I tossed over the covers and groaned when I saw that it was once again 3:00 AM. This was becoming my least favorite time in the world. There wasn’t enough time to get any more rest before our meeting with Kyle so instead I got up and got ready. The plan was for Emilia to drive us and she was going to swing by my apartment at 5:00 AM to give us plenty of time to reach the diner before Kyle got there.

  I made sure the shower was as hot as I could possibly stand it to try to wake myself up. As I washed my hair, I tried to get my mind to focus on Jane’s case but it kept drifting back to the problems in my own life. Liam brought up more questions than I even knew that I had.

  Rose had said that my parents were attacked the night I came home from the hospital as a baby. I had assumed that meant they brought me home together but Liam made it sound like they were separated if his dad was in the picture and mine wasn’t. If that was the case, then where was my dad? Why did he leave? What happened between my parents?

  I got dressed and put my phone and a few essentials in my bag. It was about time for Emilia to pick me up. I needed to get my head in the game sooner rather than later. David was right about the level of competition in the group and I could not afford to look like the weak link.

  I heard a honk outside of apartment and rolled my eyes. Apparently Emilia was not the kind of girl to run upstairs and do the small chat thing over coffee when she can just sit in her car and blare the horn. I grabbed my stuff and locked up quickly so as not to keep her waiting. I liked to fly under the radar where my neighbors were concerned and honking didn’t help with that.

  I gave Emilia a quick wave as I got into the passenger side of her blue SUV. “Good morning, Emilia.”

  Emilia gave a weak smile and barely let me get my seatbelt on before peeling out of the parking lot to head to Scott’s place. She reminded me of one of those “don’t bother me before I have had my morning coffee” jokes that used to be on the walls of my social worker’s office. We drove in uncomfortable silence while I said a silent prayer that she would wake up some before we met up with Kyle. A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of a large brick house with a tall oak trees in front of it.

  I whistled in appreciation. “Wow. Scott must live with his parents. This place is amazing. If I had parents with a house like this, I’d never move out.”

  Emilia laughed and shook her head. “This isn’t Scott’s parents’ house. This is Scott’s house. Before he took that intern job with the Senator, he invented some app that made it easier to study for the SATs. He sold it for like $5 million.”

  I tried to pick my jaw off the ground as Scott walked out and gave us an easy wave before hopping in the backseat. “Hey, Scott.”

  He buckled in and nodded. I noticed that Emilia gave him plenty of time to get settled. “Good morning, ladies. Are we ready to do this?”

  Emilia smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “Ready as we’ll ever be. Madison was just admiring your digs. She thought this was your parents’ house.”

  I blushed with embarrassment when she said it. Somehow I had assumed that she would keep our conversation between us. But she owed me no loyalty and I had no reason to believe she would keep my mistake in confidence. “It’s, um, a really nice house.”

  Scott gave an uneasy laugh. “It’s too big for me, honestly. I got it after I sold my app because my financial guy said it was a good investment. But cleaning it is a major hassle and it’s not really me. I’d be happier in a tiny loft with gadgets.”

  I laughed. “Now that I could see!”

  Emilia rolled her eyes. “Alright, losers. Let’s go.”

  Twenty-Four

  Half an hour later we parked in a dirt parking lot in front of a cinder block building with a faded sign that read “Red’s Diner.” There were just a few other cars in the lot, all with plenty of space in between. We grabbed our stuff and headed inside. We were about fifteen minutes early so we grabbed a table by the window so we would be able to keep an eye out for Kyle. A waitress who didn’t look pleased that we were there brought us each a cup of coffee and then walked away without asking if we wanted anything else.

  I looked around the diner. It was old and greatly in need of updating. The clientele appeared to all be blue collar workers in the area who were more interested in cheap hearty fare than they were in hipster decor. “So, according to the text messages I’ve been reading from the Cloud, this is where Jane and Kyle regularly met up for breakfast dates.”

  Emilia scrunched up her nose and looked around. “Talk about low standards.” She pushed her coffee mug further away from her with the tip of her pen as if it might have germs.

  Scott rolled his eyes at her. “He’s a mechanic, Emilia. It’s not like he can afford fancy dinners at the finest restaurants every night. And not every girl needs to be wined and dined to feel special. Right, Madison?”

  I almost spilled my coffee hearing him call me out. I was a little afraid to respond when I saw Emilia giving me a dirty look. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with a nice meal. I just like food in general. I’m a big fan of it, actually. But I think it’s important that we observe the environment that Jane and Kyle were in and take advantage of this opportunity.” I was saved from saying anything further when I observed a tall guy in a beanie walk into the diner and then straight toward us.

  “Um, I think you guys are here for me? I’m Kyle Guthrie.” He grabbed the back of the empty chair at the table and the whites of his knuckles betrayed his nervousness.

  Scott reached out to shake his hand. “Hi, Kyle. I’m Scott and this is Emilia and Madison. As Emilia told you on the phone, we are part of the task force assisting the police with the investigation into Jane Phillips’ death. Why don’t you have a seat so we can talk?”

