Once Upon a Murder

by Kodi Heart

  A sudden rush of adoration overwhelmed me. I could genuinely say I loved Robyn. She was my closest friend. We'd known each other since our mothers were pregnant at the same time. I liked to tease Robyn that I knew her in-utero. She always said she was trying to get to me through her mother’s stomach. Either way, she was my lifelong friend, my soul sister.

  I would do anything to protect her, emotionally, physically, spiritually, any other –lly you could think of.

  With the evidence Grant brought to light, I was desperately worried she felt the same way.

  The rain had slowed to another drizzle. Clouds provided a beautiful backdrop for every flash of lightning in the background. Trees spiked into the sky around her simple home.

  Robyn decorated with an eye to the bright but tasteful with three wooden log posts in varying heights tied together with a bold pink and green bow. Wooden bears protected pots of honey beside the door and a deep red rose wreath graced her door. Dark brown trim on her cream-colored house stood out in the white glow of her LED outdoor lights.

  Grant parked his truck in front of mine. His red taillights blazed brightly and then faded off.

  I was suddenly nervous. I parked my Fit and turned off my own engine. I didn't want to go in her house. I didn’t want to accuse her of killing someone. If I didn’t go inside, it would just be a possibility for a while longer, instead of a question thrown out there waiting for an answer.

  Swallowing was a struggle. My tongue seemed to have swollen. Maybe I could get out of going into Robyn’s and go to the hospital instead with anaphylaxis. Was my tongue swollen enough for that? I pulled out my phone and Googled anaphylaxis for the signs.

  Grant opened the door and crossed his arms while he watched me. “Stop trying to find ways to avoid going in there.” He ducked and reached across me, his scent male and damp as his chest was right across my face.

  He grabbed my laptop bag and purse and pulled back out. “Come on. She’s going to think we’re up to something. I’d hate to get in trouble without any of the reward.” He spoke bitterly, a sardonic twist to his lips as he reached for my hand the only thing taking the sting out of his words.

  “I’ve never not wanted to go in her home.” A double negative didn’t even embarrass me enough to take my mind off the situation. The moment choked me up and I doubted my loyalty.

  Was I anything close to what I’d always thought I was? A loyal, loving, defend-to-the-death friend?

  Grant stopped, pulling me to his side. He tilted my chin up so I couldn’t avoid his gaze. “Just because you think she might have done something, doesn’t make you a bad friend. There’s nothing wrong with coming here and getting answers.” He chucked me softly, more like a graze, under the chin and tilted his head toward Robyn’s house. “Quit stalling, Andrews.”

  Last name. He called me by my last name like he used to do when we’d dated secretly in high school. Back when the chance at getting caught was more exciting than even the actual dating.

  Lightning snapped overhead, and thunder cracked soon after. Waiting for permission, the rain took the cue and a deluge dumped down upon us.

  We rushed to the door, breathing a sigh of relief when we reached the safety and protection of her overhang. Grant stayed close. Ducking nearer to each other, we peered inside Robyn’s solid glass doors. Only a light upstairs was on.

  I grabbed Grant’s arm before he knocked. “Grant, I don't want it to be Robyn.” Tears stung my eyes. I desperately wanted her to be innocent.

  But I understood how much we loved each other. She would protect me just like I would protect her. A little niggling inside me worried she hadn't done it. That she hadn't protected me.

  Would I have the guts to do it for her? I hoped so.

  He turned towards me and brushed at the wet hair sticking to my cheek and whispered, “I know how important she is to you. She's important to me, too.”

  His words were heavy with meaning. I didn't want to focus on the back story behind him and me and me and Robyn. Unfortunately, it was so much a part of who I was, so much a part of my relationship with Robyn. If I didn't focus on it, it was like none of it would be real.

  Or would he?

  Somehow we made a silent decision that I would ring the bell. I didn’t want him to see my cowardice any more than necessary. I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell, the chimes melodic as it reached us through the glass.

  I glanced at Grant, would he see the way I felt?

