Jamie Begley - Knox’s Stand

She stared at the list of men’s names that Sam had been intimate with in high school. Diamond could tell from the addresses beside each name that they were from the better part of town. Samantha hadn’t become involved with the less savory men in Treepoint until after she had turned eighteen. Diamond’s spoon paused with the ice cream still on there, halfway to her mouth. A sudden thought occurred to her.

Picking up her phone, she called Beth. “Hello?”

“Hi, Beth this is Diamond I was wondering if I could have Lily’s number. I have a quick question for her.”

“Yes.” Beth gave her the number without questioning why Diamond wanted it.

“Thanks, Beth.” Diamond cut off the conversation before Beth could say anything. Feeling guilty, Diamond regretted being rude, but she had heard the laughter and music in the background and her stomach couldn’t take the images of Knox being there.

Her call to Lily was answered on the first ring.

“Lily, this is Diamond Richard. Do you remember me?”

“Of course. How are you?”

“I’m doing well. I have a quick question.”

“Okay.” Her sweet voice brought a true smile to Diamond’s face for the first time in weeks.

“When you were in high school, who was considered the bad boy in your age group? Someone that would freak a parent out if their daughter got involved with them?”

Silence met her answer. “Most of the boys in my class were pretty nice; they were into clothes as much as the girls.”

“How about a grade ahead of you then?”

“I can’t think of anyone that… wait a minute, there was someone, but he didn’t graduate with his class; he was a year ahead of Samantha and me and dropped out before graduation. I heard his grades were bad enough he would have to come back during summer school and he wasn’t going to do that, so he just dropped out completely.”

“Who?” The name Lily gave her convinced Diamond she was right in her assumptions.

“Thanks, Lily. That’s all I needed to know. How’s school?”

“Good. I’m glad I only have a year left after this semester, I’m getting sick of being away from home.” Diamond heard the homesickness in her voice.

“I understand. Just hang in there. It will be worth it when you graduate.”

“I will.” They talked for several minutes more before they hung up. Diamond got up from her couch and put the melting ice cream back into the freezer.

She went into the bedroom to put on her tennis shoes then grabbed her keys before she went outside. It was getting dark. Almost deciding to turn around and wait until tomorrow, Diamond got into her car, curiosity driving her to lose her commonsense about finding their home in the dark.

She had to know for sure if she was right because, if she was, she had just found out who was responsible for Samantha Bedford’s death.

“Who was that?” Razer asked.

Beth sat, staring at her phone with a hurt expression on her face.

“Diamond Richard,” she said, glancing at Knox who was sitting across the table from her, eating his dinner.

“What did she want with Lily’s number?” Shade and Knox both stopped eating at Razer’s question.

“I don’t know. She hung up before I could ask.”

They continued eating until Razer couldn’t avoid the glares from the men sitting at the table.

“Maybe you should call and find out,” Razer suggested.

Beth picked up her phone and called her sister while the men waited impatiently for several minutes until Beth hung up.

“What did she want?” This time it was Knox who asked.

“She wanted to know if there was a boy in her and Sam’s class that would freak a parent out if their daughter became involved with them.”

“Was there?” Knox asked, getting a sick feeling in his gut.

“Yes.”

“Who was it?”

“Dustin Porter.”

*  *  *

Diamond pulled her car in front of the Porter’s house. The older, wooden house’s front porch was lit with a spotlight, showing not only the front porch, but a great expanse of the yard. When Diamond got out of her car, almost blinded by the light, the door opened and a man came outside to stand on the porch.

“Is that you, Ms. Richards?”

“Yes, Dustin.” Diamond licked her lips. “Can I talk to you for a few minutes?”

He lowered the shotgun he was holding. “Sure, come on in.”

Diamond walked up the short flight of steps to the front porch. Dustin’s face was in the shadows as if he suspected why she was there, making her unable to read his feelings on her being there. Diamond walked into the old fashioned living room that had a braided rug on the floor and an old, flowered print couch.

