Chapter 6
Leigh was the only one who could move her vehicle into the parking lot. She squeezed between the other two vehicles already in the driveway. The Carlyle's had another two cars in the garage. Mr. Carlyle had quite a fetish for hot, fast vehicles—like Leigh's dad. Porter and Alec were forced to park out on the street.
This is bad, Leigh thought grimly. If we're all here, that means trouble. She hopped off the motorcycle and just barely wrenched the helmet from her face before she was at the front door. Porter and Alec took no time to step up behind her.
Jamie answered the door. Her pale frame was emitting nervous and jittery emotions. She looked like such a frail little thing—always had. She had a way of surprising people. Leigh had personally seen Jamie whomp Alec. Alec didn't have a chance—especially now. It had been a very satisfying sight.
Leigh supposed that Jamie appeared shy—that's why people were falling all over themselves to make her feel at home. That opinion never lasted. People ended up thinking Jamie was stuck up or cruel. Leigh knew the truth. Jamie could be irritable and anti-social at times, but she had a heart of gold. Her problem was that she cared too much—about everyone. She wanted to save the bad guys too.
Porter was at her side in a moment, pulling Jamie into his arms. He'd always had a thing for damsels in distress—and as much as Leigh knew Jamie liked to think of herself as a rock hard and determined fighter, she wasn't. She could never keep her emotions out of the fight. Leigh could feel how much Porter wanted to protect her. How much he wanted to fix whatever was making her feel like this. Leigh couldn't help feeling a little jealous. It would be nice to have someone care about her like that. The problem was that she probably wouldn't open up long enough for to expose herself to that kind of scrutiny.
Amber appeared behind Jamie, biting her lip in a nervous gesture. Fight shone in her eyes.
"Come sit down," Amber suggested. "We have something that we need to talk about."
Bella was sitting on the living room floor, tromping her little toy ponies across the carpet. Her blond head glanced up as the visitors seated themselves around the room. There was a grape juice stain around her lips. She said very quietly and shyly, "The policeman wanted to talk to Mr. Maxwell."
"My dad?" Porter asked, leaning forward. "Bella? Was there a policeman here? What does he want with my father?"
"That's what we wanted to talk about," Amber interrupted. She turned to Bella. "Why don't you take your pony and go play upstairs."
"I don't want to be alone up there. The toilet monster will come and get me," she said simply, as if this were a fact and not a figment of her imagination.
"All right," Amber sighed. "You can stay, but you've got to be quiet for a moment, okay? We've got something that we want to talk about."
Bella nodded her tiny head solemnly and sent her pony tromping around the room again.
Amber sat next to Alec, leaning her head into his shoulder. "Yes, a policeman came by about a half hour ago. Detective Tross. My parents don't even know because they're in Chicago, buying some things."
"What did the police want?" Porter asked. "What's this got to do with my father?"
Amber looked down at her nails, finding them very interesting for a moment.
Jamie answered for her. "Apparently, the detective who investigated the Colonel's death was kind of an imbecile."
"Of course he was," Porter interrupted. "That's why we chose him."
"Well, something's caused detective Tross to go back and look in the archives," Jamie said with a shiver. "I think someone's tipped him off. Someone who wants us to pay for this."
"Your brother," Leigh suggested instantly. She spoke before her nerve centers kicked in, blaring a warning message. She knew how much Jamie cared about Doug—how much she trusted him. But frankly, the guy had tried to kill all of them at one point or another. He seemed like the perfect candidate for something like this.
"Don't say that," Jamie replied, her voice a little sharp.
She spoke more calmly as she added. "I think it must be Rollson. He wasn't too happy when we put one under him. We kind of had him in a trap. And Rollson likes to be the one in charge."
"We should have killed them all when we had the chance," Alec said darkly.
"And tell the police what, exactly?" Amber bristled in her boyfriend's arms. "That we just happened to fall upon twenty people dead on the hillside? They'd start to get suspicious when they got the townspeople to go on wild animal hunts and couldn't find anybody."
"At least they couldn't trace it back to us," Alec replied in a grumpy tone.
"We couldn't have killed them anyway," Jamie replied. "It was just wrong."
"Speak for yourself." Alec seemed determined to turn this into some kind of fight so that he could get his aggression worked out. Nobody was falling for the bait. It only made him more irritable.
"We still haven't explained what this has to do with my father," Porter said to change the subject.
