nly months later would Kristina allow her-<br > self to consider why Celeste ordered her not to mention the<br >name of Tracey TarIton to the police， even though many times<br >throughout that strange summer she wondered about the odd re-<br >lationship between her mother and the bright， funny woman<br >who managed a large Austin bookstore. From experience， the<br >teenager "knew not to question her mother. To do so would be<br >judged by Celeste as a betrayal， and the consequences could<br >be bone-chilling. Throughout her life， she d feared yet loved her<br >mother as only a child can love a parent， with utter devotion.<br >Only long after Steve Beard s cold body lay entombed in a<br >rose-granite crypt did Kristina a/low herself to wonder how<br >much she truly knew about the woman she called "Mother."<br >Even if Kristina could see into the past， Celeste might have re-<br >mained a mystery. For like the woman Celeste became， the<br >household she grew tip in was filled with contradiction. On the<br >outside， Edwin and Nancy Johnson s brood appeared a typical<br >1960s middle-class family. Only decades later would a very<br >different picture emerge.<br > Edwin and Nancy were an odd couple. They met after he d<br >left the Air Force， in the mid-fifties. Their first encounter took<br >place in Ohio， where she worked as a telephone operator. They<br >struck up a conversation， and Edwin told her he d just returned<br >to the United States after being stationed in Japan. "He talked<br >about how he d met a missionary who changed his life，" says<br >Nancy， a stern woman with hom-rimmed glasses and a bouffant<br >