“Where are your brothers and sister?” Diamond questioned, going into the living room, regretting her decision for coming out alone to his house. She should have gone to the sheriff, however she’d been too excited at the prospect of being right to think of what she was doing.

“They went into town to see a movie. Not much else to do on a Friday night,” Dustin replied.

“I’ve been finding that out myself. I’m from Jamestown; it’s not much bigger, but at least it has a little more entertainment than Treepoint does.” She made an effort to keep the conversation casual until she could get out of the situation she had placed herself in.

“What brought you out here at this time of night?” Dustin asked, studying her tense face.

“I just wanted to check and see how everything was going since the hearing. I like to check in with my clients. I also thought I would invite Rachel to lunch. I haven’t made many friends since coming to Treepoint.” Dustin didn’t say anything after her answer. “Since she’s not here you can tell her to give me a call,” Diamond continued on, casually walking towards the door.

“How’d you figure it out?” Dustin asked, making no move to stop her.

Diamond paused, looking at the man nervously. She thought about denying it, but something told her it would be useless. Selling pot for a living would give him the advantage of being used to determining when a person was lying.

“Sam flaunted everyone in front of her parents; it only made sense to wonder about the man she kept secret.”

“I embarrassed her.” Dustin made a wry face, his hand running through his curly hair. “We began seeing each other when she was a freshman in high school. She didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t want her rich daddy to know.”

He took a step toward her and Diamond backed away towards the door. Dustin stopped then walked over to the table, putting the gun down.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Ms. Richards.”

Diamond let a sigh of relief escape.

“We were in love,” he continued. “She wasn’t like she was until after we broke up. She was always a handful and a smartass, but she wasn’t mean and a slut until after she broke up with me. When her mother died, we were going to sneak away and get married. She was just waiting until the end of the school year then we were going to leave town.”

“What happened?” Diamond asked.

“I don’t know, but I think her father found out and he threatened my family. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She didn’t think I could protect her.” Diamond saw the pain on the man’s face; he looked much older than his years.

“She disappeared for about six months, and when she came back, she wouldn’t talk to me and then she began seeing every man in town who had a hard on for her.”

Diamond felt terrible about every name she had called Samantha Bedford. The young girl had lost her mother then found out she was pregnant. She could only imagine the threats her father would have made to the young woman when he realized she was pregnant by a boy whose family was the biggest pot dealers in the county, if not the state.

“Did you know she was pregnant?”

Dustin gave a shake of his head. “I only found out the day she died.”

“That was what the argument was about?” Diamond guessed.

“Yes. I went into the sheriff’s office to see Greer when a phone call came in to the receptionist. I heard her talking to someone from Jamestown. They told her that no further information was available. No one knows what happened to my kid, do they?”

“I don’t think they do, but the sheriff’s office is trying. You know the sheriff better than me, you think he’ll give up?”

“No, but I’m afraid to find out, too. I didn’t know the Sam that opened that motel door. She thought I was Knox coming back for more.” His face showed the pain in his soul that loving the woman had cost him. He was too young to go through this.

In that instant, Diamond hated Vincent Bedford more than she had ever thought it was possible to hate another human being. He was sitting in a jail cell while he was responsible for one man’s death and had precipitated the actions that led to his daughter’s death. If he hadn’t interfered, Dustin and Samantha would probably have married and raised their child together. Vincent Bedford deserved more punishment than he was getting.

“What happened when she saw it was you?”

“She freaked out.”

Diamond was sure she had. Samantha had probably been using men to forget Dustin for a long time. To see him walk in, she could only imagine how humiliated the woman had felt.

“She started screaming at me, throwing stuff. I tried to calm her down and ask about my kid. She told me to get out and started pushing me toward the door. I shoved her back and she fell and hit her head on the side of the table.” Dustin buried his face in his hands. “I called the ambulance and left. I knew that, with my reputation, everyone would think I did it deliberately. I didn’t even really shove her, I just jerked my arm away from her and she lost her balance. I don’t know anymore. I keep going over it in my head and all I keep seeing is her lying there on the floor,” Dustin confessed.