Deadly Reunion (15 page)

Kyle shoved his hands in his pockets and fingered Adam's check. Th
ere was another reason to get involved. He needed money. So did Grace. This was a way to keep themselves solvent.

“
Kyle, I've been looking for you,” Melodie said, linking her arm with his.

“I've been looking for you
, too. We need to talk about Crystal and who might have killed her.”

Melodie
's pretty eyes clouded. “Now? I don't think now is really appropriate.”

“The more time we waste, the more chance the killer is going to get away. There's also a good chance that whoever did this is here today.”

Wrapping her arm around his, Melodie leaned into his body. “After the funeral I will tell you whatever you want to know. I just can't right now. Not with her lying right here. It's just too painful,” she said, turning her tear-filled eyes up to his.

Kyle looked down at her
, trying to decide if he believed her. It hadn't escaped his notice that she only seemed upset about her sister's death when he was close enough to comfort her. Other times she just seemed frazzled. Right at the moment, however, he was pretty sure she was stalling. “I thought you wanted to know who did this.”

“Of course I do,” she said
, wiping away a tear that had spilled over onto her cheek. At his disbelieving look, she added, “I hired you, didn't I?”

“Then help me do my job. Talk to me about Crystal.”

Melodie grabbed his hand, led him to one of the sofas, and sat down. “I'm sorry. You're right. Please sit.”

Kyle
took the seat next to her. He sat still waiting for Melodie to start speaking, but when she did, it wasn't to him, but to another woman standing nearby. “Beth, you remember Kyle Drake, don't you?”

It seemed so easy in the movies. Kyle
stood up and shook Beth's hand. If Melodie wouldn't talk, then maybe Beth would. “I'm so sorry for your loss. I understand you were good friends with Crystal?”

Beth nodded.
“We all grew up with each other. Everyone's going to miss her.”

Kyle felt
Melodie slide her hand back into his and pull. “I loved my sister very much. It's just difficult for me to talk to you, because I have no idea what to say. She didn't have any enemies. That's why this came as a complete shock. I mean, I just can’t believe someone would want to hurt her.”

Tears began streaming down her cheeks
, as she raised her arms up for a hug. Before Kyle could sit down next to her and give her the comfort she wanted, Beth quickly moved in and gave her a giant bear hug, rocking her back and forth. Kyle smiled when he saw Melodie stiffen and her eyes immediately dry up.

“Please don't cry,” Beth sobbed.
“You were a good sister. I'm so glad you two made up. Whenever my children fight, I always tell them they need to forgive—”

“Beth, please, you're hurting me,”
Melodie gasped. Beth pulled away, wiping her eyes.

G
ently touching her throat, Melodie asked, “Where did you get the idea Crystal and I were fighting? I hope you didn't believe that silly rumor.”

*  *  *  *

Grace looked at her hair in the bathroom mirror. No streaks of gray yet. Surprising. She expected to see a full head of gray hair when she walked into the bathroom. She shrugged. It's only a matter of time.

There is no way we're going to pull this off, she thought
dejectedly. Maybe she could talk to Melodie and Adam. Explain that Kyle is an escaped lunatic. He's harmless. Beg their forgiveness, and then run back to New York. They're her friends. They'll understand. She nodded at her reflection. After the funeral, she decided.

*  *  *  *

Grace found Kyle sitting on one of the couches in the viewing room. On one side sat Beth, thrusting photo after photo in his face. On the other side sat Melodie, apparently now super glued to his hip.

“
Ms. Holliday, are you feeling better?” Kyle asked concerned. “Here, sit down.” Kyle attempted to stand and offer Grace his seat, however, Melodie quickly pulled him down.

“She can sit right next to me. Here
, I'll make room for her.” Melodie pushed herself closer to Kyle and smiled up at him, practically sliding into his lap.

S
queezing herself into the space provided, Grace asked, “Has anyone seen Tom? I want to offer my condolences.”

