Cliffhanger (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book One) (12 page)

Belinda ran up
the stairs, slamming into the door when it didn't open. She jangled the knob,
but it was definitely locked. Panic took over and she twisted the knob
pointlessly. The car accident, Kyle missing...someone was trying to kill her.

She ran back
down, running around again to find something that she could use to put out the
fire. Then she looked up. A window. One small, almost pointless window. Maybe
she could do what she did in the garden shed, but she needed a boost.

She picked up a
mop and slid a lawn chair across the concrete floor and stood on top, closing
her eyes as she jabbed the mop handle into the glass. It took more force than
she thought it would, but she finally broke through. Unlike the shed, she knew
she wouldn't be able to squeeze her butt through this window, but she could
breathe clean air and scream for help.

She poked her
face out, inhaling the fresh air and then yelled with all her strength. But
after screaming her lungs out, she started to despair. Who would be around to
hear her? Most of their neighbors were still away, and even if their
landscapers were working with the spread of land between houses...

She banged on the
basement door again, yelling for help, and pushing and jangling the knob as
smoke reached her. Pulling her shirt up over her mouth, she body slammed the
door with her shoulder, yelling in pain, but trying again. Her eyes stung and
she could taste the smoke on her tongue. Belinda could see the fire starting to
lick out to other objects in the room. She coughed, still hoping to make the
solid door give. This was absolutely the worst trip home. Ever.

After she tried
forcing the door free for the umpteenth time, she jogged back down to find some
sort of tool to force the door open. Before that, Belinda breathed deep through
the window, trying to yell, but losing her voice quickly. She found a hammer
and took the prying end of it to try to make the door give. As she pulled,
flattening her foot against the wall for leverage, the door gave and Belinda
toppled into the main house face first, hacking up a lung and blind, so
relieved that the door had finally let go.

But then arms
lifted her up and carried her outside where sirens deafened her and someone
slipped a mask on her face and breathing grew easier and her lungs felt less
irritated and her eyes cleared. Then she could see the features of Jonas Parker
looming down on her, frowning but relieved.

"That was
you?" she croaked. Jonas nodded. "I thought I was awesome and forced
the door open."

"You get an
A for trying," he said soberly. "You have bruises to prove it."

Belinda groaned.
"You have to solve this case before I'm deformed."

"And you
have to start listening when you're told to stay put."

Touché. "How
did you get in?"

He smiled
apologetically. "I'm afraid I had to bust through the glass on the back
door."

"Add it to
the list of renovations." At this point, some broken glass was the least
of her worries. Beyond the chaos, Belinda could just make out a figure moving
toward them in a hurry from the street.

Bennett breathed
heavy, his face shiny with perspiration, but when he took her hand it was cold.
"Thank you, Jonas. Thank you." He squeezed her hand.

Jonas quietly
examined the edge of her stretcher.

"Do I have
to go to the hospital again?" Belinda said through the mask, which garbled
her question.

Jonas nodded.
"It's a good idea after inhaling smoke."

Belinda's eyes
watered up. Kyle wasn't around to sit with her.

"I'll come
with you," Bennett said eagerly, "and I'll call Victoria."

Belinda choked on
a sob she couldn't quite stifle. Bennett sandwiched her hand between both of
his while Jonas placed a hand on her head.

"Is there
anything we can do for you, sugar?" Jonas said.

"My
parents," Belinda managed to get out. "They don't know...and I want
them to know." A fresh set of tears washed down her face. Jonas patted her
head, promising they would get a hold of them.

Bennett pecked
her on the forehead and stepped away with Jonas reluctantly, keeping Belinda in
sight.

"Do you know
what was on that image on the screen?" Jonas' voice turned more urgent and
concerned now that Belinda was out of earshot. His green eyes constricted with
worry.

"It could be
a person watching the accident," Bennett said quietly. "But I
couldn't tell who."

"I'm
wondering what set him off to look at the footage, and I'm told he delivers
bouquets to his wealthier customers. I'm wondering if Trebor was motivated to
go back to the footage because of something he found out by making house
calls."

