Low Pressure

No one was interested in him and Bellamy.

Coming back to her, he asked, “Who-all knows about your memory block?”

She looked at him with an expression that spoke volumes.

When he realized what she was telling him, his jaw dropped. “You’re shittin’ me.”

“No,” she said softly. “You’re it. I never told anyone. My parents were so upset over losing Susan, over everything, I didn’t want to add to their anxiety. When Moody talked to me, I told him the version that I ultimately wrote in the book, and for all I knew that was true.

“I tried to remember. I swear I did. But then Strickland was arrested. Moody and Rupe Collier were confident that they’d solved the mystery, so it seemed less important that I recall everything.

“During Strickland’s trial, all I was required to testify to was how suggestively he and Susan had been dancing, and I could truthfully answer those questions. I couldn’t point the finger at Strickland and positively identify him as Susan’s killer. Nor could I deny that he was. But neither could anyone else in that courtroom.”

“He was convicted with only circumstantial evidence.”

“A preponderance of it.”

“But no physical evidence.”

“They matched his DNA,” she argued.

“A couple strands of his hair. Susan’s clothing also had traces of Mr. So-and-So’s dandruff and Mr. What’s- His-Name’s skin cells. She’d danced with a lot of men. She was crawling with DNA from a dozen or more people.”

“But Strickland’s saliva—”

“He admitted to kissing her open-mouthed and that his mouth had also been on her breasts.”

“What you’re saying is that you think Allen Strickland killed her.”

“No. I’m only saying that he was Moody’s best guess. But if Allen Strickland was the guilty party and sent to Huntsville to contemplate his sin for twenty long years, justice was served, right? Why, then, is somebody terrifying the hell out of you for bringing the world’s attention to it? And speaking of…” He placed his arm over her shoulder and brought her close to his side as he turned around and started walking away from the swing set. “I wonder who the guy in the pickup is.”

“What guy? Where?”

“Don’t look.” He hugged her tighter to keep her facing forward. “Just keep walking.”

“Someone is watching us?”

“Can’t be sure. But the same truck has driven by twice in the last few minutes. I wouldn’t have thought much about it except that he’s now coming by for a third pass. This is a pretty park, but I don’t think he’s admiring the duck pond or the gazebo. He doesn’t look the type.”

“What type does he look like?”

“I can’t make out his facial features, but his truck screams bad-ass bubba. Lots of bumper stickers, skull and crossbones on the mud flaps, get-the-blank-out-of-my-way tires. I’d bet money there’s a gun rack in the cab.”

“You noticed all that?”

“I’m used to searching the horizon for aircraft I must avoid, which usually look like a moving speck. One pickup roughly the size of my apartment is easy to spot. Do you know anyone who drives a truck like that?”

She shot him a look.

“I didn’t think so.” He stopped and bent down as though to pick a dandelion, and in the process glanced down the street in time to see the pickup round a corner a few blocks away. “Gone.”

Bellamy looked in that direction, but was too late to catch a glimpse of the pickup. “It could have been anybody.”

“It could have been, but I’ve come down with a bad case of paranoia.”

“I think we’re both being paranoid.”

“Don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter, A.k.a. You had a meltdown a few minutes ago. You’re scared, with reason. You said yourself that our guy doesn’t want you to remember what really went down.”

“I said that, yes, because I know about my memory loss. He doesn’t.”

“Which makes him even more desperate to learn what you’re up to, why you’ve stayed silent till now.”

“If I’d known something crucial to the case, I would have come forward with it during the investigation. I would have told everything I saw.”

“Not if what you saw scared you senseless.” He looked deeply into her eyes and said what she probably knew but hadn’t had the courage to acknowledge, even to herself. “Like witnessing your sister’s murder.”

She recoiled. “But I didn’t.”

“Someone thinks you might have. I think you might have.”

“Well, you’re wrong. I would remember that.”

“Okay,” he said, not wanting to add to her distress. “But we need verification of everything you do remember, or think you do. We need someone who was there to fill in the gaps that you and I can’t.” He hesitated. “We need to talk to your parents.”

“About this? Absolutely not, Dent.”

“They need to know.”

“I won’t resurrect the worst time in their lives.”

“You already did.”

“Well, thank you for reminding me of that,” she snapped. “When I began writing Low Pressure, I didn’t know that it would be published when Daddy was fighting for his life.”

“You may soon be fighting for yours, and they would want to know that.”

“You saw a redneck in a souped-up truck, like that’s a rarity in Texas. But suddenly my life is in danger? You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”

“Oh, denial now. That’s healthy.”

She had the grace to look away in concession.

“Your parents need to know about the potential danger.”

Adamantly, she shook her head.

“Howard’s got money. He could hire a bodyguard for you.”

“Have you lost your mind? I’m not going to have a bodyguard.”

He backed down from that. “Tell them, Bellamy.”

“No.”

“Talking about it with them could shake something loose.”

“I said no! And that’s final. Drop it.”

He hadn’t counted on getting her to agree, but her insistence was aggravating. He placed his hands on his hips and exhaled. “Okay then, Steven. And before you butt in with all the reasons why not, hear me out. You and he were at least in the same general vicinity when the tornado struck, which coincides with the time your memory goes kaput. He’s the next logical choice of who we should talk to.”

Reluctantly, she mumbled, “Probably.”

“Did he help supply you with missing facts when you were writing the book?”

“We met once in New York for lunch.”

He waited expectantly to hear more, but when she offered nothing, he said, “I’m not interested in what you ate.”

“Steven wasn’t very forthcoming with his impressions of that Memorial Day.”

“Why not?”

“He wasn’t very forthcoming about that, either.”

Dent frowned.

“Don’t read anything into it,” she said. “That was a terrible time for him, too. It’s in his past. Over. Buried. I don’t really blame him for not wanting to talk about it.”

“You said he went back east when he left Austin. Where?”

“He’s in Atlanta now.”

“Atlanta.” He checked his wristwatch, then resumed walking, but at a brisker pace. “If we hurry, we can make the four-thirty nonstop flight.”

“How do you know there’s a—”