The Comeback Kiss (33 page)

He
’
s still here,
she thought.
Thank God.

She pulled herself out of bed, went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and drink a little water, and then headed down the stairs. As she appeared on the landing, both
Izzy and Finn looked up at her. Izzy had an expression of serious concern on her face, and moved toward the bottom of the stairs to meet Tessa.

“
What happened?”
Izzy said.

“
Nothing.”
Tessa exchanged a warning look with Finn.

He nodded and she knew they wer
e on the same page:
don
’
t tell Izzy.

“
Fine,”
Izzy sighed. “
Don
’
t tell me. I don
’
t care. There
’
s something...”
Izzy nibbled at her lip and looked nervously from Finn to Tessa.

Oh, crap, Tessa thought. What now?

She sat on the bottom step and ran her hands o
ver her hair.

“
Okay,”
she said. “
I
’
m sitting. What
’
s up?”

“
I have something I need to... um...”
Izzy reached into her pocket and pulled out a bundle of tissue paper. Tessa
’
s eyebrows knit as Izzy handed it to her.

“
What is this?”

Izzy sniffled. “
It
’
s Mom
’
s
.”

Tessa looked at her for a minute, then unwrapped the tissue paper, gently pulling a familiar locket and chain from the bundle.

“
Oh, my God,”
she whispered as she looked at it. She hadn
’
t thought about the locket in a long time, but she recognized it ins
tantly. Her mother had never left the house without it. “
Where did you find this?”

Izzy didn
’
t answer. Tessa pulled on the locket and it opened easily in her hands, revealing pictures of her and Izzy that she hadn
’
t seen in ten years.

“
The clasp is broken,
”
she noted, staring at it in wonder.

“
Is that what you pulled from Vickie Kemp
’
s mailbox yesterday?”
Finn asked, his voice quiet.

Izzy glanced at him, nodded. “
Along with this,”
she said, handing him an envelope. He pulled out the paper inside, read it, a
nd handed it to Tessa.

LEAVE IT ALONE. Along with her mother
’
s locket. Someone was trying to send a message.

Someone had killed her mother.

Tessa felt a coldness run through her, and hugged herself to ward it off.

“
You found this in Vickie
’
s mailbox?”
she
asked Izzy. “
What was it doing in Vickie
’
s mailbox?”

Finn settled on the stairs next to Tessa. “
Whoever put it there probably wanted Vickie to find it when she got back. It
’
s a good place to put it; the fire investigators have no reason to go into her mail
box.”

“
Okay.”
Tessa nodded, trying to take it all in, then looked up at Izzy. “
You found this yesterday? Why didn
’
t you tell me?”

Izzy sighed. “
I didn
’
t want to say anything unless I knew for sure that the locket was Mom
’
s, and I was too afraid to open it.
I made Sosie do it for me.”

Finn
’
s face darkened. “
Who
’
s Sosie?”

“
Her friend from school,”
Tessa said.

“
You told your friend about all this?”
Finn
’
s voice was angry, and Izzy bristled.

“
Yeah,”
she said, looking at him like he was stupid. “
She
’
s my best fr
iend. Duh.”

Finn looked at Tessa. “
What is it with women and the best friend thing?”

Tessa sighed. “
It
’
s a girl thing. The best friend is a sacred relationship. You keep nothing from the best friend.”

“
That
’
s insane.”
He paused for a second, his focus on
Tessa. “
Do you have a best friend?”

Tessa raised an eyebrow and said flatly, “
Used to.”

She could tell by Finn
’
s expression that he got the stinger end of the comment, as intended. Part of her felt bad, but part of her didn
’
t.

Finn turned his attention to
Izzy. “
You need to make sure she doesn
’
t tell anyone, for her sake and yours.”

“
She won
’
t,”
Izzy said, irritation seeping into her tone. “
She can keep a secret.”

Finn stood up. “
Let
’
s hope so. Izzy, it
’
s really important that you understand what this means
.”

“
I
’
m not remedial,”
Izzy said. “
It means I was right.”
She looked down at Tessa. “
It means someone killed Mom.”

Tessa felt her heart clutch at the thought. Finn glanced down at her, then back at Izzy.

“
Not so fast, Grasshopper,”
he said. “
Someone scared
your mom, and she got in a car.”