Bennett glanced
at Belinda, looking like a lost puppy on the stretcher in the middle of her
yard. "What about the other shop cameras?"

"On it right
after this. And just to warn you, I couldn't care less about procedure right
now. Whatever I find, I want your eyes all over it."

Chapter 15

Bennett took
Belinda to the Ocean Walk the next afternoon. He reasoned that she could use
some fresh salt air after inhaling smoke from a fire, but he acted suspiciously
and Belinda figured something more was at work than her oxygen supply. She
forced a smile and tugged playfully at the edge of his newsboy cap. Then her
lips curled down.

"I
forgot," she said, crossing her arms. "I'm still mad at you."

"I'll take
it, considering you're still alive."

Belinda's joy
evaporated thinking about that. "Poor Mr. Trebor. Do you know what
happened?"

Bennett
summarized what he'd seen, skipping how he died. As he spoke, his whole
countenance turned down. "I know Jonas won't overlook anything, but I
just...I feel responsible."

Belinda wanted to
blow away the cloud that screened his expression. "Why? You have nothing
to do with this."

"I drew
attention to the footage on his cameras."

"The police
would have checked that out anyway."

"I know,
but...maybe I got him thinking."

"Whoever
killed him wouldn't have known about all that."

"Necessarily."

Belinda frowned,
skipping down a set of stairs to the path, squishing to the right to let some
oncoming foot traffic pass. Bennett strolled behind her, trying to keep his
eyes on the back of her head and not on other pieces of her anatomy that popped
out at him with every step.

"Guess where
my favorite place is," Belinda said, hoping to distract him.

"The gelato
place in town?"

Belinda wrinkled
her nose. "You're just being cheeky."

Bennett lifted
his brows, his eyes flicking down her back.

"It's coming
up. Don't fall asleep back there."

The Walk spread
out and opened up into a half-moon lookout. The cliffs jutted out, offering a clear
view of the Atlantic. Belinda jogged to the lookout, leaning her palms on the
stone wall guarding it and waved for Bennett to hurry up. "Look at
that," she said. "Now that is the crown jewel of Portside."

Bennett caught up
to her, shading his eyes to see what the jogging was for. The emerald green
water rippled out toward the horizon.

"Doesn't the
water just look like it stretches out forever without any land blocking its
path?" Belinda stood on her toes, though she didn't need to. "When I
stand here, I understand why people took to the sea to explore it. Even knowing
good and well what's out there, I still want to jump on a boat and see for
myself." Her eyes grew romantic and misty.

Bennett admired
the view, but he admired Belinda admiring the view more. She grabbed his
forearm, dragging him to another entrance and down a set of stairs to the
bottom of the cliff where the waves steamrolled over the rocks, frothing at the
edges. What had been a din became a roar at the bottom of the stairs. Belinda
clasped her hands behind her back, looking out at the endless water, more
melancholy than she'd been minutes earlier. "The police just think Kyle
ran, don't they? That he's guilty and he took his opportunity and ran."
Her face tightened as she struggled to keep the tears in.

With the chaos
and her fear, Bennett felt bad telling her, but she had a right to know.
"He took out a large sum of money the other day, and leaving his phone and
car behind would just make good sense."

"But why
leave it near the museum?"

Bennett kept his
gaze on the water below. "Maybe he just wanted to make sure you were safe
first."

Belinda closed
her eyes. Kyle wouldn't just leave her. Would he? She purged that doubt
immediately. Kyle would never run like that without telling her. They had very
few secrets, and while she knew he had kept something from her lately, it
wasn't that. If no one else wanted to look at other angles, then she would.
Belinda raised her hand.

The corner of
Bennett's mouth sloped up. "Yes?"

"What about
the guy in the hallway?"

"The guy in
the hallway?"

"Victoria
and I passed one of your guys upstairs near the balcony where we saw Jeff in
the gazebo."

Bennett tilted
his head, squinting in thought. "I didn't have a guy upstairs near the
balcony, though it could have been Finnegan." Bennett described his
colleague in the most detail he could manage. Before he'd even finished,
Belinda was shaking her head with her eyes closed.

