Casey looked concerned. “You’re so emotionally involved that I don’t think you’ve thought this through clearly. Have you told your suspicions to the police?”
“No.”
Casey took a deep breath. “Thank goodness. Think of the harm you’d do to this school’s reputation if one of our teachers was wrongly accused of any kind of crime, let alone being a serial killer who preys on children the same age as our students.”
“I don’t intend to talk to anyone about my suspicions until I’m certain I’m right. That’s why I’ve come to you. Let me take a look at Maxfield’s file…”
“Certainly not.”
“Then you review it. Now that you know what I’m looking for, something you thought was unimportant may look totally different.”
Casey hesitated for a moment, then made a decision.
“All right. I can see how concerned you are about this. I’ll take another look at his file. If I find something I’ll tell you. But you have to promise me that you won’t go any further with this unless you have hard evidence. The damage to the Academy and Joshua would be irreparable.”
“I don’t want to hurt Joshua if he’s innocent but I’ll do everything I can to put him in prison if he killed my husband.”
Waves of doubt assailed Terri during the drive home. Was she jumping to conclusions because of a work of fiction? Was she right to break her promise to Larry Birch? Would there be consequences to the police investigation because she had revealed the information about the snack to Casey Van Meter? Should she take Ashley out of school immediately? If Joshua Maxfield was a serial killer, her daughter was in grave peril.
Terri heard the phone a moment after she opened the front door to her house. She rushed into the kitchen and picked up on the fifth ring.
“Terri, thank God I caught you,” Casey Van Meter said. She sounded short of breath and very tense.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got to talk to you. I went through Joshua’s file. There’s something in it.”
“What?”
“I can’t talk now. Can you come to the school, tonight?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t want to meet in my office. Do you know how to get to the boathouse by the service road?”
“No.”
“Go a quarter of a mile past the main entrance. There’s a gravel road that follows the river and ends at the boathouse. Meet me at eight.”
Terri started to ask another question but the dean said she couldn’t talk and hung up. Terri sat down at the kitchen table. Energy coursed through her. If Casey Van Meter had discovered something solid, she could take it to Larry Birch. There was no way that Maxfield’s arrest could bring Norman back, but Ashley would be safe if his killer was behind bars. Terri looked at her watch. It was almost six. In two hours she would know if she was closer to putting her husband’s killer in prison.
Chapter Eight
Ashley had been serious about soccer since she was in elementary school, and she always put in the extra effort it took to be the best. In addition to the daily workouts at the soccer clinic, she ran every night around eight. Sally Castle ran with her on most evenings, but her roommate had an upset stomach tonight and had begged off.
Ashley liked running along the shaded paths that twisted through the forest on the school grounds, because the thick canopy kept the route cool even on warm days. Tonight there was an extra spring in Ashley’s step. After the morning session, the Academy coach had pulled her aside and told her that there was an excellent chance that she would be the starting center forward in the fall. Ashley knew that she was better than the other Academy girls who played that position but it was nice to hear the coach say that it was hers if she worked for it.
Just when her spirits were highest, Ashley remembered that her father wouldn’t see her play this year. Ashley had started to climb out of her depression after visiting the Oregon Academy. As soon as she moved to the dorm and began working as a counselor there were large parts of the day when she was actually happy. But there were dark periods, too; moments when she would remember Tanya’s muffled screams or recall her father’s death. On occasion, these moments would be more than memories. Ashley would re-experience the events as if they were happening now. Her heart rate would accelerate; she would break into a sweat and grow dizzy. Only force of will kept her from being paralyzed by sorrow.
As soon as she thought about Norman Spencer, Ashley’s energy slackened and tears pooled in her eyes. She didn’t want this to happen. She told herself that her father would be happy if he learned that she was going to start on a nationally ranked team. She had vowed to dedicate her senior year to his memory.
Norman had tried to be at every one of her games, but he had missed a few. Ashley was in second grade the first time that happened. She had been very upset until Terri told her that her father’s spirit was always with her, even when he wasn’t rooting for her on the sidelines. Ashley had felt him inside her during the game, urging her to do her best, and she had scored three goals. Now she conjured up Norman ’s spirit. She took deep breaths as the good feeling filled her. When she smiled, the anxiety dissipated and she knew Norman was still with her.
Ashley ran through the quadrangle and down the road to the large parking lot where one of the trails started. Shadows dappled the forest floor, and a light breeze caressed her arms. The air smelled of pine and wildflowers. Within minutes, Ashley settled into a rhythm that moved her forward with a loose and practiced stride.
After a while the path turned parallel to the river, and she could see the water rolling by through breaks in the trees. The air was still, and there was a blanket of silence broken occasionally by the songs of birds. Something moved in her peripheral vision. Ashley turned her head and saw Joshua Maxfield walking in the direction of the boathouse. Then the trees thickened and she lost sight of him. She was not surprised to see Mr. Maxfield. All the girls knew that he lived in a cottage near the river. Many of them had a crush on the handsome novelist. There were stories about girls he was rumored to have seduced, though Ashley doubted they were true.
Ashley remembered the way her mother had acted around the writing teacher on the day they toured the campus. Terri’s reaction had surprised and upset her. Ashley didn’t like her mother showing an interest in a man so soon after her father’s death, but sometimes people acted silly around celebrities, and Mr. Maxfield was a famous writer.
A high-pitched scream tore through the silence. Ashley froze in mid-stride. A second scream forced her backward off the trail. The screams were like the light in the second before sunset-riveting and scarlet for one second and gone without a trace the next. Silence blanketed the forest again. The screams had come from behind Ashley, in the direction of the boathouse. She strained to hear anything that would give her a clue to what had just happened. She battled with herself as she waited, terrified by the screams but compelled by her conscience to find the person who had made them.
Ashley forced herself to jog toward the boathouse. She moved cautiously, alert for the slightest sound or movement. When she caught sight of the rectangular wooden building between breaks in the trees she left the path and crept through the forest. There was a narrow gravel road that followed the river and stopped on the east side of the building. The south side abutted the river and the forest came up to the west wall. A pale light bled out of one of the windows on the north side.
Ashley heard a high-pitched shout that was muffled by the boathouse walls. She kept low and darted to the closest window before rising just high enough to see inside. The windowpane was coated with dust and the interior was dark. A flashlight rolled back and forth on the floor next to one of the boat slips. Its beam cast a pale glow that illuminated the legs and torso of a woman who was slumped against one of the thick oak columns that supported the roof. She was not moving. Standing over her was Joshua Maxfield.