Sweetie's Diamonds (48 page)

Marshall felt his stomach turn.
 
He was afraid it was something like that.
 

“He... abused them?” he asked.

The woman nodded.
 
“Diane wouldn't let him.
 
She fought him and fought him.
 
I'd say that he probably had his way with her, by force, and then he lost interest in her because Dana… well, Dana was a more willing victim.
 
I fear that poor girl suffered terribly but she relished the attention he gave her.
 
Naturally, the relationship between the two girls changed.
 
All of a sudden they became rivals.
 
Mister Roy started focusing all his good will toward Dana and ignored Diane.
 
Soon it was just Dana who got presents and favors.
 
Diane got jealous.
 
The girls fought.”

Marshall realized that it was a classic case of abuse.
 
Many times young girls who are sexually abused by their fathers or other family members go along with it either out of shame, fear of being caught, or because they are finally receiving affection from the patriarch of the home.

“Did Mrs. Barnett know what was going on?” he asked.

Marisol nodded.
 
“She did.
 
But she would never say anything.
 
Mister Roy would just smack her if she did.
 
It was a bad, bad situation.”

“How long did this go on?” he asked.

“I don't know, until the girls were around twelve, maybe.
 
I can't remember.”

Marshall shook his head and made a note.
 
“That's terrible.”

“Not as terrible as what happened that summer in nineteen-seventy-three,” the woman said, her eyes welling with moisture.
 

He looked at her and urged the woman to go on.

“Why do you want to write about these girls?” she asked suddenly.

“One of them has become famous.
 
Do you read the papers?” he asked.
 
“Watch television?”

She shook her head.

“Diane is wanted for the murder of her husband,” he said.

The woman blinked.
 
“Diane?”

“Yes.”

Marisol looked as if she might cry.
 
“Then Dana never got well,” she whispered.
 

Marshall wasn't sure he heard her right.
 
“What did you say, Mrs. Delgado?”

“Come with me,
Señor
Marshall, I want to show you something.”
 
The woman stood and walked toward the back door.
 
Marshall followed her outside past the barn on a dirt path through the brush.
 
They eventually got to a small clearing where a single tombstone stood, surrounded by freshly cut flowers.
 
The name on the tombstone was “Manuel Jesus Delgado,” along with the dates of birth and death.
 

“Here's where my Manuel lies,” she said.
 
She gave the sign of the cross and then walked on, for the path continued.
 
After walking forty more feet they come to yet another clearing, but this one was unkempt and overrun with weeds and wild vegetation.
 

Two eroded tombstones stood in the ground.
 
One read: “Roy Wayne Barnett, b. 1908, d. 1976.”
  

Written on the second gravestone were the words:
 
“Diane Louise Barnett, b. 1961, d. 1973.”

W
e're finally on our way home!
 
At this moment we're driving out of Los Angeles, headed back to Illinois.
 
Mom's driving a new Malibu she bought on the way here (it's really a used car).
 
We should be home in a couple of days, maybe three.

A lot has happened since I last wrote in my real journal.
 
The one note I wrote in the hospital was the only time I put pen to paper while I was there.
 
I don't know why but I just didn't feel like writing.
 
I used some tape to stick that note in my journal so it's in the right order.

I was in the hospital for three days!
 
I was still having some arrhythmia with my heart (the nurse told me how to spell that word) and they wanted to keep me under watch.
 
Mom came to see me every day and stayed until they kicked her out.
 
Mister Belgrad came all three days, too, but he didn't stay as long.
 
He hung around for an hour or two and then left my Mom with me.
 
I think she was staying with him while I was in the hospital.
 
I can tell they like each other.
 

I feel pretty good now and I'm more or less back to normal.

When I checked out of the hospital this morning, Mom had her things in the car, ready to go.
 
Mister Belgrad wasn't there.
 
She said that he left earlier to go back to New York and that he said to tell me “goodbye” and “good luck.”
 
I asked Mom if we'll see him again and she wasn't sure.
 
I guess that means maybe.
 

It looks like I'll have that operation on my heart pretty soon.
 
They'll have to repair the valve that leaks and do some other minor things.
 
The doctor in LA said he thought I was old enough now.
 
Mom said she would look into it as soon as we're “settled.”
 
I didn't know what she meant by that so I asked her.
 
Mom said that things might be different when we get back to Lincoln Grove.
 
She said there's a possibility we'll have to leave our home there and go live somewhere else.
 
She wasn't sure.
 
She has to work out all her legal problems.

She did have some good news, though.
 
She talked to her lawyer in Illinois—his name is Mister Lewis—and told him that she was on her way home.
 
Mister Lewis told her that they've dropped the murder charge!
 
What happened was somebody
smart
looked into the case and determined that my Dad was killed much earlier than when my Mom was seen running from his house.
 
Like a day or two earlier!
 