“No,”
Melodie said, still staring up at Kyle, “but then there are several people missing. Tom’s at work. Eric and Diana called and said they would be late. Steve is a no show, and I haven't seen your family yet,” Melodie added, turning to Grace with an accusatory look.

Grace sighed.
She and her parents had spent an hour trying to convince Hope to come to Crystal's funeral. It wasn't easy, and it was completely against Grace’s better judgment. It was risky having Hope here. Hope wasn't really upset by Crystal's death, and she said she wasn't about to be a hypocrite and pretend otherwise. Grace tried to convince her that people would talk if she didn't come, but the only opinion that ever mattered to Hope was her own and possibly Thomas Lake’s. It was only after convincing her that Melodie needed her support did Hope finally relent.

Grace looked over at
Melodie, who was laying her head on Kyle's shoulder. How was she to know that Kyle was the only support Melodie needed? Still, after speaking to Adam, she worried that if Hope didn't appear people would wonder if guilt had kept her away.

Hopefully,
Hope hadn't changed her mind. “They will be here,” she insisted. “They’re just running a little bit behind.”

*  *  *  *

“What do you mean you're not coming? Hope, I think it's very important that you be here,” Grace whispered into her cell phone. Kyle watched as Grace's face drained of color. “Why? . . . I’ll be right there.” Grace sighed as she listened to her sister. “Fine. Just call me when it's over.” She snapped the phone shut. “My family's at the police station. The police wanted to speak to Hope. She said to give Melodie her best.”

Worried
Kyle asked, “Have they arrested her?”

“No.
They just want to ask some questions. Hope's insisting that her attorney be present first. It doesn't look like they're going to make it for the funeral. Let's not tell anyone. Hopefully, no one will ask where they are.”

“I don't think they're going to miss anything. I've never seen a happier looking group of mourners
, and I have been to a few wakes in my time,” Kyle whispered.

Grace couldn't agree more.
Adam was standing near the coffin flirting with a brunette who was giggling uncontrollably at whatever he was saying to her. Beth had cornered an older couple, Grace recognize as Mr. and Mrs. Murphy, the owners of the Rabbit Falls Saloon. She was busy showing them family photos. Grace watched as they politely nodded at each one. Various children were running through the room. No parents in sight. Eric Collins and Diana were the closest to Grace. When she leaned toward them, she could hear them making fun of the current crop of students. No one was crying. No one even looked sad. If it weren't for the coffin in the room, you wouldn't know anyone had died.

“It's rather ghoulish
, isn't it?” Grace looked Kyle up and down. “Where's your new friend? I’m surprised you could tear yourself away.”

Kyle smiled. “Do I detect a note of jealousy?”

“Do I detect a note of hope?” she countered.

Kyle patted her on the shoulder. “Don't worry. She is just a client. It would be completely unethical for anything to
happen between Melodie and me. After all, I wouldn't want to violate my professional responsibility. I have a duty to behave with—”

Grace scoffed.
“Professional responsibility? Honestly, do I need to remind you that . . .” she paused when she saw Tom enter the room, stopping every few feet to accept the condolences of the people around him. His eyes on Melodie, he walked by the coffin, barely giving it a passing glance, before reaching out and embracing her.

*  *  *  *

“Kyle, can you give me a ride back home?” Grace asked, walking to his new car.

Nodding he asked,
“Did you get a hold of Hope?”

“They’re back home
,” Grace said, reaching the passenger side door. “She hasn’t been charged with anything, but I'm worried.”

Unlocking the car door,
Kyle glanced across the car’s roof. “Don't be. We'll figure this out.”

“For the last time. We’re
not detectives.”

Noticing
Beth making a beeline for them, Kyle whispered, “Quiet! Here comes your friend.”

Grace groaned.
She completely forgot about Beth.

“Grace, did you bring your own car
, or would you like me to drive?” Beth asked.

A
sudden idea forming in her mind, Grace smiled at Kyle. Perhaps, he could be useful after all. “Oh Beth, I'm so sorry, but Mr. Drake needs me to work on something important tonight,” she lied. “How about next week?”

