Devils Among Us (Devin Dushane Series Book 1) (23 page)

“Was it normal for a car to arrive that late in the
evening?”

“It wasn’t abnormal. Most everybody got out to the Summit by
eight o’clock but there would be a straggler or two later in the evening.”

“Did you recognize the car or notice anything about it?”
Devin was working to keep her tone and expression warm. If she didn’t keep
things light, Beth could get spooked and become emotional, which would not be
conducive to gathering information.

Beth blushed furiously but was still able to answer. “I
didn’t actually see the car, just the headlights.”

“Okay, how long until you left Henry, and what did you do
next?” She gave Beth’s hand another light squeeze.

“Umm, it was about a half an hour, and then I walked down to
the dock and took a picture of the lake and hurried back to the pavilion as
fast as I could. Mandy Copp and Courtney Lawson were two of my friends from
school, so I sat down with them at a picnic table for about ten minutes until
Peter came and asked me to dance and that was right about nine-thirty. He and I
talked until ten-thirty, which is when I started searching for Laney.”

Beth used both hands to wipe away her tears, which were now
falling freely, so Devin switched to rubbing her back instead. She raised her
voice in the direction of the kitchen.

“How are we coming with that water, Adam?”

There was some scurrying in the kitchen, and then Adam
appeared with a glass of ice water, which Devin handed over to Beth.

“Why don’t you have a sip of this?” Beth obediently took the
glass, clutching it like a lifeline. “We’re going to need to talk to Peter when
he gets home, since he was the last person to see Laney, but I don’t see any
reason to discuss this with him right now.”

Devin shot a sideways glance at Adam, and he ducked his head
once in agreement. Beth’s eyes flew wide in terror. She hadn’t even considered
her husband might find out about her teenage indiscretion.

She grabbed Devin’s hand, a fresh batch of tears falling as
she spoke. “Peter’s going to be home in just a few minutes, and I’m a mess! You
can’t tell him, Devin. You just can’t!”

“Shh, it will be all right. I’m just going to ask him what
he was doing that night. I won’t bring it up.” Devin stood up and helped her
cousin to her feet. “You go get freshened up. Do you want us to wait for Peter
on the porch?”

“Heavens, no! I don’t want to have these conversations out
on the porch where the neighbors can see.”

Peter Christianson had the look of someone who had been
blessed in life. His tall athletic frame was still lean and tan. The golden
hair was fading to silver, but was still thick and in place. His wrinkles were
from laugh lines and not worry. His children had grown up to be healthy and
successful, and his marriage was happy. All in all, his life was peaceful and
stable. He burst through the door with his grey suit jacket thrown across his
arm, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up and the Windsor knot of his red
silk tie was already loosened. Dropping the jacket and his briefcase by the
living room door, he caught Devin up in a hug.

“Devin, I didn’t know you were coming for dinner!”

“Well, I’m not really…”

If Peter was surprised to see Adam, he didn’t show it. He
reached out in a firm handshake. “Adam, good to see you.” He stepped back
clapping his hands together looking around the room. “Where’s Beth hiding?”

“Here I am dear.” A tranquil Beth appeared behind him. She
had changed her tear-stained cotton blouse for a clean white knit pull over,
but kept the pale blue and white striped sear sucker capris and white tennis
shoes. Although she had touched up her make-up, there was no hiding her red
eyes. Peter leaned in to give his wife a kiss and then gasped.

“Sweetheart you’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”

Devin was quick to jump in. “That’s our fault. We’ve had a
few breaks in the case, and we needed to pick her brain about that night. I’m
afraid reliving it has been difficult for her. I apologize.” She let him have a
moment to comfort his wife. “We actually need to speak to you, as well. The
more detail we can put together about everyone’s movements, the better timeline
we get, and the more faces we can place near Laney.”

“Sure, whatever you need. Shall we take a seat?” They
resumed their earlier positions with the addition of Peter to Beth’s left on
the couch.

“What time did you arrive at the Summit?

“Seven o’clock. I was anxious to get there and see Beth, so
I was early. I ended up standing around with the guys for a half an hour.”

“What happened after a half an hour?”

Peter grinned and kissed Beth’s hand. “The royal court
arrived. Once Beth and Laney got there, the place came alive. Then I just had
to work my nerve up to talk to Beth.”

