by David Archer
Cassie’s eyes opened wider. “Did they find something?”
Kendall nodded and smiled. “It seems that Ms. Jackson somehow, whether purposely or inadvertently, recorded her own murder. The camera captured the entire event, including the part where two of the men with her stuffed drugs into her purse and her dresser.”
Cassie stared at him. “But do we know why they killed her?” she asked.
Kendall looked at her for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It seems Ms. Jackson was actually working as an undercover informant for our narcotics squad. Apparently she had lived here before, but her family moved away after her brother was found dead of a drug overdose. The people she was telling you were her friends were actually the same ones that had apparently supplied him with the drugs that killed him.”
The fog of any inebriation was fading away, leaving the misery of sobriety in its wake. Cassie looked hard at him. “She was trying to spy on them?”
“She was doing better than that,” Kendall said. “Apparently, this wasn’t the first time she had brought them back to her room. That camera holds a microchip that can store a lot of video, and there were three separate videos on it. She got two of those men to tell her exactly who provided the drugs that killed her brother, and I guess they got nervous about it. From the way the video looks, they say it appears she asked one question too many last night. They started arguing with her about why she wanted to know, and before she knew what was happening, one of them had her down and cut her throat. The others stood there and watched, and then they started trying to plant drugs on her to make it look like a drug deal gone wrong, we figure.”
Cassie shook her head. “That’s so terrible,” she said. “Are you going to be able to get the ones who did it?”
“Oh, yes,” Kendall said. “We know exactly who they are, and we know where to find them. With that video, they’re going away for life.”
Cassie looked him in the eye. “Make sure they do,” she said. “Just make sure they do.”
Kendall nodded and led her out a few minutes later to where Abby and Cindy were both waiting for her. He waited until the three of them had stopped crying, then arranged for a uniform officer to give them a ride back to their dorm building.
When it was time to go, he escorted them out to the car, and it was Abby who noticed that he stayed as close as he could to Cassie the entire time. She didn’t comment on it until they got back to Oak Hall, where the residence supervisors told them that they were temporarily being moved into another unit. The police were not finished with Letitia’s room yet, but there was a unit on the next floor up that was being remodeled. All of the work had been done except for the paint, and they were being relocated into it until the crime scene tape was removed.
“And then,” Cassie said bluntly, “you can remodel that unit, as well. I can guarantee you we’re not going back into it, and we don’t care if anyone has painted yet or not.”
The residence supervisor contacted the residence manager, who agreed to let the girls stay in the new unit for the rest of the year. A pair of police officers helped them each gather their things from their rooms and carry them to the new unit, which at least already had furniture installed.
And then they were finally alone.
“Can you believe any of this?” Cindy asked. “Only I never would have believed Letitia could do such a thing.”
Abby shook her head. “I can,” she said. “After they told me about her brother, I can understand it perfectly well.”
“Yeah,” Cassie said. “She was trying to get the people who killed him, and I guess she did, but it cost her her own life, too. Still, you have to figure she knew that was a risk, right? I mean, if you go after a killer, you’ve got to know there’s a chance he’s going to come after you, wouldn’t you?”
“At least they know who did it,” Abby said. “That’s the best they can do for her, now. Just get the ones who did it.”
“Detective Kendall promised me they would,” Cassie said, and then she saw the way Abby was looking at her. “What?”
“Oh, come on,” Abby said. “Are you going to sit there and try to tell me you didn’t see the way he was looking at you?”
Cassie looked at her like she had three heads. “What? What on earth are you talking about?”
“She’s right, love,” Cindy said. “I saw it, too. That lad definitely fancies you. Couldn’t take his eyes off you while he was bringing us to the car, could he, now?”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right,” she said. “He’s a detective—I’m sure he sees lots of girls, and I’m quite sure he wouldn’t have time for some small-town girl like me.”
“Oh, really?” Abby asked. “Then why did he promise you he’d get those guys? He sure didn’t promise that to me.”
“It was a figure of speech,” Cassie said. “It doesn’t mean he actually promised; it was just a figure of speech.”
“Uh-huh,” Abby said, “we’ll see.” She turned to Cindy. “How much you want to bet he calls her within a week?”
Cindy gave Cassie a mischievous grin. “I don’t think it will happen that soon,” she said, “but I’d bet on two weeks. A dollar?”
“You’re on.”
Cassie shook her head. “You’re both crazy, you know that, right?”
“We’ll see,” Abby said.
Over the next few days, the girls followed the story on the local news station. It was on Monday when Franklin Moore, Duane Scruggs, and Rupert Lincoln were arrested for Letitia’s murder. It was Scruggs, according to news reports, who actually killed her, but all three were arrested for the crime because the others tried to cover it up.
Two hours later, Cassie was surprised when her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, so she answered cautiously. “Hello?”
“Ms. McGraw? This is Mike Kendall. Remember me?”