"Nope,"
she said. "The guy that we saw was tallish and stocky with a shaved head
and kind of a big nose."

Recognition
flashed in his eyes. "Nobody like that works for me."

"Are you
sure?" He'd recognized the description she gave him. Belinda had no doubt.

Bennett shifted
his eyes sideways.

"Sorry.
Gray-eyed eagle. Blah blah blah."

"I know who
works for me and nobody with that description works for me."

"Then who
was it?"

"It could
have just been another guest."

Belinda shook one
of her feet out of the flats she'd worn. They were cute, but she was starting
to hate them. "Like I said, he looked like he was in some sort of official
capacity. What if he was pretending to be one of your guys?"

"Then we
would have a bigger problem."

"Tell me
about it. There's some bald guy out there pretending to work for you."

"I was
thinking more along the lines that we have an extra guest at the party that
night who's unaccounted for." Bennett looked her right in the eyes, his
own somber. "I have something I need to ask you."

Belinda's face
fell. "That doesn't sound too pleasant."

"This whole
business with Lily Devore. It's got something to do with your history."
Bennett met her eyes straight on again. "Were you...involved...with Mark
Nichols?"

Belinda felt her
whole face and neck go up in flames. Even in the wind. She closed her eyes and took
in a long breath. This was not the conversation she'd planned to have with
Bennett that afternoon. "Mark spent a lot of time with us the summer after
senior year, right before he died." Bennett nodded. "Okay, well, that
wasn't exactly new. He and Kyle had been best friends for a long time, so I'd
spent my fair share of time with him."

Belinda took a
moment to compose what came next. It was so embarrassing having to tell this
story to Bennett. "I think Mark was surprised that I was all for their
sailing adventures, and he told me that Lily had threatened to break up with
him if he chose the sailing."

"How did he
react?"

Belinda's face
turned an even deeper shade of red. "He...he told her to go ahead."

Bennett looked at
her questioningly after several seconds of silence. "Because....because he
wanted to be with you."

Belinda took
another deep breath, unprepared to answer that question.

"Is that the
entire story?" Bennett said, doubt lacing his words.

"Only Lily
knows what really happened between them, and I'm not sure I can trust her
version. She never caused any public scenes because she didn't want anyone to
know, though I suspect Stellan knew what was going on. She still made it
perfectly clear to me that she thought I was a boyfriend-stealing trollop.
That's sort of where the trouble with Jeff began."

"How
so?"

At least the
worst of her story was over, and Bennett didn't seem phased. "He defended
me. To Lily's face, which takes some, you know, guts."

Bennett smirked.

"Anyway,
whenever I saw Jeff that summer, he acted kind of distant. I knew he liked me
and I'd tried to dance around it all through high school."

"He liked
you all through high school and never made a move?"

Belinda shrugged.
"Jeff was a slow boil kind of person."

"Apparently,"
Bennett muttered.

"But that
summer, he acted differently and looking back I think he suspected Mark and I
liked each other."

"Did
you?"

Belinda flushed
all over again. "I...I liked him."

Bennett looked
away.

"So...so
Jeff was kind of my savior after the fact, and I think my reaction
unintentionally encouraged him." Belinda sighed heavily. "He was
already so unstable at that point because of Mark and then he finally just came
out and told me he liked me."

"He
snapped?"

Belinda nodded.
"It was awful. Kyle just sort of vented all of his anger on Jeff, but I
felt sorry for him. I didn't want to hurt him like that." Belinda's eyes
filled with tears. "Not after everything he'd been through."

"He needed
help, Belinda. Not a girlfriend."

She nodded,
whispering, "I know."

Bennett shifted
his weight. "Why...why did you kiss me that night? Did you actually want
to or was it just rebellion because of what Lily said?"

Belinda turned
her body to face him, putting her sunglasses on her head. She had two red imprints
where the glasses met her nose, and a sprinkling of freckles that surfaced
since they got there. But Belinda was still the loveliest thing he'd laid eyes
on. "Why would you even ask that?"

