In the Dark by Brian Freeman Page A

him.
     
“Oh, no,” he said.
     
Serena leaned closer and whispered, “Nice hair.”
     
“I kept it long in those days.”
     
“You and Shaun Cassidy.”
     
“It was the 1970s, for God’s sake. It was the decade that taste forgot.”
     
“No, no, I like it. What a heartthrob you were. So intense. And those eyes! What did Cindy call them? Pirate eyes? I can really see it, Jonny. Smoldering, brooding, the future wounded detective.” Serena covered her mouth and started laughing.
     
“You’ve been spending way too much time with Maggie,” he told her.
     
“I saw a picture of Cindy, too. I’ve never seen a photo of her when she was young. She was amazing.”
     
“Yes, she was.”
     
“She had such an interesting face.”
     
“I told her that once, and she almost decked me.”
     
“No, really, with those big eyes and that sharp nose, and with the raven hair, she was something to look at. I see why you fell for her. I mean, Laura was a typical teen beauty, but Cindy was distinctive.” She let the silence linger, and then she added, “So tell me about Laura. What was she like?”
     
“I didn’t really know her all that well,” Stride admitted. “She wasn’t home a lot when I was around. I always thought she was one of those girls who was uncomfortable being as pretty as she was. She didn’t like the stares from the boys.”
     
“Were she and Cindy close?”
     
“No. Not really. They weren’t enemies the way sisters can be, but they both led their own lives. Cindy really regretted the distance between them after Laura was killed. She thought she had missed out on having a sister.”
     
“I saw Tish in the yearbook, too,” Serena told him. “She’s not lying about her relationship with Laura. I spotted them together in three separate photos, and they were hanging on each other like BFFs.”
     
“Score one for Tish,” Stride said.
     
“Except you never saw them together, did you? You didn’t know Tish. Why not?”
     
“Tish says she and Laura had some kind of fight, and she moved to St. Paul by herself after graduation. That would have been in May and June, when Cindy and I began dating.”
     
“Did Tish say what the fight was about?”
     
“She claims she doesn’t remember but that it wasn’t anything important. I think she’s lying on both counts.”
     
“So what was it?”
     
“I don’t know, but what do teenage girls usually fight about?” Stride asked.
     
“Boys.”
     
“That’s my guess.”
     
“Do you have any idea who it was?”
     
“Tish says that Laura dated Peter Stanhope for a while. She all but accused him of being Laura’s stalker.”
     
Serena frowned. “Peter.”
     
“Sorry, he was up to his neck in this case,” Stride said.
     
“Why didn’t you tell me? I knew you weren’t happy when I started doing work for Peter’s law firm, but I didn’t realize you had this kind of history with him.”
     
“It was thirty years ago. I’ve barely spoken to him since then. People change.”
     
That was a lie. Stride didn’t think anyone really changed. He wasn’t crazy about the idea of Serena taking a job at Peter Stanhope’s law firm, but he also wanted her off the streets. Somewhere safe. The fire in which she had nearly died during the winter hadn’t been an accident. Her career had put her in the path of a stalker, and Stride found himself struggling with his anxiety whenever she was back on the street. Serena was a former homicide cop from Las Vegas, which was one of the toughest beats he could imagine. Her background made her fiercely independent. Even so, he understood now the emotions that Cindy must have felt whenever he left the house and the fear that would have flitted through her brain whenever she picked up the phone. For the spouse of a cop, the call could come anytime.
     
“Can I tell Peter about Tish and her book?” Serena asked.
     
Stride shrugged. “If Tish keeps digging, Peter’s going to hear about it sooner or later. You can tell him. For now, I’m not involved.”
     
“Do you really think that Peter