Swan Song (Julie O'Hara Mystery Series) (14 page)

“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have lost it like that. It’s just that I love you so much.”

She kissed him back and then looked in his eyes.

“Do you want to marry me, Hoyt?”

•

Dianna’s mother sighed in frustration.

“Frank, it’s just five or six girls,
a pajama party
, for heaven’s sake. Let her go.”

“Did you talk to Alicia’s mother?” he said. “I don’t trust divorced women.”

“Of course I did. Jane Wells is a good woman; Dianna will be fine with her.”

“All right.
But I want her home first thing in the morning.”

“
Frank, tomorrow is Saturday. There’s no school.”

“I don’t care. You tell Dianna I want her home, in her room by ten, you hear me?”

•

The elopement of the star-crossed lovers was planned with great secrecy and enthusiasm.

Alicia Wells knew that her mother, as usual, would be proof reading in her home office that night. Once Jane Wells had seen to it that the girls were encamped in the basement playroom with their pizza and games, she would stay upstairs and give them their privacy.

Hoyt would be waiting for Dianna at seven o’clock, sharp. The plan was for them to drive to New Hampshire, get married and spend their “honeymoon night” in a motel. Hoyt would return Dianna to Alicia’s house just before dawn. In a week or so they would inform their parents of the
fait accompli
. Everyone would have to accept the fact that they were married. Then Hoyt and Dianna would get a small apartment. All the girls thought it was just
so
romantic!

None of them had a clue about the disaster they had set in motion.

•

It was far from the way Dianna had imagined her wedding day would be. They had barely made it in time. The “Justice of the Peace” was about to shut off his porch light and go to bed when Hoyt and Dianna knocked on his door.

“Is it too late to get married?” asked Hoyt.

“Well, I was about to close up,” said the old man. He had scanty hair, combed across a bald pate and he was holding his shirt collar closed against the cool night air. He looked at them skeptically. “Do you have your marriage license and identification?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Well…alright then. Come on in.”

Hoyt handed over the marriage license and they both gave the man their driver licenses. Dianna held her breath as the official looked over hers, but he handed it back without comment. In short order, they found themselves exchanging vows in what used to be a dining room in front of an arched trellis covered with artificial flowers. At least the official’s wife and her sister, the witnesses, made it seem like a wedding. They fussed over Dianna. One of them gave her an inexpensive little brooch, a gold-toned basket of flowers made of colorful glass stones.

“It’s a bridal bouquet to remind you of your wedding day,” she said.

•

The motel was nothing more than a strip of cabins with parking spaces in front of them. They kissed awkwardly and tried to make themselves comfortable in the strange room.

Dianna went into the bathroom first. She changed into a white lace gown that her friends had given her as a wedding gift. Hoyt was sitting in a chair when she came out and gasped at the sight of her. They kissed more ardently and then it was his turn to use the bathroom.

Nervously, Dianna pulled down the blind, turned out the lights and got into the sagging bed.

Naked in the darkness, Hoyt came out of the bathroom to join her. He walked toward the bed, crossing in front of the cheap window blind just as a car pulled into a parking space. The headlights caught him in perfect silhouette…with a huge erection.

Dianna bounded out of the bed in fear, ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

No amount of pleading could calm her down or get her to come out, although she finally did open the door a crack and throw his clothes out.

“Dianna,
please
stop crying. I’ll take you back to Alicia’s. We don’t have to do this now; we can wait. I’ll take you home…just come out, please.”

Dianna didn’t talk at all on the way home. Hoyt tried to pretend that everything was all right. He said they could plan a “real” honeymoon later.

It was quarter to twelve when they got to the corner near Alicia’s house. Hoyt kissed her and said, “I love you, Dianna. Don’t worry about tonight.” He told her to call him the next day. He would call back, leaving a message with Alicia.

Clutching her things to her chest, Dianna jumped out of the truck and ran.

•

Two weeks had passed since the night of the pajama party.

“You’ve got to see him or
something
,” said Alicia. “He’s calling my house every day!”

“
Shh, they’ll hear you,” said Dianna, pointing to her bedroom door.

“Well, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” said Dianna. She was turning the little flower basket brooch over and over in her hand. “I don’t want to see him; I know that.”

“But you’re
married
to him.”

“I’m not sure I am. I lied about my age, Alicia.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to tell my mother tonight. I have no choice.”

•

“What have you done?! You
tramp
!” yelled her father, swinging at her, knocking her down.

“Nothing!
Nothing!” said Dianna, her arms up as a shield against his blows. “We just said some words and signed some papers! We didn’t do anything, Daddy!”

“Frank! Stop!” said her mother, pulling him off. “Let her alone!
Stop!”

Red-faced and eyes blazing, he backed away from her and tried to control his breathing.

I was a fool to think she wouldn’t tell him,
thought Dianna, cowering on the floor.
But that’s what I am, a fool! I do one stupid thing after another!

“We can talk about this in the morning, Frank!” said Betty, desperate to separate them.

“All right,” he said at last, pushing her out the door. Looking at Dianna he said, “I’ll deal with
you
in the morning.” His voice dripped with disgust.

The door slammed shut.

Dianna spent the rest of the night crying and listening to them fight.

•

The next six months were a living hell for Dianna. Her sixteenth birthday came and went unremarked. Except for school, she was confined to her room, as before. Access to the family bathroom was the only reason she wasn’t locked into it. No one was allowed to visit her.

