In my grief, I hadn’t thought that through. “God, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking.” I rubbed my face. “Wait a second.” There was a “she” in her journal. But Beth was surprised by Thea. Publicly, he had a girlfriend, and then there were Beth and Thea, possibly more. “She’s always referring to his girlfriend—the one who was out of town when Beth went to the house.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t make any sense, though. If he were a high school student, he didn’t live with his girlfriend.”
“I think she meant that he would normally be hanging out with her?”
“I don’t know, Cole. The way she said it doesn’t add up.”
A horrible thought occurred to me. “Unless he was an adult. Maybe she was a wife, not a girlfriend.”
Sweat dampened the palms of my hands. “A man? A married man? But she was seventeen years old. Who would sleep with a minor?”
“Men see seventeen-year-old girls who looked like your sister as a woman, not a girl. Especially if their morals aren’t exactly virtuous in the first place.”
“Beth and Thea were sleeping with an adult? A married man?” This idea had not occurred to me. Not once. Since finding the journal I’d assumed it was another one of our classmates. “This means any married man who lived here in 1989 could be the killer. Or even ones with a girlfriend they lived with.”
“And Thea knows who he is,” Cole said. “We should go see her. Ask her point-blank.”
I nodded as I jerked to my feet. “I know where her mom lives. Right in town on the same street as the Catholic church.”
Cole jerked to his feet. “Let’s go.”
We sprinted back to the truck.
I yanked open the passenger-side door. “Wait, what about Moonstone?”
She was on the other side of the park with her hands folded behind her back while looking into the water of a small pond.
“Text her that we’ll meet up with her later,” Cole said as he thrust his cell phone my way. “I want to do this now.”
I agreed. For some reason, timing seemed of the essence. I’d waited thirty years for Thea to tell the truth. “It’s about time she did what’s right.”
I sent a quick text to Moonstone that we had something urgent to do but that we’d come back and treat her to lunch at the pizza place if she would be so kind as to meet us there. She texted back right away that she’d see us around noon.
My mind couldn’t exactly keep up with what was happening. We were going to know at last who he was. Then what? Would we even be able to find him? Was he alive still? He had to be. Unlikely he would still be in town. Thea would tell us. She would have to when I explained why we needed the information. Although maybe she knew who had killed Beth all along. Maybe that’s why she felt so guilty. I seethed. If that were true, I would not be able to control my rage.
Cole drove through the downtown area of Logan Bend, then took a left off Logan Drive and another at Third Street. The Catholic church was a large brick building that took up an entire street block. “It’s just a few houses down from here,” I said. “Used to be light blue with white shutters.” I leaned forward, my heart beating fast as we passed one house and then another. “There. That’s the one.” I recognized the metal fence, even though the house was now yellow with black shutters.
That’s when I heard the sirens. I looked behind us to see an ambulance barreling down Third Street. I turned back to the front to see a cop car coming from the other direction. Cole pulled the truck over and parked behind a car on the street. The ambulance passed us and then pulled into Thea’s mother’s house.
“No, no. Cole, no.” Thea was hurt or dead. The killer knew she was going to talk. Please, please, don’t be dead. I knew it even as I told myself the opposite.
Cole cursed under his breath. “This can’t be happening.”
We sat in his truck watching as Thea’s mother, wearing a pink housedress, came running out of the house waving her arms frantically. The paramedics ran into the house.
Cops got out of their parked car and sprinted across the driveway and into the house. A few minutes later, one paramedic came out of the front door and over to his ambulance. He pulled out a stretcher. “Oh God, Cole. He killed her. He knew she knew.”
“Which means he’s here somewhere.”
“Do you think it was him the other night?” A cold dread chilled me to the core. “He wants me dead, too.”
He didn’t answer except to reach for my hand.
Paramedics came out of the house, carrying the stretcher. A blanket covered the body from head to foot. Z had killed Thea in her mother’s home.
We waited until Ford came out of the house. The moment I spotted him, Cole and I jumped from his truck and ran toward him. He must have seen us, because he headed in our direction.
“What happened?” I asked, breathless.
“Sharpshooter took her out.” Ford pointed to the church. “We think he or she was up on the roof of the church. Looks directly into the Moores’ backyard. She was out there sunbathing. One shot in the head.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “Just when we thought we’d caught a break.”
“How so?” Ford asked.
I started to explain, but then pulled the journal entries out of my purse. “Read for yourself.”
We waited for what seemed like days for him to finish.
“This is rough stuff,” Ford said.
I vowed to myself not to cry. “Thea knew who killed Beth. I think she was going to come to you. She had something else to do first.”
“Agreed. I’m sorry, Carlie.” Sheriff Ford squeezed my shoulder. “This is a setback. But I’m going to talk to Mrs. Moore. She
