Share No Secrets

by Carlene Thompson

  “Thank you, sweetheart. It’s so considerate of you to bring up one of the most mortifying nights of my life.”

  “Maybe it was mortifying for you, but everyone else was getting a big kick out of it. Especially Julianna. She kept nudging me, trying to get me not to laugh. I couldn’t help it, though. I’m sorry. But when you announced you were going to sing another one, I started thinking maybe we could never come here again because of the big embarrassment factor.”

  “Thank goodness Julianna came up on stage.” Adrienne smiled, abashed, at the memory. “She had to literally push me away from the microphone and insist that it was her turn.” Adrienne shook her head. “And darn it if she didn’t do a great job with ‘Wild Horses.'”

  Skye smiled. “You were mad as all get out for a few minutes, but you got over it quick. And Juli was good. People kept asking her to sing other things, but she wouldn’t, not even when a guy tossed a whole dollar up on the stage!” She giggled. “Juli took that dollar over and put it in the can for donations for the volunteer fire department and then carried the can around until she got everyone to do the same.” Skye’s remembered pleasure lasted only a minute before her face abruptly fell into sad lines. “I’m gonna miss Julianna so much.”

  “Me too, honey. We had a lot of fun together over the years.”

  “I wonder if Kit knows about Juli yet.”

  ‘I’m sure she does by now. I’m also sure she’s at her restaurant, but I don’t want to bother her there. I’ll bet Kit’s been with her mother all day, trying to calm her down, and now she’s bone tired.”

  “Mrs. Kirkwood looked half-dead when we saw her going into the hotel to see Lucas. And Julianna’s body. Mr. Kirkwood looked scared.” Skye reached for another slice of pizza and began picking off pieces of sweet pepper before she asked reluctantly, “Do you suppose Julianna was at the Belle with him?”

  “Who? Gavin Kirkwood? Good heavens, why would you think that?”

  “Because I know he fools around with other women. I heard Kit telling you about it. I wasn’t eavesdropping, really and truly. Kit was just talking loud because she was mad and I was in the next room. Anyway, she said her mother shouldn’t have married a guy fourteen years younger than her, and that her mother shouldn’t have let him adopt her—Kit—so she had to go around with his last name, and that he married Ellen for her money and that he had affairs all the time.”

  Adrienne listened, fascinated. “Wow, you heard a lot and remembered every bit of it.”

  “Mom, you know I want to write murder mysteries. I have to pay attention to details. For my writing, you see.”

  “Certainly you do.”

  “Anyway, Gavin is pretty good looking for such an old guy,” Skye went on in a professional voice. Adrienne smothered a smile. Gavin Kirkwood was only forty-five. “He’d have keys to the Belle, and like you said, Claude’s an awful caretaker, so it would be really easy for Mr. Kirkwood to sneak in all the time. And you said Julianna was probably with some married guy.”

  “I shouldn’t have said that about a married man.”

  “You were too upset to watch what you were saying. But I know about things like that, Mom. You think she was having an affair.”

  “Really? I’m fascinated.” Adrienne took a sip of iced tea. She’d lost her appetite and left the rest of the pizza for Skye. She went on, being careful to make her voice neutral. “Did Julianna ever say anything to make you think she was involved with Gavin?”

  “No. And I don’t like to think she’d do something that would hurt Kit’s mom. But at one of the parties at Aunt Vicky’s house, I saw them talking together a lot. Mr. Kirkwood kept touching Julianna’s arm. Rachel said to me, ‘I wonder what he’s got on his mind?'” Skye leaned forward and whispered, “She meant sex” she explained to a mother she clearly thought was not as worldly-wise as the sophisticated Rachel.

  “Oh, I see,” Adrienne managed solemnly. “Did Julianna seem to especially like Gavin?”

  “No-o. Not really. She treated him pretty much like she did everyone else—nice, friendly, interested in what they were saying even when I knew she was bored.” Skye paused. “She didn’t act that way around Margaret, though. She didn’t like Margaret, Mom, and Margaret didn’t like Juli. Maybe she was jealous of Juli, although she doesn’t like Rachel, either. I don’t know how anyone couldn’t like Rachel. She’s so great.”

