Chapter 71
Anna called in sick to the diner from the side of the empty road, where she pulled her jeans on before taking off her Jeannie’s dress and stuffing it into her backpack.
She’d already got a T-shirt on underneath, now more than a little sweaty, and she put a baseball cap over her ponytail, wearing it down low over her eyes.
If Jeannie happened to go out around town—which was unlikely, given she was now a waitress down—she might not recognize her.
Still, at least Anna knew that possibly getting fired was the least of her problems today, and might not even matter by tomorrow.
The dark humor made her smile and by the time she got to Creek Motors, the car repair shop at the other end of Main close to the turnoff for the Cornerstone Motel, she was feeling bullish.
She imagined herself flanked by Lila and Bonnie with all the dead Annas trailing behind.
Their vengeance was down to her. She wouldn’t fail them. She couldn’t.
Alexa George had been in a few of the yearbook photos alongside Bonnie, enough to make Anna wonder on a second look if maybe they’d been friends.
A search for Alexa George had brought up too many social media profiles to go through, but Alexa’s boyfriend at high school, Chris Winters, had been her one true love, according to her class photo caption, and a search for Alexa Winters led Anna to her Insta, and after that, she’d been pretty easy to track down, the car shop the couple owned featuring in plenty of her posts.
The first thing Anna saw when she went into the small, hot office in the back was a framed picture of Alexa and Bonnie on the wall, both smiling at the camera that was lifted high for a perfect selfie.
The second thing was that Alexa was no longer that skinny, shining girl of her teens but had grown into a curvy, confident married woman with a styled blowout that suited her but belonged on someone a decade or so older.
The other pictures on her desk were of her with Chris and two identical small boys, two or three years old.
It was hard to believe she and Alexa were pretty much the same age.
Anna’s thought must have showed because she was still staring at the happy family photo when Alexa said, “Yeah, we settle down young around here.” She smiled, open. “Luckily I settled down right.”
“Looks like you did. But twins must keep you busy.”
“The joys of small-town living. Grandparents on tap. We have to fight them off sometimes. But can’t say no to free childcare.
” She nodded Anna into the chair opposite, which was in the face of one of the three fans doing their best to push the heat around fast enough to minimally cool it.
“You’re writing about Bonnie?” Anna had called before she came, figuring she’d get a better result if Alexa wasn’t surprised into defensiveness.
“If I’m honest, I’m not sure what I’m writing about.
At first, it was about trauma and loss, but the more I dig, the more I wonder if enough was done to investigate the murders properly.
Especially with Bonnie. They caught that guy awful fast in the aftermath.
” Her Boston accent had slipped into Midwestern as soon as she’d started talking.
She needed Alexa to see her as one of them, not an outsider who had no business poking around in the murders.
“I guess I’m trying to find out the truth.
Maybe he was the killer. But I want to be sure.
” She paused, taking a breath. “Some bad shit happened to me in college. I figure I feel some kinship with Lila and Bonnie. I was luckier than them.”
“We’re all luckier than they were. Sometimes their murders feel like yesterday and sometimes it’s a lifetime ago, you know?
I’m a different person now. It didn’t feel real until it was Bonnie.
Until I knew I was never going to see or speak to her again.
I grew up fast after that. I look at my husband and boys and my small-town life and I realize how blessed I am.
I’m happy. Bonnie never got to have that.
Lila never even really got to think about it. She was so young.”
“Bonnie was in love, though, right?” Anna asked cautiously. “She was pregnant, wasn’t she?”
Alexa studied her, guarded, still protecting her long-dead friend. “How do you know about that?”
“I guessed. The girl she worked with at the dentist said she was throwing up. Had gotten moody. I found some cards hidden in her bedroom.” Her heart pounded faster. “Do you know who the father was?”
“No.” Alexa shook her head, and Anna’s hope deflated. It had been too much to ask that a name be delivered wrapped in a bow. “We never had secrets, but although she fessed up to me that she was seeing someone—she was so giddy with it, I knew there was a romance—she wouldn’t say who.”
“And you didn’t have any suspicions?”
Alexa leaned back in her chair, her expression softening. “You know, back then, I was just so pissed at her for not telling me, I figured it was someone like Todd Greenbough, who I didn’t like much because he and Chris didn’t get along.”
Todd. “How come?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Competitive, maybe. Looking back, I think Chris was a little jealous. We all had crushes on Todd.” She laughed. “I mean, you’ve seen him, right?”
Anna shrugged. She didn’t want to think about Todd being handsome and she didn’t want to think about how the possibility that he was Bonnie’s secret boyfriend made her feel sick. Alexa leaned on her desk, her gold jewelry jangling.
“But there’s no way it was him. I’ve thought about it a lot.
Bonnie always had daddy issues. And she was nervous sometimes, which she’d never been about boys our age.
I think she was seeing someone older. She changed the way she dressed during that time too.
Tried to be more sophisticated. Less chill, more Barbie. ”
“You think this guy could have been married?”
“I don’t know for sure.” Alexa shrugged.
“But it was someone whose life would blow up if their relationship ever came out. They were seeing each other at the dental clinic after hours. She said she was studying, but I don’t buy that.
She never studied that hard. And she never let me go hang out and help her. ”
“There was no mention of her being pregnant when she died, though? I asked Dr. Burdett and he said she wasn’t.”
“Then I guess she wasn’t.” The phone on the desk rang, but Alexa didn’t answer it, instead punching a button to send it through to voicemail.
“It’s too damn hot to work today.” She wafted some papers in front of her face.
“She’d talked about going to some abortion place in the city because there sure as shit isn’t anywhere around here she could have gotten that done, then she changed her mind.
She must have changed it right back again. ”
“She must have.” Anna’s head was whirring. They used to meet at the dentist’s. A thought struck her. Maybe they’d met at the dentist’s. Where else would she get to know older men around here without it becoming gossip? “Thanks, Alexa. You’ve been super helpful.”
“You’re welcome.” She pushed back in her chair to get up to see Anna out. “I miss her every day, you know? I don’t always think about her, but she’s always there under my skin. When times are hard, I feel her with me. You think that’s what God’s really all about?”
“Maybe.” Anna paused at the door. “I’ll let you know if I get the piece written.”
“You do that. And come by anytime. We could grab lunch or whatever. It’s good to have new people in town.” There was a yearning behind that homely family happiness bubbling out of Alexa. Underneath it all, she was just a girl who missed her friend.