Chapter Thirty-Nine

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, 1:30 p.m.

Riley is mad at me, but I can't help it if I don't believe her. I'm not going to pretend I do. All this about spirits and the Ouija board. It was either Sadie up to some prank, or some kind of group hysteria.

Although I admit it would have freaked me out if we'd found a grave for that boy with the correct name and dates.

My parents have gone to work and I'm alone in the house this afternoon. I need to think, to write. But I might go back to school soon.

The killer sent a text to Riley. It made the hair rise on the back of my neck this morning when she told me, in confidence. Why would he do that? I can tell Riley is frightened. She's afraid he knows who she is, that he might be watching her. That she might be next. She had a complete freak-out in the cemetery this morning, telling me this, after we couldn't find that grave. I calmed her down eventually. She asked me to walk her home. She even asked me to wait, after she unlocked her front door, while she checked the house to make sure it was empty. I offered to come in and help her look. It was bizarre, the two of us going all over the house, checking the closets and under the beds, confirming the windows and doors were locked. I think Riley is losing it. But she has a point. There's a killer out there and nobody knows who he is. And they seem to think he killed Diana inside her house. And he had the audacity to text Riley. Why would he send that message? What's to be gained from it? Other than to scare her?

The police took her phone – they said they wanted it in case he sent another text. But I doubt he will. If he is watching Riley, he'll know that the detective went to her house last night, and why. It would be risky to contact her again.

Riley called me first thing this morning from her landline and told me everything. Her mom had to go to work, so as soon as the stores opened I picked Riley up and we went to buy her another phone, a cheap one, because she didn't know when she'd get hers back. And then we went to Mrs Brewer's, to help her with the funeral. She doesn't seem to have anyone else. It's so sad.

I think I might go to my last class this afternoon and hang around a bit after. See what people are saying. Especially since it hit the news about Mr Turner. Everyone knows now that Diana complained about him. Looks like Riley's call to the news station did the trick. But it seems hard to believe that he might have killed her. He seems like just a regular guy. But then so does Cameron.

Paula knocks quietly on Principal Kelly's open office door. She's on her free period, and Kelly's alone in his office, looking haunted. He glances up at the sound of her tap and seems to relax a little when he sees that it's her. He waves her in.

‘Graham,' she says, closing the door behind her. She comes in and sits down in the chair opposite his desk. ‘How are you holding up?'

‘Well, you've seen the news, I'm sure,' he says testily. ‘Everyone has.'

She nods. ‘You did the right thing, going to the police. You had no choice.'

He draws a hand down his face. ‘I might as well tell you,' he says. ‘It's probably going to be in the news soon enough. There's another girl who's come forward. She's already gone to the police with similar accusations.'

She looks at him in dismay. No wonder he seems so upset. This is what she feared – that what Diana claimed might have been true. That she might not have been the only one. Had Graham known about this other girl? Her voice sharpens. ‘Who?'

‘I can't tell you that. The police called me and asked if I knew anything about it, but I didn't. I had no idea! She never came to me. That's God's honest truth.' He adds abruptly, looking at her with his troubled eyes, ‘Brad doesn't have an alibi for the murder.'

She swallows, her throat suddenly dry. Because Graham looks as if he thinks Brad might have killed Diana. That wasn't his feeling when she spoke to him on Friday.

He clears his throat nervously. ‘Paula, you know me, you know I'm a good person, right?'

She nods, but she can't bring herself to speak.

‘I try to do the right thing.' He leans closer toward her, lowers his voice. ‘When Diana came to me and made those allegations against Brad – the three of us were here in this room. He strenuously denied them. It was her story against his.' He hesitates and adds, ‘I haven't told you this, but she'd lied before.'

‘What?' Paula starts in surprise.

He nods. ‘She was caught cheating on a science assignment. She denied it, over and over. But then she admitted it. So I wasn't inclined to believe her.'

Paula is completely taken aback; she would not have believed it of Diana.

‘And there was another thing,' Graham continues. ‘She didn't want it to go any further – in fact she insisted that we tell no one, that it stay very quiet. I suggested she go to the police, but she wouldn't. Because of that, too, I didn't believe her. I thought she was lying.' His eyes shift away from hers.

‘But I didn't exactly follow protocol. I didn't report it. I kept it unofficial – just a note in my own file. The only ones who knew about it were me, Brad, and Diana. And you.' He looks at her then.

Paula, shaken, says, ‘You're required to report it, whether you believe it or not.'

He nods, clearly distraught. ‘I should have, and I didn't. I should have believed her. And now she's dead.'

Paula leaves, distressed, to get to her next class. It's Graham's fault that he's in this mess. He's obviously mishandled things. She's shocked that Diana was caught cheating, and that she lied about it. She's troubled, too, by what Graham said. He'd suggested Diana go to the police, but she refused. So it must have been something fairly serious, not something minor, like he told her before.

She wonders again what exactly these allegations were, and why Graham now seems to think he has Diana's blood on his hands.