by Amy Vansant
Charlotte sighed. “It doesn’t make you guilty. You know you didn’t do anything.”
Mariska’s lip began to quiver. “But what if somehow I did?”
“You didn’t.”
Mariska sucked in a breath and moved to a large ceramic jar on the counter. Opening it, she gave it a sniff and then dipped her finger in it. Her hopeful expression darkened again.
“Nothing. Just regular flour. This is what we used. I swear.”
Charlotte wandered towards the bedrooms. “We should check Crystal’s room while we’re here. That’s where people hide things.”
Darla sighed. “Not me. I hide things in the laundry room because Frank hasn’t gotten within ten feet of it since we were married.”
Mariska hurried after Charlotte. “Maybe she kept a diary about how she was going to kill Alice.”
Charlotte stopped and turned to raise her eyebrows at Mariska. “You really think she’s special dumb, don’t you?”
Mariska and Darla both nodded.
Charlotte opened the door at the end of the hall to reveal what appeared to be Alice’s room. The bed had been stripped and everything pulled from the walls. The top of the large bureau was clear.
“She hasn’t moved into the master yet. Maybe she has a bit of heart.”
“Maybe she’s just afraid Alice will haunt her,” suggested Mariska, poking in her head. “She certainly didn’t have any trouble emptying the room.”
Charlotte glanced into a hall bathroom and then moved to the only remaining bedroom. Clothes lay strewn on every available surface and the walls had been painted a vaguely disturbing deep maroon, which peeked out from behind posters obviously hung back when the girl was in high school. A large jewelry box lay on its side on top of the dresser, costume jewelry spilling from it.
“Looks like she was rifling through Alice’s keepsake boxes,” said Charlotte, shining her flashlight across the mess.
Darla took the light from her and entered as Mariska tapped Charlotte on the shoulder. “I don’t know how we’re ever going to find anything in this place. You never kept your room like this.”
“I know. I’m an angel.”
“You are. You just had piles of books—”
The sound of a door opening and a man and woman laughing echoed from the front room. Mariska gasped and Charlotte pushed her into Crystal’s bedroom, closing the door behind them without securing it. Darla had been hunched over a drawer searching through clothes for incriminating evidence, but now stood ramrod straight, her eyes so wide the whites nearly lit the room.
Charlotte took the flashlight from her and extinguished it. They could still see the shape of each other by the dim kitchen light slipping through the cracked-open bedroom door.
“She’s back! What are we going to do?” hissed Darla.
Mariska opened her mouth to say something and Darla slapped her hand over her friend’s mouth.
“Mariska, you don’t say a word. You are incapable of whispering.”
Mariska nodded and Darla dropped her hand.
Charlotte glanced at the window. There was no way they could open it and crawl outside without making a racket. Out front, Crystal and her male friend cracked open cans as they talked and laughed in the kitchen. They sounded drunk.
Charlotte made a decision.
“We might have a second to make it to Alice’s room. We’ve got a better chance they won’t go in there.”
She opened the bedroom door and guided Mariska and Darla past her into the hallway, where the ladies bolted for the other bedroom. Charlotte was about to follow when she heard voices growing closer, followed by a wet, sloppy noise that sounded like kissing.
Ick.
Fearing her chance to sneak into the hall had closed, Charlotte jumped back into Crystal’s room. She ran to the closet and opened it, flashing her light inside.
Full. She’d never fit inside without boxes raining on her head. Snuffing her light, she dropped to the ground on the far side of the bed as the smooching couple banged into the bedroom door, bumping it open. The light flicked on.
Flattening herself, Charlotte shimmied beneath the bed, both stunned and relieved to find the area clear of debris. No sooner had she slipped under, than the lovers collapsed on top of the bed above her.
Charlotte closed her eyes.
Oh no. Oh please no. Don’t let this happen.
“Ow! You’ve got a ton of crap on this bed,” said the man. Charlotte assumed it was Mark.
Crystal giggled. “Sorry. Hey, you want to smoke a little first?”
“You got some?”
Charlotte heard no answer but saw Crystal’s bare feet appear on the floor beside her. They walked to the closet, where she heard rustling as the young woman searched for what Charlotte assumed was marijuana. After hearing Mariska and Darla talk about the girl for two days, she had every reason to suspect worse, but Crystal’s drug problems were the least of hers right now. She had to get herself and the ladies out of the house. Preferably before the couple had sex on her head.
The rustling noise stopped, but Crystal’s feet remained planted in front of the closet.
“What are you doing?” asked Mark.
“Sshhh.”
“What are you shushin’ me for? You got the stuff or what? I don’t have all day.”
“Shut up!”
Charlotte heard Crystal’s voice crack. The vehemence with which she’d delivered her command and the sob in her voice sounded wildly out of synch with her previous mood.
“Did you just tell me to shut up?” roared the man. The bed shook and Charlotte guessed he’d sat up.
“I’m readin’ somethin’!”
“Well quit readin’ somethin’ and get over here.”
Crystal’s voice dropped. “Get out.”
“What?”
“I said get out!”
