Fireflies: A Katie Bell Mystery (book 1)

by BG Archer

  They took a table in the corner of the quiet restaurant, and ordered four sushi rolls to split. A California roll, a Dragon roll, a Rainbow roll and an eel roll. The girls just had water, but Rachel ordered a glass of Riesling.

  “It’s going to be a long flight,” Rachel said, as though that explained why she was drinking before one. “So, Katie, tell us about yourself,” she added before taking her first sip of wine.

  Tiffany blushed, her face going a bright reddish pink. "Mom, jeez, we invite her out for food and you're already with the twenty questions."

  "I'm sorry, dear, I'd just like to get to know my daughter’s new roommate a bit better. That is, if you don't mind."

  Katie smiled at the two of them and suddenly felt a familiar pit in her stomach grow a little bigger. She ignored it and hoped her expression hadn't changed. Katie doubted it had. She was well versed at keeping on a mask.

  "No, it's fine, Tiffany. What would you like to know?"

  "Well, were you born and raised in the city? Family around? That sort of thing."

  "Actually, I was born in a smaller town north of the city. Lived there till I was thirteen. We moved when I was in eighth grade to the city and I've lived there ever since. Well, until today anyway."

  "And your folks are still in the city?"

  Katie's face fell. She couldn't help it, and these two seemed warm enough, therefore she didn't feel like she actually had to try.

  "My father is. My mother passed away when I was fifteen.”

  Tiffany's hand went to her mouth and Rachel reached out and touched Katie's arm, causing her to shiver.

  "Oh, darling, I'm so sorry."

  "No, it's fine. It was a while ago. It's just nice to see you two seem to like each other. All my friends back home always fought like cats and dogs with their mothers."

  Tiffany looked at her mother warmly. "Yeah, same back home for me. It's funny really, people always thought we were sisters.”

  The food came on three platters and was set at the middle of the table. Both Tiffany and Rachel barely looked at the server, but Katie glanced in her direction. She looked like if she had been born a hundred years prior. The server could have been a dairy farmer somewhere with windswept hills that were always water-color green. Katie nodded at her politely, but the blonde-haired and fair-skinned server was already away from them, back to the kitchen.

  Katie snapped her wooden chopsticks in two before taking the soy sauce and wasabi and mixing them on her sauce plate. Tiffany watched with rapt attention and mimicked her. Katie popped a spicy tuna roll in her mouth and chewed happily, the spice of the wasabi making her eyes almost water, but that was how she liked it.

  Tiffany followed suit and almost spit it out. There were large tears in her eyes as she chewed. After she swallowed she whispered, “hot.”

  Katie had to cover her mouth to hide her grin. "Yep.” She couldn't help it; both girls started giggling together.

  "What about you guys? Tell me a bit about Texas."

  Rachel shrugged and sipped her wine. "Oh, there's nothing much to tell. Tiffany’s father is an alumnus here actually. Got his undergrad in business. He'd have loved to come, but there was last minute business he just couldn't get away. I’d never been out here and decided to see where my little baby was going to get her higher education."

  "Yeah, I just had to see what my father wouldn't stop yapping about around the dinner table throughout high school. I took the tour last fall and just fell in love with the campus."

  It was a lie, and Katie knew it.

  They were both lying. Katie was certain of it. Still, Katie said nothing and remained silent as she continued to listen to Tiffany's pleasant ramble.

  "Plus, you guys actually have like four real seasons. I think there's something so romantic about walking to class midwinter in the snow."

  Katie shook her head. "It's romantic till you have to do it three days in a row. Then it's more like a nightmare."

  "Well, I look forward to finding out with you."

  "Ditto,” Katie said.

  Rachel's phone chirped and she checked the display.

  "If you two ladies will excuse me, I have to take this."

  She stood from the table and headed outside. Katie and Tiffany watched her go and looked back at each other.

  "Sorry about all the questions," Tiffany said as soon as it was clear her mother was wrapped up.

  "Oh, it was absolutely fine. Really," she added when Tiffany looked like she didn’t believe Katie.

  "I can't imagine losing a family member, even if it was a few years ago.…"

  The way she said it though, Katie suspected Tiffany did know what it was like.

  "Do you have any siblings?” Katie asked, changing the subject.

  “An adorable younger brother, Patrick. He's sixteen and heavily into sports. He’s great. A real terror with the ladies. I'm already worried that he's going to be trouble without his older sister to keep him in line."

  “Maybe it's good you're not closer to see if he does turn out that way."

  "Maybe, but I do worry. Dad's always busy with work and Mom … she's busy with her charities and tutoring.”

  "Your mom's a teacher?"

  "She used to teach sixth grade, until she had my brother. Now she just works with a few students a week.”

  ”Good to keep busy. What about your dad?"

  "Oh, he kind of inherited the family business. It's all rather complicated with lots of paperwork. Pays for me to be here, so I can't complain," Tiffany added, before taking a bite of the California roll on the table, this time sans the wasabi.

  "What’s your family's last name?"

  Tiffany swallowed and took a sip of water. “Montgomery."