Adam interrupted with a statement instead of a question.
“But you didn’t talk to Beth next.”

“No, I didn’t. I was scared to death. Watching her out on
the dance floor having such a good time with all her friends, she was just this
perfect angel who was going to think I was the biggest jerk. I didn’t know what
to say to her.” Beth shook her head and patted his leg smiling benignly. “About
that time, I see Laney having it out with Dean, and that creep’s got his hands
on her. So I shoot over there to take care of it, but she breaks away before I
get there, and I’m thinking ‘this is my chance.’”

Leaning forward, Adam raised his eyebrows. “Your chance to
be alone with Laney?”

The insinuation was lost on Peter.

“Well, yeah.” He plunged ahead not hearing his wife’s gasp.
“Nobody knew Beth better than Laney, and I’d been friends with Laney for a long
time. I was comfortable talking to her. If anybody could help me figure out
what to say, it was her.” The tension in the room eased considerably. “There’s
a low stone wall on the back side of the pavilion where the restrooms were. We
sat on that wall and talked for almost forty-five minutes. She told me the
words didn’t matter, that it was all about how you felt, because someone could
use the perfect words and quote Shakespeare, but if you didn’t love them, you
didn’t love them. Laney said the best thing I could do was to ask Beth to dance
and look into her eyes. Whatever I was feeling right then, say it. Then we had
to figure out a future for it.”

Beth was staring in shock. “Laney told you that? After all
the sweet poetry and things Michael said to her? Why would she say that?”

Peter wrapped his arms around her. “I suppose it doesn’t
matter now. Laney asked me not speak to you about it, because she wanted your
night to just be about us, and after her death, it just seemed cruel to bring
it up. Laney told me she was planning on breaking up with Michael and that as
much as she tried, she just wasn’t in love with him.”

They all sat in silence, processing what they’d just heard.
Adam and Devin exchanged knowing looks. Peter may have thought he was sparing
feelings in the aftermath of Laney’s murder, but what he’d actually done was
withheld evidence of motive. If Michael Leary was about to be dumped, that made
him a suspect.

Devin cleared her throat and tried to get them back on
track. “So after you and Laney talked, did the two of you walk back to the
pavilion together?”

Peter looked vaguely uncomfortable. “Well…no. Laney was anxious
to get back to the party, but I wanted to get my class ring out of my car to
give to Beth.”

Devin saw the look of surprise, mingled with confusion, that
washed over Beth, but decided to let it marinate for a moment. “Did you see
anyone talking to Laney or standing in the area she was headed?”

“There were some girls waiting in line for the restroom, I
think. Other than that, I don’t know. We said good-bye and I jogged off. I
should have walked her back around, but I was in a hurry and didn’t.” Beth
patted his leg again, and he was blindly rubbing her shoulder.

In an interrogation they called this next bit going in for
the kill, but Devin didn’t think of it like that right now. Her voice was warm
but firm and her gaze was very steady. “Did you give Beth your class ring that
night?”

Peter swallowed hard, looking at his knees then, lifting his
eyes to meet Devin’s, he kept his gaze just as steady and shook his head. “No,
I didn’t.” When Devin just waited in silence, he continued. “When I got to my
car, I saw Henry Maddox getting out of the back of his car with a girl…it was
Beth.”

Beth’s hand flew to her mouth in horror, and fresh tears
started to seep out of the corners of her eyes. “Oh, Peter!”

“I was so outraged that a womanizing piece of filth like him
would touch my Beth. It was bad enough the way he mooned around after Laney,
but to…to touch an angel was going too far. I wanted to kill him with my bare
hands, to make him bleed and suffer the way I was suffering. Then I watched
Beth blow him a kiss as she walked away.”

Beth was softly sobbing now.

“And I thought, ‘this is all my fault.’ I should have spoken
up sooner. I couldn’t expect guys to stay away from such a beautiful girl. She
was human and needed to be loved and appreciated.” He paused and buried his
face in his wife’s hair. “I vowed that I would be the one to love and
appreciate her from then on, and I stood in that parking lot until I figured
out a plan for when we’d get married, how we’d live while I was in college, the
whole nine yards. This wasn’t some little high school romance. When I walked in
there and asked her to dance, I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life
with her. I looked into her eyes and did just was Laney had told me. I said,
‘I’m crazy in love with you and I want you to be my girl.’”