  “Maybe,” Adrienne said distractedly as she thought about how Skye’s closeness to Rachel could cause a problem. “Honey, you know you shouldn’t tell Rachel anything about Julianna, about how we found her. The clasp in her hair, the candles, all that stuff.”

  “I already told her a little bit at lunch.”

  “But that’s all you can say. No more.”

  Skye drew back, appalled. “But she’s my cousin and my best friend. I tell her everything!”

  “She’s also a reporter, Skye. She’d probably tell her editor, Drew Delaney, and they might decide to put the details in the newspaper. The police don’t want that. Lucas is counting on us to keep this information confidential.”

  “He is?”

  “He definitely is. He told me so.”

  Skye sighed. “Okay. If it’s that important to Lucas, I won’t tell anyone, even though it was so weird I’m just bursting to tell someone.”

  “Only talk to me when you can’t hold it in anymore.”

  “But you don’t know anything I don’t,” Skye complained. “Somebody else might know who could hate Julianna enough to kill her, then fix her up so nice.”

  “That’s for the police to figure out, not us,” Adrienne said firmly, feeling a chill as the whole morning came flooding back to her in wretched detail, including the fear she’d felt before they found Julianna. “Now promise me.”

  “All right, I promise.” Skye looked sulky as another local person dared the microphone and began a wrenching version of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.” By the end of the song, Skye’s pique seemed to have passed. She looked at Adrienne, her forehead scrunched in thought. “You remember this morning when I was in the woods with Brandon? Well, I think someone else was there, too. I didn’t really see anybody, but I sort of felt somebody.”

  “Felt somebody?”

  “Yeah. You know how it is when you feel someone watching you, then you turn around and someone is looking at you? It was like that, only I didn’t see anyone. I’m not saying this right.”

  “Yes you are.” Adrienne’s heart had begun to drum uncomfortably. “I had the same feeling. I even thought I saw someone dodging behind trees, trying not to be seen. That’s why I kept calling for you to come back. I was uneasy.” Adrienne trailed off, then grabbed her jacket hanging on the back of her chair, dug her hand in the pocket, and withdrew her camera. “I took pictures of what I thought was a person so if it turned out the hotel had been vandalized or robbed, a photo could help the police identify someone.”

  “That was really smart.” Mr. “Wicked Game” had now begun a version of “Where the Streets Have No Name” that Bono of U2 would never recognize. “So if the person who killed Julianna was hiding in the woods, you might have a picture of him!” Skye’s expression froze. “Mom, a murderer could have been right there in the woods with Brandon and me!”

  Adrienne nodded, not wanting to reveal her horror to Skye, who suddenly looked frightened. “Honey, I’d like to take the film in to Photo Finish tonight. It will be developed and ready for pickup by morning, and I can give it to Lucas. Do you mind if we leave now?”

  “No. I’m too full for more pizza. Let’s go before the storm starts.”

  Adrienne rapidly paid their bill and Skye waved to the restaurant’s owner before they ran out the front door. Adrienne looked up in dismay. The sky had turned from the cornflower blue of the afternoon to a dark heliotrope. She drove quickly downtown, but the street in front of Photo Finish was blocked because it had just been repaved. She had to park around the corner and halfway down the next street. When she stepped from the car
, wind whipped her long hair and she gathered a handful of it and tucked it beneath the collar of her jacket.

  Adrienne looked up at the sky. “We’re really in for it tonight.”

  “If there’s thunder, Brandon will be scared to death,” Skye said loudly above the noise of the wind.

  “Brandon is a one-hundred-pound baby. He’ll get in the bathtub if he feels a storm coming. I don’t know why he thinks he’ll be safe there.”

  “He must have heard you should get in a tub if a hurricane is coming. Or is it an earthquake?”

  “It’s a tornado.”

  “Oh. Whatever.” They hurried past Criminal Records and Skye glanced in the big front window. “Mom, there’s Sherry and her mother!”

  “Sherry?”

  “Sherry Granger. I told you about her. She sat next to me in history last year. She’s semicool.”

  “Semicool?”

