He frowned. "Sorry. I should have called before I came and unloaded that on you. I wanted to make sure we're OK. I don't want what happened with Courtney to mess up our friendship."
"It's OK, and it won't come between us. I should get some sleep now." I hated that he doubted our friendship. Was he worried that I thought he could have done it? I knew he hadn't. But I wasn't so sure about the possible burner phone used to send those weird text messages. Why didn't I feel comfortable enough to ask him?
He kissed my forehead as he stood up. "Bye, Kenzie. Speak to you tomorrow."
I smiled halfheartedly and flopped down on my bed, exhausted. My body felt like it was made of rock. I couldn't have moved even if I'd wanted to. "Bye, Kyle," I replied, yawning.
Once I hung up, I dialed Aaron's number, but it went through to voice mail. Damn it. I flicked down my contacts and called the landline at his parents'.
"Hello?" his mum said.
"Hi, it's Mackenzie. Is Aaron in?"
"He's sleeping. I'll ask him to get back to you in the morning."
"OK, thanks."
She hung up first, and I glared at my phone. That sounded a lot more like Aaron was avoiding speaking to me.
There was no way I would get a good night's sleep--not after that text--but at least I would be alone for a while and not have to think.
*
Saturday, August 22
"What time will you be home?" Mum asked, looking at the clock on the kitchen wall. All morning she'd been my shadow. Time had ticked by so slowly, I'd wanted to pull my hair out, so I was beyond grateful when I had to leave to meet Felicity.
"We're only having lunch. I doubt I'll be longer than a couple hours." I figured that gave me until two before I had to be back or she'd be calling.
"OK," she replied, nodding to herself. Mum found it hard to let me go anywhere, but she recognized that she couldn't keep me locked up, and there was nothing to suggest I was in any danger. She still thought someone had somehow made a copy of the key or picked the lock at the cabin. I prayed she was right.
"You can always call or text, you know," I offered.
"I know, love. I just worry about you. It makes me feel uncomfortable having you out there when the murderer hasn't been caught."
It kind of made me nervous too. Someone was sending me cryptic texts, and I was a person of interest in a double murder investigation. All of that didn't exactly make me feel safe.
Our little village was safe--or it used to be. Everyone knew and looked out for everyone else. I'd gone from having full freedom to having to disclose my every movement. "I'll be fine, Mum, and I promise to let you know where I am." With a bit of luck, I sounded more confident than I felt.
She pushed my hair behind my shoulder and smiled. "You're a good girl, Mackenzie. Say hello to Felicity for me and have a nice time."
"Thanks. See you soon," I said and left before she got tearful and I felt guilty for leaving her sight again. I wish I could've stayed in to stop her worrying, but I had to clear my and my friends' names and figure out who was sending me sinister text messages.
If Megan, Kyle, Aaron, or Blake were responsible, Felicity could help me go to the police. I'd like to think I was strong enough to do the right thing for Courtney, but turning in someone I loved wouldn't be easy. Felicity could give me the support that I needed.
I saw her as soon as I walked into the restaurant. She sat at the back of the pub, next to a window, wearing a deep-red summer dress and a cropped denim jacket. Her hair fell in tight blond ringlets down to the bottom of her shoulder blades.
Felicity's appearance couldn't have been more different from Courtney's. Court's hair had been stick straight and a fierce red since she was fifteen. She loved the color.
"Hey," I said as I approached the table.
"Hi," Felicity replied, her solemn expression brightening as she stood and held her arms out for a hug. At least she didn't think I killed her cousin.
I hugged her back, and we sat down. "How is everyone?"
"Devastated. I don't want to leave them, but I have so much work to do." She bit her lip and her eyes clouded over. "And truthfully, I can't stand being there. I know that sounds ridiculously selfish, but there's nothing I can do to help. I've never felt so useless before."
"You're not useless. I don't think anyone can do anything right now. They lost their daughter; they need time."
