If You Ever Tell (20 page)

“Yes, I know. Especially teenagers. They think the house is cool because of its gory history. Anyway, the realtor didn’t say much, but it seems the potential buyers are a young couple from California and they thought the house’s history was intriguing—it seemed to be more of a selling point than a detraction, because the husband is a writer of horror novels. He’s not famous, but he’s sold a couple of books. I have no idea why the couple decided to move to West Virginia, and in my shock over being able to finally unload the place, I’ve already forgotten their name,” Kent added dryly.

“Who cares?” Teresa asked, elated that the place was selling. So often she had overheard people referring to the house in which she’d grown up as “horrible” or “a house where no normal person would want to live.” Yet she hadn’t liked the idea of destroying the house, in spite of its tragic past, because her mother had loved it, appreciating its fine craftsmanship, cherishing its history that dated back to 1925, when it was built. Nothing bad had ever happened in that house—nothing bad until Hugh Farr had bought it and soon begun setting off a chain of events that would end in murder.

“So is it all right that I told the realtor we accept the offer?” Kent was asking.

“Thanks for waiting to ask me first,” Teresa answered wryly. “But yes, it’s all right. We still have to move out all the furniture. What will we do with it?”

“Taken care of,” Kent said briskly. “You go to the house tomorrow and see if there’s anything you want right now. I don’t want anything and neither does Sharon. After all, Wendy got rid of most of the stuff that belonged to Mom. Anyway, I’ll let Jason know, too. Maybe there’s something left in Celeste’s room he wants.”

“I doubt it and who could blame him? His daughter was almost murdered in there,” Teresa said, feeling a shiver even in the heat of the afternoon. “But after all these years, he might feel different.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Kent sounded hurried and distracted. “Anyway, I’ve rented a storage space and arranged to have the furniture moved there in a couple of days.”

“You don’t waste any time, do you?”

“I just want to get this deal done. I thought you’d feel the same way, but if I’ve jumped the gun…”

“No. I want the deal done, too, as you put it. I’ll check out the house tomorrow, and if I want anything, the movers you’ve hired can bring it here.”

“Great.” Kent paused, and Teresa had a feeling that for a minute he’d stopped shuffling papers, signing his name to letters and contracts, and given himself time to think. “Teri, I will be so glad to be rid of that place. For eight years, we’ve made sure it’s well maintained. I know I should go by regularly to make certain it
is
being maintained properly, but frankly, I usually assign that task to a guy I trust who works for me because I don’t even like to think about the house, much less look at it.”

“I haven’t even driven past it for over a year, and I haven’t been inside since a couple of weeks after the murders. Now neither one of us has to worry about it anymore. It’s finally become someone else’s problem.”

“Thank God.” Kent sounded happier than she’d heard him for a long time. “This is shaping up to be a good day. By the way, how did my son do during his first riding lesson? Was he tired after the first whole hour?”

“Well…” Teresa hated to spoil Kent’s mood, but there was no point in lying to him. He’d just find out the truth from Daniel. “He didn’t stay for a whole hour.”

“Why not?” Kent asked warily.

“Sharon got nervous and thought half an hour was long enough for his first lesson and she—”

“Made him leave.” Kent’s voice somehow sounded flat and angry at the same time.

Teresa immediately regretted having said anything to him except that the lesson had gone well. He
should
have heard what happened from either Daniel or Sharon, not from her. She wanted to smooth things over a bit. “Kent, we both know Sharon wasn’t crazy about the idea of riding lessons. Then, after half an hour, I heard that the mother of one of my other students canceled—probably for good—and I made a ridiculously big deal over it. Anyway, I’m certain
I
gave Sharon a reason to think she should take Daniel home.”

“And was he happy to be taken home early?” Kent asked sarcastically.

“Daniel had a good time while he was here, and as I said, maybe half an hour was enough time for him. You ride, so you know if you’re not used to it and you stay on the horse too long, particularly if it’s your first time on a horse, you can strain muscles and—”

“Don’t evade my question, Teri. How did he act when Sharon took him home?”

“He wasn’t happy.”

“Define ‘wasn’t happy.’”

