Silent Night 3(26)
“Who is it?” Reva cried. But Blake had already hung up.
Reva grabbed her coat and hurried out to her car.
A cold wind blew icy snowflakes against the windshield as she drove through the streets. Reva turned the heater up full-blast, but she couldn’t stop shivering.
She was actually going to see the murderer face to face.
Who was it?
Who?
Who wants to do the same thing to me?
Still shivering, Reva parked her car and ran into the station.
Detective Blake met her inside the door. “Thanks for coming. This way,” he told her, striding off down a brightly lit hallway, the floor covered in mud-colored linoleum.
“Who is it?” Reva asked, hurrying after him. “Where did you find him? Or her? I didn’t recognize the phone number. Was it a phone booth?”
Without answering, Blake stopped in front of a door, turned the handle, and pushed it open.
Reva felt nervous, but angry, too. Angry at having been threatened. Eager to point the finger at her caller, she took a deep breath and strode inside.
A police officer stood against one wall, sipping from a Styrofoam cup. He looked relaxed, almost bored. But his eyes never left the beat-up wooden table in the center of the room.
Reva’s eyes snapped to the person sitting at the table.
She stopped, stunned.
“You?” she gasped in surprise.
Chapter 17
LOST IN THE SNOW
Daniel Powell sat in the chair, his eyes wide with panic as he stared back at Reva.
“You?” she repeated. “You killed Traci?”
“No!” Daniel leaped up, toppling his chair.
In a flash, the uniformed officer pushed away from the wall. He clapped one big hand on Daniel’s shoulder and used the other to pick up the chair. “Sit!” he ordered in a gravelly voice.
Daniel slowly sat down. His breath came hard and fast, as if he’d been running.
Detective Blake glanced at Reva. “I take it you know him?”
Reva nodded. “Yeah. From college.” She turned back to Daniel. “Why would you kill Traci? You didn’t even know her!”
“You’re right. I didn’t know her! And I didn’t kill her!” Daniel insisted. “Reva, you have to believe me!”
“Why should I?” she asked suspiciously. “I mean, you called me up and threatened me. You told me I deserve the same thing! Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Because I’m telling the truth!” Daniel raked his fingers through his sandy hair. “Look. I admit I called Reva tonight,” he said to Detective Blake. “And I told you why.”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Reva suggested coldly. “What did I ever do to deserve such a horrible call?”
“I already told you,” Daniel declared. “I came down to Shadyside as a surprise, and you pretended you didn’t even know me. I was so steamed, Reva. I still am. So I made that call tonight to scare you. To pay you back for treating me like dirt!”
“And is that why you killed Traci?” Reva demanded. “To pay me back for a harmless little joke?”
“I didn’t kill her!” Daniel shouted. “How many times do I have to say it? I didn’t kill Traci!”
Daniel started to rise again. The officer shot him a warning glance. Daniel dropped back down, shaking his head, his gaze lowered to the floor.
“You’ve got quite a temper, don’t you, son?” Blake asked him. “Is that what happened last year in high school—you lost your temper?”
Daniel didn’t respond.
“What do you mean?” Reva asked Blake. “What did he do last year in high school?”
“Beat up a buddy,” Blake told her. “Got arrested for assault.”
Reva stared at Daniel, horrified. She had actually gone out with this guy!
“He wasn’t a buddy,” Daniel declared. “He ripped off some stuff from the school and then pointed the finger at me. Got me in major trouble. When I found out, I let him have it. He deserved it.”
“The way Traci deserved to die?” Blake asked.
Daniel’s face flushed and he clenched his fists. “I did not kill her,” he insisted, almost spitting the words out. “I called Reva to scare her. But that’s it, you hear me? You can’t prove I did anything else!”
“We’ll see.” Blake nodded at Reva. “Let’s go to my desk so you can give your statement. Then you can go home.”
Reva glanced coldly at Daniel, then turned and followed Blake out of the room.
“What did you do to get him so steamed?” Blake asked as they walked down the dark hall.
“He showed up at my house late at night, and I told the security guard I didn’t know him,” Reva explained. “I don’t know what the big deal was. I told Daniel the next day that I was only kidding.”