"And what about you? What do you need? Kyle said you're dealing with this well."
My back stiffened. "You've spoken to Kyle?"
She picked up the breakfast menu and scanned the options. "He's dropped by a few times. The pancakes are a bit hit-and-miss here, aren't they?"
"Sometimes they're amazing and other times they're awful," I agreed. I didn't know Kyle had gone around to see Court's family. He was still angry with Courtney for choosing Josh over him, so why go to see her family? Kyle and Aaron both secretly visited the family of the girl they loved, but it didn't make any sense.
An annoying, nagging voice in the back of my head kept screaming that Kyle was hiding something else.
I'm missing something here.
What if it was Kyle? I had known the guy practically my whole life. Surely no one could be that blind. But if the last week few weeks had taught me anything, it was that I was so blind it was almost embarrassing.
Could he have sent that text?
"What's going on then, chick? You know it's not healthy to bottle up your emotions."
I laughed and tucked my hair behind me ears. That one I had heard far too often lately. "I'm temporarily bottling. I'll grieve when their killer is found--or at least when we're scrubbed off the suspect list."
She scoffed and flicked her hand. "That's a load of rubbish. I thought it was a joke when I first found out. No one believes it--no one who matters anyway."
Sure the people that really knew us believed we had nothing to do with it, but I still couldn't sleep properly knowing others considered me a killer. "What will you do if they never find him, Flis? I don't know how I can live with knowing they never got justice."
She pressed her lips together and scowled. "I'll hate that, but life does go on, Mackenzie. I know that's harsh and horrible, but it's true. I hope they catch him, but if they don't, it doesn't change anything. Courtney and Josh will still be gone. Nothing will bring them back or make what happened to them OK."
"If they never found out who did it, you'd be OK?" Just the thought made my head spin.
"No, not OK. I want justice, but it won't bring them back. Don't drive yourself crazy with this. You know Courtney would probably say something like, 'Get a grip, Mackenzie. I'm dead, deal with it,' wouldn't she?"
I smiled and shook my head, hearing those words in Court's voice. "Yeah, she would." But that didn't really make it OK to cover up for one of my friends. I changed the conversation. "So how's uni going, anyway? You still loving it up in Liverpool?"
"I do. It's a great place. Not sure I'll stay after I graduate though. I'm thinking of moving back when it's time to find a job."
Felicity wanted to be a nurse and was three years into a four-year degree. It was the same course Tilly would have been starting next year.
"Are there better job opportunities here?" That seemed unlikely. The closest hospital was a forty-minute drive, and there were only three within a comfortable daily driving distance.
"Not really, but I want to be around family. I'm thinking of going into a walk-in clinic or doctor's office."
"Sounds good. Would be nice to have you back this way."
Liverpool was about two hundred miles north and just over three and a half hours away. Felicity didn't get to visit much, so it would be great to see more of her. Courtney's parents would love it too.
"What about you? School going all right?"
I turned my nose up. "It's going. Not looking forward to getting back after summer, especially now. But a friend of the family is a counselor in another uni so I'm hoping to pick up some work e
xperience with her next year while she works in summer school."
"You didn't want to do that this summer?"
"This year was supposed to be our last summer of freedom, so we were all spending it working our way through a before-university bucket list."
She laughed. "Courtney mentioned something about that. How far did you get?"
"We'd done LEGOLAND and camping, which I hated because it rained constantly." Two weeks into summer holidays, and our plans were ripped away. Court and Josh would never get the chance to do all the things we'd planned--or anything else for that matter. Again. I dipped my head and added, "Then the weekend away."
"You don't want to do the rest of the things on the list?"
"One day maybe." For Tilly, Gigi, and Courtney, I would do all of the things we'd planned to, but there were far more important things to deal with before I ticked off any activities from the list. I also didn't particularly want to do them anymore. It wouldn't be fun. It was just something I felt I had to do now.
