by Katie Hagen
I looked up at him and watched moonlight dance in his eyes for a few seconds though the haze of my tears.
“I’m so glad you found her,” he sighed and took his hand away.
A cool breeze came through the grass with a whoosh and I felt the skin of my exposed cheek chill beneath it.
I stepped a little closer until I was nearly touching him, my face raised toward his. My breath felt heavy in my chest and I strained to keep it steady.
He looked at me. But more than that. It was a look that I felt pass over my skin like fingertips. Kiss me. Again I felt my throat tighten with the words, like waking up from a nightmare and realizing that that scream you couldn’t get out was just a whimper in the reality of morning.
His hand came back up but this time it rested on my hip. I pushed myself a little closer still.
Somewhere, night continued on, but in that moment all was still.
But then his hand fell to his side and with it he took his body, and his gaze. The sounds of the party and the owls and the cars all came snapping back into place.
“Kit, I…” He looked over me to the barn. When he looked back, he exhaled into a smile. “We should get back in there, right?”
I cleared my throat and tried to smile back. “Well, we don’t want you to miss your first barn party.” What?
He took my elbow and helped to guide me back out of the tall grass and to the grainy earth near the barn then waited while I secured Picklepuss back in the car. I felt exhausted.
When I turned around Peter leaned in quickly and put his arms flat on the car on either side of me. I felt the cold steel against my back and my body began to shiver.
I tried to meet his eyes, but he was staring at my lips. “Kiss me,” I said aloud.
Peter leaned closer but hesitated.
In the distance I saw Carlie and Logan walking back toward us.
“Party’s lame!” Carlie called.
Peter’s head dropped nearly to my shoulder and then he stood up, running his hands through his hair.
“Logan said there’s a place in Oak Harbor we should check out. Wanna come?”
I looked at Peter hopefully.
Peter put his hands in his pockets. “I have to get back anyway. Maybe next time.”
I walked around to the driver’s seat and climbed in, giving the door a good slam.
We drove back with the radio blaring but only so I could drown out the sounds of my little sister and Logan slurping each other’s faces in the backseat.
Peter looked out the window both to avoid the awkwardness between us and Picklepuss’ glare.
When we got back to Main Street Peter practically leapt out of the car.
“So…” Carlie straightened her top in my rear-view mirror. “Oak Harbor then?”
“Can Logan drive you guys there? I think I just want to go home.”
Carlie rested her arms on the seats and leaned forward. “Did something happen between you and Peter?”
I shook my head. “Absolutely nothing.” I sighed. “I just want to go home.”
“Ok…but when you say home, you mean?”
“Kitty’s. For now.” I looked at her and tried to smile. “I’ll see you back there later, ok? Have fun but Logan, if anything happens to my sister…”
“Got it, boss,” he winked at me in the mirror.
“Kit, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you in a few hours, ok?”
“Alright. See you, Carlie.”
I parked in the lot behind Kitty’s and dragged myself and my naughty foster poodle up the stairs.
I stood for a second and looked at myself in the closet mirror. Picklepuss jumped up on the chest at the foot of the bed and then to the bed itself where she did a couple circles, laid down and immediately started snoring.
Quietly, I changed into a pair of runner’s leggings and a sweatshirt and tied my hair up into a bun before creeping out of the room.
On the street, I waited to see if I’d hear her barking. When I felt confident that she was out for the night I laughed at how much I was already catering to the little dog and then started jogging up toward the residential streets of Glaney.
I couldn’t figure out what was going on between Peter and I and I couldn’t figure out how to solve Vicki Perring’s murder to save Kitty’s. With every worry swirling around in my head the only thing I wanted to do was run.
Most of the homes were dark in Glaney except a few television-lit rooms. There were no street lamps, so I used the clear sky to guide me up and down the sidewalks. Everything was so quiet, and it only made me miss L.A. more.
So, what if Peter didn’t like me. In a few months I’d be gone anyway. It was stupid of me to fantasize about any sort of relationship between us, no matter how tempting the thought.
I turned down E. Perring drive and kept up my focus on losing focus on Peter until I passed Vicki’s dark house and then Peter’s.
His car was in the driveway and a light was on in the front room. I could see through the curtains as he moved across the room. For a second it was like we were moving together, only he was walking, and I was running. In seconds his home was behind me. I kept moving forward.
I made a right on the next street and then a left on the one following, weaving my way downward toward the bay.
A cramp in my side stopped me in a little neighborhood on the edge of town. I held my side and tried to breathe deeply as I looked around. The homes were more modest than those of the upper streets, but most still looked well cared for. All the lights by then were off. Slowly, my breathing began to go back to normal and I started to walk.
Something howled in the distance, too far for me to be concerned but I quickened my pace a bit anyway. The last thing I needed was to run in to some rabid coyote. Or worse.
When I came to the top of a hill and started down the other side, I noticed that a light from one home was still on and it seemed to be flooding out onto the rhododendrons on the front lawn. As I got closer the light began to interest me more and I couldn’t help but stop when I reached the small house.