“What?
” Kyle smiled. “No, if you have other plans Ms. Holliday I wouldn't dream of interrupting them. You go on with your friend.”

Realizing
her chance of escaping was suddenly evaporating, Grace walked around the car to stand at Kyle’s side. “But sir, you need my help.”

Kyle smiled sweetly at her.
“No, I insist.” Evading Grace's hands, and more importantly her nails, he moved to the sidewalk to stand closer to Beth. “What do you two have planned? If you don't mind my asking?”

“Grace hasn't been home in such a long tim
e that I wanted to show her all my family's videos.”

Kyle
quickly realized that now was his chance to get Beth alone. He had managed to corner her just before the funeral service, intent on finding out what Melodie and Crystal had been arguing about. At first, she had evaded his questions, insisting ‘she wasn't a gossip’. She had just started to open up when Melodie interrupted them. All he was able to discover before the interruption was that the sisters absolutely weren't fighting, it was just a horrible, nasty rumor, but whatever it was, that didn't happen, occurred right around the time of Larry Baker’s accident.

Taking
Beth's hands in his, Kyle flashed her his most charming smile. “I would love to see your videos!”

Kyle looked from both Beth and Grace
. Both stood staring at him, transfixed, their mouths opened in shock. Apparently, no one had ever asked to see these videos before.

Beth’s face lit up in pleasure
. “We’re going to have so much fun, tonight.”

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

“I
love your
place, Beth. It's so . . . so . . . colorful,” she said, trying to find some way to tactfully describe Beth’s home. “You have so many interesting paintings.”

“So many clowns,” Kyle said
, looking around in rapt horror. Every wall contained ten to fifteen paintings of clowns. In addition to the paintings, were the clown figurines and clown dolls. Big clowns, small clowns, happy clowns, incredibly scary, scary clowns. “Just so many clowns.”

“Yes, aren't they
wonderful? My husband draws the
Clown Family on Parade
comic strip. We love clowns. Every Halloween we all dress up as clowns. The kids just cry if I try to dress them up as anything else.

“Where are the kids?” Grace a
sked.

“At the circus?” Kyle whispered, then grimaced when Grace elbowed him in the stomach.

“I asked Mark to take them to the movies tonight,” Beth said
, taking out a large metal DVD carrying case from the storage ottoman. “They get so excited when I show the family movies. You should see their little faces. Now, where did I put Beatrix's movie case? I bet that little minx has hidden it again. She's so playful. Let me see if it's in her room.”

Grace watched
Beth bound up the stairs. Turning to Kyle, she asked, “Do you want to explain to me why you're here?”

“Beth let it slip that
Melodie and Crystal were fighting about something.”

“Old news. I knew about that hours ago,” Grace said smugly.

“Do you know why?”

“No, do you?”

“No, but Beth does and we just need to get it out of her.”

“How do you propose we do that?”

Kyle shrugged. “Bright lights? No food or water?” At Grace's expression, he added, “I'm only joking. It should be easy. I think she can't wait to talk.”

“You do realize you're investigating your own client
, don't you?”

“If we're going to keep your sister out of trouble, we need to know exactly what's been going on.”

*  *  *  *

Grace hadn't wanted to get involved
. She still didn't, but she grudgingly had to admit that Kyle had a point. It was becoming painfully clear that the police considered Hope a suspect. If it took sitting through hours and hours of home movies to keep Hope safe then she’d do it. And the sooner they could get started, the sooner they could go home. With that in mind, Grace climbed the steps leading to the children’s rooms.

She
found Beth in the second room on the right, lying on her stomach, peering under her daughter's day bed. “Did you find it, yet?” Grace asked.

“Hmm. Maybe. I see something
, but it's at the back of the bed.”

Grace got on the floor
, and peered under the bed. Now was as good a time as any to ask Beth what happened between Crystal and Melodie. Grace decided the best way to ask Beth, was simply to be direct.

“Beth, I spoke to Adam today. He said
Melodie and Crystal were fighting. Was that true?”

Beth sat
back on her heels and sighed. “Melodie says that it was just a rumor circling around town. That it's not true.”

