Dead Secret

does that mean? Just because Alan thought of it? It’s the only thing I’ve heard that makes any sense.”
    Diane pinched the bridge of her nose, glad she hadn’t taken any Percocet or she’d probably wake up in the morning thinking she had dreamed the whole thing. “I’ll make sense of it when I get there.”
    “God, that is so typical of you. You think you are the only one in the family with any brains and we have to wait for you to tell us what’s going on. Just because you couldn’t stay married to Alan, you think everything he says is wrong. Well, Gerald agrees with him; so does Dad.”
    “It’s not a matter for a majority vote; it’s a matter of facts. And we don’t have all the facts.”
    “I hate it when you get like this. Let me know when to pick you up.”
    “I will. Before you hang up, do you know where Mother is being held?”
    “In Montgomery. Tombsberg Prison for Women.”
    Diane’s heart froze. Tombsberg was one of the most overcrowded facilities and had the most deplorable conditions of any prison in the country.
    “I’ll be in Birmingham tomorrow as early as I can.”
    “Wow,” said Star when Diane hung up the phone. “I’ve never heard you yell at anybody.”
    “Unfortunately, that’s the way my sister and I usually interact.”
    “I’m glad I don’t have . . . ” Star didn’t finish, and her happy face suddenly collapsed into grief. “I didn’t mean that.” Large tears welled up in her eyes.
    Diane knelt beside Star and hugged her. “It’s all right, Star. I know what you meant. You can still love and miss your brother without grieving forever.”
    Star sobbed for a moment and then pulled away. “I sometimes forget and then I feel guilty. Jay was good. I was the one doing bad things, and he’s the one who got killed.”
    Diane smoothed Star’s hair and put a hand under her chin. “It wasn’t your fault.”
    “It feels like it is.”
    “I know that feeling. I feel the same way about my daughter . . . if I had just gotten her out of the country.”
    Star wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. “I’m sorry about her. Uncle Frank said she liked music.”
    “She did like music.” Diane’s eyes teared. Frank must have told Star about the special CD of her favorite music Diane had made for her. Diane rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. All she needed was for the two of them to sit there crying.
    “Tell me about your sister. Is she older or younger than you?” Star asked quickly.
    “Older.”
    “You’re a little sister? You don’t seem like a little sister.”
    “Well, I am. By three years.”
    “Sounds like the two of you don’t get along.”
    “We don’t.” Diane walked back around to the couch, sat down and took another bite of her pizza. It was cold.
    “Did you fight when you were kids?”
    “Yep. She and her friends were always tormenting me. But I was faster, stronger and smarter than they were. Susan liked to get into trouble and blame it on me. It worked for a while.”
    “What?”
    “I started collecting evidence. Jeez—I’d forgotten about that.”
    “What did you do?”
    “I think I was eight; Susan was eleven. She and her friends were getting into Mother’s makeup and jewelry, as usual. She told Mother that I was the one who spilled powder all over her dresser and dented up her lipsticks. What she didn’t know was that time I’d gotten my dad’s brand-new camcorder, hid in his closet, and filmed them. When Susan blamed me for the mess she and her friends had made, I popped the cassette in the VCR.” Diane laughed. “You should have seen her face.”
    “So they punished her instead if you,” said Star.
    “Yes, they did punish her for lying. But they made an appointment for me to see a child psychologist.”
    “You? Why you?”
    “What I did scared them for some reason. The psychologist told them I was simply bright and inventive and that they shouldn’t worry.”
    “That was good. So you became a crime fighter early. I’ll bet you that stopped your sister dead in her tracks.”
    “It slowed her down, and my parents didn’t automatically believe her like they did before. But they didn’t really trust me either after that. Taping her just offended their sensibilities.”
    “So it wasn’t too good for you growing up?”
    “It wasn’t bad. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’. I was my granddad’s fishing buddy. He’s the one who took me to my first caves.”
    Diane was surprised how easy it was to