"What's this Detective Wright like, then? I've heard interesting things."
"You haven't had to speak to him?"
"I've been interviewed but not by him."
"Oh. Well, where to start," I muttered. "Interesting is one way to describe him. He's like one of those eccentric detectives you see on TV. Not sure if he realizes TV isn't real and that maybe he needs to be grown-up about his career."
"There are no other leads?"
"Apparently not, but he's hardly forthcoming with information. We only know what he wants us to know and when he wants us to know it. I have no clue what he's thinking about the clothes."
She frowned, stirring the mug of tea that everyone received as soon as they arrived whether they wanted it or not. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Graham, were big on tea, and from the big pot in their hand, it looked like I was getting one soon too. "What clothes?"
"The ones the murderer was wearing. If it was one of us, then they have to be somewhere, right?" She nodded. "They can't find any, of course. But he still won't accept that it means it wasn't us."
"Are you sure? They can't ignore that."
I shrugged one shoulder. "I'm not sure about much anymore. There's been no mention of the clothes though." I scoffed--like he would tell us even if he had found it. "I bet the first we'll hear of any new leads is when someone is arrested. Aaron was called in for more questioning."
"Jesus. This is such a mess," Felicity said, shaking her head.
You have no idea how messy it's gotten. "Yep."
It was a big mess, and I was caught in the middle of it and desperate to get out.
By the time Felicity and I had finished lunch and I'd made my way back home, I was feeling slightly better. Her strength was encouraging, and I knew, without a doubt, that whoever killed Courtney and Josh would pay the price. I would turn whoever it was in if I found out--no matter who it was and how much I loved my friends.
My phone beeped with another text message, and I froze. I'd never been scared of that tone before.
It was Megan, thankfully, asking if I wanted to do something that afternoon. I didn't. So I replied with an excuse and told her I'd see her soon. That would hopefully give me some time to work things out in my head and hopefully figure out what was going on.
As I sent the text, my phone rang. I sighed in relief as Aaron's name flashed on my screen. Did I expect whomever the anonymous person was who'd texted me to start calling now? Honestly, I didn't know what they were capable of.
"Aaron! Are you OK? I tried calling you last night!"
He chuckled. "Mum said you'd called. I'm fine."
"What happened?"
"Apparently, Wright found some of my blood in the woods. It's OK though. I explained what happened."
My heart froze. Oh God. It was his blood.
No.
God, Aaron?
No, he wouldn't...
"Start at the beginning," I said, absolutely terrified of his answer. There had to be a reasonable explanation.
"Megan and I went for a walk that afternoon when we were at the cabin. She found what she thought was one of those stupid crystal stone things. I picked it up and it turned out it was an old, very sharp piece of green glass, which I chucked into some shed in the woods."
We hadn't seen the green glass, but it hadn't been particularly light in the shed. The stone must have landed on the wrapper and fallen off when I'd picked it up. "Oh. You never mentioned it when you got back."
There was something about the story that I didn't like, though it was completely plausible and Wright must have accepted it since Aaron was calling me rather than sitting in a prison cell.
"One, I'm a tough man. And two, it bled for a second, hardly bandage material. Wright just wanted me to clear it up. He'll probably want to confirm it with Megan. Can you believe he doesn't trust us?" he joked.
"Crazy, right?" I replied, forcing myself to laugh. "So everything is all right?"
"Yep. I gotta go. My parents and I are off to visit the family soon. I'll be home tomorrow so we'll meet up, yeah?"
"Wait, you're going away?"
"Twenty miles away, Kenz, not to Mexico."
I bit my lip as I walked up my front path. "OK. See you tomorrow."
Aaron hung up, and as I opened the front door, Mum came rushing out of the kitchen. I was home early, but she'd still worried herself sick.
"Hey," I said, grinning like a fool so she would see that everything was fine, even if it wasn't.
"How was lunch?"
"Good. Felicity seems to be doing OK and she's going back to uni for summer classes."
