Gina Cresse - Devonie Lace 03 - A Deadly Change of Heart by Gina Cresse Read Free Book Online Page B

the description of the location where Diane Parker’s car was found to Jason.  “You know where that is?” I asked.
    “Yeah.  That’s where we’re headed?”
    “Yes,” I replied.
    Jason pulled over to the side of the road and parked.  I gaped at him.  “Why are we stopping?” I asked.
    Jason pointed his finger in my face.  His eyebrows nearly met in the deep furrow between them.  I’d seen that look on his face before.  He was angry.  “We aren’t moving another inch until you tell me the whole story,” he announced.
    “I told you.  I just want to go look around.”
    Jason opened the driver’s side door and stepped out.  He started walking back the direction we’d come from.
    “Where are you going?” I demanded.  I piled out of the passenger side door and chased after him.  He kept moving.
    “Back to the shop.  Find someone else’s life to mess up today.  I’m not interested in another one of your fiascoes.”
    I stopped and watched him march down the street.  I racked my brain for some way to stop him.  I called out to him.  “If I tell you the whole story, will you come with me?”
    He didn’t miss a step.  He kept walking.
    “Jason!  Please.  I’ll tell you everything, but I’m scared.  I don’t want to go out there alone,” I pleaded.
    He stopped and turned.  “You tell me the story, then I’ll tell you whether I’ll go or not.”
    I told him about the purse in the spare tire, the letter Diane Parker wrote to her husband, the visit out to the Donovan State Prison, the confrontation with Sam Wright, and I showed him the copies of the newspaper articles I’d gotten from the library.  He studied the papers and shook his head.  “I can’t believe you, Dev.  Why don’t you listen to that detective and stay out of this?”
    “Because I think someone killed Diane Parker.  I think maybe her husband killed her, but mostly, I want to find out the truth.” 
    Jason took my shoulders in his hands and gave me a gentle shake.  “The police will get to the truth.  They don’t need you to get in the middle of it.  You could get hurt.”
    I shook his hands off my shoulders and took a step back.  “She’s been dead for over a year.  The police aren’t looking.  Someone owes Diane Parker’s sons the truth.  Someone owes Diane Parker her life.  Someone has to find justice in this.”
    “But it doesn’t have to be you, Dev,” he offered.
    I turned and started back toward the Explorer.  “Then who?  I’m going out there to look around.  You can come, or you can stay.  I’m scared, but I’m not a coward.  I won’t let my fear stop me.”
    I climbed up into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut.  I checked the rearview mirror.  Jason walked toward me, waving.  “Wait!  I’ll go with you.  I’m a fool, and I know I’ll regret it before it’s over, but I won’t be able to live with myself if anything happens to you.”
     
    We parked in the same area where Diane’s car had been found.  The place was deserted.  The only evidence that anything ever happened there was a few scattered pieces of broken window glass.  I scanned through the newspaper articles again.  According the last story, Diane’s body was found about a mile from where her car was parked.  I surveyed the area, looking for a trail, but couldn’t see any obvious signs of one.
    “You hike out here, don’t you?” I asked Jason.
    “Yeah.  Trail’s over this way,” he said as he started off toward a stand of trees. 
    I followed him.  When he got to the trail, he headed north.  “How do we know which direction she went?” I asked.
    “We don’t, but I know the landscape a mile this direction, and there’s a few good spots to get yourself killed if you get too close to the edge,” he answered.
    We’d been walking for over thirty minutes and had seen a few places that could have been the site of Diane’s fall.  There was no detailed description of the exact