Teri felt cornered. “He cried,” she admitted, and her brother swore under his breath. “But even if he’d stayed longer, he probably would have cried when it was time to go home. He just loves the pony, Kent. And he was all dressed up. I think he had plans to stay the whole day and thought he could charm Sharon into letting him. This is really nothing to get mad about, Kent. Sharon knows her child. She knows what’s best for him,” Teresa ended unconvincingly.

“You don’t have to sugarcoat how Sharon acted, Teri. I’ll be having a talk with her about this as soon as possible.”

“Oh, Kent, don’t overreact about today’s lesson. I know she needs to lighten up about the riding lessons, but give her some time. Riding
can
be dangerous. Sharon just hasn’t seen how particularly careful Josh and Gus are with children.”

“I’m mad about more than her worrying over riding lessons. This hoopla she’s creating over the lessons is part of a problem that’s been brewing between Sharon and me for months, and it’s time I finally had it out with her.”

“What problem?” Teri couldn’t help asking.

Kent hung up with a bang and Teresa’s mood sank even lower. Certainly Kent needed to talk to Sharon about her possessiveness of Daniel, but not when he was angry. She knew they would have an argument tonight and it would be Teri’s fault for stirring up his emotions. If there was one thing a couple having problems did
not
need, it was a meddling relative—

The phone rang again and when Teresa looked at Caller ID and saw the call was coming from the barn, she felt like not answering. More trouble with Sharon probably, she thought. Dread filling her mind like a dark cloud, Teresa picked up the phone and said, “What’s the problem, Gus?”

“Oh, no problem!” Teri instantly recognized his falsely cheerful tone. “Just wanted to let you know you have a couple of unexpected visitors.”

Teresa waited a moment, fully expecting him to say,
The sheriff and his deputy are here to question you about the night of the murders
. She heard voices, one sounding like a young woman’s; then came the overly loud laugh Gus used to mask surprise or dismay. Finally, a notch below yelling, Teresa demanded, “Gus, who the hell is at the barn?”

“Well, you’ll never guess,” Gus boomed. “It’s Jason Warner and his little girl. Miss Farr, Celeste Warner’s come to see you!”

Celeste!

Teresa stood speechless, her mouth slightly open. Since the murders, not one day had gone by that she hadn’t thought of the lovely child with large, sad blue eyes who Wendy had dragged into the Farr home after her triumphant marriage to Hugh.

At first, Teresa had decided to be nothing more than polite to the girl. Then Teresa had noticed how Celeste crept around the house as if she was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, how she’d avoided her new stepfather, and how she often simply sat on the floor of her suffocatingly frilled and ruffled bedroom holding her large teddy bear and chanting childish rhymes of her own creation.

One day Teresa had heard Celeste pouring out her loneliness and unhappiness to the teddy bear, Yogi, who seemed to be her only friend. Touched, Teresa had entered Celeste’s room and tried to talk to her, but the child had been too timid or too wary of her new stepsister to answer. After several more tries, though, Celeste had begun to talk more, and within a month she and Teresa regularly played and giggled together like contemporaries. Soon, Teri realized she’d come to love the child as much as if she’d been Marielle’s child instead of Wendy’s.

Then, after the murders, a seriously wounded Celeste had been wrenched away from Teri. She’d thought she’d never see the girl again, but at last, unbelievably, Celeste had come to see her. She was down in the barn as if she were a regular visitor, not the child so many people once thought Teresa had tried to murder.

After a moment of stunned silence, Teresa said, “Tell Celeste and her father to come up to the house. No! Celeste will want to see the horses, so I’ll come down to the barn first.”

“You’re right,” Gus said jovially. “She’s near hypnotized by Eclipse. She said she wanted to meet
your
horse before any of the others. Well, see you in a few minutes!”

Teresa dashed into the living room, glanced at herself in a mirror hanging above a long bookcase, smoothed her hair, and tucked her blouse into her jeans. Then she looked at Sierra waiting expectantly by the door. The dog was boisterous when meeting new people, but Celeste had loved dogs almost as much as she’d loved horses. Teresa decided to take a chance that Sierra wouldn’t frighten the girl and clipped on the dog’s leash.

They hurried down the slope from Teresa’s house, and as they reached the open barn doors Teresa heard the murmur of voices. With her sharp hearing, Sierra immediately recognized that some were unfamiliar, and she barked loudly. “Hush,” Teresa commanded. “Celeste doesn’t know you. Don’t scare her.”