"That's good."
I could tell that Mum wanted to quiz me on every little detail, but she was holding back. She could get a little obsessive.
"I'm gonna go to my room," I said, giving her a quick hug and taking the stairs two at a time.
Dropping down on my bed, I rubbed my aching head. Aaron was visiting family last minute but usually did everything he could to get out of family gatherings. Last time, he was ill; the time before that, he'd had a make-believe exam. And I think he'd even used my break up with Danny as an excuse once too.
He hated his extended family because they were judgmental arseholes who constantly put Aaron down for not being a straight-A student. They thought he should be headed to Cambridge to study law, like his cousins were. So him going sounded a lot like he was running, maybe not from Wright and the police, but from his friends. It was like there was something he didn't want us to know.
I dialed Blake's number and laid my phone beside me on speaker. Hopefully he would make everything clearer--or just turn it into a joke. I'd have taken either one right then. Desperation kinda did that to a girl.
"Do I need to take out a restraining order?" Blake teased instead of a traditional hello.
"It was his blood," I whispered, feeling as sure as I could be that Aaron was the killer. The line went silent. I waited for him to say something. "Blake?"
"I'm here," he said. "Do you want me to come over?"
No annoying "I told you so"?
"I don't know what I want, Blake. How can it be his?" I shook my trembling hands as reality started to set it. "Do you think Aaron killed them?"
"You're asking me?"
"I'm too close, aren't I? I believe them all so much that I can't see clearly. Did Aaron do it, Blake? Please answer me."
"For what it's worth, I don't think so. My money is still on Kyle." I heard Blake rustling around in the background and then the sound of keys jingling. He really was coming over. "Just chill out. We still need to speak to Wright about Lawrence. Aaron's blood in an old shed doesn't prove he's a murderer."
"Why are you doing this? You think it was one of them, so why help me with Lawrence and reassure me?"
"You asked me to, remember?"
"That doesn't answer my question. You could have told me to get lost, and don't tell me you're only helping me because you're bored because I know that's a lie."
"You had to ruin it," I replied. A small smile pulled at my lips. "Are you coming over?"
"On my way," he said and hung up.
I put the phone down and shook my head. As much as Blake played the I-don't-give-a-damn card, he really did care. My heart soared so high I felt faint. I really did have a thing for him. A big thing.
This will be interesting. The one guy I've felt like I could really fall for and he was brother of a guy I hated--a guy I was suspected of killing. Fabulous.
Blake knocked on my front door in half the time it should have taken to drive to my house. I wanted to yell because he had obviously driven fast, but I was too glad to see him. He led the way up to my room as if he owned the place.
"What did Aaron say?" he asked, sitting down on my bed and lying back against my pillows.
"Please, do make yourself comfortable."
His light eyes darkened in a glare.
I refocused. "He said he was out with Megan and cut his finger on a piece of glass, but he never said anything when he got back."
Blake's chest shook as he laughed. "Guys stop whining--or boasting--about their war wounds when they're about ten, Mackenzie. Do you believe him?"
"Yes," I replied. I think.
Rolling his eyes, he pushed himself up so he was properly facing me. All of a sudden, he had his serious face on, and I felt like I was about to get a lesson in who to trust. I didn't like where this was going. "Do you? There's not an ounce of doubt in your mind about Aaron's innocence?"
The way Blake looked at me made it hard to concentrate on breathing, let alone something as serious as murder. I licked my drier-than-the-Gobi-Desert lips and swallowed. "Um..."
"Seriously, Mackenzie, is he innocent?"
"Yes. I believe him. He might be hotheaded, but he's protective of the people he cares about. There is no way he could have ever hurt Courtney or Josh, Court especially. Aaron's uncle used to hit his aunt before she left and Aaron despises violence against women."
He flopped down on his back again. "All right, then. I think you're right too. Aaron didn't do it. It's Kyle. We should delve into Megan a little more as well."
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