I stood at the end of the short walkway and looked through the open door.
All the homes around it were dark and as I glanced around, I saw no one else looking out at me. I moved closer up the path until I was nearly on the doorstep.
“Hello?” I called out. “Your door is open.”
No one answered. I stepped back and saw that a car was in the driveway then listened again. It sounded like a television might be on somewhere further in the house, but it was quiet. If someone was home, they should have heard me. Unless they were asleep? I reached forward to close the door for them and stopped.
It could have been my imagination, but I thought I heard something. “Hello?” I called out again and stepped over the threshold.
It only took three steps to find her.
Just inside the door, around the corner, a young woman was sprawled out unnaturally on the floor. There was a huge welt and a gash on her forehead, and her neck looked bruised and red. Her eyes were closed.
I knelt down and reached out my hand, placing it, shaking, on her chest.
I was about to pull it away when I felt the slight rise of breath.
“Hold on,” I told her while I dialed the Glaney Police.
Within twenty minutes it looked like every first responder in Island County were lined up and down the small street.
Neighbors emerged from their homes and I tried my best to keep my face hidden. The last thing I needed was to be associated with another crime.
Luckily, it seemed that Ashley had the same thought and as soon as the woman was in the hands of the CMT’s she put me in the front seat of her black sedan and drove me the short distance back toward Kitty’s.
When she parked, she turned to me and flipped open a notebook. “Tell me everything.”
I left out the part about Peter refusing to kiss me at the barn party but told her step by step what I remembered from starting my run until finding the
woman.
“Do you know who she is?” I asked when she’d closed her book.
“I don’t need to tell you that this is a police investigation, right?” Ashley sighed.
“So, I take it you’re not going to tell me anything.”
“Have a good night, Kit.” Ashley smiled and waited for me to get out of her car.
I watched her car drive off and then turned to find myself face to face with Peter. Charlie bounced around by his side. Peter, on the other hand looked absolutely mortified to see me.
“Why are you here?” Politeness be damned.
“Why are you getting out of a cop car?” He asked and followed me up the driveway toward my house. I let him follow me up the stairs without an answer.
“Did you really just find another body?” Carlie asked as soon as we’d come through the door.
“I thought you were out?”
Carlie shrugged. “I just didn’t feel like it, I guess. But I did get a call from Beverly. She said someone was nearly killed tonight. And Ashley just sent me a text.”
I reached into my pocket and handed her my phone. “Look at the last picture.”
“This better not be a selfie,” Carlie said as she clicked the phone on. “Or a belfie.”
“What’s a belfie?” Peter asked from behind me.
Carlie took my phone over to the couch and laid down with it.
“It’s a selfie of my butt.”
Peter nodded. “Alright.”
“I think I know her,” Carlie sat up and leaned over the back of the couch. “Sam Curtz. She moved here a few years ago. I remember her from when I worked at that coffee stand. She used to pick up morning coffees for…”
“Who?”
“The Mayor. I think she was his secretary.”
“Bingo.” I grinned from ear to ear.
“What are you so happy about?” Carlie asked.
“Because it’s over! It has to be the Mayor. He was at Vicki’s house the night she was killed and now his secretary comes up nearly dead?”
“Why would he try to kill his secretary?”
“She probably knew something. She was with him all the time. He probably did it to shut her up.” I went over and threw myself on the couch beside Carlie with my feet near her head and hers by mine.
I tried to relax and think about what was to come. With the crime solved, the clients would come back. I could get back to grooming and eventually I could get out of Glaney and back to my real life. As hard as I tried to think about the future, something was still bothering me. I pulled out my phone and looked at the face in the picture.
“You said her name was Sam Curtz?”
“Yup,” Carlie said sleepily.
I pulled up my Instagram account and searched. There she was. And I knew her face. Not just from the night she walked me to the door, but from somewhere else too. A few swipes of my screen and I knew from where. Sam Curtz was the girl I recognized on the dating app.
I swiped back to Instagram and started clicking on Sam’s pictures.
“No, no no!”
There is was, on every picture. Liked by Vic Perring.
“What are you whining about now?” Carlie sat up on her elbows.
“I think Sam was the girl that Vic was dating.”
“Oh snap!”
“Yeah.” I stood up and started pacing the room. “Argh! I hate small towns! Everyone is so…connected!”
“Pretty much,” Carlie yawned.
“And everyone talks but no one says the same thing. How am I supposed to sort this all out! We need the FBI or something. This is too much!”
“Is everything ok?” Peter asked. I’d nearly forgotten he was there.
“No! Everything sucks.” I pouted and moved to sit on one of the dining room chairs. Picklepuss growled from the armchair as Charlie came too close to her and tried to give her a sniff.
“What’s the matter?” Peter came and sat down across from me. I held up my phone. “Didn’t you hear me? Sam and Vic were dating.”
Peter looked carefully at the picture. “How do you know that?”
“Social media told me. Plus, she said she had a date the other night when I saw her at the Mayor’s office. I think it might have been with Vic.”
“Oh,” he said and glanced at Carlie. I can only assume she rolled her eyes.
