Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (3 page)

Ariel took a long sip of her milkshake and didn't say anything to my admission. I could tell she wanted to, though. She probably would have if she didn't have the milkshake to hide behind. I felt a little annoyed. I mean, what right did Ariel have to feel jealous of Suzie and the fact that we might be becoming friends? Ariel had been the one to dump me as a friend and for no really good reason. It wasn't fair. I suddenly felt bold.

"So, why aren't we friends anymore?" I asked.

I don't know what came over me. I had thought about that question a lot since my friendship with Ariel had imploded, but we had never actually spoken about it. There were no last words as best friends. One day, we just weren't, mostly because I had been replaced and my supposed best friend had taken to making fun of me because she didn't want to be associated with someone unpopular. So, yeah, I had theories, but Ariel had never actually told me what happened and why she had just ditched me.

Ariel looked at me and shrugged, "We grew apart. We were too different."

I nodded, "Yeah, but it didn't used to matter."

"No, it didn't matter, when we were kids," Ariel said. "We grew up."

I felt suddenly sad. Why did growing up have to change things between Ariel and I? It really wasn't fair. I just didn't understand why things had to happen that way.

"So, then, you don't think we could be friends again?" I was still feeling bold. It had been on my mind and I deserved to know. What was I losing anyway? Ethan was right on that. This was just milkshakes. I could at least find out what Ariel really thought while we were drinking them.

Ariel hesitated. That was when Suzie dropped the cup of coffee she was holding and it fell to the floor with a crash. Everyone turned to look at her. The cup and the saucer that had been in her hands had both smashed into pieces and hot coffee had formed a puddle on the floor. Suzie was lucky that none of it had fallen on her. Suzie was just standing there looking down at the floor, her hand holding Wired's cordless phone. What happened? Was Suzie okay? I forgot all about Ariel.

"What's wrong?" I asked Suzie, as I ran up to her.

Suzie hadn't moved and was still standing frozen in the same spot. I could hear a dial tone droning on from the cordless phone. The coffee was becoming a river on the floor.

"Suzie?" I asked, gazing into her eyes.

Ariel came up behind me. She didn't say anything. We both looked at Suzie, who was definitely in shock.

"Suzie? Are you okay?" I asked again.

Suzie shook herself out of it, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I should go get a towel or something and clean this up."

Suzie moved to turn and walk back to the kitchen, but I grabbed her arm, "Suzie, what happened?"

Suzie focused her eyes on mine, "That guy that I was just complaining about? Who didn't show up for work? Gabe? He's dead."

I was on my way home from Wired and on the phone with Ethan. The conversation so wasn't going the way I had planned it in my head.

"Seriously?" Ethan asked when I told him that I wanted to look into Gabe Fulton's death. "Weren't you just in the hospital twice in the last month?"

I couldn't help myself in regards to looking into Gabe's death. Suzie had been so freaked out after taking the call from Gabe's mom that I told her I'd look into what happened before I even thought about it. It seemed to calm Suzie down too. It couldn't hurt to make sure that Gabe hadn't died of unnatural causes, right? And, I mean, really, what were the odds that he was murdered? It was a courtesy investigation.

I knew Ariel agreed with Ethan's incredulousness. She had voiced as much when we were still at Wired, but I ignored her. I think it made her pretty mad too, but she didn't say anything in front of Suzie. I guess Ariel was still unsure how to take a possible blossoming friendship between Suzie and I and hedged her bets against lashing out at me in front of my friend and ally. Ariel might have been self-centered and egocentric, but she wasn't stupid. So, Ariel and I agreed to call it a night. Our friendship rekindling or whatever the milkshakes had been about, would have to wait for another day if ever. I kind of felt relieved. We had been about to get into an intense discussion before we were interrupted. I wasn't sure either of us was ready for what might have been said.

