and competition that now faced high school seniors all across the country. Hell, the afternoon talk shows would eat that up with a spoon. And with a little luck, Melcher might even get a book and movie deal out of it.
He was still daydreaming, still smiling to himself when Dani walked across the stage to receive the Belmont Award. Her big moment at hand, she played it just right. Humble, grateful, sad. She didn’t drop her guard even for an instant, but she didn’t fool Melcher. He could see right through her. Beneath that sweet, wistful facade was a cold-blooded killer. A black widow in the making. A woman who seduced…and then murdered to get what she wanted.
Melcher could just see those headlines now.
And as he watched Danielle Williams accept the award, he began to hate her a little. Not because she’d killed an innocent boy and his family out of greed, but because she represented all that had remained elusive in his own life.
It was time someone brought that little girl down a peg or two. And Melcher was just the guy to do it.
DANI AND HER PARENTS celebrated quietly after the ceremony. She hadn’t been invited to any of the after parties nor had she participated in any of the pregraduation events.
After Paul’s death, when word had gotten out that she was a suspect, her classmates, including friends she’d gone to school with her whole life, had shunned her. Dani supposed she couldn’t blame them. If the police were right and the fire had been deliberately set, then the community had a murderer somewhere in its midst. Someone they knew had killed not one person, but three.
Dani understood that fear—she felt it, too. But the past two months had been lonelier than she ever could have imagined. It certainly wasn’t the way she would have chosen to end her high school years.
And to make matters worse, Nathan had left home. Just up and disappeared in the middle of the night without a word or a note to anyone. They didn’t have a clue where he’d gone off to, and Dani knew her parents, especially her mother, lived in a constant state of terror that she would get a phone call from a stranger some night informing her that her son was dead.
In the meantime, the investigation had finally wound down, even though an arrest had yet to be made. Dani knew that the police had checked into the Ryanns’ background and connections in Baton Rouge, but whether anything suspicious had turned up, she had no idea.
She did know, however, that Canton still considered her a suspect. In the ensuing weeks since that first interrogation, he had come into the store several times where Dani worked. He never said anything, just stared at her for long moments before turning to walk out.
And one night when she was up late studying, she’d glanced out the window to see a police car parked down the road from her house. She’d known instinctively it was Canton.
In her more charitable moments, Dani could appreciate that he was just doing his job, but sometimes it seemed as if he was deliberately stalking her just to unnerve her. And it worked. His relentless pursuit left her shaken and edgy and more than a little afraid. There was something almost obsessive about his behavior, and Dani wondered now how she’d ever found him attractive.
Her mother’s conduct during the past two months had been unsettling, as well. Whether it was Nathan’s disappearance, the suspicions cast upon her daughter, or a combination of both, Rena Williams had become even more withdrawn and had begun to suffer anxiety attacks. Some were so severe that she didn’t dare leave the house. She hadn’t even been able to attend Dani’s graduation ceremony, but had stayed home instead to prepare her daughter’s favorite meal and to beautifully decorate a cake, which she made a production of serving on her best china.
It was a rather pathetic attempt to commemorate the day, and they all knew it. As soon as they’d eaten, her father mumbled something about work he had to do in the barn and left the house. Dani helped her mother clean up, and then she, too, escaped. But instead of going straight to her room, she crossed the hall to Nathan’s room. His door was ajar, and she knew that it had been closed earlier. It was always closed.
After he’d first disappeared, Dani had been inside several times to search through his belongings, hoping to find something that would tell her where he’d gone. He’d left nearly everything behind. His clothes, his CD collection, even a stash of pot that Dani had flushed down the toilet before her parents could see it.
By all indications, her brother had taken off on the spur of the moment with nothing more than the clothes on his back, his car, and money he’d taken from their mother’s purse and from Dani’s dresser drawer.
Her searches had been so thorough that when Dani first stepped across the threshold that afternoon, she knew immediately that something was different. Someone had been in her brother’s room since she last had. And that someone had deliberately left the door ajar.
Her mother? Doubtful, since she could hardly bear to mention her son’s name.
Her father? Not likely, since he’d pretty much written Nathan off.
Then who?
Dani hovered in the doorway, hesitant for some reason to enter. The room had always been a little eerie, with its relentless black furnishings and her brother’s bizarre drawings tacked to the walls. He was a gifted artist, but his fascination for eyes had always seemed a bit creepy to Dani. Thousands of the disembodied orbs stared at her accusingly as she walked into his room and closed the door.
She hadn’t even been aware of looking for anything specific until she saw the corner of an envelope protruding from behind Nathan’s dresser. She knew she hadn’t overlooked it in her previous searches. She was too methodical. Too precise. If that letter had been there before, she would have found it.
As she bent to pick it up, the scent of her own perfume wafted on the musty air.
And then she knew. The letter was from her secret admirer.
But…Paul was dead. If he hadn’t sent that letter…if he hadn’t sent all those other letters…then who had?
Dread tightened Dani’s chest as she crossed the hall and entered her room. Closing and locking the door, she opened the envelope and withdrew the single sheet of paper from inside. She recognized the handwriting instantly, and her heart almost stopped.
The letter—in her own precise script—said simply, I did it for you, Dani. And it was signed, your One and Only.
Dani put a trembling hand to her mouth.
Did the letter mean…what she thought it meant? Had someone killed Paul and his family…for her?
She had to call the police. She had to show them the letter she still clutched in her hand. She had to tell them what she knew…somehow make them understand…
Paul’s killer had to be found. Her secret admirer had to be exposed.
The phone on her nightstand rang, and Dani jumped, still in shock. She waited for her mother to pick up downstairs, but when the phone rang twice more, Dani crossed the room to answer it.
“Hello?”
“I did it for you, Dani.”
She didn’t recognize the voice on the other end. She had a feeling the caller was deliberately disguising his identity. Gripping the phone in terror, she whispered, “Who is this?”
“Just