  “Yeah. I think there’s real hope for her this year since her braces came off and she’s gotten her lisp under control. Can I go in here while you go on to Photo Finish? I’ve been saving for a CD by Matchbox Twenty.”

  Adrienne didn’t like the idea of having her little girl out of her sight on this particular evening, but a chilly rain already pelted her shoulders. Skye had just gotten over a particularly stubborn cold that had lasted two weeks. Adrienne didn’t want her daughter to get sick again because she’d dragged her around in bad weather.

  “Okay, go in, but stay with Sherry and her mother. If they leave before I come back to get you, wait in the store for me.”

  “All right.”

  “Don’t leave the store after you get your CD and head for Photo Finish in this bad weather.”

  “I won’t.”

  “And Skye?”

  “What?” the girl asked, annoyance edging her voice.

  “If you get a rap instead of a rock CD, I’ll make you ride out the storm in a tent in the backyard.”

  Skye giggled. “No rap. I don’t like it any better than you do. See you in a few minutes.”

  Adrienne watched as Skye dashed into the store and made for the lucky Sherry, who apparently was evolving from semi to totally cool. Sherry looked delighted to see Skye and the two girls hugged. Both of their mouths began to move rapidly and simultaneously as they exchanged apparently earth-shattering news. Goodness, Adrienne thought. Had she ever been so young and joyous? Yes. She, Julianna, and Kit had acted just like Skye and Sherry.

  Adrienne pushed on, hoping the darkening sky held on to the rest of the rain until she’d dropped off her film, then went by to pick up Skye. But just as the thought formed, thunder rolled low and threatening. A perfect end to an awful day, Adrienne thought dismally. She feared lightning, and Brandon became crazed at the sound of thunder. No doubt he would keep her and Skye awake for the rest of the night.

  She turned a corner and started down the side street where Photo Finish nestled between two empty stores halfway down the block. The town of Point Pleasant’s business district had been shrinking for about ten years. Her father, who had been on the city council, fretted constantly about owners of downtown buildings who continued to raise rents, encouraging businesses to abandon them for spots in the mall just outside of town. Dad had good reason to worry, Adrienne thought. This street was deserted, even though it was a Friday night when most businesses stayed open until eight o’clock.

  The wind blew a Styrofoam cup against her leg. A raindrop smacked her in the eye. “Damn!” she muttered, wiping at her closed lid. Now she’d have a half-moon of mascara below her eye, not to mention that the water had hit with enough force to actually hurt.

  Adrienne stopped for a moment and fumbled in her purse for a tissue. Just as she found one, she heard footsteps behind her. Walking fast. Now running.

  Instinct and leftover panic from the morning made her whirl around. Wind blew her hair across her face, completely blinding her. Her heart beat furiously. She shouted in a high, thin voice, “Who’s there?”

  Grabbing at her wind-tossed hair with one hand, Adrienne clutched her purse with the other, intending to swing it as a weapon. But she didn’t get a chance. Someone rushed at her, powerfully spinning her around and throwing her facedown on the sidewalk. Breath rushed from her lungs. Dazed and terrified, she kicked backward, but the attacker’s weight rested high on her back, out of range of her flailing legs, pinning her arms. Thunder rolled again, closer and louder. Then a hand grabbed her hair, lifted up her head, and slammed her forehead onto the concrete sidewalk. The sound of the storm dulled and Adrienne’s sight went from gray to black.

  FOUR

  1

  “Adrienne! Are you all right? Adrienne, wake up!”

  Trey. She had overslept and her husband was trying to wake her because the baby needed to be fed. “I’m up,” she mumbled. “You hold Skye and I’ll get her bottle.”

  “No, Adrienne. You’re confused. It’s Drew. Drew Delaney.”

  Drew? She opened her eyes to a blurry face hovering above hers. “What are you doing here? Where’s Skye?”

  “You’re lying on the sidewalk in the rain. I don’t know if you fainted or you’ve been attacked, but you have a hell of a knot on your forehead and you’re bleeding. We need to get you to the hospital.”

  Adrienne tried to sit up. A wave of nausea flattened her. “I’m dizzy.”