They also determined that his murder was similar to one that happened in Chicago and another that happened in New York.
 
Mom told me that Mister Belgrad helped by telling the police in New York and Chicago about the details of my Dad's murder.
 
The Lincoln Grove chief of police was all set to hang Mom for Dad's murder, but some “Feds” came in and took over the case.
 
In no time they discounted the police chief's suspicions and figured out right off the bat that Mom didn't kill my Dad.
 
They now know who the prime suspect is.
 

It turns out that Emo killed him.
  

I hate that guy now.
 
He was pretty nice to me on the way to California, even if he did kidnap me.
 
But now I know for sure that he really is a killer.
 
Or he
was
.
 
Mom said I don't have to worry about him ever again.
 
He most likely died in a huge fire with his boss, Aaron Valentine, the “King of Porn.”
 
That's what the newspapers are calling Mister Valentine.
 
His death was big news, in all the papers and on TV.
 
He and Emo were at some kind of warehouse and it burned down.
 
Police said there was some gunplay involved, too.
 
The fire was probably arson but they don't know who did it.
 
Maybe one of Valentine's men.
 
Who knows and who cares?
 
I'm just glad they're gone.

To tell you the truth, I think Mom and Mister Belgrad had something to do with it, but she's not talking.

When we get back, Mom has to give a statement to the DA about my Dad's murder and tell him what she knows.
 
She told Mister Lewis that she would be ready to cooperate when she gets back to Lincoln Grove.
 
The other thing is that Mom has to face her school board regarding her job.
 
I don't know how that's going to turn out.

Anyway, I'm just glad to be out of that stupid hospital.
 
I feel like I've aged a few years since I was kidnapped.
 

Thank God I'm not any taller, though!

T
he worst part about Diane's appearance at the District Attorney's office in Rolling Meadows, Illinois was getting past the reporters in front of the building.
 
It seemed that every newspaper and television station in the world was represented and they all wanted a piece of her.
 
She was the Porn Star Mom who was cleared of murder charges and then returned home after a mysterious trip to California.
 
They all wanted interviews.
 
60 Minutes
wanted to do a story about her, Jerry Springer was dying to have her on his show, a well-known Hollywood film producer was interested in the rights to her life story, and
Playboy
offered a lot of money for her to pose in the nude.
 

Through Scotty, she refused to talk to anyone except a reporter named Darren Marshall, from Los Angeles.
 
He had been particularly insistent and when he mentioned that he was a friend of Eric Gilliam's, she made an exception.
 
She agreed to see Marshall at Scotty's office after the hearing with the DA.

It was actually Nick Belgrad who had advised her to be extremely selective with regard to the media.
 
It was best that she not come under more scrutiny than was necessary.
 
After all, she was now in the possession of three million dollars in cash.
 

Belgrad had worked out the deal in Los Angeles during the three days that David was still in the hospital.
 
While Diane stayed by her son's side, Belgrad did the legwork and procured two buyers for the diamonds.
 
The men were customers of Hiram Rabinowitz—two tough old Jews who had been trading the gems to a pro-Israel organization in the Middle East that, in turn, used them as bargaining chips in a number of clandestine transactions.
 
The diamonds served as international currency for buying food, arms, medicine, and intelligence to support Israel's never-ending war against terrorism and anti-Semitism.
 
The money was to come in two payments.
 
Half was delivered to Diane in a large brown suitcase.
 
The second payment would be rendered to Belgrad himself, in New York, and he would hold it for her until Diane could find the time and a way to get there to pick it up.
 

But being wealthy beyond her dreams didn't make her life worry-free.
 
Since witnessing the fire in the warehouse, Diane's nightmares had increased and the nervous anxiety she had fought for years returned with a vengeance.
 
Every hour of each day she craved a glass of wine—anything to calm her nerves—but she knew that if she started drinking again then she wouldn't have it together to face the DA and the district school board.
 
The night before the hearing was particularly rough.
 
She had gone into one of her trance states again and if David hadn't shaken her out of it at three in the morning she might never have gotten any sleep.
 

So it was with an unsteady constitution that Diane Boston entered the law office of James R. Tilton, the district attorney for her county.
 
It was to be an informal interview, not a “hearing.”
 
Scotty Lewis was obliged to approve the presence of several other interested parties other than the DA—the Lincoln Grove chief of police, and school board president Judy Wilcox.
 
The DA assured Lewis that Diane was not in any kind of legal jeopardy and that the session would be “painless.”

Diane felt faint when she walked into the conference room.
 
She couldn't understand why she was so nervous, for her life appeared to be on the upswing.
 
She was rich, she had been cleared of murder, and although it had taken her a day or two away from Belgrad to convince herself that it was true, she was in love.
 
She hadn't felt such an emotion in years and she wasn't sure how to handle it.
 
Diane figured it was one of the many things exacerbating her anxiety.