AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t think I ever had a conversation with him.”
“Maybe not, but he mooned over you. Daniel came from money, did you know that? He was even richer than Slade, but he wasn’t right,” she said, tapping her head, “up here. But I could have dealt with that. We were dating, and he got angry with me because I was, and I quote, ‘mean to you.’ First Daniel, and now Slade.”
What the hell is she talking about?There had never been anything between her and Daniel. She’d barely known the guy.
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me you think Daniel had feelings for me?”
“He didn’t ‘have feelings’ for you. He said you’d always been kind to him, and he didn’t like that I was mean to you.”
It made her heart ache that Daniel had thought she was kind. She’d never given him a second thought. Sure, she held a door for him if his hands were full or made space for him in the cafeteria, but Fiona would have done that for anybody.
“Was that the reason you and Daniel broke up right before the party?”
“That was his excuse to go off the deep end and get all dark and gothy and become a tortured artist. When he became the next big thing on the New York artist scene, I went down to see if I could get an interview and maybe rekindle our romance. But he would have no part of it or me.”
“So, you killed him?” Even as Fiona said it, she found the idea shocking.
Diane shrugged. “I didn’t realize he’d put together exactly what happened at the party.”
“What did happen?”
“To that jerk that went over the cliff?” she asked with bored resignation. “He hurt one of my cheerleaders, only no one believed her. He lied about where he was, and his buddies alibied him out. I was so angry. It’s not like I planned it, but the jocks had all been drinking and smoking weed. Mike was drunk too and stumbled and slipped over the edge, but he didn’t fall. He was hanging onto the ledge by his fingers, only his buddies were too drunk to see he was in danger. I wandered over and when everyone’s back was turned, I squashed his fingers with my foot and forced him to let go. I managed to jump back so when his buddies came to see what had made him yell, I came over and screamed. He deserved it.”
“But why Daniel?”
“He saw me. I didn’t think he did, but I realized later he was sitting up high enough to have watched the whole thing. That’s why he broke up with me. Then he went all dark and broody and left for New York. Who knew he’d take the art world by storm and become the critics’ darling? Like I said, I went up to see if I could get an exclusive and he turned me down. When I saw those last four paintings, I knew he’d seen everything. I couldn’t let him destroy the life I’ve managed to scrounge together.”
People thought Daniel had mental issues? As far as Fiona was concerned, Diane was deranged and had been for some time, but that probably wasn’t something she needed to point out to her.
“Look, Diane, I get it. We both know men can be pigs. Look at me. I actually thought Slade cared, but after a night of rollicking good sex…”
“He’s great in the sack—I always thought he would be. Do you know we used to have a peephole drilled through the walls so we could see the boys when they were taking showers? Even back then he was hung.”
“Be that as it may, my point is, he left this morning without a word…”
“You told him you loved him; I heard you.”
“Yeah, I said what I said, but you’ll notice he hasn’t tried to call me back so, there’s that. But my point is, I understand where you’re coming from. I have to tell you, if some guy hurt one of my friends? I’d sure as hell step on his fingers and watch him fall. We both know I was just a port in the storm for Slade. He’s not coming back. You and I can go back to the bookstore, and we’ll destroy everything there and upstairs in my loft. No one else has ever put it together…”
“But you did…”
“Yeah, and I’m telling you I get it. It’ll be our little secret.”
Diane seemed to consider all that Fiona was saying. Fiona was starting to believe she might have talked her way out of it when she heard her phone ring. Diane fished it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID just as the phone stopped. When the text message dinged, Diane pulled it up and read it.
“Too bad; so sad. Slade says he loves you, too.” Diane looked at her with a mixture of pity and envy. “You know, I really don’t understand what men see in you. I never did, but they keep picking you over me. I hated you in high school, when I bothered to think about you, but I’d kind of got to where I liked you. At least, I fucked your husband, broke up your marriage, and watched as he robbed you blind. You were the only woman I could think of who was worse off than me.”
“I get that. I’m really not much of anything…”
“You weren’t, but you seemed to have got your mojo back. I really can’t leave any loose ends. I did that with Mike and look where it got me. I should have taken care of Daniel a long time ago. If I hadn’t let him live, he never would have created those paintings.” Diane brought the gun up. “Anyway, I’m really sorry it has to end this way.”
CHAPTER19
SLADE
Rolling out of Fiona’s bed this morning and leaving her had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. He needed to call into a meeting up in Augusta and decided doing it from his girlfriend’s loft—wait, was she his girlfriend? No. She was so much more than that, and he needed to man up and tell her that. In any event, he didn’t need his boss, Andrew Mills, to know he was shacking up with a woman he’d once suspected was a murderer or even worse, was one of Thorn’s fiancée’s friends. Jessica, Fiona, and the other members of the Mystery Writers’ Murder Club were making a name for themselves.
Regardless of all that, he would have much preferred to spend the morning in bed with Fiona. Instead, he got up, made breakfast, and fixed something for her so all she had to do was punch the Keurig and warm up her breakfast.
