Cliffhanger (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book One) (7 page)

Chapter 9

Belinda had no
idea what it meant to find all those photographs of her with Mark in Lily's
dresser, and she'd forgotten she even stuffed them in her pants until they fell
out when she changed after returning from the hospital. Her body creaked and
groaned when she woke up that morning and she felt like she'd been run over by
a truck.

Ironically, it
was almost true.

Kyle stayed home
that morning to make sure she was all right to be alone, but had to go into
work that afternoon, putting her on lockdown for the rest of the day. He
wouldn't be back for hours and Belinda wasn't sure she should tell him about
the photos just yet anyway. Nor did she have the physical or emotional strength
to bother.

Physically, she
and Victoria came out of the ordeal in okay shape. A little concussed with some
scrapes and bruises, but that was all. Emotionally, Belinda felt rocked to her
core. She always imagined her life flashing before her eyes in an event like
that, but she didn't even have time. It was over before she saw the need for a
flashback. When it came down to it, though, she only really cared about
Victoria and her baby. She wanted to rip apart the person who hit them for Victoria's sake.

After staying
curled up in bed for hours to watch a stream of cooking shows and taking mental
notes of recipes to search online for later, Belinda finally showered. She'd
expected the "wing" they lived in to be completely barren, but her
mom had left a basket in her bathroom (she and Kyle had separates, thank goodness)
of toiletries and brand spanking new towels made from Egyptian cotton. Wrapped
in the pink terry-cloth bathrobe also left in her wardrobe, she twisted her
hair up into a messy bun just as the doorbell rang.

Belinda padded
downstairs, gripping the rail. They warned her that she'd experience dizziness
for a while, but Belinda still wasn't quite prepared for it. Peering into the
peephole, she hoped it wasn't the detective again. She took a step back. No, it
was much worse than that. How did Bennett Tate find her? Belinda opened the
door a crack, quickly running through any excuses that would work to keep from
having to let him inside.

She smiled
broadly, involuntarily checking her hair to make sure it was still in place.
Thank goodness she'd showered...now she just needed to put on clothes.

One side of
Bennett's mouth curled up and his eyes scanned her, finally settling on her
eyes with a look Belinda thought was approval and maybe relief. They stared at
each other for a minute, and he pushed a white pastry box into her hands.
"I hope you like éclairs," he said.

Belinda nodded,
all of the reasons to refuse to let him in flying from her head. After all, she
didn't want to seem rude and he'd gone to the trouble to buy pastries. She
wanted to fly upstairs to change, but she could only poke one step at a time
and found it even difficult to pick out clothes, her mind wandering off of its
task every few seconds. She finally managed to get dressed and make it safely
down the stairs for the third time that day with Bennett waiting at the bottom
poised to catch her if she fell.

"Are you all
right?" he said, concern passing through his eyes as she recovered from
her exertion.

"Oh, I'm all
right." Belinda sat down on the bottom step. Just until Bennett became one
whole person again instead of two or three hologram-looking beings.

He crouched down,
scanning her face.

"It's just
the—consequences—of the concussion. I'll be okay in a sec." Once she felt
more focused, she stood slowly and Bennett trailed her to the back deck.

"How's your
friend?"

"About the
same as me." She involuntarily glanced at the water. "Nothing
major." Belinda looked down at her hands, realizing they were starting to
shake, and stuck them behind her back. "She's having a baby, you
know."

Bennett nodded slowly.

"I was told
you were there when the accident happened," Belinda said. "I wonder
if it's your voice that I heard. It's all really fuzzy, but I remember someone
asking me if I was okay."

"It could
have been me. I was right behind you and got out to help."

"So you must
have left the Ocean Walk right after I did."

Bennett replied
with some vague answer and then shaded his eyes to get a good look at their
view and nodded in approval. "Nice location. I like the gambrel
roofs." He traced the shape in the air with his finger.

Belinda's eyes
lit up. "You know roofs?"

Bennett's eyes
glinted. "I know a little something about architecture."