Realizing Beth just needed to hear that Grace unde
rstood, she said, “Of course. Rumors are rarely true, but if that rumor's going around, then it would be best if her friends heard about it from another friend.”

That
was all Beth needed to hear. Nodding enthusiastically, she leaned in conspiratorially. “That's what I think, too. It all started the day after Larry’s funeral. I was there and they seemed okay then. Melodie was crying on Crystal's shoulder. There didn't seem to be any problem. Well, except for Larry being dead, of course. It was a lovely service. He looked so peaceful. Everyone was there. The Murphy’s, Hendrix’s—”

“When did you notice a problem between the two?” Grace interrupted
, trying to keep Beth on track.

“The next day. I went over to see
Melodie, and I found her on the front lawn, screaming at Crystal. Melodie told Crystal that she hated her.”

“Did she say why?”

“I asked her what had happened, but Melodie wouldn't say. But I heard through the grapevine that Larry had been cheating with his secretary, and that Melodie was furious.”

“Well
, of course,” Grace said, still wondering why Melodie would have been angry with Crystal.

“To tell you the truth
, I was scared for Crystal. You know what a temper Melodie has, especially when it concerns someone she loves. Remember the artist she dated after graduation?”

Grace once again reminded Beth she left after graduation
, and that she and Melodie had only kept up with each other sporadically through the years.

“Well, Larry and
she broke up a month after graduation, and Melodie started dating David Hart. He was an artist the school hired to commemorate the school’s centennial year. He’s the one who painted that big mural near the front entrance.”

Grace snapped her fingers.
“I knew that name sounded familiar. I remember Melodie calling one night and telling me all about him, but the next time I spoke to her, she was telling me all about her wedding to Larry.”

Beth nodded. “They weren’t together for very long. Just for that summer after graduation.
Melodie thought he was the cat’s meow, let me tell you. I didn’t think he was that handsome. I mean, he was okay looking. He was tall, had this long, stringy blond hair, and was really skinny. Not at all like Larry, but Melodie went crazy over him. She even bought him a car. Can you believe that? She had only known him for a few weeks, and she went out and bought him this really expensive car. It was beautiful. She must have spent a fortune. It had—”

“So
, what happened between them?” she asked, trying to keep Beth from going off onto another tangent.

“He dropped her to date Sara Perkins
. It was so sad.” Beth reached out and grabbed Grace’s arm. “Melodie completely lost it. I heard that she broke into his house and destroyed all of his paintings, then . . .” Beth looked over her shoulder and dropped her voice to a whisper, “she almost killed him. Not that I believe that. That’s just a rumor.”

“What happened?”

Beth shrugged. “I don’t really know. No one does. All I know is that he left the very next day and moved back to California. It turned out okay in the end. Larry and she got back together. They got married a few months later. It was like a fairytale. Oh, you should have been there, Grace. She wanted you to be her maid of honor. All the girls wore pink satin—”

Grace shook her head and tried to bring the conversation back to Crystal.
“If Larry was cheating with his secretary, why would Melodie be angry with Crystal? Or was Crystal sleeping with Larry, too?”

“No
, of course not. Where would you get a crazy idea like that?”

“T
hen why was Melodie so mad at Crystal?” Grace asked in frustration.

“
Because Crystal was the one who found out he was cheating. She didn’t want to hurt Melodie, so she didn’t tell her. I can understand Melodie being hurt, but I'm sure Crystal was only doing what she thought was right. I mean, how do you tell your sister that her husband's cheating?”

*  *  *  *

Yawning, Grace stumbled to the car. The sun was just breaking over the mountains. “What time is it?”

Ky
le looked at his watch. Narrowing his eyes, trying to focus on the time, he said, “I don't know. I think time has stopped.” He leaned his head against the car. “So, are you going to tell me what the big secret is?”

Grace quickly outlined what she learned from Beth.

Raising his head, he said, “That's not much of a motive for killing Crystal. It’s not as if Crystal was the one he was sleeping with. She probably didn’t want to hurt Melodie.”