  Robyn suddenly showed up in front of us, towel drying her hair. She opened the door wide and leaned out, peering at the rain and then at us. “Guys, what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting to see you until tomorrow.” She glanced out past the cars, closing the door behind us as we stepped through. “Why are you together? Something bad is going on, I just know it.” She laughed with a snort and ushered us into her small living room.

  The style of Robyn's house was simplistic elegance, like herself with little splashes of excitement in the most surprising places.

  Grant and I sat on a couch while Robyn claimed the one across from us. Calling the loveseats couches was more generous than their small sizes warranted. Dark leather cushions welcomed us with a soft pliable hug. I shrugged off my jacket and draped if over the armrest beside me.

  No matter what I did, I couldn't shake the sense of discomfort at our forthcoming accusations.

  “Robyn, did you contact David? At all? Like text messages or phone calls or anything?” Grant jumped in with his questions. He didn’t remove his soaked coat or even take the time to slide his cowboy boots off. He leaned his elbows on his knees and faced his sister. He wasn't confrontational, but something in the way he asked and looked at her, Robyn could tell it was more than just an idle question.

  I glanced around the open floor plan, uncomfortable. I had come with him, we were in cahoots, working together to get her to admit something that would get her in trouble. My stomach hurt and I wanted to jump up and tell her not to say anything.

  The counters in the kitchen were clear and she’d just turned on the coffee machine. What a weird thing to do so late at night. She didn’t usually drink coffee. Not alone. Her coat hung from the hook by the door. Damp spots darkened the blue shoulders and upper sleeves.

  She cleared her throat, bringing my attention back to her. Arching a questioning eyebrow, she side-smiled while she spoke. “Yeah, I told him I was going to kill him if ever saw him. He didn’t come to the meeting, as you know, so I had to get my digs in where I could. That guy is a jerk. You're better off without him. I can think of a thousand other guys better than him.” Robyn laughed, flipping her wet hair over her shoulder. “I’ve have been thinking the last few days about how I would do it, too, how I would kill him. Nothing seems... fair enough though.” She twisted her lips to the side, as if she really was contemplating it.

  Had she done it? Her bloodthirsty comments warmed me. Unfortunately, the consequences were more severe than a slap on the wrist, if it was her.

  Unable to return her smile, I choked out, “David's dead. Somebody killed him already.” I glanced down, avoiding her eyes for a moment.

  Robyn’s smile dripped from her face. Her make-up-less expression paled with the realization that Grant wasn’t asking because he was curios. He had a reason. My friend pushed a hand to her chest. Hurt lowered her voice and she tucked her chin. “You think it's me? You think I would do this?”

  I pointed at my breastbone. “I didn’t do it. I mean, I know it looks like it was me, but I didn’t.” Glaring at Grant, I continued, my voice laced with apology. “We know it wasn’t you, even though the clues point toward you, just like a ton of them point toward me.” I knew she hadn’t killed anyone.

  She couldn’t have killed David. Not Robyn. She’d make a loud spectacle about him, and kill him with rumors and words. She’d never actually harm anyone.

  Peering into her eyes, I leaned forward and braced my elbows on my knees. “We have to prove who did it so we aren’t the suspect
s. Plus, I need to know who would do that to me.” The soft tick-tock of the round oak clock above the door paced the silence after my comment.

  Was it bad that I had to know? Who would kill my ex on my back deck and frame me for it? Without any real choice, my decision was made for me and I was roped in too far. I’d be the proverbial cat and die from curiosity – but at least I’d know.

  I had to find out who killed David, before anyone else – including me – died.

  “It might suck, but let’s just get the questions out, okay? We need to know the answers so we can get all the information we need.” I suddenly didn’t want to ease into anything. Blunt worked best between Robyn and me. We could handle anything, as long as we had the whole story. I ignored Grant as he turned surprised eyes my way. “Where were you? You didn’t go to the dinner after the writers’ group. I waited for you. You never showed up. You didn’t even ask me for a ride. Kami said you got home, but you look like you just walked in.” I nodded toward her jacket and its wet spots.

