Adventures of a New Year's Kiss: A Holiday Romantic Mystery (Funeral Crashing Young Adult Mystery Books) (4 page)

Now I really, really needed Kait's help. I was dropping everyone to the bottom of my list. I wasn't sure that I was cut out for this whole investigating thing. Pretty soon I wouldn't have any more suspects left or worst case, I'd have to start over again, putting them all back at the top of my list.

After English class I ran to the main office to check the lost and found. It was on the way to my next class and I wouldn't have a chance to check for it again today. The usual secretary was at the front desk. She looked up when I walked in.

"I wanted to see if someone turned in a necklace," I said and then described it to her.

"Nobody's turned anything in like that to me, but I'll check," The secretary said and pulled out a cardboard box.

She combed through sweaters, gloves, and books. I even saw a purse. Then she put the box back underneath the counter.

"Nope. Nobody's turned it in," The secretary said. "Sorry."

I knew the look she was giving me. It was a good luck with that look, like I'd never ever find my necklace if I hadn't already. The problem was that I had to find it. I was feeling that urgency more and more as the day went on and I didn't have Kyle next to me, reassuring me. The more that I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that he might not be telling me how he was actually feeling. If that was true then my relationship with Kyle might really be at stake if I didn't find my necklace.

I was the first person out the door of my last class of the day. I had to make it to Kait's locker, tell her my story, and get to my bus before it left. It all had to happen within fifteen minutes. I knew in theory that I could call Kait, but I wanted to talk to her about this in person. Then I could really see what she thought. If she thought it was fruitless to keep searching... No. I couldn't give up. I couldn't doubt Kait or myself. I knew that Kait would be willing to help me find it. Then we could talk more about a game plan on the phone after I got out of work tonight.

I ran down two hallways and made it to Kait's locker in what I thought was record time. I stopped short, though. Kait was leaning against her locker, looking up at Ethan. They looked like they were about to kiss, but they were talking. I was too far away to hear them. They hadn't seen me yet. There were way too many people walking to and fro between us, but even if the hallway had been deserted, I wasn't sure that Kait or Ethan would have noticed me. They were in their own little world.

I thought back to what Kyle had said earlier in the day. Would I be hurting Kait's relationship with Ethan by asking her to help me solve this mystery? I hadn't thought so, but faced with the reality of them together in front of me, I in no way wanted to bring up my stolen necklace mystery in front of Ethan. Maybe I shouldn't involve Kait. Maybe it was selfish of me. Maybe I instinctively knew it was the wrong thing to do.

Now I felt guilty. I turned on my heel and walked away. I couldn't do that to Kait, not unless I didn't have another choice. I definitely hadn't exhausted all of my options yet. I could still investigate on my own. Besides, I had to catch the bus. It would be a disaster if I missed it. Then I had work at Wired. I'd have plenty of time to think about my necklace mystery while I made people's coffee drinks. I glanced back one last time before I rounded the corner to the hallway that led to the busses. Kait was smiling up at Ethan. I had definitely just done the right thing.

Four hours later I was dying to call Kait. I so needed her help. The more I thought about it, the more I had no idea who might have taken my necklace or why. Kait was way, way better at this whole sleuthing thing. Reading mysteries obviously did not make me a good detective. I felt like I hadn't gotten anywhere near cracking the case. Still, how could I call Kait and ask for her help if it might hurt her relationship with Ethan?

Luckily, Wired was busy. I was the barista for the night while Lucy, one of the other employees, cashiered. I was making drink after drink after drink and it was easy to get distracted. Well, it was easy until Scarlett York walked into my coffee shop.

I didn't even see her until I was handing over her drink. I almost dropped and spilled it on her when I recognized her. Sure, it was a free world, but what were the chances that she'd walk into Wired tonight of all nights? It was like all of my suspects were taunting me. Maybe they were all in on it together. Okay. I didn't really think that was a viable theory at least.

A splash of Scarlett's coffee got onto her hand because of my clumsiness and she smirked and said, "Excuse you."

"What? Oh, I'm so sorry," I automatically reached for a clean cloth so that Scarlett could wipe off her hands.

"Gross," Scarlett said and turned away from me, ignoring my help.

I felt a little annoyed. She had to have recognized me from school. What was her deal? Maybe Sarah was right about her. I watched her walk to a table and sit down alone.

"Suzie. Suzie. Suzie!" Lucy was talking to me.

I snapped out of my thoughts. "What?"

"The coffee. Can you make more?" Lucy was pointing at the regular coffee maker.

There was a line of customers. I had totally spaced out. Losing this necklace was definitely making my whole life fall apart. I was usually on top of all my job duties.

I raced over to the coffeemaker and started preparing the coffee. I tried to forget Scarlett was there for the next thirty minutes, but it was next to impossible. My eyes just wanted to stare at her. Was she a suspect? Why would she have taken my necklace? Maybe I should talk to Sarah again. Had Scarlett done something specific to her?

I really didn't know that much about Scarlett, just like my other suspects. I knew that she didn't like Ariel, Megan, and Sarah, but that wasn't all that odd. There was probably a whole team of people who hated them because they could be total popular jerks. She seemed like the sarcastic, intelligent type. She dressed like a hipster and she even had the black-rimmed glasses. Maybe she thought my necklace would be a cool intellectual accessory or something. Would she have even recognized that the stone was meteorite?

Suddenly our steady stream of customers trickled down to nothing. Now, it was completely impossible to forget about Scarlett. I glanced at my phone. Maybe I should text Kait. She'd know what to do. Should I come out and ask Scarlett if she took my necklace or if she saw something? Sure, Sarah and Megan hadn't given me any conclusive answers, but maybe Scarlett would give me a better response. Hmmm. Or maybe not if Scarlett's mood was the same as when I gave her drink to her. Still, I had to give it a shot. I could do this by myself. I didn't need to ask Kait's advice...yet.

