Crooked House by Marlene Bateman

Author:Marlene Bateman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LDS, clean, murder, mystery, supense, PI, private detective, Erica Coleman, house, college, girls
Publisher: Covenant Communications, Inc.
Published: 2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

A chill went through Erica as she knelt by Liz in her bedroom. “I didn’t know you are—were—engaged!”

“No one knew,” Liz said, raising a tear-streaked face. “Joel and I kept it a secret.”

“Joel?”

“Joel Goldstein. He was a race car driver.”

“Like Todd?”

Liz’s smile was slight and sad. “They were both stock car drivers, but Joel was better.” Tears overflowed again. “Why did he have to die?”

Erica patted her comfortingly.

“I’m sorry,” Liz apologized when she regained control. “Whenever I see Todd, I can’t help but think of Joel. They were friends. Both of them raced on the NASCAR circuit.”

When the tears eased, Erica sat on the bed. It was hard to take it all in. “When did you meet Joel?”

“Last year, in June, when he was in Dover for the NASCAR races. Joel and some of his friends went to the Air Mobility Command Museum. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but it’s at the Dover Air Force Base. I’d talked Beth into going with me, and, well, we saw these cute guys and started talking. Turns out a couple of them were race car drivers, and the others were crew members.” Liz brushed back her hair and struggled to control the trembling of her lips. “Joel and a couple of his friends asked to meet me and Beth that night for dinner. We all went out as a group a few times, then Joel and I started dating.”

“But didn’t he have to leave to follow the NASCAR circuit?”

Liz nodded. “There are thirty-six races in the Sprint Cup series, but most of them are in the Eastern part of the country, so Joel was able to come back quite a bit. We kept in touch by phone and e-mails, and we were together a lot when he was in town last September.”

“How long had you been engaged?”

“Since March—three months.”

Outside the window, the moon rode high, and the earth blazed with light from it. Erica hesitated before asking what she knew would be a painful question. “How did Joel die?”

“How else?” Liz intoned sadly. “Racing. Joel went overseas to get more experience and was racing in France, at the Circuit de la Sarthe when . . . when he crashed.”

“How did you find out?”

“Joel usually called me every other day. When I hadn’t heard from him for a few days, I called, but there was no answer. I kept trying, and finally, a nurse answered Joel’s cell phone and told me about the accident. He’d been in the hospital two days before I found out.” Her voice sounded mechanical, almost rehearsed. “I asked if I could see him, but the nurse said Joel was in intensive care and that no one except family could see him. I explained we were engaged, but she still said I wouldn’t be allowed in. I was going to buy a plane ticket anyway, but then a friend of Joel’s called and told me he had died.” Liz covered her face with her hands and wept noisily.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.