Ann Rule Small Sacrafices

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custody of Christie and Danny, and she figured that the Children's
Services Division would do exactly the opposite of what
SMALL SACRIFICES 283
she wanted. If CSD learned that Steve had let her see her children,
they wouldn't let him have the kids. Diane wanted CSD to
know about her visit with Christie--but in a roundabout way.
On October 16, Diane wrote to Lew, telling him she'd seen
her children, thanks to Steve. The letter is written in a drunken
scrawl, addressed simply to "Lew, c/o Chandler P.O., Chandler,
AZ, 85224."
Over the next few days, she called the post office and left messages for Lew:
he must not open the letter she'd sent. He
must send it back! If he opened it--and told anyone what was in
it--she warned that his life wouldn't be worth anything. That
would not only make him open it, but he'd get the information
immediately to the Lane County Sheriffs Office, which was what
she wanted all along.
It worked. It also scared Lew enough to file charges against
Diane and request a restraining order.
Fred Hugi was appalled when he heard that Christie had been
alone with Diane. It explained everything--why Christie had closed
up with Peterson, why she was so afraid again. "I felt really
incompetent," he remembers grimly. "I couldn't even protect
one little girl. I wondered how many other times Diane had seen
Christie. When you're dealing with crime, something that's admitted
to one time usually means it happened a lot of times. Diane
was getting more organized, stronger--just as she'd said ... I
didn't even have an investigator to check it out."
Those few investigators who were left in the DA's office
were all busy on other cases. Crime had not stopped in Lane
County in the six months since the shootings on Old Mohawk
Road. Hugi had myriad cases to handle; so did everyone else. The
Downs case was always with him, but he had to push it to the
back of his mind in order to do the rest of his job.
Diane had managed to see Christie and foil Steve. She had seduced
Matt. She was winning again. She kept her fingers crossed "as the due date of
her menstrual period approached. She would
not allow herself to start bleeding. It was important to her survival
that she be pregnant.
She was. Her sixth pregnancy had begun.
Later when her secret was out, Diane explained to television reporter Anne
Bradley the symbolic meaning of this pregnancy,
"I got pregnant because I miss Christie, and I miss Danny and I
miss Cheryl so much. I'm never going to see Cheryl on earth
284 ANN RULE
again, I just-- You can't replace children--but you can replace the effect
that they give you. And they give me love, they give me
satisfaction, they give me stability, they give me a reason to live
and a reason to be happy, and that's gone. They took it from
me."
And then Diane smiled faintly at Bradley, and remarked, "But
children are so easy to conceive."
Matt Jensen--who had already made one grievous mistake--
made another. He called Diane. A friend having dinner at Matt's
new house commented he would like to meet the infamous Diane
Downs, hinting that he didn't believe Matt knew her well enough
to call her up. Loosened by a few beers. Matt called Diane. She
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was delighted and said she'd be right over.
Diane arrived wearing mini-shorts and high boots that clung
to her calves. Jensen's friend eyed her appreciatively. There was
no question that the woman was a knock-out �
"During the course of the evening," Jensen remembers ruefully,
"she suddenly leaned over to me and whispered, 'I'm
pregnant.' I was in shock. I didn't know what the repercussions
would be. I was upset--I told her she'd set this up, that she'd
used me--and I didn't want anything to do with her."
Diane had been amazed at his agitation. "Don't worry," she
soothed. "I didn't mean to use you."
"I see what you were after," he countered. "I see what you
did, and I don't want to see you anymore."
When Diane left, she was smiling. He would forgive her, she
knew, when he began to understand. She would explain it all to
him when he wasn't so bent out of shape.
Diane hadn't been to a doctor when she told Matt that she
was pregnant. She didn't need to go; she was positive. But she
went anyway on November 8, and she told her diary the great
news had been verified: "Found out that I am positively pregnant!
YEAH!"
She had done it. She was no longer despondent. "That is
why on October 13, 1983," she wrote the author, "I chose to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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