  Kyle took off his beanie as he sat down. The waitress came over and brought him a cup of coffee and squeezed his shoulder. It was clear that he was a regular at Red’s and a favorite at that. “I tried to talk to the police when it happened. I had gone over the night before it happened. We were supposed to have a date but the door was locked and she wasn’t answering her cell phone. I went to the restaurant to see if she forgot that I was picking her up and was going to meet me there instead. When she didn’t show, I gave up and went home. The next morning it was all over the news. I tried to go to the police station and they said they would call me but they never did.”

  I sat up. “The door was locked? Her friend Casey said that you had a key to the apartment. Why didn’t you just use that?”

  Kyle looked at me. “I tried. The deadbolt was on and it could only be put on from the inside. I didn’t even think about it at the time. I had worked two shifts in a row and I was a dead man walking. Honestly, I thought she was going to break up with me after the fight she had with Casey the day before.”

  Emilia’s eyes met mine and she indicated for me to keep asking the questions. I cleared my throat. “Casey mentioned the fight. What did Jane tell you that it was about?”

  Kyle scratched his chin. “You know, Casey was the one that pushed us together in the bar the night that we met. But the second we hit it off, it was like she was jealous. She wanted Jane all to herself. Casey wanted to be the girl to get all the guys and all the attention. She wanted Jane to be that friend always on standby, ready to fall in line with whatever she had in mind. But Jane and I were perfect together. She hated that Jane actually found someone and was happy while she was still bouncing around from guy to guy like she was still a freshmen in college.”

  I took a sip of my coffee. “Kyle, Casey mentioned that she had reason to believe that you and Jane were going to elope to Vegas. Is that true? Were you planning to get married?”

  Kyle laughed. “No. Not even close. That was what started the whole fight that night. She saw Jane’s research and claimed that I had knocked her up and was forcing her to runaway to Vegas to marry me so that she would never leave me. The entire thing was insane. I loved Jane, truly loved her. And that meant respecting her in every way possible. Did I want to marry her one day? Probably. But I would have wanted it to be in the right time and way for both of us.”

  Emilia tapped her pen against her notepad. “So then what was all the research about eloping in Vegas about?”

  Kyle sat back against his chair. “Jane had a friend at work who was thinking about writing a romance novel. The premise was about a girl who gets drunk in Vegas and ends up married. She asked Jane to help with the research on it. Jane didn’t tell Casey about it because Casey would get crazy jealous if it looked like Jane had any other friends besides Casey. You know how abusive guys get when their women talk to other men in bars? That would be Casey if Jane would be friendly to another girl. It was psycho.”

  Twenty-Five

  We thanked Kyle for meeting with us and Scott flagged over the waitress so that we could pay the bill. Once the waitress took Scott’s card to run the tab, we started to pack up our stuff to hit the road. We were almost ready to go when another thought hit me.

  I turned to face Kyle as he was getting up from the table to join a friend who had just walked in. “Hey, Kyle. We noticed some home improvement type changes to Jane’s apartment. Were you the one helping her with those?”

  Kyle shook his head and looked sheepish. “I’m great with cars but I suck with a hammer. It might have been the son of the building’s super. He was nursing a major crush on Jane but she was pretty oblivious to it. She would tell me about all this crazy things he would build out of wood like bar stools and dining room tables like they were just no big deal.”

  I nodded. “Thanks, Kyle.”

  He walked back over. “I really hope you catch this creep. Jane was the nicest person on the planet. I can’t imagine someone wanting to hurt her like that. Whoever it is, they deserve to fry.”

  I gave him a weak smile as he tried to hide the tears that were forming and walked over to slide into the booth across from his friend. I turned back to Emilia and Scott and followed them out to the car. This time I insisted that Scott take the front seat while I crawled into the back.

  Once I buckled in and Emilia pulled out onto the road, I sighed in relief that it was over. I could feel Kyle’s pain in the diner and I was glad to be away from it. “So what did you guys think of what Kyle had to say?”

  Emilia shrugged. “My money’s still on him. It’s always the guy, right?”

  Scott guffawed. “I’m pretty sure that’s only in the movies, Emilia. I think we should talk to Casey again now that we know about the jealousy issues. Maybe Emilia and I should do it. Or even Reese. You know, get some good cop/bad cop action going.”

  I watched Emilia roll her eyes in the rearview mirror. “Now who is reverting to the bad movie stereotypes.”

  I laughed. “That’s not a bad idea to talk to Casey again. I’d like to get Reese’s input on it with her psych knowledge if there is potential there for some crazy. I also didn’t know that the super had a son at the apartment. No one ever mentioned one. Why is this case constantly a game of catch up? If he’s the one who made the changes to the apartment, we need to know why.”

  Emilia pulled up to a red light and turned her head back to look at me. “Do you really think there is something there? Maybe he just fixed up the old apartment to try to impress a girl that he was afraid to ask out. It doesn’t have to be something just because you want to always be the one to find the clues.”

  I couldn’t believe she just said that. “I don’t want this case to be any more complicated than you want it to be. I’d rather just have it solved so we can all get the credit and move on to the next one. But we should check it out just to be safe.”

