She figured she had probably told Deanne more information than the others because of the circumstances of their meeting. They were both sitting in a holding cell, and while Deanne had been there before, Thena hadn’t. She was scared, and trying not to show it. Talking to Deanne had helped, and for some reason it felt natural, as if they were old friends sharing girl talk over a cup of tea—but they weren’t old friends and they weren’t sharing girl talk, and the situation was certainly not a tea drinking occasion.
“So, what do you think of the design? I tried to keep it basic to keep cost down, while still giving you stylish function.” She was good at creating beautiful designs on any budget—well, almost any budget. She couldn’t exactly create a design on the budget of free. There was just no way any place could be built that way. When she was considering the clinic she figured she would get investors lined up, try to hold a charity benefit, approach the community and see about getting funding that way. She certainly didn’t want to take on a loan to build it, and since she didn’t have the time to go fundraise for the construction, she hadn’t done anything with the land.
She didn’t mind donating the land to Twist of Fate, but she couldn’t donate the time and services of her crew. She couldn’t ask them to do that, and she wouldn’t ask them to do it.
“The problem is I’ll need to pay for materials.”
“Yes,” she agreed. Of course she would have to pay for the materials. They weren’t just going to fall out the sky into her lap. She nearly laughed at her own thinking. If materials did fall out the sky, Meg’s lap wouldn’t be the only place they would land.
“Then there’s the cost for labor.”
“Meg, nothing in life is free. Somebody has to pay for it. Take out a loan.”
“I really don’t want to do that. I don’t want the debt for this.”
“Then do some fundraising. Twist of Fate is great for the community. There must be somebody who will be willing to put up some money to expand.”
“Well I’m not really good at fundraising either.”
Thena looked at her recently gone blond friend and wondered if she had rinsed her brains out along with the hair color chemicals. “Meg, you were the captain of the cheer squad. You’re the most bubbly, outgoing, vivacious person I know. You can work a room, a party, any event. I know you can pull this together for Twist of Fate.”
Meg sat down in the chair across the table. Her big green eyes wide with wonderment. “You mean you won’t consider taking this on for free?”
Why did she have to ask her that? Thena was a good business woman; she knew how to say no—most of the time. With friends the lines blurred sometimes and she so desperately wanted to help them. “I can’t,” she made sure she had conviction in her tone. “There’s no way I can get this work done without hiring help, and they don’t work for free. Not to mention materials. If you can get the backing, come up with the money, I’ll be happy to let you use the land, but I can’t do this project for free. This isn’t a remodel, Meg; it’s a new build.” Meg expected her to work for free, and perhaps that had been mostly her fault. She had undercharged her when she helped her get the first Twist of Fate building together. She had charged her for materials and for the labor of those who helped. Kyle had come in and helped for free, and with the work she put in, the price came in well under where it would have if she had treated her like any other client. She couldn’t do that this time.
“I thought we were friends,” she pouted. Her porcelain skin and pouty red lips looked flawless, except for the scowl growing in intensity on her face.
“We are.” Friends didn’t use friends, and if Meg really thought about it she would realize that using her is exactly what she was trying to do. Thena pushed friendship to the back burner and brought out her business persona. When she was in business mode her price was her price. If Meg wanted this done she was going to pay for it. She would still try to discount the service as much as she could; this was for a good cause after all, but she wasn’t going to sell her skills, or her workers skills, for free.
“Well then if that’s that…”
“It is,” she nodded.
“Then I think you should go.”
She was putting her out? It was pitch black outside and she was going to make her leave? Thena stood, rolled her sketches back to fit in the cylinder she had brought them in, grabbed her purse and pushed her hair behind her ears. “If you decide you’re ready and willing to put the effort into this build, you have my number.” Although she doubted Meg would put the money into it. It wasn’t as if she were broke. She had money she could invest. This was her project, her “baby,” as she had called it, and she should be willing to put in the work to make it a success.
“I won’t be calling you.”
Thena shrugged. It didn’t matter. She had bigger problems to worry about and she couldn’t let this be one of them. If Meg decided to pull her head out of her behind then she would be there for her; if not, well then that was her choice to make. Thena wasn’t going to lose sleep over it.
Thena walked to the edge of the driveway and checked her surroundings. She could call Thomas, but he was busy with his friends and she didn’t want to bother him. Plus, it would take much longer for him to get there. Kyle was only about five minutes driving time away from her. She decided to call Kyle first. She could call Thomas later to let him know not to bother picking her up from Meg’s place. He could just pick her up from her house. She wasn’t going to make Kyle drive all the way back into the city just to drop her off.
When Kyle pulled up in his silver F-150 he rolled down the window and waved to her. “Get in,” he smiled.
“Thanks,” she climbed into the truck, closed the door and secured her seatbelt. “You can just drop me at my place. I’ll have Thomas pick me up from there.”
