Colby Agency: Small-Town Secrets Part 16

Lies. That was what those stories had been. Dana hadn't hurt anyone's pets. She hadn't done any of that stuff they said she did.

Donna had lied.

Only the person who killed Sherry and Joanna would have known all the ugly details.

Images flashed in Dana's head. The pillow...Dana clasping it in her hands...holding it over her sister's face. Die.

If Donna killed Joanna and Sherry that would mean...that Dana killed her sister. That was the only explanation.

More of those terrifying images flashed one after the other. First she tried to suffocate her with the pillow...then she picked up the rock...

But Dana hadn't picked up a rock.

She'd been scared to death. Scrambling across the wet gra.s.s. Her nightgown had been plastered to her legs. She'd tried to get away.

"Put that gun down, Ginger."

All three of the women standing over Dana whipped around at the sound of the deep male voice.

Dana blinked. Mr. Bellomy? What was he doing here? Had he come to make things all right? The way he had that night.

Dana jerked with the memory.

She's alive! Everything's gonna be all right, honey.

"She has to tell the truth," Ginger argued. "Something has to be done!"

Mr. Bellomy glanced at Dana. "Just put the gun down, Ginger." When she didn't, he pleaded, "Put the gun down and I'll tell you the truth."

Dana tried to follow the conversation. Mr. Bellomy knew the truth?

Blue lights abruptly throbbed across the night, slicing the darkness.

"Oh, G.o.d, it's the police," Lorie murmured. She dropped the backpack.

Patty slumped to her knees and started sobbing.

The gun slipped from Ginger's hand. Plopped on the soft gra.s.s.

They were all staring at the police cruiser.

Except Dana. She stared at the gun. She lifted her gaze to the four standing around her, her gaze finally coming to rest on Mr. Bellomy.

He was the one to find her.

He couldn't have killed Donna...could he?

Her gaze settled on the gun once more.

Dana scrambled for the weapon.

She had it in her hand and was on her feet while the others were still watching Chief Gerard's approach.

Dana gripped the cold steel with both hands and leveled the barrel on Mr. Bellomy. "I want the truth."

Chapter Nineteen.

Dana had a gun.

The slide of steel from leather warned that the chief had drawn his weapon even before Spence turned to see.

"Drop your weapon, Miss Hall," Gerard ordered.

"Just wait," Spence demanded.

Before the chief could respond, Spence strode as quickly as he dared toward the group gathered around Dana.

"Dana," he said softly, firmly as he cut between Ginger and Lorie. "Put the gun down. You don't want to do this."

"I want," Dana stated in a monotone voice that spoke of extreme fatigue and desperation, "the truth."

She was scared, confused and plain tired.

Gerard came closer. "You'd better listen to your friend, Dana."

Spence wished like h.e.l.l that the chief would lower his weapon. But deep down he understood why he hadn't. "Dana," Spence urged, "one wrong move...one twitch of your finger could set off a chain reaction that none of us wants. Please, lower the weapon."

Her hands shook, but she didn't do as he asked.

"Tell 'em, Waylon," Bellomy said to Gerard. "Tell 'em all. What difference does it make now?"

Spence made a decision at that moment. He was going to show Dana Hall that someone trusted her...believed in her.

"Dana," he said gently. "I'm going to take the gun because I know-" he put his hand to his chest "-that you would never hurt anyone." Then he reached out. "I'm going to take the gun and then the chief is going to tell us the truth, so this nightmare will be over."

Dana's gaze collided with his. The hope, the desperation he saw there tore him apart inside.

Slowly, just a few inches at a time, he moved toward her. He wrapped his fingers around the muzzle of the weapon and pulled it free of her grasp. She dropped her hands to her sides and shuddered visibly.

When Spence had tucked the weapon into his waistband, he moved in closer, put his arm around her and let her lean against him.

"Now," he said to Gerard who had lowered his weapon as well, "we want the truth."

Gerard holstered his weapon. He glanced at Bellomy, who nodded for him to do as Spence asked.

"We believe," Gerard began, "that Donna was a very ill little girl. Her father didn't realize how much so until it was too late."

Dana trembled. Spence held her tighter.

"I don't understand," she protested.

Her voice was thin, shaky. Spence wished there was more he could do...something to spare her the painful reality that was no doubt to come.

"My old hound dog went missing," Bellomy took up where the chief left off. "It was days before I found him." He shook his head. "And when I did, Donna was there. I'd been watching her go off into the woods alone. I followed her. She swore she wasn't the one who killed him. She found him and buried him. But decided to come back and dig him up and make sure she hadn't dreamed the whole thing. And-" he shook his head "-I wanted to believe her, so I did." He moved his head sadly from side to side. "There were other things. Couple of our neighbors had pets go missing. We all figured it was just one of those things."

"She was the one to do those awful things to your cat," the chief said to Patty. "Her father found her writing about it in Dana's diary. She insisted Dana had written it and that she was trying to mark it out so no one would know. She was afraid you'd be in trouble. Your daddy couldn't be sure and, like Carlton, he wanted to believe her. Later he realized he'd been wrong."