  Grant didn’t comment, glancing between Robyn and me. Maybe he sensed that he wouldn’t get anywhere with Robyn when she was already mad at him for suspecting her. She’d listen to me and talk things out with me. We really were like sisters, which made my attraction to her brother even more off limits.

  Robyn shifted, sticking her leg out in front of her and looking around the house. “I don’t really want to talk about it.” She avoided looking directly at Grant or me.

  Growling, Grant slapped his thigh. “We’re going to talk about it. Now. I’m messing with an investigation by withholding your information. I hid the victim’s phone because I had to find out why you texted him the threats that you did. Help me now, before I can’t be your big brother with this and protect you any further.” Exasperation shook his hands, but his pleading held his shoulders rigid.

  Robyn glanced at me, tears welling in her eyes. She shook her head the smallest amount. A twinge of fear rippled through me. Whatever she hid might get her in more trouble with her brother than murder would get her with the state.

  Chapter 7

  I held my hands open as if waiting for the divine truth from Robyn to set us both free. I couldn't harness my disbelief when she continued staring at Grant and me with her mouth shut and bold determination had set her jaw.

  After a moment, she stuck her tongue to the side of her lip with a pained expression.

  Bursting through the silence, her brother blurted out, “Why won't you tell us? Did you do it? I'm not acting as the official investigator here, I just need to know if you did or not. I'm not sure what will happen, but I need to know if you did. Your text messages and the comments you made to everybody, they make it look premeditated. I’m going to be honest with you, there's nothing I can do for you without an alibi.” Grant's face grew ruddier and ruddier, his hands clenched on his knees. “I can’t help you without facts.”

  I put my hand on his arm, attacked with tingling from more than just awareness. I watched Robyn until Grant calmed down, visibly relaxing under my hand. I had to keep them all calm. When those two got going, nothing logical stopped them. “Robyn, just tell us. Whether you want us to know or not, doesn't matter right now. We need to know what happened. Where have you been?”

  A knot coiled in my stomach. Nothing was going to relieve it at this point. She was hiding something, and if it wasn't the murder, it wasn't good.

  She glanced at Grant and then back at me, and inhaled. “I was out with Ryan.” The confession burst from her as if someone punched her in the stomach. She kept her gaze on me, as if the straight line of contact would protect her from Grant’s inevitable rage.

  Her brother turned into full on mad. Grant roared, “You what? You were out with Ryan! Why were you with him? And why would you hide it? I can't believe you would be so irresponsible. Did you even tell Olivia? What if something happened to you? With that imbecile...”

  I pulled my hand away from Grant and shushed him with a hand in the air. “Enough. It doesn't matter.” Facing Robyn, I ignored the glare Grant threw my way. “Do you have proof you were with Ryan last night? That's what we need. I don't care what your alibi is. I just need to know that we can prove it. Where were you?” She hadn't told me, but I wasn’t upset about that.

  Honestly, her relationship with Ryan was more on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again than a motion light set up over the entrance to a bat cave. I knew they were meant to be together, the fact that they fought and broke up didn't matter. They always came back to each other, and neither of them ever strayed.

  Robyn refused to look at Grant, as if he really wasn't there. She held her voice calm and steady. “We were at the bowling alley in...”

  “The one going out of business? The family one?” I wrinkled my nose. There would only be one or two other people in the whole place. Finding witnesses would be hard or it would be easy considering they wouldn’t have gotten lost in a sea of other customers.

  It would be hard to prove she was telling the truth. The place had been going downhill for quite a while. Rumors pegged it as closing in the next few months, but no one knew for sure.

  The fact that she chose a public place was telling. I had to ask because I was the nosiest writer sometimes. She knew it and expected it. “Are you guys back together now?” I knew Grant wouldn’t want to know. At least, not enough he would listen, but he stayed and his hands clenched and unclenched on his knees.

  Percolating coffee filled the lower level of her home with a heady aroma of the finest coffee one could find in the northwest. Robyn was a coffee snob. I didn’t understand the infatuation, but I rolled with it.