"Yeah, I know I've been in the hospital a lot," I said focusing back on Ethan and our conversation about why in the world I'd want to investigate another mysterious death when it meant that I had become a frequent patient at the local hospital, "but how many people stumble across this many murder cases, I mean, unusual deaths in this short amount of time? I'm starting to think that it's my calling to look into them. Like it's what I'm meant to do. I did save Ariel's life the last time. If I hadn't investigated those murders, who knows what might have happened, you know?"

"But you don't know that Gabe was murdered," Ethan said. "He could have just died of a disease or something normal like that."

I paused, not wanting to bring up what I was thinking, but I had to say it, "Nobody thought Liz was murdered either."

There was silence on the other end of the line. I knew Liz's death was still way too fresh for Ethan. She was his half sister and she had been murdered. Ethan had asked for my help and that was how we started to get to know each other. It's also how I found out I had a passion for investigating mysteries.

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling bad for bringing Liz up. I had probably gone too far.

"You're right," Ethan said instead, surprising me.

I wasn't done apologizing, though. I had once hurt like Ethan was probably hurting now too, "Well, you know I didn't mean to..."

"I know," Ethan interrupted. "It's okay. I should talk about her."

"You haven't, lately," I said casually, but inside I felt relieved. I wanted to hear about his sister. I wanted Ethan to feel okay confiding in me about how he was feeling, but I didn't want to push him either, "At least you haven't really talked much about her since we solved her murder."

"I know," Ethan said and I heard his voice falter for a split second, "It's just hard."

I nodded, but he couldn't see me since we were talking on the phone, "I understand."

"I know you do," Ethan said.

He was referring to the death of my mom, my freshman year of high school. She had died of ovarian cancer. I still really, really missed her. My heart hurt just thinking about her. I wished she was still here with me.

"So, will you go with me to Gabe's funeral?" I asked, trying to divert my thoughts.

There was silence on the other end of the line. Ethan had to think about it. I understood. I embraced funerals and death, but some people just wanted to run away from all of it when it got a little too close.

"Fine," Ethan said after a moment.

"Are you sure?" I asked, even though I really wanted him to come with me.

"I'm sure," Ethan said.

"Okay," I said.

"Okay," Ethan said, "I should go then. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay," I said even though I felt like we should talk more. "Bye."

"Bye," Ethan said and hung up the phone.

I guessed we weren't hanging out. I did have a few hours before my shift at the Palos Video Store and I had been slightly hoping to spend it hanging out with Ethan. Still, it sounded like Ethan needed the space. I knew he wasn't a huge fan of my investigating murder mysteries, but seriously, I just kept stumbling upon them. I didn't want to upset him, but I had promised Suzie and Suzie, if Ariel was right, was pretty much my friend. Friendship was important too. Although, if Suzie thought me investigating Gabe's death would break Ethan and I up, I knew she would be okay with me not doing it. She didn't even know Gabe that well. She'd only worked with him a few times before he died, since she'd only been at the job a couple of weeks. She just thought it was really sad that he had died so young and that it was weird. What twenty-year-old just drops dead, you know? Now I felt guilty about it all. I wanted to call Ethan back and apologize. I didn't know about what, though. I wanted to investigate the case. What was wrong with that?

My feelings felt a little redundant. Ethan had a hard time with me investigating a case the last time and it looked like he wasn't quite over it. Was it weird that I wanted to help Suzie out? Was there something wrong with me? I really couldn't help it. I felt like I had to do it. Last time, Ethan had really freaked out. This time at least, I didn't feel like we were on the verge of a breakup. Still, should I be worried at how uneasy Ethan was about my murder investigating? Could it hurt our relationship if I kept it up? Was I keeping it up? Or was this another one time thing?

Stop! I told myself. Female empowerment, remember? I was my own woman and could make my own decisions about this. I didn't need my man's permission. Wow, I had been watching way too many talk shows. Still, it was true. I had to make my own decision on this and I had made it. Even if it made him uncomfortable, Ethan would have to be okay with it in the end.

