aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65

by Arlene Chance

  “We know that Blake died today, just a couple days after Will, Aidan, and Laura talked to her,” Gabe picked up.“We know that Joey was seeing his father secretly behind his mom’s back.” I froze with the last word still on my tongue.

  I watched Laura’s eyes widen. “No way, Will!” she said quickly.

  “How do you know?”

  “There’s no way.”

  “It’s as likely as anything.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Aidan asked in exasperation.

  “Joey’s mom,” Laura said.

  “What if she found out that Joey was seeing his father behind her back?”

  “Wouldn’t it have made more sense for her to kill Mr. Taylor then?” Gabe asked.

  “Parents have been known to do stranger things,”

  Aidan said.

  “It’s worth looking into,” Killian said.

  “Then I’ll do it,” Laura said with a sigh.

  “Then the only other thing we have to do is figure out who the guy was with Blake.”

  “Is that all?” Laura scoffed.

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  “I can do that,” Caitlin offered.

  “I think that’s something we’ll all have to be involved with,” Killian said and Caitlin shrugged.

  “Is that everything?” Laura asked. “Gabe and I are supposed to go out with some friends of his tonight.”

  “I’d almost forgotten about that!” Gabe exclaimed.

  “Yeah, I think we’re done, unless anyone can think of something else,” Killian said, looking around. No one said anything so he went on. “Then we’ll meet one week from tonight unless someone comes up with something important.”

  “Actually,” I said with a look in Aidan’s direction,

  “Aidan and I have a special favor to ask everyone.”

  That got their attention.

  Aidan took over. “Will and I want to invite you guys to a rather unusual party we’re throwing next Friday night. It’s kind of a surprise party, but the surprise is for you all. It’s top secret, but we really want you to be here, at seven o’clock sharp.”

  “What’s going on?” Laura said suspiciously.

  “You’ll find out then,” I said with a grin.

  I could tell she was loath to give it up that easily, but Gabe grabbed her by the elbow and started steering her toward the door. They bundled up and headed out the door. Caitlin left soon after them, after promising that she would be there next Friday night.

  After they had left, Asher went to get Killian’s and his coats, while Killian started helping Aidan and me clean up.

  “Killian, I really want to thank you for all your help with this,” I said quietly. “Even if we never find anything out for sure, at least I’ll know I tried.”

  “You don’t have to thank me, Will,” he said. “I love 287

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  doing this and you’re a friend. I’m just glad I can help.”

  “It’s not caused too much stress on you and Asher, has it?” I asked as we carried some glasses into the kitchen, knowing full well it had.

  Killian shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t know what’s going on these days.”

  “I can tell you what’s going on,” Asher snapped from the doorway. I looked up quickly and was surprised to see the undisguised anger on his face.

  “Not now, Ash,” Killian sighed.

  “Why not? Will asked, so let’s give him the whole story. I never wanted to get involved with this in the first place.”

  “Ash—” Killian tried, but Asher cut him off.

  “I went along at first, against my better judgment, because I could see how much you wanted to be involved. Although why you’d want to get involved in another murder investigation after last time I still don’t understand, but I went along. But it’s different now; people are being killed. I want out. I want you out.”

  “We don’t know that Blake was killed,” Killian said.

  I pressed back against the counter, wishing I was anywhere but stuck in a small room while they had a fight.

  I was very envious of Aidan in the living room.

  “What do you need?” Asher snapped. “A signed confession? You want to be next? Killian, for God’s sake, we’re not professionals; we don’t know what we’re doing. We have no business being involved in this. I’m scared, okay? I admit it. I’m scared and want us both out.”

  “We’re getting close, though, Ash, I can feel it,” Killian said. He was unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. “I’ve not been involved at all up to now, and that’s 288

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  not going to change now. We’re not in any danger; this is completely different from last time.”

  “Aren’t you even listening to me? Don’t my feelings matter at all?”

  “Of course they do; it’s just that I can’t leave Will like this.” Don’t drag me into this, I thought. “He needs me.”

  “Well, I need you too.” Asher suddenly burst into tears. He dropped the coats and spun away from the room and out the door.

  Killian threw me a helpless glance and ran after him, scooping the coats up as he went. “I’m sorry,” he said, pausing in the doorway.

  “Don’t apologize, just go after him.”

  He nodded and started to turn. “And Killian,” I called,

  “if you need to drop out of this, I’ll understand.”

  “No, somehow I don’t think that would be the best idea,” he said quietly. And then he was gone.

  ***

  Aidan and I went to visit with Keisha as soon as I got home from work the next day. We were gambling that we’d be able to catch her in her room before she went to dinner or evening classes. When we got to her floor, though, we were stopped by yellow crime tape stretched across the door of the room she had shared with Blake. “Great,” I sighed. “Now what do we do?”

  “I didn’t know they used crime tape for a suicide,”

  Aidan said thoughtfully, fingering the tape as if he hadn’t even heard me.