  “No wonder.” Drew pulled a cell phone from his jacket pocket. “Don’t move. I’m calling an ambulance.”

  “I don’t want a scene. And I have to find Skye.”

  “Only you would be concerned about making a scene right now. And we’ll find Skye.” Water dripped off his thick, dark brown hair onto her face as he called 911. As soon as he finished, he removed his jacket and slipped it under her head. “What happened?”

  “Someone came up behind me and knocked me down, then banged my head on the sidewalk.”

  “It was a mugging. I’ve been raising hell with the city council for a year about the lack of lights on this street.” His large brown eyes were filled with concern. “Was Skye with you?”

  “No. She went in … I can’t remember the name. The music store.”

  “Criminal Records?”

  “Yes. I told her to wait for me there while I went to Photo Finish. Drew, go make sure she’s safe. She’s about five feet five and has long blond hair—”

  “I’ve seen her with Rachel at your sister’s parties, but I’m not going after her. I’m sure she didn’t leave the store if you told her not to, especially in this rain.”

  “But you could look for her.”

  “I am not deserting you here in the dark and the rain, so quit arguing.”

  “Oh no,” Adrienne moaned as hot water poured into her mouth. “I think I’m going to be sick. Don’t look at me.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Adrienne. Ever since you were a teenager, you’ve been worried about the impression you make. Now isn’t the time for your silly vanity.”

  A rush of indignation chased away her nausea. Her vanity? Cockily handsome Drew Delaney was accusing her of vanity after all these years?

  “You have always been such a jerk,” she said furiously.

  His mouth quirked. “I do try.”

  “You succeed quite well.”

  “Still feel like you’re going to throw up?”

  “No.”

  “Then keep thinking about what a jerk I am. It seems to be working.”

  Adrienne closed her eyes. Her head throbbed and she couldn’t shake her confusion. And worry. Skye would wonder what was taking her so long. What if she decided to come this way in spite of her mother’s orders?

  “Drew, I have to see about Skye,” she said.

  “You are not going to move.”

  “I can’t leave her in that store. Someone attacked me. They might go after her next.”

  Drew sighed. “I know the manager of the store. I’ll call and tell him to keep her there until someone comes for her. Maybe Vicky or Rachel.”

  “She’
ll be terrified if someone shows up instead of me.”

  “She’s not a hysterical ninny, Adrienne. We’ll just say you fell, twisted your ankle, and you had to go to the hospital to make sure you didn’t fracture it. How’s that?”

  “Well, okay,” she said reluctantly. “But she’s not to hear anything else. Nothing about an attack on me.”

  ‘Talk about your hovering mothers,” Drew said, rolling his dark brown eyes with those incredibly long lashes she remembered from high school. She closed her own eyes. Long lashes. What a thing to notice at a time like this, she thought Maybe she had brain damage.

  The next half hour blurred into a whirl of pelting rain, and people in slickers bending over her and firing questions about her quality of vision, the level of her pain, if she remembered where she lived, shouting their inquiries as if she were hard of hearing. She was loaded into an ambulance and carried at breakneck speed to the hospital where she was hauled onto a table beneath blinding lights. People shouted more questions at her, then shouted orders to each other. If I survive this, Adrienne thought dryly, fifty percent of my hearing will have been destroyed.

  When the doctor and nurses finally gave her a brief respite from their loud ministrations, Drew walked into the examining room. “The lengths some people will go to in order to get a little attention,” he said dryly.

  “Yes, I really wanted to create a scene like this one,” she said, trying to match his tone. “Did you locate Skye?”

  “Sure. I couldn’t rouse anyone at your sister’s house. Rachel says that place is usually like a hotel—people everywhere. Anyway, Skye remained in the store like you wanted, with her friend.”

  “Sherry Granger.”

  “Yes. I talked to Mrs. Granger, who was properly horrified by your predicament and full of concern for Skye. She promised, per your orders, to tell Skye you sprained your ankle, which I don’t think a bright kid like Skye will believe for one minute. Anyway, Mrs. Granger is going to take Skye home with her and Sherry and keep her until further notice.”

  “That’s great. How can I thank you, Drew?”