Chapter Thirty-Three

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

PAULA SITS UP in bed with her hand on the remote. She's been waiting for this all weekend. ‘Martin, look.' She nudges her husband's attention away from the book he's reading. ‘They know about Turner. Kelly must have spoken to them after all.' She listens intently. ‘What a mess this is going to be,' she says when the report is over. She wonders how well Kelly will cope. ‘It's better that he came forward than they find out about it some other way.' At least, she hopes that's what happened.

‘They don't name him,' Martin says.

‘Not yet,' she replies. ‘I wonder how long they'll be able to keep that quiet?'

She's relieved that the police now know about these allegations of Diana's against the gym teacher. She wants the matter handled properly. If there's any truth to it, if he's been inappropriate with a student, he should not be allowed to teach. She hates that her daughter – that any girl – might be exposed to that. The police will get to the bottom of it.

She thinks again of Diana, how she ended up dead in that field. If Turner had anything to do with that, surely the police will figure it out.

Shelby Farrell is watching the television news. ‘Edward!' she calls, and he quickly joins her in the den. When the brief segment is over, she turns to her husband and says, ‘You know what "inappropriate behaviour" means. So what if it was him? What if he killed Diana?'

She turns suddenly when she hears a sound at the door. It's Cameron. She's surprised to see him out of his bedroom.

‘What's going on?' Cameron asks.

‘We were just watching the news,' she says. She tells him of Diana's complaint about the teacher and his eyes spark with interest. ‘What teacher?' he asks.

‘They didn't give his name, but the police must know who it is,' Shelby says. ‘Do you have any idea who it might be?'

‘She never said anything about it to me,' Cameron says. He looks surprised, and angry. Then he asks, ‘Can I go out for a bit? Can I have the truck?'

‘Why?' Shelby asks.

‘I just want to go get a burger.'

‘You didn't eat your supper,' Shelby observes.

‘Yeah, and now I'm starving,' he says grumpily.

Shelby glances doubtfully at her husband.

Edward says, ‘Do you think that's a good idea?'

‘Why shouldn't I? I haven't done anything wrong. And I'm sick of my room. I feel like I'm going out of my mind. I can't go out during the day – everybody will stare at me.'

Edward glances at him and says, uneasily, ‘Sure, I guess so. Do you want me to come with you?'

‘No.'

Shelby asks, ‘Are you going to see your friends?'

He shakes his head. ‘No. I just want to be alone.'

‘You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?' she asks nervously.

‘I'm not going to kill myself, if that's what you're worried about.'

It is what she's worried about. That, and anything else he might do that wouldn't be in his best interests. Like talking to his friends, saying more than he should. But she suppresses her misgivings and says, ‘Just don't be too long, okay?'

Brad Turner chain-smokes until the apartment is an awful fug of fumes. He's angry at Ellen for not standing by him. He thought she, at least, would believe him about Diana. If she doesn't believe him, who will? Okay, so when that other girl came forward – perhaps it was too much to expect her to stand by him then. But when it was just Diana, she should have listened to him. She should have trusted him.

After he's had time to calm down and think about it, he feels a bit more in control. He tells himself that Ellen will come around – when all this fizzles out for lack of evidence. Because there isn't any evidence, not where Diana is concerned. And no one else has any proof either. It's just Diana and this other girl's story against his.

It must be Zoe Simpson, he thinks now. There's no one else it could be.

He has to be sure of Kelly, though. He needs to talk to him again – remind him that this could destroy him too. What Brad is really afraid of is that Kelly will lose his nerve.

He makes the mistake of watching the late news and learns that the story of Diana's complaint is out there already. They will name him soon. Everyone will know.

He's suddenly desperate to get out of the smoky apartment; he feels trapped and he needs to breathe. He leaves quickly and gets into his car. He must try to talk to Ellen again. Surely she still loves him? It can't be over, just like that.

He finds himself driving down the familiar gravel roads in the direction of Ellen's family farm. He doesn't know what she might have told her parents. Then he realizes they've probably seen the news.

A white cross suddenly looms in his headlights, completely unexpected, startling him. He comes to a sharp halt in the road, staring at it. It reminds him again, plainly, horribly, that Diana is dead. He sits completely still in the car for a minute, unnerved.

He can't talk to Ellen again tonight. He'll give her time for all this to settle down. Because he knows if it's just this one girl against him, it will be her word against his. He'll deny it and keep denying it and all this will go away, and he will marry Ellen in December.

Riley is in her bedroom, sitting up in her bed with her back to the headboard. She's thinking about Diana, tears rolling down her cheeks. She now thinks Joe Prior probably murdered her. Why else would he flee to Canada? He'll probably never come back, he'll disappear and never have to face justice for what he did. The officer who took their information didn't even seem that concerned.

She stares at a photograph of Prior online. He looks like a killer. She can't believe she and Evan actually waited outside his apartment and followed him. What if he'd seen them? But he'd been too keen to get to Canada. And he'd had that canvas bag with him; she keeps thinking about that bag.

Her heart is full of grief, and her tears won't stop. She can't face going back to school tomorrow. She's not ready. Her mom already told her she could stay home tomorrow if she wanted. Maybe she'll never be ready.

She goes back to her texts with Diana and reads them again. There's hundreds of them, maybe thousands. She spends a long time reviewing them. Reading them, and seeing the attached photos, reminds her of everything they've done together and occasionally even makes her smile. Finally, she gets to the last text she ever received from Diana, at 9:52 the night she died.

Cameron on his way over to pick me up.

She looks at the texts she'd written to Diana since:

Morning, see u soon

Hey Diana, I'm in the caf

R U there?

Then:

Hey, Diana. I miss you.

I wish you were here. I wish I knew what happened to you.

She sniffs as her nose begins to run and begins tapping.

I don't know how I'm going to make it through this. The world is so empty without you. We'll find who did this to you, no matter how long it takes.

She leans back, exhausted, and closes her eyes. A moment later there's the ping of a text. Probably Evan, she thinks. She opens her eyes and looks down at her cell. But it's from Diana.

No you won't.

She shrieks and drops the phone.