Bennett looked
away. "I...I misjudged someone's motives once. I'm more careful now."

"Was she
rich?"

Bennett looked
surprised, even through his glasses.

"It's just
little things sometimes," Belinda said, "made me wonder. I worried
that I was coming across as a snob and making you feel bad."

"No,
never." Bennett licked his lips, his mouth feeling dry. "I just
wanted to see how you'd react sometimes. There were signs before, you see, but
I missed them."

"Have I
passed your test so far?" Her heartbeat was close to drowning out the
sound of the waves.

"With flying
colors. I was almost a hundred percent sure but—"

"I went and
kissed you and ruined everything." Belinda turned back toward the water.
She was unsure if she was more irritated with him or herself for being so
impulsive. "With Mark I was too late. With you..." She shrugged.

"Jonas keeps
telling me I'm too paranoid."

"Well, you
are."

"I'm
sorry."

"You should
be." All this time she'd really believed they were on the same page, and
she'd opened her heart to him at every turn, clueless that he felt her money
made her untrustworthy. "That's the only time I've gone and kissed some
guy before he's so much as asked me out, and this is what I get.
Generalized."

"You haven't
spoken too highly of your own kind either."

Belinda balked.
"My own kind? What are we? Baboons?"

"Some of
you."

Her eyes flashed.
"That's completely different."

"How?"

"I know
them. I can say whatever I like."

"So as long
as you know people, it's okay to generalize them?"

Belinda put her
hands on her hips, her skin prickling at his baseless judgments. "From
where I stand,
you're
the one acting like the baboon. I didn't judge you
based on other men—especially the jerks—in the same economic bracket. And I
took you to be more open minded than that."

He'd removed his
sunglasses and now Bennett's eyes flashed. She'd insulted him. Good.

They both gazed
out into the water in silence for a long time, Belinda trying to focus on other
things. After a while, she tapped Bennett's shoulder, pulling him out of some
deep thoughts no doubt, and pointed at a cavern in the rock face. "Pirate
treasure hideaway?" she said, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Would be
pretty hard to reach with the tide," he said flatly, not even looking that
way. "Not to mention it might get washed away."

Belinda sighed.
"You think too much."

"I will take
that as a compliment."

"And I will
remember to ask you for advice before I hide my stolen treasure."

Bennett returned
her to Victoria's, neither of them saying anything on the ride there. As she
got out, Bennett seemed like he wanted to say something, but he only said good-bye
and that they'd meet up with Jonas somewhere later. Disappointed, Belinda
returned to the safe haven of Victoria's with the rest of her own kind.

~ * ~

It seemed like
such nonsense at that point, but Belinda needed to tackle packing up for the
move to the carriage house, so Victoria went with her to help out. Belinda
stared into Kyle's room, screwing up her mouth in disgust at the clothes and
plates and glasses and who-knows-what strewn over the floor and tabletops. For
some unknown reason, he'd made his bed. But that was her brother.

"Come
on," Victoria said, putting her arm around Belinda. "Let's get this
over with."

Belinda tiptoed
into the sunlit dining room, the door Jonas busted through boarded up, and
stared at the hutch. Or, more to the point, at the stemware and fine china
behind the glass doors. Why did people always own all of this? Other than for
ultra special occasions, it was too delicate and too fussy to bother with. She
made a pouty face to get her desire to whine out of her system and she and
Victoria got down to business.

"I want all
the details," Victoria said, readying some newspaper. "And I think we
should start with the plates."

Belinda gently
released an almond colored plate from the wood rack, handing it to Victoria to tuck in a sheet of paper. Her mother hated those plates, each with a giant
mauve flower in the center, but she had been stuck with them since she got
married when her own mother demanded she pick out a set. Belinda had always
wondered why her mother didn't just ditch them for new ones later, but she
seemed to have a strange sentimental attachment to them that Belinda couldn't
figure out.

"Well, I
think I already told you everything I know at this point."

"Not those
details, silly! I want Bentails!"