“I’m never getting out of here,” I said and laid my head on the table.
“I didn’t realize it was so awful for you here.” Peter stood up and went to get Charlie off the couch where he’d just cuddled up next to Carlie.
“I didn’t mean…”
“Why did you go out running tonight, Kit?”
“I needed to relax I guess?”
“So, you went out after dark, alone, while there’s a killer on the loose?”
“I guess I did,” I shrugged.
“And you’re not going to stop doing stupid things like that.”
I looked at him but didn’t reply. He hadn’t asked a question.
“Ok.” He said finally and pulled Charlie to the door. “Good night girls,” he added before nearly slamming it.
“Oooh. He’s mad at you,” Carlie teased.
I threw my head down on the table and cried.
“Oh, stop it. It’s not that bad.”
“Are you serious, Carlie? This means that we aren’t any closer to figuring out who killed Vicki and now there’s another almost murder. What makes you think the killer is going to stop now?”
Carlie sat up and looked at me from over the back of the couch. “We’ll figure this out, Kit. It’s just going to take some time.”
I stood up and headed toward my room. “We don’t have time.”
Thursday passed by like molasses. I didn’t even bother going down to the shop. Carlie said there were a couple bath jobs on the schedule. She and Beverly handled them and took Picklepuss with them. I stayed in bed. Peter didn’t call. Neither did anyone else. I tried calling Tom but got his answering machine. The only other thing I did was scan social media for word about Sam. All I could tell was that she was alive. If she was speaking, or if she knew what had happened to her then I was sure it would be all over the place. Instead, the town seemed eerily quiet.
By Friday morning, Carlie was seriously annoyed. I knew this because she stomped around the house, slamming cupboard doors and bathroom doors and finally the door to the shop. I got out of bed, showered, and then dressed in some stretchy jeans and a tank top with a long wrap sweater. Curiosity got the best of me and I started scanning the local social media pages for word about the case. Vic hadn’t been brought in for questioning. I was probably the only one who knew about the connection between him and Sam, besides Carlie and Peter. The Mayor was never mentioned in anything that I read. For a town so insistent on gossip, they sure seemed to miss a lot.
I needed to escape. Picklepuss was again down in the shop with Carlie. I could hear the dryers going so I knew they had at least some appointments. With a little guilt for not helping out I snuck down the back steps. For a minute, I just sat on the bottom step. I looked around at the wooded area to the left and the water in front.
“Kitty, why can’t I figure this out?” I asked myself out loud. I stood up and started to walk toward my car when I noticed two dog bowls under the stairs. “What is that for?” I continued to talk to myself. “Is this for the stray?” I assumed the answer was yes. It was definitely something Kitty would do. I grabbed each one and went upstairs. The first I filled with water and then I looked at the little bag of food I’d purchased for Picklepuss. “What were you feeding it?” I searched through the closets until I found a big bag of kibble. “Bingo.”
Carefully, I carried the food and water down the stairs and set them back where I found them. Satisfied, I snuck past the back windows to my car.
At first, I didn’t know where I was going. I just wanted to drive. Then I knew.
After a few minutes of driving, I pulled into the long, treed driveway and
parked in front of the log home of Lu Lu and Tom.
“Ok, Kitty. Now what?” I was perfectly aware that I’d lost my mind, but what else was there to do?
The early morning rain had stopped, and sun shone down through the trees. I knocked on the front door. Nothing. I tried the handle and found it unlocked.
I found my mother sitting on the sun porch, cross legged in the sunlight.
“Hi, Mom,” I said and sat next to her. She didn’t startle. She never did. It was like she always knew I was coming.
“Oh, Kit. It’s you,” she smiled toward me then closed her eyes again. “I’m just soaking up some sun.”
“I see that.”
I slipped off my shoes. There were plants everywhere. Ferns, and little trees, herbs, and some flowers. A little fountain dripped in the corner.
“So, what have you been doing since you got back? Keeping busy?”
“You could say that.” Tom and us girls had an agreement never to burden LuLu with the tribulations of real life. I intended to keep my promise and it seemed that Tom had kept his as well. I didn’t want to talk about it anyway.
“What’s bothering you?” She turned and looked me in the eyes. Her head was covered in a blue scarf and she wore a full-length body suit beneath a shawl.
“Nothing,” I looked out toward the back yard.
“Kit, I can always tell. I’m very attune to these sorts of things.”
“I met someone like that the other day actually. She called herself an empath.”
“Oh yes,” my mother smiled wisely. “I know them well.”
“I wonder,” I wrapped a piece of my sweater over my fingers until I could feel my heartbeat through them. “I wonder if sometimes, I don’t feel enough.”
“Oh, that’s not true.” LuLu shook her head softly then took my chin in her tiny hand. “You know how I can tell?”
I twisted my hips so I could face her, eager to soak in anything she had to offer. This was a rarity, her talking to me about something real. I wasn’t going to miss it. “How?”
“Because of the dogs.”
“Because…of…the dogs. Ok. I’ll bite. Ha. See what I did there.”