I took a deep breath and tried to psych myself up. Worst case, Scarlett just wouldn't talk to me. That wasn't so bad. I could do this.

"Hey, Lucy, I'm going to go wipe down the tables," I said, grabbing a clean rag and wetting it in the sink.

"Okay," Lucy said, but she wasn't really paying attention. She was texting on her phone.

I walked out from behind the counter. I hesitated. I couldn't just walk straight to Scarlett's table, could I? No. That would be weird. I glanced around and settled on wiping down a table near her. That would give me another second to gather my thoughts, not to mention some bravery.

I cleaned the table like I had never cleaned a table before. I spent a good few minutes wiping circles on it. My stomach twisted into knots. What was wrong with me? I really, really didn't want to go up to her. This was going to be so awkward. I usually tried to avoid situations like this. I knew I couldn't avoid this one, though.

It was like someone heard my plea because suddenly I couldn't go up to Scarlett anymore and talk to her. That's because she slumped over and fell on the floor. I froze.

Everyone turned to look. I didn't know what to do. A man in his twenties ran over to her.

"Call an ambulance," I managed to yell to Lucy, who had looked up from her phone at the sound of the commotion.

Lucy nodded and started dialing. I still couldn't seem to move from my spot. The man was checking for breathing.

"I don't think she's breathing," the man said and started to perform CPR.

A dull roar grew to a siren in my head. I could not believe this. Was I cursed? It seemed like I knew a lot of dead people. How could Scarlett just die in front of me? She was fine a second ago.

A girl sitting at a table next to me put her hand to her head and under her breath I heard her say, "Are you serious? This cannot be happening to me again. I just got home for winter break."

I did a double take. Did that girl just echo my sentiments? The world had gone totally surreal.

I looked back at Scarlett. She was still lying on the floor, immobile. Her skin was definitely paler than it was a moment ago. I didn't dare go near her, though. The man was still performing CPR. I didn't want to get in his way. I actually felt very helpless. The man started chest compressions. This was scary. I hoped the ambulance came quickly. I hoped Scarlett was okay. Then the man leaned down to breathe into Scarlett's mouth again.

That was when I saw it. It was there around Scarlett's neck. The button down shirt Scarlett had on had allowed it to escape after the man had performed a set of chest compressions on her. Scarlett was wearing my necklace.

We were told to close Wired down. Lucy called the manager, who arrived twenty minutes after Scarlett was taken away by ambulance with my necklace still around her neck. The police had come to ask questions from everyone who had witnessed Scarlett's collapse since it wasn't obvious what happened.

If Kait were here, she'd be completely in her element. I was still resisting texting her, though. After all, I didn't need her help solving the mystery anymore. I texted Kyle instead while I waited to talk to the police. Kyle was still at work and totally shocked about Scarlett. I didn't mention that she had been wearing my necklace. I wasn't ready to tell him about that yet. I could barely wrap my own mind around it.

Since we had stopped making coffee, I was sitting at a table with Lucy and the girl who'd made the strange comment earlier. The police and the other people who had been asked to stay were sitting at the other tables. Kyle had stopped texting me back. He probably had customers. I glanced at the girl sitting next to me. I was curious about her.

"So, this has happened to you before?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

The girl looked at me. She had long blonde hair and looked about my age, "Sorry, I didn't mean for anyone to hear me. It was awful of me to even think it and I didn't really mean it that way. It's just, well, it's a long story."

"We have time," I couldn't believe I said that, but I really wanted to know the story.

The girl sighed, but said, "Well, the quick version is that I moved to California and tripped over a body at a beach party before starting a new school."

Okay. That was worse than my luck. "Wow."

"Yeah, tell me about it," She said. "I'm Chloe, by the way."

"Suzie," I said.

"But yeah, that wasn't the end of my bad luck," Chloe continued.

"Seriously?" I asked. What could be worse than tripping over a dead body?

"Yeah, because then her killer came after me," Chloe said.

Double wow. Maybe Ethan had something, worrying about Kait solving murder mysteries. Chloe was obviously the worse for wear because of what had happened to her. It made me concerned for Kait too.

Chloe was still talking, "I've had tons of therapy since. Still, this just feels a little too much like deja vu for my comfort and thus my comment. I'll never be completely over what happened."

I nodded. I wasn't sure what to do for Chloe. She was obviously still suffering from post-traumatic stress. I noticed her hands were shaking. I wasn't sure what to do, but I wanted to make her feel better. I didn't like seeing people distressed.

I put a hand on Chloe's arm and hoped what I was about to say was true. "This isn't the same situation, you know."

"I hope so. Still, I wonder what happened to that girl," Chloe looked over to the spot where Scarlett had collapsed. "Hopefully she's not dead."

"Yeah, I hope not too," I shrugged, "But I don't know what happened. I was busy working and wiping down tables. Did you see anything?"

I didn't add that I was trying to go over and talk to Scarlett just before she keeled over. That would not look good to the police. I didn't want to end up being a suspect or something. I couldn't say anything about the necklace either. Was there any way I could get it back now? It had gone to the hospital with Scarlett. It was probably gone forever.

Chloe shook her head. "I don't think so. I was just texting my boyfriend. He's going to flip out when I tell him about this. He wanted to come home with me, but I told him not to this trip. Anyway, I happened to glance her way at one point and she was just staring off into space. I don't even know why the police need to talk to me. I didn't see anything."

"Me either," I said.

"I wish I could just go home," Chloe said. "Talking to the police makes me nervous now."