Free Death Trap by M. William Phelps Page B

to go get drunker than he was already.
    Jessica was a third-generation Edgewood Presbyterian churchgoer (though she rarely attended services as she grew older); her grandmother was a member of the church for some sixty years. “One of the saints of God’s Kingdom,” Pastor Burgess said of Jessica’s grandpappy in one of his 2002 sermons. Jessica’s mother, Dian, was the church treasurer at one time. Dian’s second husband, Albert Bailey, was “an active elder” on the council of the church. It was inside Edgewood that Jessica was baptized and given the Christian name Jessica Inez, after her grandmother—a name Jessica would use for the rest of her life whenever asked.
    The church—or religion, in general—was one of the fundamental differences Alan and Jessica shared. As Jessica later put it, “Alan was brought up in the Church of Christ, which is not my, I mean, it’s Christian but, you know, the basic tenets are different than mine.” Edgewood was more of a “liberal church,” she said. “And the whole theory, different views on how girls should be treated, especially within the confines of the church. And I disagreed vehemently with [Alan’s] family on that. . . .”
    And so it would seem, at least in the realm of schoolgirl crushes and teen romances, that as “an item,” Alan and Jessica would have not made a good match. Still, all that piety and good living was the social, public side of life Jessica led as a child. Living inside her home—keep in mind, this is according to Jessica herself—was a bit like stepping down into the fires of hell every day. And in that sense, unbeknownst to either of them, Alan and Jessica were like two magnets trying to stick together. Kids from vastly different upbringings, with vastly different values and vastly different views of life, trying to come together.
    A positive and a negative.
    Sparks.
    Nevertheless, Alan saw something in the young, auburn-haired girl with the cute smile, pudgy cheeks and boisterous, look-at-me disposition. Jessica was no knockout, like the more popular girls in school Alan could have snapped a finger and took out, but she had something. Maybe a twinkle in her eye Alan was attracted to. A flare for life. A subtle vulnerability. Perhaps a calming voice that made him feel at the same time both comfortable and defenseless.
    Whatever it was, Alan liked the package.
    Marley Franklin, who was hanging around with Alan every day during that period when he met Jessica, later said, “Jessica hated my guts.”
    As soon as she transferred to Shades Valley, Jessica made sure that people noticed her. Jessica did have a subtle beauty about her in high school; she stood out. Still, she craved and almost demanded attention.
    “She latched onto Alan pretty quick, pretty hard and heavy,” one old friend said. “She loved the fact that [Alan] was a ‘band guy.’”
    As Jessica and Alan became closer, Jessica pulled Alan aside one day and told him, “You stop hanging out with [Marley]. You never speak to her again.”
    It was about control. Jessica was stepping in and taking charge of Alan’s life.
    Marley got an uneasy vibe from Jessica and felt she and Alan were headed for trouble. Still, to Marley, Alan could make his own choices; he was a brother, not a lover. Marley wanted nothing to do with him romantically, or “in that way.” Then again, it was unnerving for her that this new girl in Alan’s life was telling him what people he could and could not hang out with.
    “I got a really bad read of her,” Marley said. “I mean, everybody that knew her got a bad read of Jessica. You could just tell she carried with her a negative energy.”
    It was like a cloud, former friends said. An aura about Jessica.
    Perhaps Jessica fed a wild side of Alan that he rarely ever allowed to come out. She was aggressive. She was “different.” Heck, Jessica was more than willing to put out.
    “She was fun, ” said a former high-school classmate, “you know,