"Detective Tross thinks he has proof that your father was lying about the autopsy. He has the silver bullet Amber shot at the Colonel," Jamie explained. "He thinks it's very strange that the Colonel was shot with a homemade silver bullet—especially since this was supposed to be a hunting accident. He thinks that because your father lied he must either have been the murderer or be an accessory to murder."
Porter sat bolt upright, his shoulders rigid. Fear showed in his normally calm features. "What! What did you say?"
"We told him the Colonel was a strange man. He liked to make his own bullets. He let Alec go out into the woods to shoot at a deer they were tracking. The deer bolted back in the direction they'd come. Alec shot at it and accidentally hit the Colonel instead."
"Thanks for bringing me into this," Alec snapped.
Amber elbowed him sharply in the side. "You agreed to this! We can't exactly change this story half-way through."
Alec only snorted.
"That's it!" Amber got to her feet, pulling Alec up by the front of his shirt. She was positively glacial. She looked like she was ready to give him the telling to of his life as she dragged him into the kitchen and out of sight.
Leigh only smirked. They'd probably do more making out than fighting. Alec was irritating even at his best times, but Amber appeared to love him anyway. Leigh had the feeling it wasn't just because Alec was the best looking guy in school. Still, she couldn't understand what Amber saw in him.
"And," Jamie added once Amber and Alec were gone. "The detective is very suspicious about the house that blew up in the vicinity of the hunting accident. He has a feeling that it wasn't just teenagers playing with stuff they shouldn't.
Leigh shivered inwardly, blocking her emotions from view.
"Are we going to tell the parents?" she asked.
Jamie nodded. "We'll have to. But I don't know what they can do about this."
Leigh nodded, glancing out the window. It was getting dark now. She could feel how tired she was becoming, even though she'd been trying to ignore the feeling in the back of her eyes and in her bones. She took a quick glance over at Jamie and Porter, who were leaning into each other comfortingly. They looked like they wanted to be alone.
Bella was off in her own world, bothering no one. That left Leigh.
Leigh got to her feet, pulling her black leather jacket tighter around her form. It felt so cold in here all of the sudden. She had the suspicion that it was just her nerves talking. She stretched her arms out and yawned for effect.
"I'm going to crash in the garage."
She took her boots off once she reached the entrance and took the door that sat beneath the curved staircase. She padded across the cold cement floor. She hopped up onto the couch, falling into its folds. She buried her toes deep into the sleeping bag, trying to make them warm.
There was a noise behind her. Leigh glanced up just as the garage light turned on. Jamie was standing in the doorway. She looked reluctant to step across the cold floor. She did so anyway, her reddish-brown hair bouncing against her thin shoulders. She hopped onto the couch opposite Leigh.
Leigh raised her eyebrows expectantly.
"What's wrong with you?" Jamie asked. "Besides what's bugging all of us?"
Jamie was too dang observant for Leigh's taste. As much as she loved the girl—she honestly thought of Jamie as her closest friend—she wished she wouldn't pry so much. She didn't want Jamie to understand—to care. She didn't want to open up.
Leigh almost snorted then. Aren't I just the walking contradiction, she thought mockingly. First I want someone to care about me. And then I don't.
"Getting nosy again?" she teased.
"It never hurt to have a little curiosity and concern." Jamie shrugged her shoulders.
"You haven't been talking to the cat," Leigh replied, letting her dark hair fall across the cushion behind her.
"Course not," Jamie replied. "He's dead. But if he wasn't, he'd tell me that the curiosity was worth it all along."
Leigh laughed at this. It was good to let the laughing fever overtake her. After a few more random comments, they were both rolling with quiet laughter. Leigh felt her stomach rumble compulsively. She felt some of the pent up anger being released from her.
She let out a gasping breath. "Nothing much…is wrong…with me."
Jamie stopped laughing then, giving her an odd look. "You sure?"
"Sure I'm sure," Leigh replied with a smile. "Except that I'm having a major craving right now."
This last part was half true. She could feel the craving gnawing at her, threatening to eat away at her insides. It took almost everything she had just to ignore it.
"Don't give into it," Jamie replied.
"You didn't have to tell me that," Leigh replied a little irritably. Then she smiled to make up for the release of negative emotions. She hardly ever let anyone see even the slightest bit of negative emotion from her. She felt guilty just then for doing so.
"I think I can make it this time," Leigh told Jamie. "I really think I can quit."