“Hey!” Something clattered and what looked like a small wooden pipe and a shoebox skittered across the floor where Charlotte could see them. She guessed Crystal had thrown her box of drug paraphernalia at the man.
Charlotte winced. Mark didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would take kindly to things being thrown at him. She feared his response.
Mark’s feet appeared on the floor as he marched toward Crystal.
“Who do you think you’re throwing things at?”
Crystal screamed and Charlotte heard slapping noises as the two wrestled. Charlotte’s heart raced. She couldn’t hide there while Mark killed Crystal. She was about to slide from her hiding space to help, when Mark spat a final profanity and stormed from the room.
A moment later, the front door slammed.
Crystal released a string of loud, racking sobs and the bed shook as she threw herself on it. “I’m sorry,” she moaned. “I’m so sorry.”
Charlotte released a long quiet sigh and lay still until Crystal’s crying stopped. Not long after that, she heard a snort. She recognized the sound.
Snoring.
Charlotte slid out from under the bed as quietly as she could and stood.
Crystal lay passed-out on the bed, her hands balled at her chest, pink paper poking between her fingers. Charlotte squinted at the paper, but couldn’t tell what it was.
Should I try to get it? Pull it out of her fingers?
No.
Too risky.
Tip-toing through the clutter, Charlotte moved into the hall and opened the door to Alice’s old room.
“Mariska? Darla?” she whispered.
Two heads peeped from the closet.
“She fell asleep. Let’s get out of here. Quiet.”
The three of them crept out the back door, the way they’d come.
Back on the street, they released a collective sigh.
“I thought we’d be in that closet the rest of our lives,” said Mariska.
“We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know if that man was killing you,” said Darla. “I had to hold Mariska to keep her from flying into the room.”
“I was going to beat up that boy,” said Mariska.
Charlotte chuckled and then sobered at the memory. “I was under the bed during the whole thing. I was about to help her when he left. It was terrible.”
“What happened?” asked Mariska.
“I don’t know. The two of them were going to smoke pot, I think, but when Crystal went to get it from her closet, something happened. She started crying. The man got mad and they fought. She threw something at him and I thought he was going to kill her.”
Mariska clucked her tongue. “She shouldn’t be hanging out with men like that. You’d never hang out with a man like that. Declan is a sweetheart.”
Charlotte had to agree. “I guess I’m lucky.”
“You’re not lucky. You’re smart,” said Darla.
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, as soon as her boyfriend left, Crystal threw herself on the bed and cried herself to sleep. That’s when I was able to sneak out.”
“I heard her, it was heartbreaking,” said Mariska.
They fell quiet as each dealt with her own nerves during the walk back.
Darla broke the silence.
“Did I hear Crystal talking when she was crying?”
Charlotte nodded. “That’s what I was just thinking about. She kept saying, I’m so sorry, over and over.”
“Sorry for what?”
“She didn’t say.”
“Do you think she was crying over what she did to Alice?” asked Mariska, as they reached the point where they’d each turn off to their respective homes.
Charlotte sighed. “I don’t know.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mina heard the girls’ boots on the tile kitchen floor before she saw them. The twins both wore their riding clothes.
“No breakfast?” asked Payne.
Mina looked at her watch. It was already eight and she hadn’t even made coffee.
“I’m sorry. Make yourself some toast or cereal.”
“But we always have bacon on Sunday,” moaned Gemma.
Mina sniffed. It was true. They always had bacon on Sundays. “Do you have time before your lesson? I could put it on now.”
“I’m good with cereal,” said Payne opening the refrigerator door to grab milk.
Gemma scowled at her sister and then did a double take at Mina. “Were you crying?”
“No. I’m tired.” Mina wiped at her eyes, unsure how much she wanted to share with the girls. She wasn’t exactly lying. She’d been unable to sleep for most of the night, which was why she’d overslept. Thank goodness Kimber wasn’t alive. He would have lost his mind to wake up bacon-less on a Sunday.
The girls will be fine. Both without bacon and without Kimber, who had only ever had two speeds: blustering and unavailable. The girls hadn’t been close to Kimber. Which was a shame, considering. He’d acted as little more than a provider of food, clothing and money, and that was the way he liked it. While he’d done the right thing and taken the girls in after his brother’s death, it hadn’t been a choice he’d made happily. At first he’d refused and then, shortly after his brother’s will was read, he had a sudden change of heart. It might have had a little to do with her own constant harping.
There was no way she was going to let him deny his responsibility to those girls. To any of the orphans caused by that crash, for that matter.
Kimber wasn’t an idiot. He knew she would take care of the girls without asking for his help beyond financial assistance and he knew letting her play mother would keep her around to take care of his every whim. He knew she wasn’t able to have kids, she’d told him as part of her argument for taking in the girls. She did become a mother though, and Kimber was back to being Kimber—aloof and uninterested in everything but businesses.
He’d always been a selfish man. All he ever really wanted was to be a childless bachelor entertaining an endless string of floozies. If he hadn’t gotten ill, he would have had the house to himself again, even if his floozy days were long over. The girls would be going to college soon, and Lyndsey had moved out to the apartment over the barn years ago—
Lyndsey.
