Deadly Reunion (18 page)

“Why should I? You haven't exactly been cooperative. I've asked a dozen questions since we sat down
, and you have deflected each one. You're hiding something. If you trust me so much, then prove it. Tell me what you and Crystal were arguing about the night of the reunion.”

“
I promise, Grace, I will tell you everything,” he said, glancing around the room as he stood up, “just not here.” To Grace's surprise, he leaned down and kissed her. “See you at midnight.”

*  *  *  *

“Why am I doing this?” Grace asked herself for the hundredth time, as she paced in front of her old high school. She looked at her watch again, debating how much more time she should give Adam to show up. Five minutes more, she decided, and she was out of here.

She suddenly froze. She felt
, more than heard, someone moving behind her. Turning, she softly called out Adam’s name.

No answer. She peered into darkness
, wishing she had told Kyle what she and Adam were going to be up to tonight.

She wasn't exactly afraid
. This was her old high school after all. It had always been safe, well, except for a few nights ago.

Grace turned her head and looked across the parking lot tow
ard Mrs. Partridge’s house. Seeing the house lit up gave her some comfort when she had climbed out of her car and made her way to the front of the school, but now with her mind helpfully replaying all the horror movies she had ever seen, she was starting to become jumpy.

She knew she should have told someone where she was going and what she was
going to do. Problem is she couldn’t just say ‘oh by the way, Adam and I are going to run by the high school and do a little breaking and entering. Don’t tell.’

Kyle
, she could have told. Unfortunately, he would have also wanted to tag along, and Adam wasn’t going to go along with that. If she wanted to know what Adam knew, she was going to have to play by his rules, at least, for the time being.

Snap.

She felt her heart skip a beat. There was that sound again. She called out Adam’s name, as she peered into the night. All she could make out were shadows.

A sudden breeze swept through, blowing her hair into her face
and causing the trees to sway. Grace quickly reached up and pushed her hair back out of her face. One of the shadows had moved. The logic center of her brain tried to tell her it was simply a tree swaying in the breeze, casting shadows. The more primitive center told her to run.

D
eciding Adam could take care of himself, Grace swiftly turned toward the parking lot only to come up against an immovable body. She shrieked and struck out with her fist, before realizing who it was that had come up behind her.

“Adam!
You scared me half to death!” Grace said pushing him further away.

“Oww
w,” he said, holding his nose. “I think it’s broken. What is wrong with you?”

“Me?
Why were you skulking around?” she asked angrily.

Adam gingerly pressed his fingers against his nose. “I
haven’t been skulking around. I just got here.”

G
race turned to look behind her. The trees were still swaying, their shadows dancing around the ground. It must have been her imagination, she thought.

“Are you ok
ay?” she asked, more out of politeness than any real concern.

“No!
I think it’s broken, Holliday,” he said, carefully wiggling his nose with his fingers.

“Sorry.
Come on. I’ll drive you to the hospital,” she said, taking a hold of his elbow and steering him toward the parking lot.

He plan
ted his feet. “I’m not leaving here until we go through that school, room by room.”

Realizing he wasn’t about to leave,
Grace threw up her hands, and walked to the school’s steps, with Adam close on her heels.

Once she reached the glass doors
, she pressed her gloved hands against the glass and looked inside. “Well, it looks like the coast is clear.”

“Yep. We
’d better get started.”

“O
kay.” Grace stepped back to give Adam room to open the door. When he didn’t rush to the door, she motioned for him to go ahead. To her surprise, he echoed her motion. She shook her head, pointed to the door and said, “Go on.”

“Ladies first.”

“Adam, at this rate we’re going to be here all night. Would you open the door, so we can get this over with?”

“I don’t know how to open the door. You’re the professional, don’t you have a lock pick or something.”

She shook her head. “I'm a secretary, not a detective”

“
Drake hasn't taught you how to do this?” he asked in disbelief. “I thought all detectives knew how to break into places.”

“If you wanted the door open
, you should have let me bring him along.”

Exasperated Adam snapped, “Haven't you ever seen him unlock a door before?”

Grace nodded. “Of course, but he doesn't just wave his hands around, say alakazam, abracadabra, hocus pocus and poof the door magically opens.” Actually, that is exactly what he does, but Adam didn't need to know that. “He has tools he uses to open the door, and I don't have them,” she said, relieved that Adam's plan wasn't going to work. “Let's go home, Adam. We'll come back in the morning. We’ll ask Mr. Collins for help. Maybe he can find whatever it is your looking for.”

“There’s no way I’m asking Collins.”
Adam turned around and jumped up on the stone railing.

“What are you doing?”

Grace watched, horrified, as he jumped up and caught the window's ledge, seven feet off the ground. She shook her head, as he hung there for a few minutes, desperately kicking at the wall and air. Finally finding his footing, he hoisted himself up to a standing position, grunting and panting as he did. Once he was facing the window, he carefully looked first to the right and then to the left.

“Adam, think about what you are doing.” She groaned as she heard glass breaking. “I thought you said there would be no breaking.”

*  *  *  *

Sweat beaded Grace’s face despite the cool interior of the school. Her mind kept replaying the image of Crystal’s body at the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly, her old high school appeared dark and sinister.              

“You are paying for that window, Adam.”