Cassie’s eyes went wide, and both Abby and Cindy were staring at her. Cassie’s phone was loud enough that they could hear his name as he gave it to her. “Oh, yes, Detective.”
“I’m sure you must’ve seen it on the news,” he said, “but we did get the guys who killed your friend. I just—I just wanted let you know that, and—well, I just wanted to see how you were doing. You were pretty upset the other night, and…”
“Oh,” Cassie said, ignoring the snickers from the others. “I’m—I guess I’m okay. Yes, I saw the news just a little while ago. That’s wonderful that you caught them.”
“Well, that’s my job,” Kendall said. There was silence on the line for moment, and then he cleared his throat. “Listen, I hope you won’t think this is out of line, but I was wondering—I was wondering if you might like to have dinner with me one evening soon.”
Cindy and Abby both broke out into big smiles, and both started nodding their heads at her. Cassie turned away so she couldn’t see them, and after three tries, she managed to say, “Um, yeah, that would—that would be okay.”
FIVE
Within a month, Abby and Cindy joked that you couldn’t mention Cassie without mentioning Mike in the same breath. “It’s like one of the old romance novels,” Cindy said. “It’s like the two of them were made for each other, don’t you think? Like two parts of one divided soul that finally found its other half.”
“I don’t know,” Abby said. “Ever since they started dating, I hardly even see her anymore. I miss my buddy.”
“Ah, you’re only a bit jealous,” Cindy said. “When’s the last time you went and got properly pissed?”
“What? Pissed?”
“Yeah, you know, where you drink so much we have to carry you up the stairs? Haven’t seen you like that in weeks. That’s what you’re missing, I think.”
Abby stuck her tongue out at her. “Well, it’s no fun all by yourself. You gotta have someone else with you so you can laugh about it together afterward. Otherwise, you just feel like an idiot.”
Cindy chuckled. “Well, then let’s do it,” she said. “I’ve
not got a date this week, so let’s go get ourselves so drunk that someone has to carry us both home, shall we?”
Thus began a new tradition and a new friendship. While Cassie and Mike were out doing whatever it was they were doing, Abby and Cindy took over the recently vacated barstools at Flanagan’s and were welcomed with open arms.
The following weekend, Cassie took Mike home with her to meet her parents. Jack shook his hand firmly and did his best to make the young man feel welcome, while Annie dragged Cassie into the kitchen to help with dinner and to probe her for “just how serious” things might be getting.
“You know, you’ve mentioned him every time you called for the past two weeks,” Anne said. “That’s not like you. Goodness, Cassie, you never even talked about Scott this much, even after you dated him for a year and a half.”
Cassie smiled, but she was also blushing. “I don’t know how serious it is,” she said, “but it seems like we both like the same things, and we definitely spend every free moment together. And it doesn’t hurt, to be honest, knowing he’s a cop. I feel safe when I’m with him, Mom.”
“That’s a good thing,” her mother said. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with him, and I don’t want to give you that impression. At the same time, I don’t think you really want to rush into anything. You’re still young, Cassie—you’re not even out of college yet. Don’t let good looks and a sexy job make you jump into something you’re not ready for.”
“I won’t,” Cassie replied. “And I don’t think there’s really much risk of that, anyway. Mike’s busy with his career, and I still got school hanging over my head for God knows how many more years.” She giggled like a schoolgirl, which she probably still was. “Of course, he did tell me that next week, we’re going to have dinner with his parents.”
“Oh? Are they in St. Louis?”
“No,” Cassie said, suddenly feeling self-conscious. “No, we actually have to fly to Dallas. They live in one of the suburbs down there.”
Annie turned away from the roast she was pushing into the oven and stared at her daughter. “You’re flying to Dallas with him? Cassie, sweetheart, you might as well just accept the fact that things are getting serious a little faster than you planned.”
“Oh, Mom,” Cassie said, “you just read too much into things. Remember when you thought I was going to marry Scott?”
“Of course I thought you were going to marry Scott,” Annie said. “As I recall, you told me you were going to marry Scott.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t really serious, it was just—you know, just girlish wishful thinking. You got all excited about it and started trying to plan the wedding.”
Annie shot her “the look,” the one mothers always use to put their daughters back in their place. “Well, don’t worry,” she said. “This time I’ll wait until I see the engagement ring.”
As whirlwind romances go, this one was something like a small hurricane. After successfully getting through dinner with her folks, then being welcomed with open arms by his, both Mike and Cassie began to think that being together all the time would beat being together part of the time. They joked about it now and then, with Mike saying things like, “I think we should plan on at least six kids, don’t you?”
Cassie would get him back with comments such as, “I’m so glad you’re not the kind of guy who wants to go hang out with his friends all the time. Once we’re married, you won’t have time for that, anyway.”
The dating and the repartee continued, but finally the school year was coming to its end. Cassie was planning to move back home for the summer. It wasn’t as devastating to either of them as it would have been if they lived on different ends of the country, but Mike still felt that he would be missing Cassie during the week. He worked enough hours most of the time that it was unlikely they would get to see each other except on weekends, and they already had most of them planned out.