That got
Belinda's attention. Bennett Tate was unfolding like origami. Deceptively
simple on the surface. "I'd say thank you, but I had nothing to do with
it. Do you live on the water?" It was a stupid question, but Bennett
didn't seem to care.

"Technically.
But I have to drive or walk to see it."

"It's a good
thing we're surrounded by water then. You don't have to go nearly so far. I've
been farther inland for too long and I couldn't stand it any longer."
Belinda wanted to sink into the turf as she rambled on about nonsense and hoped
she didn't sound like the snob she felt like. "So I presume you came by
for something more than chitchat. Can I help you somehow?"

Bennett pulled a
leaf out of his pocket, twirling it the same way he had the day before. That
dratted leaf. He knew. No wonder he was in security, nothing slipped his
notice.

Bennett drew in
close, the tip of his nose almost touching hers. Belinda's heart flip-flopped,
and she was pretty certain she couldn't blame the concussion for her sudden
light-headedness. "You should leave the investigating to the police.
Especially now with the accident."

Belinda's eyes
opened wide. "Do you think—?"

"I do.
Parker will find who did this. But you need to lie low."

Belinda's heart
might have slowed up but her mind still worked. She glanced sideways.
"Aren't you going to ask me what I was doing there?"

Bennett's cool
eyes warmed up again. "Is that the right question?"

Belinda didn't
expect that response. "What question would you like me to ask?"

"I'm more
curious about the 'why' momentarily."

Belinda stuck her
thumbs in and out of her back pockets, debating if she dared tell him. It was all
itching inside of her and here was a perfectly willing listener who might know
something she did not. Not that he would be as willing to share. Still, it was
awfully tempting.

"You
see," she said, leaning into one hip, "Lily was at the party, which
is very strange considering she hasn't been around in, oh, about ten years. Do
you know about Mark?"

Bennett nodded.

"Okay, well,
backtracking a little to not too long after that happened, Lily left to go to school
out of state and she just sort of fell off the radar. The accident shook
everyone up and most of us drifted apart not long afterward. In any case, it
was clear at the funeral that whatever connection she had to Stellan, Jeff, and
the others was done for."

"How do you
know?" His gray eyes had grown more intense as she spoke. Good. She had
his attention.

"It's not
like she stood up and announced that she would have nothing to do with them
anymore, but I saw her and Jeff in some sort of intense discussion after the
funeral, apart from everyone. I don't know what they said to each other, but
neither of them was happy. But they were unhappy in different ways. Does that
make sense?"

"Not at
all."

"How about
this: Jeff looked despondent and Lily looked angry."

"Better."

Belinda inhaled.
"I think Jeff was just seeking forgiveness, but I don't think that was the
right time to do it."

"Would it
have been the right time at the party?"

Now he had her
attention. Belinda tried not to seem too eager for information. "It has
been a long time since Mark died. On the other hand, death is a powerful
cloud." Belinda didn't want to ask what he knew directly so tossed out
some bait instead. "I may have seen Jeff and Lily having a similar
conversation at the party to the one I witnessed at Mark's funeral."

"Outside?"

Belinda's eyes
lit up. "On the gazebo." Oh, forget it. She stunk at taking back
doors. "Did you see them? It was dark so I can't be certain."

Bennett frowned.
"I didn't have cameras or people on that part of the lawn." His hands
dropped to his sides. "But we did see them leave the house together at one
point."

"Oh."
Belinda looked disappointed. "Why not?"

"Stellan
didn't hire us for perimeter security. Only indoors, mostly to protect the
bedrooms."

"Which were
all locked." Belinda folded her arms across her chest.

"You would
know. You tested them all."

Belinda narrowed
her eyes. "I was looking for the stupid bathroom! It's not my fault
Stellan's house is a labyrinth." She tapped her foot. "You know the
fact that Stellan didn't have...perimeter security?" Bennett nodded
approval. "That's either unfortunate or very convenient."

"I think
it's both," Bennett said, holding up the leaf again. He was not going to
let that go, was he? "Now what were you doing snooping in Lily Devore's
house?"

