River’s End by Nora Roberts Page B

heart sighed. There were pictures of them in a garden, and in a big room with dozens of glittering lights, on a sofa with her mother snuggled into his lap with their faces close and their smiles for each other.
    Sam Tanner. It said his name was Sam Tanner. Reading it, she began to shiver. Her stomach cramped, a dozen tight fists that twisted.
    Daddy. It was Daddy. How could she have forgotten? It was Daddy, holding hands with Mama, or with his arm around her shoulders.
    Holding scissors bright with blood.
    No, no, that couldn’t be. It was a dream, a nightmare. Imagination, that was all. She began to rock, pressing her hands to her mouth as the images began to creep in. Panic, burning fingers of it, had her by the throat, squeezing until her breath came in strangled gasps.
    Broken glass sparkling on the floor in the lights. Dying flowers. The warm breeze through the open door.
    It wasn’t real. She wouldn’t let it be real.
    Olivia pushed the book aside and lifted out the last with hands that trembled. There’d be other pictures, she told herself. More pictures of her parents smiling and laughing and holding each other.
    But it was newspapers again, with big headlines that seemed to scream at her.
    JULIE MACBRIDE MURDERED
    SAM TANNER ARRESTED
    FAIRY TALE ENDS IN TRAGEDY
    There were pictures of her father, looking dazed and unkempt. More of her aunt, her grandparents, her uncle. And of her, she saw with a jolt. Of her years before with her eyes wild and blank and her hands pressed to her ears.
    JULIE’S CHILD, ONLY WITNESS TO MOTHER’S SLAYING
    She shook her head in denial, ripping quickly through the pages now. There, another face that awakened memories. His name was Frank, she thought. He chased the monster away. He had a little boy and he’d liked puzzles.
    A policeman. Soft, hunted sounds trembled in her throat. He’d carried her out of the house, the house where the monster had come. Where all the blood was. Because her mother was dead. Her mother was dead. She knew that, of course she knew that. But we don’t talk about it, she reminded herself, we never talk about it because it makes Grandma cry.
    She ordered herself to close the book, to put it all away again, back in the chest, back in the dark. But she was already turning the pages, searching the words and pictures.
    Drugs. Jealousy. Obsession.
    Tanner Confesses!
    Tanner Retracts Confession. Proclaims His Innocence.
    Four-Year-Old Daughter Chief Witness.
    The Tanner trial took one more dramatic turn today as the videotaped testimony of Tanner’s daughter, four-year-old Olivia, was introduced. The child was questioned in the home of her maternal aunt, Jamie Melbourne, and videotaped with permission of her grandparents, acting as guardians. Previously Judge Sato ruled that the taped statement could be introduced as evidence, sparing the minor the trauma of a court appearance.
    She remembered, she remembered it all now. They’d sat in Aunt Jamie’s living room. Her grandparents had been there, too. A woman with red hair and a soft voice had asked her questions about the night the monster had come. Grandma had promised it would be the last time she would have to talk about it, the very last time. And it was.
    The woman had listened and asked more questions. Then a man had talked to her, a man with a careful smile and careful eyes. She’d thought since it was the last time, she’d be able to go back home. That it would all go away.
    But she’d come to Washington instead, to the big house in the forest. Now, she knew why.
    Olivia turned more pages, narrowed her eyes against tears until they were stinging dry. And with her jaw tight and her eyes clear, read another flurry of headlines. 
    sam tanner convicted
    guilty! jury convicts tanner
    tanner sentenced to life
    “You killed my mother, you bastard.” She said it with all the hate a young girl could muster. “I hope you’re dead, too. I hope you died screaming.”
    With steady hands, she closed the book,