  Scott nodded as the light turned green and Emilia moved forward. “Emilia, Madison’s right. We need to check out all of the potentials. It’s important to be thorough. We have to think about what a defense attorney could bring up in court too.”

  Emilia pressed a button on her steering wheel and a robotic voice asked her who she would like to call. Apparently Emilia had one of those vehicles that connected to her cell phone. I listened as she used voice commands to call Professor Nelson and update her on our morning meeting with Kyle. Professor Nelson thanked us and then told us that she would email a summary to everyone so that Reese and David would be brought up to speed. She said she would also ask the police if they had any information on the super’s son.

  I was surprised when Emilia pulled up to my apartment first despite the fact that it was closer in route to drop of Scott on the way. I looked up to find her staring at me with a combination of jealousy and frustration in her eyes.

  “Um, thanks for the ride, Emilia. See you later, Scott.” I hopped out of the car as if I was on fire. I had a feeling that if Emilia had her way, I would be.

  Twenty-Six

  By the time 10:00 PM hit, I was beyond exhausted. As soon as I got back to my apartment after Emilia dropped me off, I found David waiting for me at my front door. He had received Professor Nelson’s emailed summary of the interview with Kyle but he still wanted to grill me for any possible details that had been left out or any of my own observations that I hadn’t shared with the group. I assured him repeatedly that everything was in the email but he still didn’t believe me. All throughout our day of classes, he continued to bring up the subject as well as pushed me to go over more of the Cloud emails with him.

  For the first time I could remember, I turned down David’s offer of drinks and dinner to return to my apartment to just be alone and turn in early. I could tell from his face when I turned him down that I had hurt David’s feelings. I felt horrible about it but it was like my head would explode from the day’s activities. I compromised and told him that we would meet for pancakes and coffee in the morning instead since tomorrow was Saturday. His eyes looked like they held less sadness after that but I knew the hurt was still there.

  I didn’t even bother taking a shower or even changing into my pajamas before heading into bed. I hadn’t eaten since lunch either but I was too tired to care. I just wanted to get some rest. I hoped that at least my body was getting some form of renewal while my mind wandered off to have meetings with the coven and my strange new quasi friend Liam. There was only so much a girl could take.

  My eyes were already closing before my head hit the pillow. I had a brief thought that it would be nice if for once the dream world I ended up in could be just another bed where whoever wanted to speak to me would just leave a note under the door so that I could simply rest.

  The sound of an alarm jolted me awake. I sat up in bed and looked around the room. For once, I was confused to wake up in my own bedroom. I looked at the clock and felt even more astounded. According to the clock, it was 8:00 AM, just an hour before it was time for my breakfast with David.

  But this didn’t make any sense. I slept through the whole night. I didn’t even have a dream let alone go to a dream world. Was this because I was too tired to be transported anywhere? Or was it because I was wishing so hard to stay in bed? I had no idea how it worked let alone know what not to do so that I wouldn’t screw it up.

  I leaned forward and put my head in my hands. The coven said that my powers would start to manifest stronger as it got closer to my twenty-first birthday. Is this one of those instances? I kind of liked the idea of being able to say when and if I was transported to a dream world in the middle of the night. I knew that I sure could use some more rest but I also had a lot of questions that I needed answered.

  The snooze that I had apparently hit on my alarm in my confusion began to go off once again, reminding me of my commitment to breakfast with David. I got out of bed and got ready. After hurting his feelings last night, I couldn’t break our plans without really causing damage. Once I was dressed, I hurried out of the apartment and walked across the street to the tiny bistro that served breakfast on the weekends.

  David had secured us one of the two outside tables and waved me over as soon as he saw me. “Hey, Madison! You look great. Really well rested actually.”

  I took the seat next to him with my back against the bistro wall. We loved this table because it allowed us to watched people shop and stroll while we ate. “For once, I actually got a full night’s rest. How are you?”

  He nodded. “Good. Does that mean the dream is finally over? I was beginning to forget what you looked like without those bags under your eyes.”

  I rolled my eyes as the waitress brought us our usual pot of gourmet vanilla hazelnut coffee to share and took our breakfast orders. “Very funny. And, no, I didn’t have the dream last night. Maybe it’s finally over.”

  David shrugged. “Who knows why we have the dreams we do. Maybe you finally got the answers you needed from it and now your brain can finally let it go. Which, by the way, means you can finally get the sleep you need so you can help me solve this case.”

  I smiled at him while we watched the people walk by and sipped our coffee. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was done with the dream world because I had been given all the answers that I was supposed to receive.

  Twenty-Seven

  After stuffing myself with eggs, bacon, and belgian waffles, the walk back to my apartment went a lot slower than the walk to the bistro had gone. I had anticipated that David would want to come back to the apartment with me to do more research on Jane’s case but he had surprised me by saying that he had to meet with someone later that afternoon and would catch up with me later. It stung a little to feel like he was pulling away but I couldn’t exactly say anything when I had done the same thing to him just the night before.

  I pulled my keys out of my purse and almost had the lock open when I felt something gently touch my shoulder. My body froze from the sensation and it took everything in me to prevent myself from screaming. Instead, I took a deep breath and turned my head to look at my left shoulder to see what was touching me.

 

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