Chapter Forty-Seven

The digital clock on the night stand read 2:11 a.m. when I grumbled a hello into the telephone.

"Fay, Betsy here. Sorry about waking you, but I just got home from the hospital."

By this time I had the night stand light on and was sitting on the edge of my bed.

"You okay?"

"I'm a basket case. My mother-in-law had a heart attack. We've been at the hospital most of the afternoon and night."

"She's gonna be okay though, right?"

Silence on Betsy's end. And I was certain I heard her start to cry.

"Bets."

"She passed away a short while ago, Fay."

"Oh no."

I paused a minute until this sick feeling finished squirming its way out of my stomach and up to the throat. If I swallowed, was afraid I'd suffer a reverse attack. So I opened my mouth instead so it could escape.

"What can I do?" I finally asked.

"I'll let you know when the shock wears off," she said as she sniffed back tears.

"How's the baby?"

I could almost see her reach for her stomach and begin to massage the fetus growing inside. I could also tell by her tone it was wise on my part to change the subject.

"The little stinker's growing like a weed. You should see the size of me already."

"Can't wait."

Then there was another shorter stretch of silence before Betsy said, "Fay, I called earlier to warn you. This Angel girl is a real sicko."

"I think I'm beginning to figure that out."

"She's spent time in a mental institution. But that's only the half of it. She was first evaluated at the ripe old age of nine."

"Nine! My God, what did she do?"

"Accidentally locked her stepdaddy in an abandoned refrigerator in the woods behind their house. And get this, it took her three days to tell someone."

The minute she mentioned the refrigerator, I was thinking about Ethel. I was one hundred percent certain now that Angel was the one who stuffed poor Ethel in the refrigerator at a local dump site in the woods. I told Betsy as much. I told her the whole story about Ethel, about the diary. I even included the part about my visit to the police because I had become their number one suspect in the murder.

Again, Betsy returned to the incident surrounding Angel's stepfather's death. And how she got away with what was clearly murder.

"She told the police she and her daddy were playing hide-n-seek in the woods. She saw her daddy hide in the refrigerator. He left the door open a crack, so he could peek out and watch for her. But Angel tricked him and snuck up from behind and shut the door."

"Yeah, but a nine-year-old probably wouldn't know he couldn't get out of there on his own."

"Exactly how she got away with it. When she was questioned, she said she thought her daddy got out. The reason he hadn't come home was because he was off on one of those trips he often took."

"He was a lush, Fay. And Angel's mother confirmed the fact that he'd go off for days at a time on drinking binges. By day three, Angel just happened to mention to her mother about the game they had been playing that last day she saw him. And about how she shut the refrigerator door."

"What you're telling me does sound very believable."

"A few years later, when she ended up in the state hospital after attempting suicide, her therapist got the shock of her life when Angel told her the story about how she shut her stepdaddy in the refrigerator."

"She told her she did it intentionally?"

"Oh, yeah. She knew there was no way he could get out of there once she closed the door. And get this, she knew that because her stepdaddy used to lock her in there when she was a bad little girl. He'd open the door in time to keep her from suffocating."

"That's awful."

So awful that I suddenly felt sorry for Angel.

"That's not all. He abused her sexually, Fay. The first time was through the night. He held her bed pillow over her face so she wouldn't scream. She lost consciousness before he finished with her."

I found myself hating a man I had never met. He deserved to be shut in that refrigerator. Poor Angel. Clever Angel.

"During Angel's stay at the mental hospital, she tried to smother another patient with her bed pillow. Would have got away with it too, if an orderly hadn't come along."

"That's how she ended up with the criminal record. She was charged with attempted murder. Served a few years in a juvenile detention center and was released. The records were sealed because of her age. Little Angel was offered a fresh start in the world."

"This is all so incredible," I sighed as I attempted to absorb it all.

"It's also very confidential. None of it can be used to help prove she murdered your friend Ethel, Fay."

"But we're talking about a very dangerous young woman here," I reminded in protest.

"You don't have to tell me that. I was afraid to go to sleep after hearing the story."

"Just where did you hear the story?"

"You know I never reveal my sources, Fay. But I will say it came from someone who was there. A few files were accidentally dropped in my lap too."

"You have to send them to me, Betsy."

"Can't do. They've already been returned, as promised."

We talked a while longer before the long distance conversation ended.

"Be careful, Fay," were Betsy's last words to me.