Down Home and Deadly

it.”
    “No, Jenna. I can’t do that.” Debbie sounded near hysterics. “You just don’t understand.”
    “I think I do. You and J.D. were seeing each other behind Lisa’s back, right?” I checked again to make sure Carly was still there.
    “Not really.”
    “He gave you a cell phone to call him on, but you weren’t seeing each other?” I’d figured that much out on the way over, when I’d realized that the one number in the phone that was put in as “Me” had to be J.D. ’s. He must have added it in himself and given Debbie the phone. The police had questioned Lisa about whether she had another phone. No doubt they’d found the text messages on J.D.’s phone, but since this phone was also in J.D.’s name, the police didn’t know who had it.
    “We . . . ” She choked out the words. “We kept telling ourselves we were just friends and that Lisa just wouldn’t understand us hanging out. But the truth was I was falling in love with him. And I think he was with me, too.”
    “So why didn’t you just tell her?”
    “Neither of us wanted to hurt Lisa.” She blinked rapidly against the tears filling her eyes, but they spilled down her cheeks anyway.
    My guess was that J.D. didn’t want to lose his job at the health club, but I could have been wrong.
    “We were going to tell her Sunday, but he got killed before we got the chance.” She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.
    “So you threw the phone away?”
    “Yes,” Debbie spat out the word. Then her voice broke. “And it tore my heart out to do it.” She cried harder. “It was my last link with J.D.” She was sobbing so hard now , I could barely understand her. “If Lisa killed him, it’s my fault.” She dug a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her nose.
    “Debbie, how could it be your fault?”
    “Maybe Lisa found out about us and got mad and killed him.” Debbie sobbed.
    “If she did, John needs this phone. You should take it to him and tell him about you and J.D.”
    “No,” she said flatly. “I won’t. If Lisa doesn’t already know and she found out, it would ruin our friendship. And I’m the only friend she has left now.”
    “I’ll have to take it to John. How long do you think it will take for them to find out it was yours?”
    “That’s just it. It wasn’t mine. Like you said, it belonged to J.D.” She wiped her eyes again. “I was just using it. Y ou can’t prove that I ever had it .”
    “They already know about the phone, Debbie.” I tried my most reasonable voice. “It would be better for you if you just took it to them voluntarily.”
    “Look, Jenna, don’t you see? They’re getting ready to arrest Lisa. This will just be the last nail in her coffin.” She looked at me. “But what if she didn’t find out about me and J.D.? What if she didn’t kill him?”
    “John will find out.” I sounded confident, but I couldn’t help remembering how I felt when Zac was a murder suspect. Even though I knew John was conscientious and did his best , I also knew he hadn’t had all that much experience with murder.
    “As long as they don’t have this phone , they’ll keep looking. If they have it , they’ll just say , ‘Here’s our proof. J.D. and Debbie were cheating behind Lisa’s back , so she killed him.’ They won’t look for anybody else.” She sniffed. “If you give them the phone, what are they gonna do? Arrest her immediately. That’s what. Put her in jail and throw away the key. Is that what you want?”
    “No. Of course not.” She might be right . Lisa c ould end up in jail. And unless they found another suspect , she c ould go to trial. Especially if there was a bloody towel in her car .
    Debbie interrupted that awful thought. “Why don’t you go talk to Lisa? Try to find out if she knew about us. If she didn’t know , then the phone doesn’t matter. If she did know, then take the phone to John.” Now Debbie was the one using her most reasonable voice.
    Just what I wanted to do. Confront yet another person who might be a murderer. “I guess I could at least go see her. But if I can tell she knows about you and J.D., I’ll have to take the phone to John. And even if she doesn’t, I think one of us will have to take it anyway.”
    “Just wait and see what she says,” Debbie pleaded.
    I turned the phone off and slipped it back in to my pocket. It didn’t look like I’d be getting rid of it today . But I knew someone would have to take it to John. And