"And my dog," Ginger spoke up. "Did she hurt him?"

Even after sixteen years, emotion glistened in the woman's eyes.

Chief Gerard nodded. "Donna did a lot of terrible, terrible things." Gerard settled his gaze back on Dana. "She killed Joanna and Sherry. She wrote about that in your diary, too. To make you look guilty. We didn't find out until later. Your father thought he'd hidden the diary, but she evidently found it."

Dana moistened her lips and took a breath. "How can you be sure she lied about the journal?"

She was still afraid her nightmares might hold some truth.

"And who killed Donna?" Patty got to her feet, swiped her damp cheeks. "None of this answers that question."

Bellomy and Gerard exchanged a look.

"Understand," Gerard said with a pointed look at each person present, "we were reeling from two murders. It hadn't been a week since we'd found those girls dead in their beds. There hadn't been time to put two and two together. We were all stunned when we finally put it all together."

"Your father woke up that night," Bellomy explained. "Maybe he heard the back door slam. Or maybe his instincts had been nagging him, even in his sleep. He got up to check on you girls and you were missing. When your daddy considered that two girls were dead and Donna had been torturing and killing animals for months, it somehow all broke through the fog of denial. He rushed out of the house to try and find the two of you."

Dana couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her sister had killed her two best friends. She'd harmed all those animals. G.o.d, how was that possible?

"I got the call just an hour or so later."

This didn't make sense. "If my father found us, why the search party? The whole thing was in the papers. People looked for hours." Dana didn't have to remember that part. She'd read all about it in the papers.

Gerard nodded. "Two hours to be exact."

"When your mother woke up and found everyone missing," Mr. Bellomy explained, "she rushed outside to see what was going on. Your father had walked back to the house. He was in shock. He kept saying the girls...something happened to the girls...they went into the woods. Your mother called the chief, then rushed over to get me. By the time we got back over to your house, your father was shut up in your room. I sent your mother out to watch for the chief and I begged your daddy to talk to me."

Dana held her breath.

"He-" Bellomy's shoulders sagged in defeat "-said he went to the stream looking for the two of you when he woke up and found you missing. He knew you liked going there. When he found the two of you, Donna was in the process of smothering you with a pillow. Your father said he didn't even think; he just acted. He rushed over and pulled her off you. She fought him, kept trying to get to you. He pushed her away so he could see if you were still breathing. I guess he pushed harder than he meant to. She fell...hit her head."

"Donna was dead," Spence guessed.

Bellomy nodded. "He was beside himself. Thought you were both dead. Something inside him just shut off and he walked back to the house to get help. But he was so disoriented he couldn't get the facts straight." Bellomy blew out a heavy breath. "When I found him in your room, he had his shotgun ready to kill himself. I begged him to let me go to where you were and see if maybe he'd misjudged the situation. He finally relented. I left him with your mother, and I grabbed the closest deputy and headed into the woods. The chief sent the others who'd showed up to search in different directions all over those woods."

"When he got to the stream," Gerard said, "Donna was dead. According to the autopsy the injury killed her pretty much instantly. Just the right pressure in just the right place. Nothing your daddy could've done would have saved her."

"But you were alive," Bellomy said. "When I carried you back to the house, your daddy fell to his knees and cried like a baby."

"But it ate at him," Dana said. "The truth ate at him until he couldn't live with it any longer."

Somber silence was her only response.

"None of this is in the case file," Spence said to Gerard.

The chief shook his head. "What was the point? It wasn't murder. The murderer was dead. Donna's death was an accident. There was nothing to be gained by dragging the Hall family through that kind of ordeal. It was better that no one ever knew."

"Was it?" Dana stepped away from Spence.

"Some had to live with the questions and the doubts," Lorie added.

"Some of us," Dana trumped her statement, "were never able to live at all."

Gerard stared at the ground. There was nothing he could say.

Sixteen years ago Brighton's chief of police had made a decision to protect a family from being further devastated.

And all involved had suffered the consequences ever since.

Chapter Twenty.

Dana stood on the street and reflected on what remained of her childhood home.

It was finally over.

The newspapers and media networks were in a frenzy over the breaking story.

But at least everyone knew the truth.

Dana hadn't killed anyone. In her nightmares she had relived her sister trying to kill her over and over. Since her sister was the one who ended up dead, Dana's mind had twisted the memories, making her believe she'd been the one doing the killing.

Patty, Lorie and Ginger had come to terms with the reality that their game playing was merely the final straw culminating in the complete break from reality of an already damaged mind. That was something the three of them would have to live with the rest of their lives.

Dana's mother had never known the truth. She was stunned, but the truth explained a lot. She had spent fifteen years blaming herself for her husband's suicide. Now she knew it hadn't been about her or their marriage. It had been about his inability to live with the fact that if he'd acted sooner, stepped out of denial a little faster, Joanna, Sherry and Donna all might have lived. But it hadn't been his fault. He'd loved his daughters. He'd made a very human mistake.