Lovely Girls(83)

I’d been contacted by television producers, reporters, and podcasters, all eager to offer me a platform to tell my story. I had gotten into the habit of leaving my phone turned off.

It wasn’t even a given that there would be trials. Emma had already agreed to a plea deal for the charges of attempted murder, assault, and breaking and entering. She would spend fifteen years in prison, which was a much lesser sentence than she would have been facing had she gone to trial. The state’s attorney had contacted me before they inked the plea deal with Emma. Apparently, if I had objected to it, that might have had some effect on how her case was disposed. But I agreed. I didn’t think Emma was going to commit any further crimes. The one she had committed had been to protect her daughter. I didn’t condone it, but I understood it.

Mothers did what we needed to do to keep our children safe.

Lita had also told me there was rampant speculation that Shae and Daphne might take similar plea deals. That they’d each been offered a deal to turn on the other in order to secure a lesser sentence. I doubted it was true. Daphne was far too sharp to pass up a good deal if one was offered to her. And besides, Lita also told me the state’s attorney had political ambitions and so wouldn’t want to miss the chance to prosecute a nationally televised trial and become a media star.

But I hoped the girls would take plea deals, especially if it gave them a chance for a somewhat normal life at some point in the future. They deserved prison sentences for what they had done, but they were so young. If they cooperated with the prosecution, they might have a chance to someday be released and rejoin society. Hopefully, at a point when they were too old to have daughters of their own.

And I didn’t want Alex to have to testify at their trials. She was on her way to getting better, but I didn’t think being the star witness in two murder trials would help her move on. The internet really was forever. I didn’t want every job she interviewed for, every new friend she met, to end up as a Google search that led back to Daphne and Shae and what they did to Callie that night on the beach. I didn’t want the story to follow her.

There were already too many victims.

“I heard a rumor that Genevieve and Richard are going to move to Miami once Daphne’s case concludes,” Joe said.

“Really? I’m surprised they’d want to make big decisions like that right now.”

“Jonathan’s in the same grade as Sean. Sean said he isn’t doing well. I guess the other kids are giving him a hard time over Daphne’s arrest. I think the Hudsons want to move him somewhere he’ll be more anonymous.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. And I was. Jon was yet another victim. Then I remembered what Alex had said when I’d suggested she move to a different school. “But he probably won’t be able to get away from it. The kids at his new school will find out at some point. It’s all one internet search away.”

“I think life was easier when we were kids. Before social media and selfies,” Joe said.

“It definitely was,” I agreed. “After all, if Alex hadn’t taken the video of Daphne and Coach Townsend and Callie hadn’t texted it to everyone in her contacts, she might still be alive.”

“I don’t think you can look at it that way,” Joe said. “Technology didn’t make Daphne and Shae lure Callie to the beach that night, and it didn’t make them kill her. There’s something wrong with them on a fundamental level.”

“You’re definitely right about Daphne. I’m not as sure about Shae. I think she was conditioned over the years to do whatever Daphne wanted. If she’d never met Daphne, she might never have hurt anyone. But I guess we’ll never know.”

“Peer pressured into committing murder.” Joe shook his head. “Poor Callie.”

“I wonder how Ingrid is doing. First, she lost her daughter, which is just about the worst thing a parent can experience. Then she finds out that her best friends’ daughters were the murderers. It must be like a nightmare she can’t wake up from.”

I shivered at the thought. Joe, sensing my discomfort, held me a little closer.

The roller coaster swooped by overhead on its curving track, its passengers screaming. It was moving too fast to see whether Alex and Sean were on board, but I hoped they were. I hoped my daughter was flying above us, without a care in the world.





CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE




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VIDEO DIARY OF ALEX TURNER



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DECEMBER 1

Alex was on a screen-in-screen video chat with an attractive woman in her early thirties. The woman had kind blue eyes and long light-brown hair that fell around her shoulders. She was wearing oversize glasses with round tortoiseshell frames. Alex looked relaxed and alert.

“It’s good to see you, Alex,” Beatrice Malone said. “How have you been since we last spoke?”

“Good. Really good actually,” Alex said brightly.

“Have you been playing tennis?”

“No. After everything that happened, the school board decided to cancel the rest of the season. But I joined the cross-country team, which has been fun. I like running, and I’ve made some friends. Well, a friend. But it’s a start. At least I have someone to eat lunch with.”