“Would you stop nagging? Don’t worry, I’ll present them with a nice donation next week, now keep your voice down,” he said, as they crept along the empty hallway. “We’ll start with Collin’s office.” Adam motioned for Grace to follow him down the hallway.

“It might help
, if you told me what we are looking for.”

“We’re looking for a
black binder.”

“
Here? At a school?” she asked in disbelief. “Do you have any idea how many binders are in this school.”

“No. Do you?”

“No, but I’m willing to bet, quite a lot.”

“Don’t worry, it’s a special binder. It has Reunion written across the top.”

“Why is this binder so important?”

“Let’s find it first and then I will tell you why it’s so important.”

Grace was about to argue when she heard the sound of a door shut and footsteps approaching. She whirled around, swiftly running in the opposite direction, with Adam close on her heels.

Her goal was
to make it to the stairwell, climb up the steps, and run down the hallway towards the library. She knew from past experience she could open up one of the windows in the science room and jump out without making too much noise.

Adam must have realized the same thing because he sprinted ahead of her, taking the stairs two at a time
.

Grace took a second to look behind her. The footsteps were becoming louder and closer. Whoever it was coming down the hall knew they were there and was chasing them.

She had only spared a second to look behind her, but that was enough time for Adam to disappear from her view.

Grace ran up
the stairs, trying not to imagine Crystal still lying at the bottom. She rounded the corner and ran down the hallway. The science room was only four doors down on the left.

The footsteps were getting closer. She didn’t dare take time to look back.

She reached for the door.

Too late, she realized
, as a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder and pushed her against the wall.

*  *  *  *

“Breaking and Entering, Criminal Trespass, Assault on a Police Officer,” the dour looking police officer read out in a flat monotone.

“Assault on a police officer? Grace Lucille Holliday!” her mother, Jeannie Holliday exclaimed. Grace watched as her normally talkative mother was rendered speechless, her mouth opening and closing in shock.

“Mom, it’s not as bad as it sounds,” she said lamely. “I barely bit the guy. I didn’t even break his skin.”

Grace looked around the police waiting room. In addition to her shocked parents, overly amused siblings
, and the bored police officers, were a very unhappy principal and a very happy Steve Mattingly, who apparently spends his days loitering around the police department.

“He
should have announced himself! I was in fear of my life. Naturally, I reacted when he grabbed me from behind. Really, I think we should fight that one.”

“Grace,” Hope said.

Grace turned toward her smiling sister. “What?”

“Shut up,” Hope said
, patting Grace’s shoulder and flouncing into the nearest chair.

Ignoring her sister’s less than helpful advice, Grace continued to press her case. “I didn’t break that window,” she insisted.
There, she thought, open with the truth, hopefully they’ll believe the rest. “I was walking by the school …”

“Alone? A
t midnight?” her sister asked sarcastically.

“Yes! I used to do it in New York all the time.”

“What?” her mother yelled.

“The door was open. I saw some kids running around.
I went in to keep them from damaging the school. Once I was in there, I realized I was being stupid, and was just about to call the police to make a report, when I heard footsteps and got scared.”

She looked around the room trying
to judge everyone’s reaction. Trouble was she didn’t even believe herself. Unable to stop herself, she rambled on. “Kids today, you know in my day we had respect for authority—”

“Was
Kyle Drake with you tonight?” her mother asked accusingly.

Before Grace could answer, Sheriff Bellamy said, “No. I spoke to the District Attor
ney a few minutes ago, and he verified Drake’s whereabouts.”

Interesting, Grace thought. “Do you normally call the District Attorney for a simple breaking and entering?”

Sheriff Bellamy tipped back his hat. “No, ma’am,” he drawled slowly, “but considering the Assistant District Attorney’s wife was just murdered a week ago, in that very building, we figured he might want to know. Now, what I would like to know is whether Drake put you up to breaking into the school?”

“No, I give you my word
. He knew absolutely nothing about this.” Good, she thought, end with the truth. “My story isn’t going to change, so you can either book me or let me go.”

To her and everyone else’s surprise
, Mr. Collins stepped forward. “No, please Sheriff, we don’t want to press any charges. As you know, we have been having trouble with students breaking in at night, lately. Mrs. Partridge phoned me an hour ago to tell me she saw a couple of kids running around the school and thought they were up to no good. That’s why I called the police. No, I believe Grace completely. She has always been very trustworthy.”

“Unbelievable,” Steve whispered
, rolling his eyes. Grace couldn’t help but agree. She was certain someone had been spying on her while she waited for Adam. It must have been the same kids Mrs. Partridge had seen.

Bellamy sighed loudly. “That’s real nice of you, Eric
, but there’s still the matter of assault on one of my deputies, not to mention trespass. Now, Ms. Holliday, I know your boss has been hired to investigate Mrs. Lake’s murder. I’m going to ask you again, what were you doing hanging around the high school this late at night?”

Grace was about to retell her fictitious story of the night’s events when the door opened and Kyle walked in, followed closely by
Melodie and James Simpson. On their entrance, all eyes swung to the door and stayed there. Melodie was decked out, wearing a red low-cut evening dress with a ruby and diamond choker. Both men were wearing tuxes, although Kyle, with his six-foot-one inch frame, broad shoulders, blond hair, and blue eyes was definitely the most noticeable of the trio.

Hope was the first to speak.
“Where in the world did you three come from, and why didn’t I get an invitation?”