But on Saturday morning, while she was worrying over the one good dress she had that she was wearing to the dance, there was a phone call.
She answered the phone herself. Her mother was sleeping late—she and Carly had gone out on the town the night before—and she was expecting to hear from Clark. But it wasn’t Clark.
“Has your mother put the house on the market yet?”
She knew that voice. It wasn’t her father’s. It was Jock’s.
She hesitated, sick with fear.
“Answer me, damn you!”
“N-no,” she stammered. “She hasn’t…yet…”
“You tell her she’d better get moving. I know what she and your father did. He may not want to tell, but I will. You hear me, Keely?” And he slammed the phone down.
Keely wouldn’t have understood the threat even a week ago. She understood it now. She couldn’t very well go to Hayes Carson and tell him that her mother had been accessory to a homicide. There could be no protection from that quarter, especially if Hayes found out who the homicide had been. Clark couldn’t help her, either. She didn’t dare involve Boone. She sat down, sick and frightened, and wondered what in the world they were going to do.
* * *
LATER, WHEN ELLA woke up, Keely had to tell her about the phone call.
Ella was hungover, but she sobered quickly. “Jock knows, then? I was afraid Brent would get high enough to tell him.”
“What can we do?” Keely asked miserably.
Ella drew in a long breath. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about this.”
“You don’t have the time!” Keely said. “What if he goes to the sheriff?”
Ella looked at her daughter and actually smiled. “Thanks,” she said huskily. “It means a lot, after the way I’ve treated you, that you’d mind if I went to jail.” She shrugged. “Maybe it would be just as well to get it out in the open, Keely. It’s been so many years…if I had a good lawyer…”
“Yes,” Keely was agreeing.
She glanced at the younger woman, so hopeful, so enthusiastic. Ella knew that no judge in Jacobs County would let her walk away from a homicide; not when the sheriff’s brother was the victim, regardless of how much time had transpired between the death and the present. Keely was young and full of dreams. Ella was long past them. But she might be able to do something to save her daughter. She might be able to spare Keely, if she had the guts to do what was necessary.
“We’ll work something out,” she assured the younger woman. “You’re going to that dance with Clark, aren’t you? He’s very nice. Maybe he’ll marry you.” Her eyes looked dreamy for a moment. “He’s a good man. He’d take care of you, and you’d have everything you wanted.”
“Clark and I are just friends,” she said.
Ella glanced at her curiously. “It’s his brother, isn’t it? I didn’t do you any favors with the lies I told him. I could call him up and tell him the truth.”
“No,” Keely said at once.
Ella stared at her. “You loved him, and I screwed it up for you. I’m sorry.”
“He thinks I’m much too young for him,” Keely said with a sad smile. She was remembering the way Boone had talked to her at the library and hating circumstances that had robbed her of even a chance with him. Now that she knew the truth about her parents, any sort of a relationship with him would be impossible. Boone Sinclair, with his sterling reputation and impeccable bloodlines, wouldn’t stoop so low as to marry the daughter of drug users and murderers.
“You look so sad,” Ella said. “I really am sorry.”
“I know. It’s all right,” she replied.
Ella got up. “You’d better finish pressing your dress. I’d offer you one of mine,” she added, “but you’re much too slender.”
“Thanks for offering,” Keely said gently.
Ella smiled back, and something twisted deep inside her as she recalled how cruel she’d been to her child. She was sorry about it now. Maybe she could make amends. Maybe, just maybe, she could spare Keely any more heartbreak if she went about it right.
* * *
CLARK WAS RIGHT on time to pick up Keely. She was wearing a pretty green velvet dress that clung lovingly to her pretty figure all the way to her shapely ankles, with a fox stole that belonged to her mother. Ella had insisted that she take it. She also had high heels that were expensive and pretty, another loan from Ella, who wore the same shoe size. Keely had no evening shoes at all, never having had occasion to wear them. Her blond hair was clean and shiny, neatly combed, and her eyes were full of dreams.
“You look gorgeous,” Clark said suddenly as he helped her into the car. “I mean it. You really do.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Clark.”
He got into the car, thoughtful. When he frowned like that, he reminded her of Boone.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I was thinking that I’ve been using you and it’s wrong.”
“I don’t mind.”
“That’s what makes it so bad,” he replied. “I’m doing things I don’t like just to keep Boone from asking questions about my girlfriend.” He glanced at her. “If I really cared about her, I’d be doing things differently, wouldn’t I, Keely?”
She was surprised by his attitude, and the question. “You’re in love. It makes people do odd things.”
“Am I? In love, I mean?” He accelerated around a curve. “I’ve invested in a king’s ransom of jewelry and designer clothes for Nellie. She hasn’t refused a thing. In fact, she’s made suggestions about what I could buy her that she’d like best.” He glanced at her. “I can’t get you to accept a pair of inexpensive earrings.”
She flushed. It sounded very much as if Boone had made some idle comment that had started his brother thinking about things.
“I don’t like jewelry.”
“Of course you like it, Keely. All women like jewelry,” Clark replied. “But you
