Bouquet of Lies Part 45

"She spotted us," Darla said and Lacey turned to look.

Crystal stared at her two daughters, her expression mixed.

This time Darla led with Lacey a couple of steps behind.

Tears began to stream down Crystal's face. Her fingers moved to her trembling lips. Lacey held back and watched Darla be the strong one, the one who knew what to do. Without hesitation her arms went around her mother. Then Crystal responded, hands fisted, clutching the fabric of Darla's s.h.i.+rt as mother and daughter hugged.

"Eighteen years. Eighteen years," Crystal mumbled. "I've hoped . . . I've prayed." The tension and trepidation that had caused her hands to ball into fists lessened. Her hands relaxed. She clutched her daughter with all her strength.

"Not eighteen years," Darla said. "I saw you. You hugged me lots of times."

Suddenly Lacey realized what a risk Crystal had taken, sneaking in the way she had, and any resentment she still had began to melt away.

Darla and Crystal stopped hugging. They held hands, looking at each other. "You're beautiful," Crystal said.

Darla laughed. "Everybody says I look like you."

"Then that's a compliment to me." Crystal's eyes moved to Lacey. "You're beautiful too."

"I saw you once," Lacey replied, ignoring the compliment. "In Darla's room."

"I remember. I scared you."

"I thought you were a ghost."

Crystal nodded. "I came to your room, too, when you were small. You never woke like Darla did. When you were older, I couldn't take the chance. I came most often to Darla. She seemed to be happy to see me."

"I was," Darla said. "I used to pray that you would come. But then you stopped."

"I had to." Crystal looked at Lacey. "I'm sorry. I know from when we talked at the police station that you're bitter toward me."

Lacey swallowed. She had been. But she wasn't now. "I think I get it. What happened wasn't your fault."

"I could have done things differently. Made better choices like you said. But sometimes you don't get a second chance."

"I'd say you have a second chance now." Lacey's tone said she meant it.

Crystal stepped closer with arms extended to let Lacey know she wanted to hug her. Lacey closed her eyes and stepped into her mother's embrace. "I remember your perfume," Lacey said.

Crystal laughed. They stopped hugging. "Funny you should say that. I went upstairs once the cops deposited me here and guess what I found in Harper's medicine cabinet. Don't ask me why I got the urge to look in there."

"Your perfume? Really?" Darla said. "He kept it?"

"I guess. Or he didn't realize it was there."

"He must have known," Darla said. "He kept it. He kept a part of you."

Her sister, the romantic. Father maintaining a connection to Mother. It was silly.

Then she remembered how fastidiously neat Harper kept his bedroom, his office, his things. She realized that he must have known. Was that why he never divorced Crystal? Why he sent her money? Had he loved Crystal even as he rejected her? Maybe Harriet had forced him to let her go.

She heard the loud, somewhat distant crash of a wall being smashed to bits and the rain of debris. .h.i.tting the floor. Uncle D had his sledgehammer.

She turned and saw Jake standing and watching the three of them. She motioned to him and he joined them immediately.

Darla took his arm. "Mom. This is Jake."

Crystal extended her hand. "I'm very happy to meet you."

Lacey decided that she and her mother could talk later. Now that she was in a forgiving mood, she needed to find Dan. Not that he needed to be forgiven if he really called her nineteen times. Maybe she needed him to forgive her.

"I have something to do." Lacey said and Crystal's eyes expressed worry. "We'll talk later. I promise." She kissed her mother on the cheek and her mother grabbed her before she could move away and kissed her back.

Dan was nowhere to be seen in the foyer. He probably went home, she thought, and it would be her turn to call him twenty times. She would too. She'd call him fifty times. Sixty. One-hundred.

Again came the sound of the sledgehammer attacking a wall.

"Give me your phone."

Lacey whirled around. Dan stood behind her. He had a charger in his hand. "Ah. He reappears."

"I was busy. Looking for this." He lifted the charger.

"Anxious to call me?" She handed him her cell phone.

"Nope. I'm going to count. Or rather you are. All the messages I left you."

"I am, huh? Well, it will take a while to charge. What'll we do in the meantime?"

Another boom and rain of debris.

"In the meantime, I have a plan." He moved to a small table that stood against the wall between the door to the library and the door to the sitting room. He plugged the phone into the charger and the charger into the wall.

Lacey tapped him on the shoulder so he'd look at her. "A plan? And I suppose this plan comes with a schedule of just when everything is supposed to happen between us. Although I do seem to recall, your original schedule bit the dust."

Dan didn't crack a smile. "Nope. It comes with a plan for dinner tonight. But after that, lots of uncertainty and mess."

"Now that sounds like a plan I can't live with."

"What?"

"Dinner sounds great. But . . . Didn't you hear? I'm going to college. Planning to be the CEO of my own company one of these days. Hopefully. Maybe. If I've really got what it takes. The point being, I'm pretty sure school comes with a lot of schedules and deadlines and late night studying and things like that."