“
Which means they killed her!”

Finn put one hand on Izzy
’
s shoulder. “
Which means they
’
re responsible. But we don
’
t know if they meant to kill her. You
’
re connecting a lot of dots that might not be there, and you need to t
ake it down a notch if we
’
re going to do this right. We don
’
t want to screw this up, okay?”
Izzy calmed and nodded. Finn gave her shoulder a quick squeeze, then let go.

“
Okay. So let
’
s connect the dots we
’
ve got.”
He glanced down at the locket in Tessa
’
s h
ands. “
Someone put this in Vickie
’
s mailbox to intimidate her into minding her own business. Whoever that someone is knows the significance of the locket, and expects Vickie to know, too.”
Tessa put one hand on the banister and pulled herself up.

“
So we fi
nd Vickie and ask her what the connection is.”

“
Or,”
Finn said, “
we go to the police and give them everything and let them deal with it.”

“
What?”
Tessa shook her head. “
No, we can
’
t
—”

Finn held his hand up and Tessa went quiet.

“
I think we
’
ve got some dam
n compelling evidence that there
’
s a bad guy out there,”
he said. “
The police can protect you.”

“
No,”
Tessa said, shaking her head. “
Izzy
’
s broken into safes, she
’
s violated crime scenes. I
’
m not taking the chance of that getting out.”

Finn
’
s face flooded
with understanding, and Izzy threw her hands up in frustration.

“
Oh, for God
’
s sake, Tessa, would you quit worrying about what the stupid social worker will think for once!”

“
The social worker can bite my ass,”
Tessa said. “
If there
’
s someone out there li
ghting things on fire, I don
’
t want them wondering what you might know.”

Izzy blinked. “
Did you just say the social worker could bite your ass?”

Izzy smiled and Tessa smiled back, but when she looked at Finn, he didn
’
t look as amused by the whole “
bite my
ass”
thing as they were.

“
I think it
’
s a mistake not to involve the police, right now,”
he said. “
This guy has already gotten away with murder once.”

“
Since when are you such a big fan of the police?”
Tessa asked.

“
Since now,”
he said. “
Since someone start
ed setting things on fire. You need protection.”

“
And we have you,”
Izzy said. “
You
’
re a private detective, right? Can
’
t you protect us?”

Finn sighed, and Tessa reached over and gave his hand a subtle squeeze. He looked at her, but didn
’
t say anything.

“
Ye
ah,”
Tessa said, keeping her eyes locked on Finn. “
He can.”

Finn didn
’
t look happy, but he didn
’
t argue. That was something.

“
Well,”
Izzy said, picking up her backpack from where she
’
d dropped it by the door. “
I
’
m gonna hit the homework and let you two fig
ht this out.”

She started toward the stairs, stopping when Tessa pulled her in for a hug.

“
Thanks for telling me,”
Tessa said. “
About Mom
’
s locket. About everything.”

Izzy smiled. “
Yeah. Of course.”

Tessa kissed her on the cheek and released her, watching
her sister with a strange mix of pride and affection. Babs was right. Tessa
had
done an incredible job with Izzy. By any scale other than Mary Ellen Neeley
’
s, Izzy was a spectacular kid. Why did it take all the drama to make her see that?

“
You need to take
this to the police,”
Finn said.

She turned her attention to Finn. “
Boy, now who
’
s uptight?”

He stepped closer to her, glanced up the stairs where Izzy had gone, and spoke in lowered tones.

“
I
’
m not a private detective,”
he said.

Tessa smiled. “
I
’
ve got ei
ghty-nine dollars in my sister
’
s piggy bank that says different.”

Finn gave a brief nod acknowledging the skillful turnabout, but looked unamused. “
I can
’
t protect you, not as well as someone who
’
s trained in dealing with this kind of thing.”

Tessa tried t
o consider what he was saying, but her instinct was screaming “
No,”
and it was just louder.

“
And what are the police gonna do, huh? We have a vague threatening note and a broken locket, all related to an accidental death that happened ten years ago. If we
go to the police now, everyone will know
—
including this bad guy. I
’
m not taking a chance with this person finding out Izzy knows something.”

“
Or the social worker finding out that Izzy broke some laws.”

Tessa felt her bite-my-ass bravado start to slip. Bes
t friends, man. They always knew.