“Thena,” he shook his head. “You’re too good of a person. That’s your problem. You attract every freeloader in the city. Why do you even bother with her?”
“She’s my friend.” Or at least she was her friend. After tonight she wasn’t so sure about that.
“Is she? Really? I saw what she wrote in your yearbook, Thena. Friends don’t write crap like that.”
She remembered when he asked to see her yearbook, to have an idea of what she looked like in high school. He had told her she was probably a nerd with big glasses and big hair. She knew he was baiting her into pulling the book out of the storage bin, but still, she gave in. He could clearly see she had neither big hair nor big glasses in the photo. He had also seen Meg’s yearbook penmanship. “Don’t feel too bad if you don’t go far in life,” is what she had written. She had even drawn one of those lopsided smiley faces under her signature.
“True,” she whispered. They pulled up into her driveway. “Thanks again.”
“I’m staying with you until he gets here.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I’m staying,” he said more firmly. She shrugged and told him to come on inside. She turned off the alarm and turned on a few more lights before calling Thomas.
“You can just pick me up at my place,” she told him. He wanted to know why she hadn’t called him earlier and she explained it as clearly as she could. Kyle was almost just down the street, whereas he was still in the city. She didn’t want to wait on the side of a dark road, alone.
“I’m on my way,” he barked.
“You don’t have—” The phone clicked. “He hung up on me.” She couldn’t believe he hung up on her. “Well,” she pushed her shoulders back and stood up straight. “How rude…” She rejoined Kyle in the dining room.
“Everything okay?”
“Of course,” she smiled. “He’s on his way. He just worries too much. The shooting and all…”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that.” He placed his hand on her elbow and guided her to sit down in one of the chairs. “I think he’s putting your life in danger. I think you should stay away from him.”
She looke
d at him incredulously. “He saved my life. In case you forgot somebody shot at me.” Actually, it was the second time somebody had shot at her, and both times he had been there to save her.
“How do you know they weren’t shooting at him?”
“It’s my house, not his.”
“Yeah, but that’s not your room. What were you doing in there?”
“It’s my house. I don’t have to have a reason for being in the guest room.” She wasn’t about to disclose exactly what she was doing in there, or that she was doing it completely naked. It was none of his business. Friendship could go so far, but it didn’t mean she had to divulge every detail about her life.
“My point is, maybe they knew he was here and they were shooting at him.”
She thought about his words. He was right. She wouldn’t normally have been in the guest room. She would have been in her bedroom so it would have made sense that whoever it was would have tried to shoot through her bedroom window instead.
“But…no…maybe it’s because the light was on in there. You know the blinds were closed.”
“But the drapes weren’t. They may have seen the outline of a body and assumed it was him. Your bedroom light was on too.”
“How did you know that? How did you know the drapes were open? And how did you know my bedroom light was on?”
“I saw it when I came out that morning. The drapes were still open and the light in your room was still on. Your bed was even turned down like you were getting ready to sleep.”
“Oh,” she relaxed. She really needed to stop looking at everything as suspect. Of course her light was still on. She had been in her bedroom at some point that evening. And of course he would have noticed the drapes weren’t pulled shut because she was sure the cops wouldn’t have done it when they left her home that night. Kyle had come by that morning, before she had even managed to go home to get clothes. What he saw would have been exactly how things had been left. She shook the thoughts from her mind. “There are a lot of things going on, Kyle. A lot has happened that I don’t want to burden you with, so please don’t ask me to. Just know that Thomas is trying to help me, and what happened the other night isn’t about him. It’s not his fault.”
“Okay, so it’s not his fault. But where is he? If I were him I wouldn’t let you out of my sight. I would be with you every minute to make sure you were safe.”
“That’s overkill,” she snapped. “He deserves some time of his own you know? He’s not my bodyguard.” Although he seemed to be making himself her bodyguard.
“Still, I’m just saying he should be here, but he’s not. So, where is he?”
She leaned back in the chair, tilted her head back and stared up at the ceiling. She didn’t want to have this conversation with Kyle, not right now. She didn’t expect Thomas to completely put his life on hold for her. Besides that fact, he was going to be getting some information from a friend tonight. Of course she didn’t want to bring that up with Kyle either—not yet anyway.
Fifteen minutes later Thomas answered Kyle’s repeated question when he knocked on the front door. He had been speeding, clearly, because there was no way he should have made it in less than thirty minutes. When he entered her house he had a fiercely angry look in his eyes.
“Thomas,” she hesitated. “This is Kyle. Kyle, this is Thomas.” Thomas, though professional, was not friendly in his greeting, but then again, neither was Kyle. Both men stared each other down as if they were ready to strap on their pistols and see who could draw the quickest.
“I’ll call you tomorrow, Thena.” Kyle excused himself, leaving her alone with one angry looking Thomas McGregor.
