Because You Loved Me by M. William Phelps Read Free Book Online Page B

window, lit a cigarette and thought about who she should call first.
    “I wondered then where Drew and, especially, Nicole were. Jeanne’s death was going to devastate those two kids.”

C HAPTER 12
     
    It was near 7:30 P.M . when twenty-five-year-old Carla Hall approached the corner of Dumaine Avenue and Amherst Street. As she turned left at the light beyond Dumaine and made a U-turn heading back down Amherst the opposite way, Carla noticed the commotion going on near her home. She had lived across the street from Jeanne for a little over a year. Now there was yellow police tape blocking the entrance to her and Jeanne’s street, police cruisers, ambulances and fire trucks parked in front of the house.
    What in the world?
    Then she saw the lights. Blue and red and white flashes. It was dusk. Although Carla could see down the street, it was dark enough that the police and ambulance lights illuminated the entire block in pulsating strobes. She could also see clearly that the fuss going on was centered around Jeanne Dominico’s and Donna Shepard’s houses. Carla’s yard was taped off, too. Police officers were waving cars away, not allowing anyone down Dumaine.
    But I live here, Carla thought as she looked for a place to park on the side of the street. What the heck?
    Carla was sure someone had been hit by a car. With Amherst being such a busy major thoroughfare, cars whizzing by faster than they should, she was concerned one of the neighborhood kids had been struck and killed.
    Nicole? Drew?
    Living so close to Jeanne throughout the past year had been, Carla recalled, a life-changing experience. Single, “but living with someone then,” Carla didn’t always have Lady Luck on her side when it came to life and love. She was predisposed, in a sense, to find herself in a continuous struggle, like most, to makes ends meet and run through life unaffected by tragedy and personal loss. But Jeanne had changed Carla’s outlook on it all. She made Carla a better person by simply bringing a positive attitude into her world. Basic things, Carla said, made the difference. Jeanne taught her that no matter what was going on in her life, she could get up every day and take on the world with a new, more positive approach. In doing that, promised Jeanne, her life would get better.
    “Even Jeanne’s smile was contagious,” remembered Carla. “Her voice was comforting and friendly. Very warm. Just the way she always had an optimistic outlook on life in general, especially since I knew her life wasn’t handed to her on a silver platter—although talking to her, listening to the way she felt about others and how she helped people, you’d think it was.”
    After parking near the corner of Amherst Street and Dumaine, Carla stepped out and walked toward several Nashua police officers standing in back of the police tape.
    “What’s going on?” Carla wanted to know.
    “Ma’am,” said one of the officers, “you cannot come down this street.”
    “I live right there, though,” Carla said, pointing to her house.
    The officer shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Sorry.”
    Stepping back from the scene, Carla called Donna Shepard from her cell phone to see if she knew what was going on.
    “Donna, what is this? I’m out here on Amherst. They won’t let me into my house.”
    Donna was docile. After talking to Chris, now having a bit of time to accept what had happened, the tragedy of Jeanne’s death had settled on her. Carla could tell she had been crying.
    “It’s Jeanne,” Donna said. “Jeanne’s dead. She was murdered.”
    “What?” Carla didn’t know how to react. Jeanne was the last person she’d expect to have been found murdered.
    “Call me back,” Donna said.
    “I will. I have to get into my house.”
    Carla walked back to the officer she had spoken to earlier and said, “Hey, I know my neighbor was murdered in there. Can I please get to my house?”
    “How do you know that, ma’am?”
    “I just got off the