A Familiar Star (Romance Mystery) (17 page)

Kylie pulled her bat
h robe on and raced downstairs, then waited at the bottom of the stairs until she heard Paul’s jeep drive away. Max was rounding the corner when he came to a halt. He looked up into her angry eyes and hesitated.

“Paul was here.”

“I know that.” She stepped away from him.

“I should have pounded his head in.”

“No, you should have minded your own business!”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I don’t understand. Do you still have feelings for him?”

Kylie’s face tightened up.
“No I don’t! But you had no right to say anything because I asked you not to! I was going to tell him but my way. He didn’t need to be accused of anything by you. You went overboard Max!”

Max knew she was right but her accusations just irritated him further.
“Suit yourself Kylie.” He said, grabbing his coat and pulling on his shoes.

“What do you mean suit yourself?”
Her expression turned uneasy.

“I mean go ahead and talk to him if you want
to.  I thought you’d be happy that you never had to see him again but I guess I was wrong. I’m leaving.” He walked to the door and felt his strength slipping away but hung on.  “Oh yeah, your sister called and said she’d be here in a few minutes, go stay with her tonight.”

Max opened the door but didn’t bother closing it.
Kylie walked over and watched him walk away then she bolted it shut.

He was jealous and had no reason to be.
She leaned up against the door and drew a deep breath. She’d call him at work later and smooth things out.

In a way he was right, she should be happy he’d taken care of Paul for her
, but her good sense told her that Paul wasn’t going to give up that easy. If she knew men, she knew that Max just gave Paul something to prove. What a mess. She shouldn’t have waited so long to talk to Paul, she should have told him how she felt and got it over with.

She was a chicken
when it came to relationships, she thought, always avoiding, instead of confronting.  Even this house was one of her means of running from them.  Move to the country so she didn’t have to deal with people.  Somewhere quiet, where she only had to deal with her sister and see the occasional friend, go back to the city to show her art then run back to her hiding place again. She wasn’t that blind that she didn’t know exactly what she was.

On the other hand, she loved the country and life seemed to have known better. 
It always did.  Every time she’d get herself in trouble or just stuck in a rut, there was some kind of divine intervention there to help her out and she was forever grateful.  Plus, she didn’t want to hide anymore.  She was in love and it made her feel like a million bucks.  Despite the argument they had, she knew she could fix it then everything else would fall into place.

Anyway, maybe she would confront Paul with the truth.  After all, he should know how she felt the other night
, so he never did that to anyone else ever again.

Wow, she re
ally was changing, she mused.  Just the intention alone was a step in the right direction.

A second later the phone rang, snapping her out of her daze.  She picked it up and
Leslie was on the other end.

“Oh, hi Kylie
, is Max there?”

“No, he’s gone to work Leslie, I’ll tell him you called.”

“Are you alright? You sound upset.”

“I’m fine,”

“If you want, I’ll come over. Are you alone?”

“My sister’s coming over and I really need to talk to her.
We’ll make it some other time, alright?” She said flatly.

“Yes.
I understand completely.”  Leslie countered then hung up.

Kylie put down the receiver and
shook her head. Leslie certainly was a little strange, maybe even unstable and because of that she probably shouldn’t get on her bad side.

On the other hand, Max was in the same situation as she was in. 
Eventually Leslie would find out about her and Max and she could be a lot more trouble than Paul.

She reflected for a minute then went stone cold.
“Jesus.”  She said looking out onto the lake. What if Leslie was the one committing the murders. Maybe she’d used Jeffery as an alibi and was able to sneak out of his house somehow.  She remembered the figure of the person at the top of the stairs the night she and Paul found someone in the house. It was someone with a small frame…a women!

The creeps slowly slithered up her spine as she tried to make out
Leslies house in the distance. The lights were barely visible through the trees.  Still, it was too close to Jeffery’s house to tell them apart. How she wished she could get inside those houses but then she would have to buddy up with Leslie and that wasn’t going to happen.

She picked up the phone and dialed her sister.
Her throat was so tight she could hardly speak. The answering machine came on and she left a short message, then she found herself turning off all the lights and checking the doors.

Why couldn’t they catch whoever was doing this
, she thought to herself?  There was always one missing link that someone overlooked, in combination with a couple of clues they should eventually figure it out.  And besides, Frank was a good detective.  She would know; she was starting to sound like him; she giggled to herself then locked herself in her room.

Feeling
a little safer, she realized she was still dripping wet. She grabbed a towel and threw her bath robe to the ground. Things were getting so complicated that soon she was going to forget that she was supposed to be on vacation having fun.

It was ridiculous how scared she was when she was alone.
No big strong man and she turned into a quivering idiot. What did women do when they lived alone in the country? They had big dogs! That would be first, on her list of things to do tomorrow. She’d always wanted a dog of her own.

As she was walking over to the dresser she looked out at the lake as usual.
It was a constant distraction even at night. But there was something there this time.  Kylie squinted out at the water. Was that a boat, at this time of the night?

She flicked off the light then slipped on a big t-shirt and a sweater.
Her stomach flip-flopped and she sucked in her breath. It was hard to make out but it looked as if it was headed her way.

