All Night Long

that, much to her annoyance, made her hesitate. By the time she had found her tongue, Sam was speaking again.
    “Thought she was doing okay,” Sam said quietly. “She was in and out of rehab for a while after college, but in the past few years she seemed to be staying clear of the crap.”
    “The pill bottle in there has a prescription on it,” Luke said.
    Sam narrowed his eyes. “Sounds like she was back in therapy again.” He moved into the foyer and paused just inside the doorway to look back at Irene. “You going to be in town for a while?”
    “I was planning to leave tomorrow,” she said, not certain what she would do next.
    “I’ll want to ask you a few questions in the morning. Routine stuff.” He angled his head toward Luke. “You, too, Danner.”
    “Sure,” Luke said.
    Irene nodded, not speaking.
    “I’ll see you both at the station around nine-thirty,” Sam said.

    He vanished into the house.
    Luke regarded Irene. “You’re not exactly a stranger here in Dunsley are you?”
    “I grew up in this town. I left when I was fifteen.”
    “First time you’ve been back?”
    “Yes.”
    He watched her closely in the porch light. “I take it you’ve got some bad memories of this place.”
    “What I have are nightmares, Mr. Danner.”
    She walked across the drive and got into her compact.
    It was going to be one of the really long nights, she thought, starting the engine, one of those mini-eternities when none of the usual rituals worked.

Four
    When she got back to the brightly lit cabin, she took the travel pouch of tea out of her shoulder bag and went into the tiny alcove kitchenette to boil some water.
    The cabins of the Sunrise on the Lake Lodge did not boast many amenities, but they had been designed as long-term-stay accommodations for summer visitors who liked to spend two weeks or a month at a time at the lake. In addition to the minimal cooking facilities, there were place settings for four, a teakettle and a few basic pots and pans.
    She thought about Pamela while she waited for the tea to steep. The dark phantoms of memories that were stored in the vault in her mind stirred. Over the years various therapists and well-intentioned counselors had done their level best to help her lay the ghosts to rest, but she knew that only the truth could do that. Unfortunately, the truth had been the one thing denied her.

    She took the chipped mug of tea back to the sagging couch and sat down. A heavy engine growled softly in the night. Luke had returned. She looked through the curtains and watched him get out of the SU nd let himself into Cabin Number One. Somehow, it helped knowing that he was in the vicinity.
    She sat quietly and thought about the terrible summer of her fifteenth year, the summer when she had become for three short, memorable months, Pamela Webb’s best friend. The summer her parents had been murdered.
    At a quarter to three in the morning, she made her decision and reached for her phone.
    Adeline Grady answered on the sixth or seventh ring.
    “You’ve got Grady,” Adeline said in a sleepy voice that had been rendered permanently husky by a daily regimen of expensive whiskey and good cigars. “If this isn’t important, Irene, you’re fired.”
    “I’ve got an exclusive for you, Addy.”
    Adeline yawned audibly on the other end of the line. “Whatever it is, it had better be a lot bigger than the fight over the proposed dog park at the last city council meeting.”
    “It is. Senator Ryland Webb’s daughter, Pamela, was found dead in the family’s summer home on Ventana Lake at—” She glanced at her watch. “Ten forty-five this evening.”
    “Talk to me, kid.” The sleep disappeared miraculously from Adeline’s voice, leaving behind an edgy impatience. “What’s going on?”
    “At the very least, I think I can guarantee that the
Beacon
will be the first paper in the state to break the news of Pamela Webb’s mysterious and untimely death.”
    “Mysterious and untimely?”
    “The local authorities are going to call it a probable suicide or an accidental overdose, but I think there’s more to it.”
    “Pamela Webb,” Adeline said, sounding thoughtful now. “Is that who you went to Dunsley to see?”
    “Yes.”

    “I didn’t realize you knew her.”
    “It was a long time ago,” Irene said.
    “Huh.” There were some rustling movements on the other end of the line and then the muffled click of what sounded like a light switch. “I seem to