Belinda screwed
up her face in indignation. "I was not snooping in anyone's house! Do I
look like the sort that waltzes into people's homes and rifles through their
stuff?"

"Yes."

Belinda huffed.
"Thank you for taking a moment to think about your answer."

"It's a
simple deduction. You eavesdrop and you lie about your identity. Why shouldn't
you snoop?"

"I..."
Belinda felt the feistiness fizzle out of her, but straightened her back
anyway. "You don't even know me."

His lip did that
thing again where it curled up ever so slightly. "What did you find?"

"Nothing...I
didn't have time." Belinda looked up at him through her eyelashes.
"Don't you believe me?"

"You were
distracted, frazzled I would say, by something you found in that house. You did
not look like that because you almost got caught."

Of course he was
right, but it was still irritating that he could figure all of that out just by
looking at her. Belinda hesitated. "Just some old photographs. Of
Mark."

Bennett's eyes
probed hers and she fought the urge to look away.

Bennett accepted
that. Not that he believed that was the whole story, but he would respect her
refusal to divulge everything.

"There might
be something else," Belinda said, her escape down the Ocean Walk reminding
her of something. "There is a back way up to the Mayhew's home that
bypasses the front gate. It's not obvious, but we used to go that way as kids.
Do you think the police already know about it?"

Bennett pulled
out his phone to find out. She could hear Jonas' muted replies from where she
stood and he sounded eager for Belinda to show them as soon as possible. While
Bennett wrapped up their conversation, her second visitor in a day rounded the
corner of the house.

Jarrett held a
balloon with "Get Well Soon!" and a rainbow across the front in one
hand, and a bouquet of miscellaneous flowers in the other. Belinda felt bad for
tricking him at the market like that, but it might look like she hadn't right
now anyway. His face lit up at seeing her.

As soon as he saw
Bennett, however, his happiness balloon popped.

Nervous now,
Belinda introduced him to Bennett. He shook Bennett's hand, his blue eyes iced
over. How awkward was this? Belinda wanted to say something to make Jarrett
feel better, but she was starting to feel dizzy. And, well, faint.

Bennett caught
her before she tumbled to the porch floor. Jarrett ran to her as Bennett
scooped her up and carried her to the closest soft surface—the couch in the
living room, visible through the window. Bennett cupped her cheek with his palm
as Belinda's eyes flickered.

"She'll be
okay," Bennett said. "I think you should go home now."

Jarrett stuck to
his place at Belinda's head. "Maybe you should go home."

Bennett just
stared at him. "Come back to visit tomorrow. She'll be up for company
then."

"What about
you? You're company."

"Right now
I'm help until her brother gets home."

Jarrett's lips
formed a hard line as he held Bennett's gaze. "The flowers need
water."

"I'll find a
vase."

Jarrett pushed
himself up off the floor and stomped out as Belinda came to.

Belinda blinked
to life, her eyes foggy. "Oh," she said weakly. "Are you ready
to go see the path now?"

Bennett
suppressed his desire to laugh. "Maybe tomorrow. But you're not going
anywhere just yet."

Admittedly
relieved, Belinda rested her head on the pillow, Bennett's gray eyes the last
thing she saw for a while as she dropped off to sleep.

~ * ~

Belinda narrowly
got out the door the next night without telling Kyle about the path to
Stellan's. Bennett had walked halfway to the front door when she popped out and
jogged toward his truck. Well, jogged was exaggerating. She moved faster than a
snail's pace. A really slow snail's pace.

"You didn't
have to get out," she said, peeking behind her and hauling herself up into
his black SUV. She could see Kyle poking his head around the blinds in the
front windows, but had to close her eyes to let the dizziness settle.

Bennett casually
got back in and followed her line of sight. "Is he going to follow
us?"

Belinda laughed.
Bennett's lips curled up, pleased that he elicited that reaction. "He can
just be a little protective." And she was evasive and he's suspicious,
Belinda thought.