Her father didn’t believe her when she denied having sexual intercourse. He insisted on a gynecological exam. Dianna was terrified at the thought, so her mother set up an appointment with a female doctor, Elizabeth Merriam, to lessen her embarrassment. Dr. Merriam was very gentle with Dianna during the exam and confirmed her virginity to her parents.

“I don’t believe her!” Frank railed when Betty told him the good news. “You women stick together! I want a second opinion…and
not
from a woman!”

So Dianna was forced to endure the humiliation of another internal exam, this time performed by Michael
Shimberg, a male gynecologist. There was a sharp pain this time…and blood on the table. Dr. Shimberg confirmed Dr. Merriam’s opinion.

At school, Dianna was a virtual pariah. Everyone knew about the elopement. Now she had no girlfriends at all, not even Alicia. There was one group who became
more
interested in her, though. This bunch made lascivious jokes in the corridors at her expense and whistled at her from their cars as she walked home from school.

And then came the day when Dianna and her parents went to court for the annulment of her marriage. Judge
Shiela Townsend not only listened to the attorneys, she encouraged Dianna to explain what had happened. Dianna began with the skating and tearfully told the whole story. She was a “horrible girl”; she deserved to be kept in her room. She didn’t blame her father for not speaking to her, for not believing she was a virgin. She was sorry, so sorry!

“When did you quit skating, Dianna?”

“About a year and a half ago, Your Honor,” said Dianna, clutching a tissue.

A look came over the judge’s face as she asked more detailed questions about Dianna’s skating background. Every so often she asked Frank Wieland a question about his involvement in his daughter’s skating and his feelings about that. Frank was glad that someone finally
understood
about Dianna’s disobedience and her complete lack of gratitude.

Judge Townsend brought the questioning to a close and gave her ruling.

Because the marriage was not consummated and Dianna was under the age of consent, the annulment was granted.

But not before the judge gave Frank Wieland a serious dressing-down.

“For
ten months you all but imprisoned your daughter, Mr. Wieland, simply because she didn’t want to continue skating
.
By calling the parents of her friends, you even cut off any normal social contact your daughter might have had at school. What did you think would be the result of such draconian measures? Is this your idea of good parenting?”

Dianna’s father was in shock.

Dianna’s mother was sad, but not surprised.

Dianna…was in pieces.

* * * * * 

Chapter 27

J
ulie looked at Joe and saw the same look of pity that was in her own heart for this poor mother. Betty Wieland sat in between them in front of the battered shoebox. She wasn’t crying. Julie thought that her tear ducts must be like a dry well, long since emptied.

“What did Frank do, Betty?” she asked gently. “Did he take it out on Dianna?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Frank really
did
love Dianna. He finally saw what condition she was in, what the whole mess had done to her. For the first time in almost two years I think he looked at her and saw how his beautiful daughter had been hurt.

“No, Frank didn’t blame
her
anymore.” She shook her head in disgust.

“It was
Hoyt
who was to blame for Dianna’s devastation as far as Frank was concerned. Hoyt was the one who had to pay. Never mind that there was less than three years between them in age, never mind that he didn’t have sex with Dianna, that he brought her right back when she asked him to, that, according to Dianna, it wasn’t even his idea to go to New Hampshire and get married.

“Clearly Dianna and Alicia cooked-up the elopement. Dianna wanted to escape her home-life and Alicia wanted to help her. Hoyt was a ‘knight in shining armor’ who would rescue her! I daresay Hoyt saw himself that way, too.”

“So what happened?” asked Joe.

“Frank insisted that we see an attorney, Marvin Gold, in Boston, who was recommended by one of his friends. I didn’t want to go. We had known the
Gellers, Hoyt’s family, for years. I didn’t want to prosecute poor Hoyt! What was to be gained by that? The lawyer said pretty much the same thing, too. He said that, ‘
in cases like these, the families usually just let it go’
.” He called it a ‘
Romeo and Juliet
” thing, or something like that, because they were so close in age.

“Frank didn’t want to hear anything like that, though! ‘
Can
I prosecute?’ he asked.
The lawyer asked if Dianna and Hoyt had engaged in sex. Right away I said that they didn’t, that two doctors said she was a virgin. ‘Those kids didn’t even spend one night together!
’
I said.

“Frank told me to shut-up. He said that Hoyt was eighteen, that he was a ‘
man’.

“Mr. Gold asked where the marriage had taken place and we told him New Hampshire. And then he said, ‘In that case, you can prosecute him under the Mann Act. It’s against Federal law to take a minor across a state line for immoral purposes.’

Hoyt was only two-and-a-half years older than Dianna! I pleaded with Frank not to pursue it, but it was useless. His own absolution was tied up in punishing Hoyt.”

“Did Hoyt go to prison?” asked Joe.

Betty put her face in her hands. Her voice was barely audible.

“Yes, for seven years.”

* * * * * 

Chapter 28

Massachusetts, 1997

H
oyt Geller peered through the grimy window of the bus. Dark gray clouds, heavy with moisture, stretched as far as he could see. A storm was coming. Birds lined-up on telephone wires, huddled together. They would fly away to shelter soon, to somewhere safe.

Hoyt had just turned nineteen. Furtively, he looked from one prisoner to the other, searching for a kindred spirit. There was none to be found; he had nothing in common with the older men aboard the bus but an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. One of them, a big man with a shaved head and a gold tooth, caught him looking…and smiled.