Actually, Teresa felt a tingle of uneasiness at seeing Celeste. They had been so close, but that closeness had been eight years ago when Celeste was just a child. She was a teenager now, and she’d been through hell. In the years since Teresa had come back from college, she’d never once seen Celeste. The small bits of reliable information Teresa had been able to glean about Celeste, though, let her know that in spite of the girl’s silence, she did not suffer from any organic mental damage. The silence was merely the result of shock. Still, before the ambulance arrived to bear away the seriously injured child, one of the last people Celeste had seen eight years ago in that house of carnage had been Teresa.

As soon as she walked into the barn, though, a slender girl turned away from Eclipse, looked at Teresa and Sierra for a moment, then smiled and ran forward. “Teri! Oh, Teri, how much I’ve missed you!” Celeste exclaimed joyfully, flinging herself into Teresa’s opened arms. They hugged fiercely for a moment. Then the girl stepped back. “You look just the same!”

“
You
certainly don’t!” Teresa smiled as her gaze moved quickly over Celeste, whom she judged to be about five foot five. She had her mother’s pale blond hair color, but otherwise she looked nothing like Wendy, who with youth, attractive clothes, and plenty of makeup still only achieved a sexy, piquant prettiness. Celeste was a true beauty with flawless ivory skin, large cornflower blue eyes with long, dark lashes, a narrow nose, and perfectly molded lips of a natural rosy hue. She wore a dated, almost childish pink dress, which Teresa immediately guessed had been made by Celeste’s grandmother Fay. Celeste’s long hair was held back with a pink velvet ribbon, and not a trace of makeup appeared on her face. “Celeste, you were a beautiful child,” Teresa said sincerely, “but you’re an even more beautiful young lady.”

Celeste hugged her again. Sierra let out another strident bark and Teresa was glad for the diversion, because she felt tears rising in her eyes. “Celeste, this is Sierra,” she said briskly. “She makes a lot of noise, but she’s never bitten anyone. I hope you’re not afraid—”

But Celeste was already kneeling, rubbing Sierra under her big pointed ears as the dog’s tail flew back and forth in delight. “I’m not afraid of her. I could tell the minute I saw her she’s a good dog,” Celeste said happily, then bent and spoke directly into Sierra’s face. “A good, friendly,
pretty
dog, isn’t that right, Sierra?” The dog licked her on the nose and Celeste giggled.

“I hope you don’t mind that we just dropped in unannounced.” Jason Warner approached Teresa, holding out his hand. When Teri had last seen him, he’d been a youthful-looking thirty-two. Now, at forty, gray heavily laced his light brown hair and the wrinkles in his forehead looked as if they belonged to a man of fifty. He was still lean and looked strong, as if he’d worked at keeping himself in shape, and his smile was warm.

“After Celeste surprised us all when she started talking again—” Jason broke off, his smile wavering as if emotion were about to overtake him. He swallowed and finished in a rush. “She was determined to come and see you as soon as possible. Her grandmother was… busy.”

I’ll bet, Teri thought. Fay Warner had been convinced Teresa had stabbed Celeste, and even after Byrnes’s statement that he’d killed the Farrs, she’d still turned her head away whenever she’d passed Teresa downtown or in the grocery store.

“So Celeste called me at the office,” Jason went on, “and I decided to take an early lunch. It was all very spur-of-the-moment. I did call, but your line was busy.”

“I was on the phone,” Teresa said unnecessarily, then added, “but it’s fine. I’m thrilled to see Celeste. I’m glad to see both of you.”

Jason smiled again, but he was saved from answering by Celeste, who’d darted over to the palomino. “What’s his name?” she asked.

“Conquistador.” Teresa joined Celeste and they both stroked the horse. “He belongs to my brother, Kent. I’m just boarding some of these horses, but the black Arabian, Eclipse, and the two ponies, Caesar and Cleopatra, are mine.”

Celeste went to each stall, meeting and petting Captain Jack, Sir Lancelot, Bonaparte, and the most recent addition, another quarter horse named Fantasia. As she talked to both Teresa and the horses, Teri noticed that Celeste’s speech sounded much younger than that of other teenagers who took lessons at Farr Fields. Teri guessed that during the last few years, Celeste had not interacted in a normal, social way with people her own age and therefore spoke and acted younger than sixteen.