  “It’s obvious Keisha isn’t here,” I said. “How are we going to find her?”

  “Let’s try the room next door,” Aidan suggested as he dropped the tape, strode to the room next door, and knocked. It was quickly opened by a giggling heavy-289

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  set girl with black hair and clothing and dark Goth make-up. A wave of pot-scented air rushed over me.

  “Yeah?” she said with a toss of her hair. I was almost blinded by the reflections off her ear jewelry, studded in multiple piercings all the way around the outside edge of her ear. There was enough metal there to forge a small sword.

  “We’re looking for Keisha. Do you know where she’s staying?”

  “No, I don’t know. Ask the girl over there,” she said and indicated the door opposite Blake and Keisha’s.

  “She’s tight with Keisha.” She shut the door without further comment.

  “Nice girl,” Aidan mumbled as he started across the hall.

  An attractive light-skinned black girl answered our knock. Her gray-green eyes took us in before she spoke.

  “Yes?”

  “We’re looking for Keisha,” Aidan said again. “Do you know where she’s staying?”

  “Why are you looking for her?” the girl said in a challenging tone.

  “It’s okay, Leigh,” Keisha said, appearing next to her in the doorway. “They’re cool.”

  Leigh gave us a final once-over and must have decided we didn’t look too threatening. She stepped back and allowed Keisha to take her place in the door.

  “Well, well, well,” Keisha said with a small, unconvincing smile. “Two visits in one week. Careful there, stud, or I might think you gots the hots for me.”

  Aidan smiled. “I’m really sorry about Blake,” he started.

  Keisha snorted. “Now I know you didn’t come up 290

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  here to extend your sympathy about my loss. I made it clear last time you were here that I couldn’t stand the girl. Just cuz she’s dead don’t mean I suddenly think she was my best friend. So let’s cut the crap and you can tell m
e why you’re really here.”

  “We’re still trying to figure out what happened to my friend Joey,” I said, deciding it was time to step in.

  Keisha gave me a look. “I still don’t see what that has to do with me.”

  “Do you really think Blake killed herself?” Aidan asked suddenly.

  Keisha’s eyes grew wide and she looked up and down the hall as if she was afraid someone was listening.

  “What the hell are you doing, Aidan? Get in here, before you get us all in trouble.”

  We followed her into Leigh’s room and Keisha shut the door behind us. Leigh was studiously reading a book, giving us the illusion of privacy.

  “You can’t go around just saying stuff like that in the middle of the hall,” she said tensely. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “You don’t think it was a suicide do you?” Aidan pressed.

  “I don’t know what to think,” Keisha said with a sigh.

  “What happened? How did you find her?”

  “I came back from a class and when I opened the door, there she was, on the floor face down, not moving at all with a little puddle of blood under her. I’ve seen dead people before and I knew she was dead as soon as I saw her. There were empty pill bottles on the floor near her with some pills spilled out and a gun in her hand. It didn’t look like it had been a peaceful death, if you know what I mean. I pulled the door shut and ran over to 291

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  Leigh’s room and called the cops and an ambulance from here.”

  “Pill bottles? Do you think that’s what killed her, an overdose? Or was it the gun? Did she shoot herself?”

  “I don’t know. See, that’s what’s confusing me. Blake wasn’t really a doper, especially not sitting in our room all alone. Maybe at a party or something she’d pop some E, but she wasn’t a druggie. I never saw her doing anything stronger than that. I don’t know what the pills were about. And she sure as hell didn’t have a gun. I’d have known about that.”

  “Then where’d they come from?” Aidan asked.

  “You got me.”

  “Had she been acting any differently the last few days, maybe since we came by the other day?” I asked.

  “Not really. Although she was really pissed that I’d let you guys in the room. She went off on me as soon as I got back that night. I just yelled right back and told her it wasn’t my problem. She backed down real quick.

  She wasn’t a fighter.”

  “What happened when the cops arrived?”

  “I don’t know for sure. They kept everybody away.

  Then later, these two cops, a man and woman, came and told me they thought it was suicide and that I couldn’t go in the room. If I needed anything out of it, I was supposed to give somebody a list and they’d get it for me. Seemed a lot of trouble to go to if a girl had just committed suicide. I asked if she’d left a note and they looked at each other and then the woman said no. I asked them if they were sure it was suicide. The man got kind of snotty and said they knew what they were doing and that it was in everyone’s best interest if I 292

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  didn’t suggest it was anything but a suicide.”

  “The two cops weren’t named Grafton and Bernhardt by any chance, were they?” I asked with the feeling I already knew the answer.

  Keisha look surprised. “Yeah, they were. You know them?”

  “We’ve met,” I said wryly. The question now was what were Grafton and Bernhardt doing on this case?

  Did they think there might be a connection between Blake’s death and Joey? Or was it just a coincidence?

  And why were they so intent on passing this off as a suicide? It had seemed fishy even to Keisha. Were they covering something up? What was going on?

  “You and Blake never talked about her finding Joey?”