Beth looked at Devin and smiled weakly through the tears.
“Can you imagine? The guy you’re sweet on comes charging over and sweeps you on
to the dance floor, staring down at you with these intense eyes and says that
to you? I have to say, I went weak in the knees.”

Adam leaned over and flicked Devin’s shoulder. “If you can’t
imagine it, I could reenact it for you later tonight.”

Devin smacked his hand away and rolled her dark eyes, but
she was grateful for the humor. “Well I think we’ve picked at enough scabs for
one day, so Adam and I are going to go.”

“You’re not staying for dinner?”

“No, we really need to touch base back with the station and
follow up on some leads. We’ll be working for awhile tonight.” Devin gave them
her sunniest smile. “But I’m sure my arm could be twisted to come back for
dinner another night. Oh, and if you don’t mind, I would like to borrow your
photo album. It seems the official file does not have a complete set after all.”

They said their good-byes and were back in the Mustang after
three hours. They would have sworn it had been three days. Adam slid down into
the comfort of his bucket seat and looked over at her through half-closed eyes.

“We don’t really have to go back to the office this
evening.”

“Nope.”

“You just wanted to get out of there.”

“Yep. We just surpassed my emotional threshold for, like, a
month.”

“Do you want to get some dinner?” He went to the effort of
lifting his head off the seat and opening his eyes.

“I thought you’d never ask. I hear the Stone House has great
wings.”

While they had waited for a table, she called Bill to update
him on the Michael Leary situation, and he agreed that first thing in the
morning, they would start trying to track him down. They spent two hours over
dinner trying not to talk about the case, but Devin refused to play twenty
questions about her past, either.

“So how crazy did you think I was when I called a breaking
and entering over the curtains being open?”

Adam twirled his empty beer bottle. “I’m still not convinced
you aren’t completely crazy.”

“Gee, thanks!”

The waitress brought out her chocolate lava cake. “Did y’all
want two spoons for that?”

Devin gave Adam a smug grin of victory. “Absolutely not.”.”
She closed her eyes and savored her first bite. Not speaking again until the
waitress was gone. “You were saying?”

“How incredibly beautiful you look tonight…”

“You’re not getting any of my cake.”

“Fine. I think you’re nuts. Nobody was in your house, and I
think Henry’s fire was nothing more than a terrible accident.” He glanced up
from twirling the longneck bottle. “There, are you happy?”

Devin cracked into the center of the cake and warm chocolate
oozed out. Scooping up a gooey a bite, she took her time sucking every drop off
the spoon.

“Mmmm, this is so delicious.”

Adam smirked. Pushing the bottle aside, he leaned forward
placing his elbows on the table. “I don’t think the fire had anything to do
with what was left at your house, and I see you’ve gotten a lot of movement in
the case with your unorthodox style, but I don’t see how your luck can hold. We
could be way off base on a wild goose chase as it is.”

He had been easing forward across the table as he was
speaking and was so close when he finished that he was able to swipe one finger
through her dessert. He was already leaning back in his chair sucking chocolate
and ice cream off his finger when she gasped.

“I’m sure I could kill a man with a dessert spoon.” She
pointed the spoon at him overtop her melting chocolate. “Hey, that could be
number twenty-eight.”

Adam’s smile was wide and boyish, the long day and the beer
making him very laid back. “I’ll take my chances.”

 “We know whoever left that little present on my doorstep
had been watching me. Why is it such a stretch to believe they would start a
fire as a distraction? They wanted plenty of time with me out of the house and
all eyes focused across the street.” She paused to take two large bites of cake
and quickly melting ice cream. “As far as being on the wrong path, look at the
psychology of the five murders. They tell the story. The first is violent,
fueled by an emotional connection: rage. The next four are planned and mechanical:
there’s no bloodlust or passion to those kills. In fact they found traces of
sedatives in two of the girls, so they were knocked out before they were
killed.” She scooped up another spoonful. “Plus, the locations are too
purposefully random, as if someone took out a map of the state and strategically
picked scattered spots. A true serial killer would have some pattern based on a
roadway, circuit or home base.”