Still, I'd call him tomorrow or maybe later on tonight after I got off work at my job at the video store. Maybe we could meet up for peanut butter banana milkshakes at Wired on Sunday after I went to visit my mom's grave. I couldn't get enough of those things. In the meantime, though, I had research to do.

I brought my research with me to work. The video store was crowded in bursts on Saturday nights, but I knew I'd have time in between bursts to pour over some research.

I was just settling down to look at the couple of things I had printed about Gabe before I left for work. There wasn't an obituary yet, since Gabe had only just died, but there were some articles about him from the local paper online that I had managed to print for my case notebook. If I got through them, I was going to surf the internet on my phone and look for more details about Gabe, as well as check all of the social media networks. In my downtime in the last week, I had made accounts everywhere. I mean, I wasn't expecting to do any murder solving or anything, but I wanted to be prepared just in case. There was so much information out there just for the taking if I did happen to need it for research and I had wanted to be ready.

I picked up the first article. It was all about how Gabe was helping raise money for childhood diseases. Well, at least he was mentioned in the article. He got a blurb even and a picture with a couple of kids. Could the guy be any more altruistic?

"Doing homework?" Anne asked from behind me.

I jumped. I had been absorbed in my reading. I put the article down.

"Oh, well, kinda," I said, turning toward Anne.

I could see Anne peering at the article, curiously. I moved in front of it. It didn't really matter if Anne saw it or if she knew that I was death investigating, but I sort of didn't want her to know. I thought she might have the same reaction as everyone else. I mean, was it really all that wrong to want to know what happened when someone died? Why did everybody think it was weird?

"What's the assignment?" Anne asked.

I knew she wasn't being nosy. Anne was just making conversation. I was probably ninety-nine percent more talkative most of the time, with Anne at least. I mostly worked with her since she owned the store and was there all the time and normally, I'd be completely up for talking with Anne. Today, though, my brain was too occupied with what had happened to Gabe. Still, I didn't want to tell Anne that.

"Just researching a person that went to our school and writing a five hundred word biography about him," I said.

I could have totally made up a random assignment, but if Anne had read any of the articles, I'd totally have blown my cover. It had to be incorporated into my cover story.

"Sounds interesting," Anne said.

"It is," I said.

"He doesn't happen to have an obituary too, does he?" Anne asked.

Darn it. She knew. How did she know? I peered at Anne and weighed my options. There was no real reason to lie to her, except of course, that I felt totally embarrassed and awkward all of a sudden.

"Maybe," I offered, trying not to cringe at even saying that.

Anne shook her head. "Whatever makes you happy, Kait."

"He died really young," I said.

Anne nodded, "Sometimes people just die, you know?"

I sighed. "I know, but he was only twenty. I mean, who just dies at twenty? Like, nobody."

Anne looked at me, "I know someone who died of natural causes when they were only sixteen."

"Who?" I asked.

"My sister," Anne said.

"What?" I asked.

I was floored. I didn't know much about Anne's family even though I had been working for her for a while. Mostly we talked about movies and not real life stuff.

Anne looked suddenly sad, "She had leukemia. She was sick for a while, but she didn't make it. She was my little sister."

"What was her name?" I asked.

"Allie," Anne said. "My mom likes A names. We're all A names. It's kind of funny."

I smiled, but inside I felt sad. How could I not have known that Anne had lost a sister? I mean, she knew all about my mom, but had never said anything about Allie. Was I just that self-absorbed? Or was she like Ethan and just wanted to keep it to herself? Was I weird to want to talk about it? Not that I talked about it with most people. I definitely didn't, but I did talk about my mom to those close to me. Then again, maybe Anne's sister had died so long ago that it didn't hurt as much anymore. I thought about my mom. I couldn't imagine never hurting when I thought about her. Yeah, I had happy memories, but there was this weird pain to them because I wanted more memories with my mom. I wanted to tell her about Ethan and well, everything, but I knew that I'd never really be able to, not like if she was still alive.