her eyes was like a knife thrust to Dani’s heart. What was her mother so afraid of? Dani wondered desperately. She couldn’t actually think—
“You wouldn’t know how your necklace happened to be at George Hendrix’s place, would you, Dani?”
She felt like bursting into tears, but instead she held on to her poise as if her life depended on it. “No.”
“Didn’t think so.” Canton’s fist closed around the chain. “Tell you what. You run along and get me those letters while I have a chat with your dad here.”
Dani wanted nothing more than to flee to the safety of her room, but as she turned, she glimpsed her brother in the hallway. He’d been standing there listening to every word of the interrogation, and as his gaze met Dani’s, another chill went through her.
It was the first time she’d seen him smile since he returned home.
THE LETTERS WERE GONE. They were not in Dani’s top dresser drawer where she usually kept them, nor in any of the other drawers. They weren’t under the bed or in her purse or hidden inside her closet.
Dani knew she wouldn’t have misplaced them. Her room was too neatly organized for that. Her belongings were all carefully sorted and stored. Everything had its place, including the letters.
But, desperate and terrified, she tore the once-tidy room apart anyway. The letters were nowhere to be found. They’d simply vanished. Or been stolen.
But how could that be? No one else had even known about them. No one but Paul, and now he was dead.
Paul was dead, along with his parents, and the police blamed Dani. They thought she’d started that fire with gasoline she’d stolen from George Hendrix’s fuel tank.
They couldn’t seriously believe her capable of such a thing, could they? She’d lived in Allentown her whole life. Everyone knew her, knew that her behavior was always above reproach.
So why, why did Officer Canton seem to have it in for her? His suspicions were unfathomable—
Dani whirled as the hair lifted at the back of her neck. Nathan stood in the doorway again. Watching her.
Lazily, he scratched his arm. “Lose something?”
And it suddenly occurred to Dani just exactly what had happened to those letters. She flew across the room and grabbed the front of his shirt. “Did you take them? Did you?”
Her outburst clearly startled him. “What the hell are you talking about? Take what?”
“You know what I’m talking about! My letters from Paul.”
Nathan gave her a disgusted look. “Come on, Dani. Knock it off. No one’s buying that story.”
“What do you mean? I’m not making this up. He sent me letters. He wrote me poetry. He told me—”
