Free The Night Is Deep (A Liam Dempsey Thriller Book 2) by Joe Hart

Dickson I loved him today. He got this surprised but happy look on his face and then said it back! He loves me! We’re already making plans for college down in St. Paul even though dad’s already forbidden it. He wants me to go to his alma mater here in Duluth but I’m done with this town. I’m tired of all the snide comments and “black on white” jokes. If I hear “once you go black, you never go back” one more time, I’m literally going to murder someone! But we have each other, and that’s all I care about. I think he’s going to ask me to marry him soon!
     
    July 20, ’99
    What’s with men anyways? It’s like they can’t ever make up their minds. I mentioned the “m” word to Dickson yesterday and he freaked! Like I was trying to give him some disease! I know his family life wasn’t good while his dad was still around. Dickson told me he cheated on his mother constantly and she always knew about it but didn’t say a word because she didn’t want Dickson growing up in a broken home. Like it wasn’t broken already . . . I think that’s what he’s afraid of. I told him he wasn’t his father and he got really angry and yelled. I took it with a grain of salt because it’s been really stressful trying to make plans for college without anyone knowing. We were able to slip away a week ago and look at apartments off campus. We found some cute ones but they’re all really expensive. Dad said again yesterday that if I insist on going to school in the cities that he’s not going to help with tuition. I know he’s bluffing but he gets so angry these days. I think he misses Mom. Like we all don’t.
    I know if we get married Dad will have to accept him. He won’t have any choice. All I have to do is get Dickson to propose. If I can’t think of anything else I’m going to have to do it! My friends would never let me live that down, haha!
     
    August 1, ’99
    We broke up. I can’t believe I just wrote those words. We’ve been dating for over a year and now we’re not. We were in the middle of trying to plan for the first few weeks of school (we even had money put down on a tiny apartment) and I mentioned getting married again. Dickson flew off the handle. He told me to quit pushing him and that I needed to give us time. I told him if he really loved me then what was stopping him? I don’t get it. I’m ready to spend the rest of my life with him. He’s everything I want. He’s my best friend, he’s unbelievable in bed, and he’s got the kindest heart out of anybody I’ve ever known, including Val (if you ever read this, sorry Val) I know we’re not broken up for good, but it feels that way. I don’t know what to do. I have to do something to get rid of this feeling. I want to die.
     
    Liam flipped the page and saw only blankness from that point on. He turned back to the last passage, noticing several faint discolorations near the binding. Tears. The ghostly spots were where Alexandra’s tears had fallen. He closed his eyes. Only days later she’d been found dead, smashed upon the cement outside the church. Liam shut the diary, his knuckles turning white as he pinched the covers together, thoughts coalescing in his mind.
    Valerie had thought Alexandra’s death wasn’t a suicide at all. What had her basis been? Had she known or suspected something that ate at her through the years, gnawing away at her psyche like some carnivorous scavenger? The thought of someone tossing her off the church tower, this young girl who had written the innocent and touching words in the diary, caused a note of anger to toll within him. When he looked out across the lake, the waves had calmed to ripples. It didn’t give up its dead.
    As he watched the lake the anger slowly gave way to fatigue, the constant din of low conversation coming from the task force almost like a lullaby. A cell phone rang. A door opened and closed. The wind nudged the glass and Liam drifted.
    A strong hand suddenly grasped his