Beverly Connor - Dust to Dust

Colton talked to them for an hour. It was sometimes disjointed and Diane had to make the connections in the right sequence. She imagined he was about talked out. He and his mother had apparently talked all night. He stood and looked at his mother.

“I have to tell Dr. and Mrs. Carruthers what really happened. They deserve to know. Then I’m going to get you to move out to California with me. You don’t need to live here any longer. Not across the street from the Walters. Not after today.”

Mrs. Nicholson looked at Diane and Kingsley. “What will happen to Colton? What will the police do?”

“He will have to answer questions,” said Diane. “Get a good lawyer to go with him to the police station. He was a minor and he was scared. He didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Ellie Rose until after the fact. But he still needs to have a lawyer with him.”

“Oh God,” she wimpered.

“Mother, this has defined my life for nine years. My childhood ended that day. I can’t have a relationship with anyone until I resolve this. Tyler won’t like it, but he was a minor too. It’s his grandfather they need to put in jail.”

Light was starting to filter through the crack between the drapes. Daylight was finally here. Diane imagined that it was a long time coming for Colton and his mother.

He headed for the door.

“Colton, you need to call first,” said his mother.

“No. I need to go over and do it. I need to get this done,” he said.

“I’ll go with you,” she said. “Please let us go with you.”

Kathy Nicholson had said us . She apparently wanted Diane and Kingsley to go along too. Well , thought Diane, this ought to be fun . She looked at Kingsley, who was getting to his feet.

“Son,” said Kingsley,“you need to wait and do this another way. You don’t know what Mrs. Carruthers’ reaction will be. She probably won’t believe you at first. She may blame you. She needs people around her when you tell her.”

“I’ve thought it through. Marsha knows me. When I come home I always go see her. Samuel will be there. He doesn’t go into his office this early. I know them. They need to hear this and I need to tell them, and I’m going to.”

Ross sighed. “Very well,” he said. “Then all of us will go with you.”

The four of them walked over to the Carruthers’ house. Colton Nicholson rang the doorbell. It took a couple of minutes before anyone answered it. Diane and Kingsley stood back so that whoever answered the door, or looked out the peephole, would see the Nicholsons first. Diane didn’t think Marsha Carruthers or her husband would let them in otherwise.

It was Marsha who opened the door. She was in a robe. She didn’t have on any makeup and her hair was up in a ponytail.

“Kathy? Colton?” she said. “I didn’t know you were home. Is anything wrong?” Then she saw Diane and Kingsley. “You! What are you doing here?”

“I asked them, Marsha,” said Kathy Nicholson. “Colton needs to tell you and Samuel something.”

“This early? Can’t it wait?” she said.

“No, Marsha, it can’t,” said Colton. “I should have come a long time ago.”

“Honey, who is it?” Samuel Carruthers came to the door in a bathrobe. “Colton. It’s been a while.” He looked at Diane and Kingsley and pointed a finger at them. “I told you never to come onto my property again.”

“Please, Samuel,” said Kathy. “Please, let us come in.”

Dr. and Mrs. Carruthers looked confused. They stood there making no decision for several moments. Then Marsha stepped back and let them come in. They all went into the living room, where Ellie Rose’s portrait hung over the mantel. The stuffed chair was sitting facing it. An empty drink glass was on the side table where Marsha had left it the evening before. Diane wanted to go home and get into bed.

Marsha and Samuel sat in the leather chairs. Kathy and Colton sat on the sofa. Diane and Kingsley stood off to the side, near the wall. Diane hoped she blended into the wallpaper.

“What’s this about?” asked Marsha.

Colton took a deep breath. For all his insistence on coming over right at this moment, he was losing his nerve. He blurted it out. No preamble or explanation, just, “Tyler Walters killed El. His grandfather framed that Dance guy. Tyler told me it was an accident.”

Marsha and Samuel sat there as if they hadn’t heard. They stared at Colton, then at Kathy, then at Diane and Kingsley.

“They told you to say this,” said Marsha. “You sons of bitches.”

“Marsha, I called them early this morning after Colton and I talked all night. I’d told Colton about the murder of Stacy Dance, and he got on a plane and flew here. These people had nothing to do with it. I called them, well, because they were nice to me and aren’t the police-though I know we’ll need to talk to the police after we talk to you.”

“I don’t understand,” said Samuel. “Are you saying that Tyler Walters killed my baby girl? That he raped her? He was just a kid then.”

Colton laid out the whole story just as he had for Diane and Kingsley.

There were times when Diane didn’t know if Marsha and Samuel Carruthers were actually hearing what Colton was telling them. Their eyes seemed out of focus. They looked dazed and confused.

“Did Wendy know?” asked Marsha.

Colton nodded. “She came home as they were moving the… as they were putting El into Everett’s SUV.”

Colton had sneaked glances at the portrait as he told his story. He looked at it now as if it were Ellie Rose herself looking down on him.

“Tyler said Wendy got hysterical there in the garage. His grandfather slapped her and she hit him back with a mop handle. Tyler said he had to get between them. He said his grandfather convinced Wendy that what they were doing was for the best.”

“Best?” whispered Marsha. “Best?”

“Look, Mrs. Carruthers, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I should have told you the truth years ago. But I was afraid. And then later, well, I couldn’t bring myself to relive the whole thing. I just tried to pretend it didn’t happen, until I had to come home. I only came forward now because of Stacy Dance. I’m really afraid that Tyler or his grandfather…”

Colton stopped talking because Marsha was up and going to the phone. They all watched as she dialed and waited.

“Wendy, I need you to come over.” She replaced the receiver.

Diane didn’t imagine, given their relationship, that Wendy thought the request was strange, or, in fact, much different from other summons she probably received over the years of Marsha’s growing dependence on her.

Marsha sat down again. No one said anything. The quiet made Diane uneasy. She was sure they all felt uneasy, but emotions were too quiet, too under the surface. It reminded Diane of a volcano waiting for just the right pressure to build up before it erupted.

“Did you have anything to do with her death?” Marsha asked Colton after a moment. Her gaze bored into him with an intensity that seemed to literally nail him to his seat.

“No ma’am, as God is my witness, on my father’s grave, I swear to you that I only found out after it happened, when Tyler came to my window and told me,” Colton said.

While all their attention was on Colton and Marsha, Diane snaked her hand inside her jacket, took her gun from its shoulder holster, and put it in her jacket pocket. She wasn’t sure why she felt she needed to do this, other than she had experience with the inconvenience of having a gun zipped up inside a jacket when she needed it-or rather, Frank had.

Her movement didn’t go unnoticed. Ross looked over at her and gave her a quick smile with a twitch of his lips. He had felt it too. It was as if emotions were becoming a miasma settling in the room that could be seen and breathed in. Diane shivered. It was cold. If she believed in ghosts, she would have been convinced that Ellie Rose’s spirit was in the room. She was glad she had worn the jacket.