  Katie was about to take a bite of another piece of the tuna roll but stopped and set the roll down on her sauce plate. "Your father's business wouldn't happen to be Montgomery oil would it?"

  Tiffany smiled at her new roommate coyly and wiped her mouth with her napkin.

  "It would happen.”

  "Whoa."

  "It's no big deal really. It's actually really nice to go somewhere where everything I do won't be judged for the family name. Just like, if people are talking to me, I always had to wonder if it was because they wanted my parents to see me with them. That's the real reason I came out here."

  There was more there, but Tiffany didn’t feel like sharing and Katie didn’t feel like prying.

  "What about your dad?”

  "What about him?”

  "What does he do?”

  “My dad works for the government.”

  "Oh, like the IRS or something?"

  Katie smiled. "Yeah, something like that."

  Rachel popped back through the door and took a seat at the table.

  "Sorry about that, one of my students had to reschedule and just had to do it right then. What did I miss?"

  "Oh, Katie, was just telling me all sort of sordid details about her and her boyfriend." Tiffany grinned at Katie.

  "Well, just pretend I never returned."

  “Kidding. We haven't even gotten to the topic that is the opposite sex.” Tiffany paused. “Sorry that’s horribly rude of me. I shouldn’t assume. It’s 2012 and we are on the West Coast. If that’s not how--”

  Katie held up her hand and Tiffany fell silent. Her face was an adorable color of pink, and Katie was almost too distracted looking at Tiffany to actually save her new friend and answer the question.

  "I actually do have a boyfriend."

  She had both Montgomery’s full attention.

  "Is he going to the school? He must be absolutely drool-worthy if he's dating you," Tiffany asked, eyeing her roommate up and down almost hungrily.

  Katie blushed at the complement but otherwise pretended to ignore it.

  “He's taking the quarter off before he starts actually. And he's not going here. There's an art school in the city he got accepted into. We're having a bit of a spat actually."

  "Sorry to
bring it up," Tiffany said.

  "No, no, it's nice to actually say it out loud. Nothing particularly earth shattering. We've been together going on three years. These things do happen."

  Rachel nodded understandingly. Tiffany looked down at her food and selected another roll.

  "You dated someone for three years?" Rachel asked.

  "Yeah, we were nicknamed the ‘married couple’ in high school."

  "I can't imagine putting up with a boy for that long,” Tiffany said.

  "At the moment, I can't either," Katie said, and this time all three women laughed.

  It didn't take long for them to finish the meal. Afterwards Rachel drove them back to the dorm room, and gave both girls one last hug before leaving them on the sidewalk. Both Katie and Tiffany watched Rachel drive off, neither teenager speaking.

  Finally, as Rachel disappeared around a corner Tiffany turned to her new friend.

  “Well, here we go. No more adult supervision.”

  Katie brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “I’m sure we’ll be just fine. I mean, we’re just freshman, what’s the worse that could happen?”

  Even as the words left her mouth, Katie wondered if maybe she had just jinxed herself.

  4

  12:42PM Thursday, Sept 20th

  Tiffany headed back to the room to finish unpacking and arranging her things, but Katie lingered out on the campus. She still hadn't checked her phone since earlier. Two missed calls, a few messages on Facebook, and a text. The calls were both from Luke and the text was from her father.

  Katie checked her Facebook messages next and found they were all from friends at their various new schools. Sarah Ann, her best friend and the closest thing she had to a sister, loved Brown though a bit overwhelmed by the actual size of the campus. Katie walked as she Facebook surfed, and headed for the campus coffee shop called The Third Cup.

  The baby-faced boy behind the counter asked Katie what she wanted and she ordered her standard iced Americano for a warm day. Katie was dubious how it would taste considering he seemed more content to be looking at her than the shots he was pouring. It made her self-consciously double check that her bra-line and tank top were not out of place on the shiny reflection of the espresso machine.

  "Iced Americano for here," baby-face said.

  Katie took a sip. She almost spit it out, she was so surprised at how good it tasted. The shots were some of the best she had ever tasted, creamy and smooth with just a hint of chocolaty sweetness.

  Baby-face was watching her face as she took the sip and she raised the glass and smiled at him. "This is delicious."

  "Thanks. Shots have been pouring good today."

  Katie took a seat at one of the outside tables and continued to surf on her iPhone as she sipped. The shop was a ghost shop at the moment, but she had passed it earlier in the day and every seat had been filled. The store hours were good too, six till ten, seven days a week. Katie felt satisfied that she had found her new study spot.

  She looked at the missed calls from Luke. He hadn't left voicemails, but that didn't surprise her. Katie's thumb hovered over the call back button but instead texted him, typing one-thumbed while she savored another sip of her drink.

  Busy unpacking ttyl.

  Luke hated abbreviations almost as much as he hated texting, though for her he had begrudgingly accepted that she texted more than talked. Luke always said he was an analog guy living in a digital world, and Katie agreed. In the past it had been one the things she had loved about him. It was one of the many little intricacies that made Luke, well, Luke.