Grace couldn't agree more. “Still
, Melodie must have felt betrayed.”

Shrugging,
Kyle fished in his pocket for his keys.

Grace yawned again.
“What's next on the agenda?”

“
Well, I need to go back to motel and get some sleep,” he said yawning.

“You still staying at the Cloverleaf?”

Kyle nodded. “I brought Abry back with me. He’s probably wondering where I am. How about we go visit Tom Lake sometime this afternoon. He didn't seem to be very torn up at the funeral.”

“I don't want to speak to him.
Not after the way he treated my sister.”

“
Do you know why he left your sister and married Crystal?”

“I have no idea. One day
, they were giggling over wedding plans. The next, he was acting as though she had the plague. Hope refused to speak to any of us about it. The name Tom was even stricken from our family's dialog. You talk to him.”

Kyle s
hook his head. “You know him. He'll be more willing to talk to you.”

“
I'm not very comfortable speaking with Tom right now. We don’t even have a license to act as private investigators. He could throw us in jail.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.
It turns out that getting a private investigator's license is voluntary in Colorado. It’s only necessary, if you want to call yourself a
licensed
private investigator, otherwise we’re fine.”

“Really?” sh
e asked doubtfully. “Still, you’ve been telling everyone that you’ve been doing this for years. Not only that, but Kyle Drake isn’t your real name. It’s your stage name. You lied to the police, Kyle. That’s a serious problem.”

“Don’t worry.
I've taken care of everything.”

“What do you mean you've taken care of everything?”
she asked suspiciously.

Carefully looking around to make sure no one could overhear or see what he was doing
, he took out his wallet and proudly handed her his New York private investigator's license. “What do you think?”

“About t
en years in the state penitentiary, maybe five with good behavior. No. Who are we kidding? With you it would be the full ten.”

“It's all perfectly legal.
See, I finally had my name legally changed to Kyle Drake.” Kyle took another document out of his coat pocket and thrust it into her hands.

“Oh, I’m sure your father’s going to love that.”

“He won’t care. I’ve been performing under that name for years now. Ever since I struck out on my own and decided that I didn’t want people comparing me to my father.” He looked up reflectively. “That’s the only idea of mine that my dad’s ever whole-heartedly approved of.”

“How were you able to do this so quickly?”

“I have friends in high places.”

“You don't mean your cousin Felix
, do you?” Grace rolled her eyes. “I thought he had been disbarred.”

Kyle vehemently shook his head. “No,
no. He hasn't been disbarred. For your information, Ms. Know-It-All, the disbarment hearing isn’t ‘til next month.”

“None
of this solves anything, Kyle. You made it seem that we had been investigators for years now. They're going to notice you just had all of this done since the reunion.”

“Check the dates on the documents,” Kyle said smugly.

Grace sighed and reluctantly checked the date of each document. They all had been backdated by three to five years.

“How much did you pay for this?”

“Not a dime. Felix did this pro bono. He also set up a web page for me. Kyle Drake Investigations. How does that sound? Impressive, isn’t it?” he asked, clearly pleased with himself.

“
Wonderful. If you think I'm going to carry around a fraudulent private investigator's license—”

“I didn't get you a fraudulent license. I thought about it
, but if this falls apart—it won't—but if it does, I don't want you to get into trouble. As far as you know, I am who I say I am. You're just my lowly secretary. I discovered you working at the Straker Toy Company, and enlisted your help when I craftily figured out there was embezzlement afoot . . . or murder afoot . . . or whatever.”

Grace’s eyes narrowed.
“Wait a minute. Secretary? When did I become your secretary? I was supposed to be your assistant or associate or whatever, remember?”

Sighing,
Kyle rubbed his forehead. “Fine, you're my administrative assistant. Better?”

Grac
e shook her head. “Oddly enough, no.”

“
I knew you wouldn't go for the license thing, so secretary is the best I could do. I'm just going to tell everyone that I felt sorry for you the other night, and decided to go along with your completely innocent misrepresentation of your actual title at my agency. That way if—”