Little Lost Angel by Michael Quinlan

Author:Michael Quinlan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books

14

Toni the traitor. How dare she turn state’s evidence against Melinda, Laurie, and Hope.

Larry and Terry Leatherbury and Kary Pope were fuming. They’d teach that little weasel a lesson she’d never forget. They couldn’t get to Toni herself, however, because she was tucked away safely in the Scott County jail. But there were other ways to take revenge.

Hyped up and full of venom, Kary and the Leatherburys went to a discount store in Clarksville and armed themselves with long knives and hatchets. Then they left for Madison in search of Toni’s parents, Clifton and Glenda Lawrence, with menace on their minds.

But somewhere along the fifty-mile drive to Madison, Kary had second thoughts and convinced the brothers that they should turn back. And a short time after that, Kary called Detective Steve Henry and confessed it all.

“Kary was hysterical,” Henry said. “She told me what had happened. They were going to do some horrible things to Toni’s parents. Somewhere along the way they chickened out and the whole thing fell through. Kary told me she felt terrible about it.”

Kary was a walking contradiction. A tough guy one minute, a confused waif the next. The seventeen-year-old lesbian had an up-and-down relationship with her own family and was drawn to the solid, easygoing Henry. The detective provided an anchor for her during the months following Shanda’s murder. He had treated her with respect from the start, telling her that her sexual persuasion made no difference to him and that he needed her help to understand the dynamics of Melinda and Laurie’s friendship. She would call him often and he’d offer words of advice. He told her that if she hadn’t been on the outs with Laurie and Melinda at the time she might have been along the night of Shanda’s abduction.

“I told her that she had a second chance,” Henry said. “I told her she had the opportunity to learn from this and turn her life around and stop hanging with that crowd. I think she honestly tried at times, but then she’d do something stupid, like that stunt about hurting Toni’s mom and dad. She’d act tough for the others, but I think she was probably the most fragile of the lot.”

Kary had kept up a correspondence with both Melinda and Laurie after their arrest, writing letters and visiting them in jail. She told them she was lost without them and would be waiting for them when they got out—however many years that would be.

In July 1992, six months after Shanda’s murder, Melinda wrote Kary this letter:

Dear Kary (poopsie),

I received all your precious letters and I’ve got all these mixed up feelings about them. It’s like you sometimes take Amanda’s place. She hasn’t written me a letter since she’s been back from Florida [where she’d gone for a vacation] and it’s like she don’t care. I miss her so much but they say if you love something let it go and if it comes back then it was meant to be. So, that’s what I plan on doing.

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