She waited until Kyle pulled away from the house before speaking again. “You didn’t have to leave that soon. I was okay here.” He didn’t say anything at all. Maybe that worried her more than the fact that he was clearly biting down on his jaw to keep from saying something—if he weren’t careful he was going to draw blood. “Thomas—”
“Let’s go, Thena.” She could hear the angry undertones in his voice. If they were going to have it out they were going to do it here, while she was at home, so that she didn’t end up stranded at his place.
“I’d rather us talk about it before you start driving. It’s…safer.”
“You don’t get the trouble you’re in, do you? Or maybe you don’t care.”
“Kyle just gave me a ride home. What’s the big deal?” Would he have preferred if she stayed on the side of the road, in the dark, by herself?
“The big deal,” he stressed, “is that everything Eddie Mason told you about Kyle’s arrest was true. He was arrested. He was the prime suspect, the only suspect, and the only two reasons it didn’t go to court was because they didn’t have enough evidence to make it stick and when Sandy fled the state they no longer had a victim willing to press charges.”
She sat down on the couch. “I can’t believe that.”
“You can’t; or is it that you won’t?”
“Kyle is a friend, and he’s been there for me through some really hard times. I just can’t believe that he would—”
“What, Thena? That he could be a bad guy? All the evidence points to him. He doesn’t have an alibi for any of the events. But you still don’t want to believe it.” He told her about Sandy’s house being broken into, about the underwear and the construction residue, about the dead cat, and then he told her about the near abduction. “Just like you, Thena, she was leaving work. And just like you she got lucky because somebody else showed up before he could get her into the trunk of a car…a car, by the way, that’s an exact match to the one I saw speeding away from your office.”
She couldn’t think straight. All the information seemed to be coming at her from all different directions. This was Kyle. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t…at least she didn’t think he could or would. What if she was wrong? What if she was being too trusting?
“Somebody’s been trying to kill you, Thena. Does he have an alibi for any of those events?”
She held up her hand to make him stop talking. “See, the two of you would disagree there. He thinks they’re trying to kill you.”
“Me? Get serious.”
“He made a good point. That shot was in the guest bedroom, not my bedroom…so maybe they weren’t aiming at me at all.”
He shook his head. “The only lights in the house that were on were the dining room, the hall and the guest bedroom. Why wouldn’t they assume you were in that room when the lights went on?”
“No, my bedroom light was on.”
“No it wasn’t, Thena.”
She shook her head. “No, he said it was on. And he’s right. When we came back the next morning it was on.”
He sat down beside her and lifted her body so easily, as if she weighed nothing at all, so that he could turn her to face him. “It was on because I turned it on. When I went in to get you something to put on before the cops arrived; I turned on the light so I could see what I was doing.”
“Oh,” she sighed. “I’m so confused, Thomas. I don’t want to believe he would hurt me. I don’t have many friends, and the ones I have I just don’t want to think the worst of them…but then there’s Meg too…”
“What happened?”
She told him what happened, how Meg had turned cold as ice the moment she realized she wasn’t going to get a free building. “You know, it doesn’t even matter.” She stood. “I’m going to work tomorrow and I’ll put tonight behind me.”
“Thena, that’s not a good idea.”
“I’m going to work, Thomas.” She assured him. This wasn’t negotiable. She wouldn’t tank the company just because she was going through a boat load of fear provoking events. “I’m going to just grab a few things and then I’ll be ready to go.”
Thomas had been quiet most of their drive back to his home. Once they got there they both got ready for bed. Even though they were sharing a bed it felt as if they were miles apart. She didn’t try to curl up against him and h
e didn’t bother to reach out for her. He just laid there, on his back, staring up at the ceiling while she rolled over onto her side with her back to him. Were they angry with each other? It felt like it, but she wasn’t sure. Perhaps he was just trying to give her space, time to process what he had told her. Or perhaps they really were angry with each other.
By morning, the atmosphere hadn’t changed. Thomas dropped her off at work, and then he went to work himself, while she stayed in the office alone. Deanne’s little girl was now sick, and Jacinda’s daughter was sick again. She had told them to just take the rest of the week off. She didn’t want to be bothered with anybody anyway. They could get their children healthy and she could just spend some time arranging things in the office. She wasn’t needed on site the rest of this week so staying in the office seemed like a good idea. She hadn’t really considered that it wouldn’t be—not until Kyle walked into her office.
“Did everything go okay after I left?”
She wasn’t ready to have this conversation with him, but how could she not? If she didn’t ask him then she would forever wonder what really happened. So she did what she knew she shouldn’t do; she asked. She asked and then he flew off the handle, knocking the canister with her drawing pencils to the floor and yelling in rage. She had never seen him like that before.
“You had no right,” he snapped.
“I didn’t ask him to look into you. Somebody else told me about the issue and I mentioned it to Thomas. I told him they were lying because you wouldn’t do that and he offered to help me set things right, but then he found out they weren’t lying; you were arrested.”
Secrets and Lies Page 18
