Free If You Ever Tell by Carlene Thompson

design the place, if you remember.”
    “I remember,” Kent said dourly.
    “Well, we all had a good time. Even Sharon.”
    “I guess that’s why she didn’t mention earlier she was going there.”
    “She didn’t mention it because she knew you wouldn’t approve. For heaven’s sake, Kent,” Teresa said in exasperation. “You used to be fun.”
    “I’m still fun.”
    “Yeah, you sound like a barrel of laughs.”
    “I’m just so busy at work, I forget there’s anything but keeping Farr Coal Company up to speed.”
    “That’s what happened to Dad, and you sure don’t want to turn out like him, even though he did make time for Wendy in his busy schedule.”
    “Well, Sharon doesn’t have to worry about other women. We’ve been sweethearts since high school.”
    “And married with a child while you were still in college,” Teresa said. A child who arrived only six months after their wedding, which had been a quick, unemotional ceremony held in a judge’s chambers three weeks after the deaths of Hugh and Wendy and a week after the arrest of Roscoe Lee Byrnes. It had been a bleak affair, but Sharon and her only living parent, her father, Gabriel, had looked immensely relieved—and six months later Teri had realized why. But those times were best forgotten, she reminded herself, especially because Kent was so touchy about the early birth of his son. “Is Daniel excited about meeting his horse today?” she asked quickly.
    “He’s ecstatic. I don’t know how we’ll hold him still through Sunday school and church.” Kent paused. “Sorry I was so curt earlier, but frankly I am a little on edge. Sharon is worried about him taking riding lessons. She’s worried about him doing anything—swimming, playing soccer, you name it—and she’s making
him
nervous and unhappy because she usually keeps him from doing the things his friends do.”
    Sharon was a wonderful mother but increasingly overprotective, just as Carmen had pointed out last night. But Carmen was not one of Kent’s favorite people, either, so Teresa dared not mention having discussed the problem with her. Unfortunately, Teri had no advice of her own except for Kent to put his foot down and insist that Daniel be allowed to participate in sports, which she knew would cause trouble in what she’d once considered almost the perfect marriage. “Maybe you should talk to a professional, Kent,” she said carefully. “I’m childless. I don’t have much experience with children except for Celeste, and that was a long time ago.”
    “Yeah, Celeste,” Kent said softly. “Poor kid. I guess you heard that she started talking again.”
    “Yes.” Instinct told Teresa not to mention that she’d learned the news by a threatening note left in her car last night. “I don’t know where Celeste was or what she said, though.”
    “I’ve gotten about five different versions, but it seems Jason had taken her to lunch at Bennigan’s yesterday and all at once she just started babbling about the night of the murders.”
    “The night of the murders!” Teresa tried to sound surprised, although she’d already learned that information from the note. “What did she say?”
    “I don’t know. It seems she suddenly stopped talking and started shouting some kind of chant.”
    “A chant?”
    “I know it sounds crazy.” Kent paused. “You might as well know, she mentioned you in the chant. You and death. We must have gotten twenty calls last night about it. People giving garbled accounts of the incident and wanting more information. I just said I had no idea what people were talking about and hung up.”
    “A chant about me and death?” Teri repeated. “What about me and death?”
    “I wasn’t lying to those people. I really don’t know. Listen, I shouldn’t have said anything.” Teresa could hear Kent’s regret for bringing up the subject. “Besides, I don’t have the story straight. I’m sure we’ll get all the details at church today,