How was she going to help Lyndsey? Why did she have to be there when he fell? How could she help her without incriminating herself?
I can’t go to jail.
Who would take care of the twins?
Behind her something buzzed and Mina turned to see her silenced phone glowing on the countertop. She didn’t recognize the number and picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Mina, it’s me.”
“Lyndsey?” She turned away from the girls and whispered into the phone. “I was just thinking about you. We need to talk.”
“I’m in jail.”
“What?”
Mina gasped and turned to find the twins both staring at her. She forced a laugh and rolled her eyes as if Lyndsey had told her a joke and walked out of the room to the front porch.
“Mina? Are you still there?”
“Yes. I was in the kitchen with the twins. I don’t want them to hear.”
“You have to get me out of here.”
“Me?” Mina felt her stomach twist with nerves. “What can I do? They’ll be on their way here to get me next.”
“Tell them he slipped. Tell them I didn’t kill him.”
Mina nodded without saying anything, her mind racing through the events of that terrible evening. “It was an accident.”
“Of course it was an accident. We panicked. It was stupid to try and hide that I was there. To take the dogs. It was all so stupid. I knew it when you suggested it but my mother had been bugging me to ask you for one and I thought—”
“You gave one to your mother?”
“I know, I know. It’s just…she’s good at putting the guilt trip on me.”
“For what? What did you ever do to her?”
“She said she was rushing home to be with me when—”
“She was drunk. Did you make her drink and drive, too?”
“Yes. Probably. It isn’t easy being a single mother. And then I didn’t visit her in prison for years...”
“Kimber would have kicked you out of the house if you’d gone to see her. Did you tell her that?”
Lyndsey sighed. “I know. Yes. I told her.”
“How dare she?” Mina could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.
“I can’t go there right now. I need you to get me out of here. I don’t know how long I can talk.”
“Yes. You’re right. Of course. I need to figure out what I’m going to tell them. You know you’re not allowed to be upstairs. Why were you up there? And don’t give me that cock and bull about wanting to see the puppies either. All the litters we’ve had since you’ve been here and you haven’t asked to go see them since the very first time.”
“He asked me to come up.”
Mina jerked back her head so fast something in her neck twanged. She slapped her hand to her neck and rubbed the spot. The idea of Kimber inviting the girl to his sanctuary refused to compute. “He wouldn’t—”
“He did. He wanted to talk to me.”
Lyndsey’s tone grew hard and Mina suffered a pang of something she couldn’t place.
Jealousy?
“Talk to you about what?”
Lyndsey paused before continuing, “I can’t say. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”
“You don’t want to say?” Mina heard the screechy tone of her own voice and looked behind her to see if the girls were watching. They weren’t. She moved farther down the porch and away from the front door, just in case. Usually, if one of the twins didn’t have her nose in her business, the other did. It was like being watched by a pair of owls. Or those little girls in The Shining…
“How am I going to get you out of prison if you won’t tell me why you were up there?”
“I can’t. It might make things worse.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Mi
na swallowed. “He didn’t try to…you know…”
“No!”
Mina could tell by the shock and horror in Lyndsey’s voice that she’d barked up the wrong tree. Thank God. “I had to ask. He wasn’t right in his mind.” She opened her mouth and then shut it again, deciding against telling her that Kimber had grabbed her butt just a week or two before he died. No sense telling people about his shame. He didn’t know what he was doing.
“I know. Just come be my alibi. Tell the police it was an accident and you saw it happen. Tell them you were there.”
“But I wasn’t. Not when he fell.”
“But that doesn’t matter. You know I didn’t kill him. Tell them you told me to take the dogs.”
“What do the dogs have to do with it?”
“They’ve got me for stealing the dogs, too. They think I killed him to steal the dogs.”
“Why would you kill Kimber for a litter of puppies?”
“They’re show dogs. They think it’s about money, even though I gave them away.”
“That’s right. You passed them out all over that neighborhood. I’ll never understand why you did that.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Well, not give one to your mother for starters.”
Lyndsey released a little scream. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. That’s how they caught me. That’s why they think I killed him.”
Mina took a deep breath and expelled it. “I’m afraid.”
“Of what?”
“If I tell them I found you there that night, they’ll make me an accessory or something. They’ll be wondering why I didn’t say something sooner.”
“So you’re going to let me go to jail for murder?”
“That’s just it.” Mina paused to chew on her lip. “You didn’t kill him.”
“I know. That’s what I need you to tell them.”
“No, you don’t understand. He was still alive.”
“What?”
“When you left with the puppies, I went into his bedroom and he wasn’t dead.” Mina whispered the last two words. She wasn’t sure why.
“But he was dead. We both saw him.”
“I know. But then he wasn’t. I opened the front window and called out and tried to catch you but you didn’t hear me. I ran downstairs to get my phone to call nine-one-one. I saw Payne. I didn’t want to upset her, so I talked to her for a bit and let her know it was no big deal—”