  I didn’t want to breathe in too deeply, but she’d put on one of my favorite flavors and I was so tired. Too much had fit into my day and I wasn’t equipped to handle any more. Smothering a yawn, I tilted my head to the side to hide it from Grant’s all-knowing eyes.

  Robyn shrugged. The truth was out and now she had nothing to hide. “I don't know at this point. It was just nice to hang out with him without any of the expectations. He paid for everything.” She rolled her eyes. “Which is not like him.” She snapped her fingers and pointed at the table. “We were on their security camera. I remember that because Ryan and I were arguing about which size shoes would be best and he pointed out how funny we looked fighting on screen. Then we kept running in front of the camera to make funny faces the whole rest of the night.”

  Snorting, I shook my head. I understood where she was coming from. And my relief, oh, the relief that she had an alibi released the tension. I sagged into her couch.

  Robyn drew her feet up under her rump on the cushions. “So, what happened? Do you know? You found the body at your house?” Even Robyn couldn’t sensationalize a murder any more than it was already. She continued ignoring Grant, as if she hadn't said anything about her on-again-off-again boyfriend and as if he hadn’t exploded. Some of their relationship I understood as normal brother and sister back and forth banter. Other times, it was like they were the most cemented of siblings, and nothing could tear them apart.

  Right then was not one of those times.

  Grant spoke up, forcing his sister to look at him. I hesitatingly turned my face toward him, but tried not staring at the angle of his jaw. He arched his eyebrow as he had our attention. “Olivia mentioned that the scene looked familiar. It was her house, so I'm not sure how much of the familiarity came from the actual details of scene or if the familiar feelings came from how she felt about it, since it was her home.”

  Biting my lip in case I snapped at him questioning me, I just nodded. I had doubted myself, too, but that was different. It was okay for me to doubt myself and not tell anyone, it was entirely different for someone else to doubt me. Especially when that someone was Grant.

  I cleared my throat. Talking about it revived my adrenaline and brought the scene into the forefront. “It was really weird, Robyn. David... had red-handled scissors poking out of his chest. There was a pair of red high heels
– that glossy vinyl kind, you know? They were right next to him. One was kind of tilted to the side, like they were left there on purpose but on accident. Does that make sense? It felt completely staged.”

  Chewing my lip, I furrowed my brow and tried not to be worried with how I sounded in front of Grant. “I’m not sure why, but it was just so familiar. Do you recognize anything about the way it sounds?” The scene wasn’t from one of my books. I specialized in romance and there was no plunging any scissors into anyone's chest. Even blood wasn’t mentioned in my books.

  Tapping her bottom lip with her finger, Robyn hummed under her breath. “That does sound oddly familiar.” She stared off above my head, deep in concentration.

  A moment strayed into two minutes and then five.

  I shifted on the couch, uncomfortable next to Grant and fully aware of his proximity. It wasn’t the first time I’d been on the couch with the overly brooding and sullen man. The last time, though, we'd been a lot closer than six inches, and if I remembered correctly, a large amount of our bodies had been touching as well. My face reddened at the memory.

  After another moment, Robyn shook her head. She snapped herself back to focus and scrunched her nose. “I’m sorry. I can't remember. Maybe if we think about it some more, we can figure out what's going on. You have that brunch with your aunts in the morning. We need to get some sleep. That’s the best thing for memories. I read that in a book somewhere.” She looked to the side at Grant and narrowed her eyes. “Or maybe I read it on Pinterest.” She snickered and her brother groaned.

  He was hugely against the fun idea app that Robyn and I swore by. I once planned an entire book around the site. Grant didn’t have any respect “for anything that made life look easier than it was with ideas that made it a thousand times harder than it needed to be.” That would be a direct quote.

  Robyn had suggested sleep and I couldn’t go to my bed. “I'll never sleep. Somebody just died at my house. Even Stormy is still there. What if they go back and kill her?” I shook my head, tears threatening again. “We shouldn’t have gone to the writers’ group. It will never be safe again. I’m telling you. Nothing good happens at those events.” Now I was more convinced of that than ever.