Dead Guilty

frenzied attack, the perp had managed to slash her tires. Her car looked totaled, the windshield was caved in, the driver’s side window was nearly gone. The front headlights had been smashed. The dents in the body were too numerous to count. The attack seemed so quick to have done all that damage.
Frank parked her battered Taurus against the curb just as Chief Garnett drove up in his car. He jumped out and hurried over to Diane and the policemen, scowling. Diane noticed her landlady and some of her neighbors gathered in front of the apartment building. The apartment house stood mainly by itself on the small street. Good thing. She’d have hated having the whole neighborhood out looking at her.
‘‘You were supposed to be watching the house,’’ Garnett said to the policemen.
Diane understood now why the two policemen looked nervous. They hadn’t been where they were supposed to be.
‘‘We got a call . . .’’ began one of the policemen.
‘‘You got a call? We’ll discuss this down at the sta tion. In the meantime, I want you parked out here all night. Is that understood?’’
‘‘Yes, sir.’’
He turned to Diane. ‘‘Are you injured?’’
‘‘No, I’m fine. I’d like just to go up to my apartment and get some sleep.’’
‘‘Of course. Do you think it was the guy who’s been calling?’’
‘‘I don’t know for sure. But I got a sense that the caller was frustrated with the way our conversations have been going.’’
‘‘Did you give his description to the officers?’’
Diane nodded. ‘‘I described his vehicle. He was dressed in dark clothes and had a stocking over his head, distorting his features. He had dark hair, about six feet tall, well built.’’
‘‘You call it in?’’ Garnett snapped at his officers. Both of the policemen nodded.
‘‘I tried to get his tag number. I couldn’t see it.’’ ‘‘We’ll find him.’’
Diane turned and took a step toward her apartment. ‘‘Oh, I met Kacie Beck as she was leaving the police station and gave her a lift home. I noticed that she had an engagement ring with what looked to me like a pretty large diamond. If it was real and of good quality, my geologist said it could be worth upwards of ten thousand dollars. It might be worth checking out.’’
Garnett whistled. ‘‘Where would Chris Edwards get that kind of money?’’
‘‘It could be synthetic, but it looked real and she thinks it’s real.’’
‘‘Like you said. It’s worth checking out. Go ahead and get some sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.’’
Diane nodded. Chief Garnett was being awfully so licitous, especially for someone who only last year was among those who would like to have run her out of town. She glanced up to her apartment building at the knot of neighbors looking in her direction. How was she going to explain this to her landlady?
Frank returned with Diane’s purse in hand and guided her up the sidewalk to her building.
‘‘What’s going on?’’ This was from one of Diane’s newest neighbors, a young couple from the ground floor.
‘‘What’s all that noise? How are we to sleep with all that noise?’’ Mrs. Odell and her husband, who lived across the hall from Diane, stood with their arms crossed and their chins in the air.
‘‘Hate those car alarms. There ought to be a law against them. They go off for no reason at all.’’ Mr. Odell added, with a sharp nod of his head.
‘‘What happened?’’ asked the landlady. ‘‘Why are the police here?’’
‘‘As I was parking my car, someone came up and beat my car with a bat,’’ said Diane, trying to sound calm. ‘‘They ran off.’’
‘‘Why would anyone do such a thing?’’ said the landlady. ‘‘I tell you, it’s those hoodlums you read about. They’re everywhere. I keep telling my nephew that...’’
Diane nodded and made her way up the stairs to her apartment on the second floor. The last thing she wanted to do was get her landlady started on one of her stream-of-consciousness conversations. The Odells came up the stairs behind her.
‘‘You know, you should move somewhere else,’’ said Mrs. Odell. ‘‘This was a quiet apartment building until you moved here.’’
Diane opened her door. ‘‘Good night, Mrs. Odell. I’m sorry you had your sleep interrupted.’’
Once Diane’s apartment door closed behind them, Frank asked, ‘‘Those are the people you were telling me about? The ones who had seven children die, and whose only joy in