  Aidan asked while I was thinking.

  “I told you before; we never talked about anything really. I knew she’d found some guy dead in a pool cuz everybody on campus knew she’d found him.”

  “Did you ever see this?” I asked on a sudden inspiration as I pulled Joey’s necklace out from my shirt.

  Keisha took a closer look, “Maybe.”

  “Did Blake have it?”

  “If it’s the same one I’m thinking of, yeah. She asked me who was on it. As far as I know, the girl had never set foot in a church, but she knew I went every week. I guess she thought I’d know who the saint was. I tried to explain that there’s a big difference between Catholics and Baptists, but she didn’t get it. I swear, talking to her was like talking to a wall sometimes.”

  “So Blake did have this necklace then?”

  “Well, I can’t say for sure, but I think so.”

  I looked at Aidan and an unspoken message passed 293

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  between us. We were done here. Aidan thanked Keisha for talking to us and we left with more questions than we’d started with.

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  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  All the way home, we discussed the different possible scenarios that the new information we had just gleaned from Keisha could mean. And we came up with nothing. The things Keisha had told us just didn’t make sense. Did Blake commit suicide or not? And if not, why were the police so set on making us think she did? The whole situation made me very uneasy. Maybe an emergency meeting was in order.

  As soon as we got home, I called Killian. He couldn’t come over until the next night so we chose a time and I called Laura, Gabe, and Caitlin. There was nothing left to do now but wait.

  Adam called twice the next day with questions about the wedding, but other than that, it was a quiet Sunday. I was afraid to do anything until we talked to the rest of the gang and got their take on the situation with Blake.

  Aidan was working out while I tried to distract myself with painting when he suddenly dropped his weights with a thump and turned to face me.

  “Will, I have a question and I think it’s something we need to talk about before the wedding.”

  That didn’t sound good. I put my paintbrush down 295

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  and gave him my full attention. “Is something wrong?”

  I asked nervously.

  “No, at least I hope not. It’s just Well, we haven’t talked much about this whole wedding thing. I asked and you said yes and that was it. I’m not pushing you too fast, am I? Do you really want to do this?”

  “Are you having second thoughts?” I asked in surprise.

  “No! I mean, I know I want to do this, but I want to be sure you do too. I don’t want you to just because you think I want it or out of some sort of guilt. It has to be because you want it too.”

  “Well, it’s all happened pretty fast. I mean, two weeks ago we weren’t even a couple. But yeah, I’m pretty sure I want to do this. I know I love you and I know without a doubt that you love me.” I smiled at him. “Besides, this is really exciting, isn’t it? Getting married and surprising everyone, starting a real life together, putting all the past behind us and looking only to the future—

  our future.”

  Aidan smiled back. “Yeah, it is pretty exciting. I guess I just want to be sure that you’re sure. With your background and all, I know this can’t be easy for you.”

  “My background?”

  “Well, you were raised in the church and all, and your parents won’t even talk to you. I know that early on you thought that God would hate you because you were gay. We talked about it once, on the balcony, remember? Do you still think that? Or what?”

  “It’s funny you should bring up my parents. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately. I feel like that’s unfinished business, you know?” He nodded. “But as far as the other stuff, I think I made my peace with that a while 296

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  ago. I don’t think God hates me just because I love you.

  That just doesn’t fit what I’ve been taught all my life about God. I thought about what you told me, about how some of the Bible was translated incorrectly from the original language and I decided that w
hat I felt inside was more important than what I was taught as a child. It’s kind of freeing, really, to realize that you can think for yourself and you don’t have to blindly accept what you’re told. There were always so many things that I didn’t agree with, but didn’t have the courage to look into them for myself. I think I’d like to do that sometime.”

  Aidan sat and grinned at me.

  “What?” I asked self-consciously.

  “You are so amazing,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Most people who have been through what you have would have either driven themselves crazy with guilt or turned their backs on God altogether. Instead, you make your peace with God himself and then want to do research.”

  I frowned. “What would turning my back on God have accomplished? It’s not His fault people have twisted His words so badly.”

  “I think I can stop worrying about you,” he laughed.

  I stuck my tongue out at him. “Who asked you to worry in the first place? Just lift your weights so I can get back to my painting.”

  We went back to working in companionable silence.

  ***

  Killian, sans Asher, was the first to arrive for my emergency called meeting that night. “Where’s Asher?” I asked him as I let him in.

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  “Don’t ask,” he grumbled.

  “Did you have another fight?” Aidan asked.

  “Another? We’re still having the first one. I didn’t even tell him about this meeting. I knew he’d just flip out.”

  “What if he calls?”

  “Kane knows to cover for me and you can bet he’ll be the one that answers the phone. Every time it rings, he pounces on it like a hungry tiger on a sick antelope.

  Nine times out of ten, it’s one of his girlfriends too, so nobody else bothers to race him for it anymore.”

  I laughed as another knock came at the door. This time is was Caitlin.