  An analog guy that she happened to still love. Katie closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She hated to admit it. After everything in the last few weeks she wanted it to just be over on some level, to be completely free with this new experience that was college. Images of him flooded her mind … the first date at the movies, nervously holding her hand halfway through the show … picnic’s in the park, kissing behind the stadium of the football game … dancing with him at prom … the first time she had been with him at his father's apartment when he had been out of town … how sweaty they had both been afterwards tangled in the silk sheets, how she had thought it would have grossed her out but how she had actually liked it, his arms wrapped around her like a safety blanket….

  Katie's eyes opened and she sat up abruptly, spilling a bit of her Americano on the table.

  She didn't know what was worse. That she had just become aroused thinking about Luke, or how furious she was with herself that she was thinking about that on her first day at SCU.

  Katie looked at the small spill and got up, to grab a napkin to clean up the mess, but baby-face was already out from behind the counter with a cleaning towel.

  "I'll get that for you."

  "I can do it, thanks."

  He smiled at her but shook his head. "Sorry, health regulations."

  Katie felt like an idiot. She knew that. "Oh right."

  He cleaned it quickly and headed back behind the counter.

  She took her seat again and finished the drink. Still, just sitting there with her thoughts and Facebook suddenly felt like mental stagnation. It was not how Katie had wanted to spend her first day at SCU. She was supposed to only be looking forward, thinking forward. Meeting new people, experiencing new things. Living. Learning. Becoming her own woman. She was not supposed to be wallowing in the past, and yet, that was exactly what she had ended up doing.

  3:27PM

  Katie found that unpacking took a lot less time than she’d expected.

  Tiffany had disappeared somewhere over the course of the two hours, leaving Katie with her thoughts. There was something surreal about moving out of the nest. Since her mother had passed, Katie had gotten used to being on her own, but this was another level entirely.

  The main reason Katie was at SCU was she was within a reasonable driving distance from him. Katie didn’t blame Arthur for not fully being there for her over the last few years, but she was going to make damned sure she was able to be there for him.

  Katie felt like it ousted her as a nerd as she set up her desk. She considered not setting it up right away and instead exploring the campus, but she knew that if she did that it would nag at her like a burr inside a sock. That’s how she was about a lot of things. Katie didn’t consider herself to be a great student; she just couldn’t handle leaving things undone. Once things were set up, she could relax and get into the flow of being a freshman.

  Her desk lamp went in the corner as always, as did her study Bibles: Shrunk and White's Elements of Style, Barbra Kingsolver's The Bean Trees, Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

  That had been one of the hardest things for Katie when she had been packing, picking only the essential six for her to have with her. Katie’s old desk at home had a shelf of books two-dozen thick with her favorites.

  Next Katie set up a stand for incense and stuck in a stick of rosewood, but reconsidered before lighting it. Perhaps Tiffany would hate the smell and they had so far started off on good terms. No need to ruin that by being thoughtless.

  Hand lotion went to the right side of the desk and a small white board went up next, already set up with a grid for the days of the week.

  Last, but certainly the most important, she set up her computer. It was a 2011 Sony Vaio. The silver-black device had a nice thirteen-inch display and a fast enough processor to easily handle all her homework assignments and the occasional stress-relieving game of Portal. Katie plugged it in and set up the wireless connection, a process that should have taken fifteen minutes and in the end took over an hour. While the school had sent all new students an email detailing explicit instructions on how to log on, apparently they had not anticipated that there would be a high demand on the first day of new arrivals.

  Hours slipped by and Katie found her eyes beginning to hurt, that familiar feeling when she’d been stari
ng at a screen too long. She’d taken care of her usual tasks, Facebook replies, a little light web browsing, and watching some YouTube videos of cute cats and fashion tips from her favorite chipper British YouTube personality. Katie looked out her dorm room window and saw the light was beginning to fade.

  Her father had still not called her back, but she hated imposing on him when he was in the middle of something. On the other hand, it was her first day away and he should have been worried. Besides, he was supposed to have the day off.

  The phone rang four times before Arthur picked up.

  "Hey, honey. I'm so sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet."

  He sounded tired.

  "It's fine, Dad, I figured you were busy."

  "Yeah, new case."

  "They called you in on your day off?"

  “Special agent in charge when Ruben’s out of the office. They needed my expertise."

  "How bad is this one?"

  "I wouldn't want you to see the crime scene photos."

  Katie let out a long breath. “That bad? Like him?”

  Arthur hesitated. Katie felt the pit of her stomach drop. Her father shared almost everything with her. And right now he was trying to decide if he wanted to hide something. It really must be bad.

  “Very similar.”

  At least he told her the truth. The pit remained bottomless.

  "So are you going to be able to make dinner?'

  "Shoot. What time is it?"

  Katie felt her eyes start to grow wet, but she willed the tears away. She would not lose it. Not on the first night, and certainly not when she was on the phone with her father.

  Katie looked at her G-Shock and said, “A little after six.”

  "Well, it's going to take a little time to wrap things up, but yeah I'll head your way."

  "A little time at the office means a half hour, and with traffic you wouldn’t be here till nine."

  "Is that a problem?"

  "Only that I'm hungry now and I don't really think you need to drive for the better part of four hours tonight, not if you’re going to be back in the office first thing in the morning."