And so it was that, the week before Cassie’s classes were to end for the year, Mike invited Cindy and Abby along with a couple of his friends, John and Clarence, and they all went out on a boat he had rented for a Saturday afternoon. It was one of the big pontoon boats, and they took it out onto the middle of the Mississippi River and let it drift for a while.
The weather was beautiful, and Mike had brought along a portable CD player. The six of them were enjoying cold beer and good music, until suddenly the music ended and Mike’s voice could be heard coming from the speakers.
“Cassie,” the recording said, “I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you just how much you have brightened my life since we met. I want you to know that I can’t imagine my life without you, not anymore, and I don’t ever want to have to think about that again. Now, I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I think it’s time that I finally ask you the most important question of all.”
Cassie and everyone else had been staring at the CD player, but she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder and spun around. Mike was right behind her, down on one knee and holding a ring box up for her inspection. Inside it, she saw a beautiful diamond sparkling in the afternoon sunlight, and then her eyes lifted to meet his.
“Cassie,” he said with his own lips, “I really can’t bear the thought of not being with you forever. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Cindy and Abby had hold of her arms and were jumping up and down, while Cassie stammered out a word that might have been yes. Mike certainly thought it was, because he slipped the ring onto her finger and then rose to his feet and gathered her into his arms while John, Clarence, Abby and Cindy all offered their applause.
Cassie and Mike were engaged.
Up until that point, the two of them had been discreet about the fact that they were sleeping together. Cassie would occasionally spend the night at his place, but only Cindy and Abby were aware of it and they weren’t telling anyone. They did tease Cassie a bit, and she admitted that the sex was great, but that was as far as she would go. No matter how they begged for details, they never got any.
After they became engaged, however, things changed. Cassie went home that weekend, gathered her courage and told her parents that she and Mike were moving in together. Since they were planning on a wedding sometime around Christmas, Jack and Annie offered only a token protest, and privately admitted that they weren’t surprised. They had both known Cassie and Scott had been sexually active. It was only then that Jack confessed to his wife that he had seen Scott climb out of her bedroom window a couple of times, and only just contained his temper. Shortly after that, Annie finally admitted that she had been certain he had been there on more than one occasion just from the condition of Cassie’s sheets in the laundry.
Their little girl had grown up, and they had finally accepted it. When Mike came to pick Cassie up that weekend, they were both able to smile and treat him like the son-in-law they hoped he would become.
“I can’t believe we’re finally doing this,” Cassie said as they pulled up in front of the house they would share. Mike had rented it a couple of years before, right after making detective. It only had three bedrooms, so they figured they might need to move up to something bigger someday, but it was certainly big enough for them to start a family in.
“I can’t believe we waited this long,” Mike said with a grin. “Every time I had to take you home, it was like I was giving up something precious. This place just isn’t right without you in it, not anymore. I think the house likes you; it just feels empty after you leave, and that started after the first night you came home with me.”
Cassie grabbed his collar and pulled him over for a kiss. “You are such a romantic,” she said. “Now, grab a box and let’s get my stuff in there. I’m home, house.”
The first few weeks were wonderful, and Cassie thoroughly enjoyed playing housewife. She was up every morning to make breakfast and worked at getting the house absolutely spotless while Mike was at work. That was a big job, though, because he had been batching it for a long time. He hadn’t even
gotten all of his own boxes unpacked, in fact. There were several of them in every room, and after looking at them for three weeks, she decided it was time to get rid of them.
She started in the living room and smiled every time she pulled out one of his high school football trophies, or a photograph of him and his folks, or him and his two brothers. There was one photo of him and three other policemen, their uniforms disheveled and a beer in each of their hands as they seemed to be celebrating something. It took her all day to go through the boxes, but by the time he got home and saw how she had carefully arranged everything, all he could do was smile.
There was a bit of trepidation in the smile, however. “You know, you might want to be careful digging through some of my old boxes,” he said. “Remember that, up until just a few days ago, I was a single guy. I wouldn’t want you to be shocked at anything you find, but I don’t know what boxes might have some kind of naughty surprises in them.”
Cassie laughed. “Why, Mike Kendall,” she said, “are you afraid I’m going to run across your personal porn stash?”
He blushed. “Well, there might be a few items scattered here and there that could possibly traumatize a sweet young thing like you. Why don’t you hold off on digging through any more of these boxes, and I’ll go through them myself this weekend?”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Mike, that’s sweet, but I’m not exactly a blushing bride. Sex is just part of life—I’m not going to get all bent out of shape if you have some dirty magazines or porn videos stashed away.”
His eyes suggested that there might be something more that was worrying him. “I know, I know,” he said, “but—well, sometimes a single guy can get into some interesting fantasies, you might say. I’m not sure if I’ve even got any of the old stuff still around, but…”