Dan nodded. "Ah. I see what you mean. You're going to need a whole lot of scheduling."

"Yes, I am. And since you're the Schedule Master."

"And commitment. That's in the cards, too," Dan said.

"Commitment. Right."

His eyes gazed into hers. They were hot and serious and as potent as any touch of his hand.

Suddenly she couldn't breathe. She felt as if she'd been hit by a truck. And not some puny little pickup, either. A big Mac semi.

"I have to sit down." She found a chair and took it. Dan followed and stood before her.

There came the loudest crash yet of metal on drywall and plaster raining down. It wasn't bombs bursting in air, but it was an explosion and the destruction of . . .

He's been right all along. I keep things light to s.h.i.+eld my heart.

He placed his hands on either side of her, clutched the arms of the chair and leaned in. "I use the term commitment and this is what happens to you?"

Crash. More falling drywall.

"No. No, that isn't it."

Crash. Boom. Bang. They were getting closer.

"That isn't it at all." Her chest heaved. She didn't want a wall around her heart. She wanted him. All of him. Not just the physical. She wanted the emotional. The psychological. The fun and the serious. She wanted it all.

He continued to look at her and if there had been a s.h.i.+eld around her heart, it melted in the heat of his gaze.

"I love you," Lacey said. "All of you."

He kissed her.

Uncle D hurried out of the library. He spotted Lacey and Dan and walked over to them. "She's there. We found Debbie."

He slipped a bottle of Tums from a pocket, almost opened it, and stopped. "I don't need these anymore."

"Case closed?" Dan said with a smile.

"Not quite. But it's a slam-dunk. So . . ." He started to put the Tums bottle back in the pocket, but then he looked at Lacey. Then Dan. "Uh-huh." He handed the bottle to his nephew. "I don't need them, but you might." He walked away.

"Hey!" Lacey said. And then she laughed. "Where's my bottle?"

Forty-four.

LACEY RELISHED THE roar of the Yamaha mixed with the whoosh of the wind as she clung to Dan. They sped along the Angeles Crest Highway through the mountainous terrain, whipping past pine and fir trees, the shadows of the trees extending into the road. Lacey turned her head to look at Jake and Darla, not too far behind.

The sun radiated high above, making the day brilliant and warm. Beyond the green-crested mountains, the sky provided a rich blue backdrop with hardly a cloud to be seen. It was Wednesday. They pa.s.sed a handful of cars and motorcycles going the other direction but essentially had the road to themselves. They overtook no one, so no one slowed them down.

When they reached the Switzer Falls picnic area, they easily found a place to park in the lot. It had been more than a year since the horrifying experience with Randy and Ana. The mother-and-son duo had thrown the dice and opted for a trial, rather than taking a plea. Their lawyer tried to make Darla seem like a weak-minded, hysterical girl p.r.o.ne to fantasy. Randy did nothing but love her, said the lawyer, and Ana-a certified Reverend-tried to be her friend. The prosecution brought out the fact that the Reverend's certification was of the mail-order variety.

As for Lacey. Well, Lacey was a wild-child, upset with Randy for breaking up with her, seeking revenge as well as her father's fortune.

Unfortunately for the defense, it turned out that both sisters made excellent witnesses.

"I know what you're doing," Darla said. "People have called me crazy all my life because I thought my mother was alive. But there she is sitting in the audience."

"You also thought she was a ghost," the defense attorney pointed out.

"I did. Because of the headbands and the Reverend Irene."

"Headbands your sister gave you."

"Randy gave me."

"Wasn't this all an elaborate plan by you and your sister to get your father's money and pin the blame on someone else?"

Darla sighed. "Which is it you're asking? I'm weak-minded and duped by Lacey? Or I'm cunning and in on a plot?"

"Move to strike."

"Overruled. She has the right to understand the question."

The lawyer had underestimated Darla.

And when it came to Lacey, the mud he slung was dirty and extra strong. Lacey kept her cool and denied the unsubstantiated accusations.

In the end, the defense couldn't get evidence excluded. The connection between Randy and Ana was undeniable. The two had been overly confident, arrogant and sloppy. Bit by bit, all the red herrings and misleading detours presented by the defense were thwarted by the prosecution. And the defense couldn't explain away the State's mountain of facts.

It took the jury just six hours to convict them both. Each was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Lacey pulled off her helmet and watched Darla pull off hers. "How was that?" Lacey asked.

"Awesome." Darla beamed.

Lacey felt so proud of her sister. She'd blossomed over the past year into someone with more confidence than most of the people Lacey knew.

"I'm hungry," Jake said.

"Food first, hike second," Dan agreed.

"And then we eat again." Jake laughed.

"Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute." Lacey waved her hand and removed a piece of paper from a pocket. She snapped it open and gave each person a Ches.h.i.+re grin. "Let's see if two lunches are on the schedule."

Dan folded his arms and looked at her. "Where did you get that?"

Darla and Jake exchanged glances.