“Good time to have a gun, forget about a dog!”
She bit her bottom lip and picked up the phone again. Just then the doorbell rang.

Lucy and Frank stood outside.
Kylie was so happy to see them she flung the door opened and it crashed into the wall.

“Are you ok
ay.?” Lucy looked stunned.

“No, there’s someone in a boat and I think their
coming over here and I think its Leslie.”

Frank looked at Kylie strangely then went around the back of the house and Lucy stepped inside.

“What’s going on?” Lucy said softly trying to calm Kylie down.

Kylie raced to the back of the house and watched Fr
ank survey the area, then he disappeared around the side of the house. She looked down at her goose fleshed arms and laughed tensely.

“I’m just a little sp
ooked that’s all,” she shrugged and turned on some lights.

Frank came back in and told them there was nothing out there.
No boat, no Leslie, nothing except a fine drizzle. Therefore they both looked at Kylie and waited for some answers.

Kylie knew she was probably making something out of nothing but couldn’t shake the
bad feeling.  She needed a minute to gather her thoughts.

“I’ll make some coffee,” she headed for the kitchen.

They watched her prepare the coffee, glancing at each other periodically.  Then Lucy finally spoke up.

“What is it Kylie, your acting as if you think Leslie is the serial
killer?”

Frank’s eyes widened in shock.
“Leslie McKenzie?” He asked.

“Is that really so unbelievable?”
Kylie countered, wanting to defend herself. “You remember, I said the person on the steps had a small frame, like a women. Well I just have this feeling and it won’t go away.”

“What kind of feeling?”
Frank asked calmly.

“Like this whole thing is somehow connected to us…
them…this house…I don’t know.”

Lucy searched Frank’s face for some assistance.
Frank got himself a glass of water and went to sit down at the table.

“It’s not Leslie,” he sighed, “and it’s not Jeffery either.”
He took a sip of the water before continuing. “Both of them have been watched individually and a murder took place while they were home. I wish it was one of them but it’s not.”

Kylie ground her teeth together.
He’d probably talked to Paul about her inquiries.

“May I offer a suggestion,” he continued.

“What?”

“Stop playing detective.”

Kylie felt her blood pressure rise. “Did Paul tell you that?”

“Yes, he told me you were asking about Jeffery and pushing people for information at the party.”

Kylie set her coffee cup down on the table but it slammed against the edge. “I was just talking to a women who lives around the lake and
she
mentioned Jeffery. It wasn’t my idea. What an idiot!”

“Listen Kylie, Paul’s a good guy and he was just worried about you like we all are.
Have you called him since you got back?”

“No…why?”
Kylie’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Because he felt bad about the other night
, he said he got a little…carried away and didn’t mean to be so insensitive.”

Kylie’s eyes flew opened this time and embarrassment gripped her to the bone.
Just how much did Paul tell him?

“I don’t believe this!
He told you what happened?”

Lucy interrupted before it got any worst.
“Paul thought Frank knew why you disappeared and happened to bring it up. He was just concerned. Whatever happened he never meant to hurt your feelings.” She said delicately.

“My feelings!”
Kylie scoffed. Hopefully that’s all Paul had talked about. “Are you defending him, because if you are I don’t want to hear it? I’m not too fond of him right now and nothing you say is going to change that.” She wanted to end this.

Frank pushed his chair back and got up.
“Let’s forget about it.” He looked at Lucy who was clearly upset with him.

“Can we just go please?
” He groaned.

Kylie crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
“I’m not going back to your place if that’s what you’re talking about.”

Lucy motioned to Frank in the direction of the door and whispered to him quietly.
The door opened and he said a quick goodbye to Kylie, frustration written all over his face.

“I’ll be back later.”
He kissed Lucy then left.

“It’s not Franks fault!”
Lucy turned around after her husband was in the car and told her sister off.

“I know, you’re
right, I’m sorry, I’ll apologize later. It’s just really not any ones business that’s all.”

“What happened that was so bad anyway?”

“Nothing, let’s just forget it. Okay?” Obviously Paul hadn’t told them the whole story.

Kylie locked up
, checked the lake side one more time then made a small fire in the fireplace. Crumpling and twisting newspaper was good therapy for all her pent up anxiety.  They sat by the cozy fire, sipping coffee and getting caught up.

“He was going to give up the house for me.”

“And now?”

“If we can get past this little tiff tonight
, I think we’ll be together for a long time.”

Lucy relaxed by the fire and watched her sister talk about Max.
There was no denying that she had a glow about her when she mentioned him. Love had a soothing effect on her. It had lightened her disposition and liberated her spirit.

“I’m glad you’re
happy Kylie and I really do like Max. I had a feeling about him right from the beginning.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

“I did,” she laughed, “and guess what, you didn’t listen to me.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, things worked out and I really do hope he’s the one.” She said sincerely.

Kylie smiled.
She was so happy that her sister understood. Lucy always did come through for her.

She leaned over and gave her a hug.
“Thanks. I’ll go make some popcorn and we can watch a movie.”

The popcorn poured out of the popper into a large glass bowl. Lucy poured the ice tea and Kylie melted the butter.