Just Past Midnight

She tore her gaze away. Something was very wrong here. Her heart began to pound in agitation.

“Did Paul Ryann send you love letters, Dani?”

“I guess you could call them that.”

“Then the two of you were a little more than friends, wouldn’t you say?”

“No. I mean…he never said anything. About liking me, I mean. He didn’t even sign the letters, but I knew they were from him.”

“Wait a minute.” The officer’s gaze sharpened. “Are you telling me you’ve been receiving anonymous letters? What made you think they were from Paul? A popular girl like you must have dozens of admirers.”

A dark chill seeped through Dani’s veins. “I…just knew.”

“You never asked him if he was the one who’d sent them?”

“No.”

“I’d like to see those letters,” Canton said after a moment. When Dani started to rise, he put up a hand to stop her. “You can get them when we’re finished. I still have a few more questions.”

Dani sat back down. Her knees were shaking so hard now she could hardly keep them together.

Canton leaned forward, his gaze relentless. Distrustful. How had she ever found his appearance and manner reassuring? Now his casual behavior seemed contrived, his smile calculated, and suddenly Dani didn’t trust him.

“It might interest you to know that I’ve spoken with a few of your classmates. It’s funny, but none of them mentioned anything about Paul’s infatuation with you. In fact, the way I heard it, you two were pretty fierce rivals. Before he and his family moved here, you were the top student at your school, weren’t you, Dani? You were in line to receive the Belmont Award, which is, as I understand it, worth thousands of dollars. A kid like Paul didn’t even need a scholarship, whereas to someone like you, the Belmont could mean the difference between attending a prestigious Ivy League university and a mediocre state school. A part of you had to resent that.”

Dani stared at him in horror. For a moment, she couldn’t even breathe. Then she said in a terrified whisper, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Of course, you didn’t, she expected her mother to offer in her defense, but instead, it was her father who spoke. He rose slowly from his chair and crossed the room to stand behind Dani.

“That’s enough, Canton. I agreed to let you come in here and talk to my daughter because I didn’t think there’d be any harm in it. But now I see which way the wind’s blowing, and I don’t much care for what I smell. You want to build a name for yourself in this county, do it at someone else’s expense. From now on, we’ll let our attorney do the talking. You understand me?”

Attorney! Since when did they have an attorney? And, dear God, why did she need one? What kind of trouble was she in here?

Dani put a hand to her mouth as the nausea rushed back up her throat.

“If that’s how you want to handle it.” Canton rose. “I think you’re making a big mistake, but there’s not much I can do about it.” His gaze dropped to Dani. “I’d still like to take a look at those letters while I’m here, and…oh, yeah…” He pulled something from his pocket and held it out in his palm. “Do you recognize this?”

Dani leaned forward to get a better look. Then her hand flew to her throat. “Where did you get that?”

“Then you do recognize it?” A triumphant smile flickered briefly across Canton’s lips before he managed to suppress it. “I take it this necklace belongs to you.”

Dani stared down at the glittering chain cradled in his palm. Attached to the chain was a tiny gold “number one” charm her mother had given to her when she’d finished her junior year at the top of her class. The necklace was one of Dani’s most prized possessions; every time she looked at it, she remembered her mother’s face glowing with pride.

If only she could see that same sparkle in her mother’s eyes now. If only her mother would look at her…

Dani lifted her gaze to Canton’s. “I…thought I’d lost it. Where did you get it?”

“George Hendrix found it at his place. You know George, don’t you? His farm is just down the road from Belmont House.”

“We know Hendrix,” Dani’s father said coldly. “Just get to the point.”

Canton shrugged. “Well, it seems George found the necklace yesterday morning out by his fuel tank. But the strange thing was, two of his gas cans were missing and he thought someone had tampered with his pump. He didn’t report it, though, until he heard about the fire early this morning. Then he brought the necklace down to the station because he thought it might be evidence.”

Evidence of what?

Dani’s heart was beating so hard now, she thought everyone in the room must surely be able to hear it. But somehow she knew it was important to keep her composure. Somehow she knew it was crucial that she not let Canton see how scared she truly was.

“You see, we don’t think that fire was an accident. We think it was deliberately set. We think someone stole gas from George Hendrix’s tank, night before last, stashed the cans in the woods, and then went back last night to start that fire.”

Her mother gasped, and it was the first sound she’d made since Dani had come into the room. Her gaze lifted, and the terror in her eyes was like a knife thrust to Dani’s heart. What was her mother so afraid of? Dani wondered desperately. She couldn’t actually think—

“You wouldn’t know how your necklace happened to be at George Hendrix’s place, would you, Dani?”

She felt like bursting into tears, but instead she held on to her poise as if her life depended on it. “No.”

“Didn’t think so.” Canton’s fist closed around the chain. “Tell you what. You run along and get me those letters while I have a chat with your dad here.”

Dani wanted nothing more than to flee to the safety of her room, but as she turned, she glimpsed her brother in the hallway. He’d been standing there listening to every word of the interrogation, and as his gaze met Dani’s, another chill went through her.

It was the first time she’d seen him smile since he returned home.

THE LETTERS WERE GONE. They were not in Dani’s top dresser drawer where she usually kept them, nor in any of the other drawers. They weren’t under the bed or in her purse or hidden inside her closet.

Dani knew she wouldn’t have misplaced them. Her room was too neatly organized for that. Her belongings were all carefully sorted and stored. Everything had its place, including the letters.

But, desperate and terrified, she tore the once-tidy room apart anyway. The letters were nowhere to be found. They’d simply vanished. Or been stolen.

But how could that be? No one else had even known about them. No one but Paul, and now he was dead.

Paul was dead, along with his parents, and the police blamed Dani. They thought she’d started that fire with gasoline she’d stolen from George Hendrix’s fuel tank.

They couldn’t seriously believe her capable of such a thing, could they? She’d lived in Allentown her whole life. Everyone knew her, knew that her behavior was always above reproach.

So why, why did Officer Canton seem to have it in for her? His suspicions were unfathomable—

Dani whirled as the hair lifted at the back of her neck. Nathan stood in the doorway again. Watching her.

Lazily, he scratched his arm. “Lose something?”

And it suddenly occurred to Dani just exactly what had happened to those letters. She flew across the room and grabbed the front of his shirt. “Did you take them? Did you?”

Her outburst clearly startled him. “What the hell are you talking about? Take what?”

“You know what I’m talking about! My letters from Paul.”

Nathan gave her a disgusted look. “Come on, Dani. Knock it off. No one’s buying that story.”

“What do you mean? I’m not making this up. He sent me letters. He wrote me poetry. He told me—”