Blood Red

Kelli spent half the morning pacing, waiting to be questioned about Michelle’s disappearance. She felt like she was going to throw up. Tension did that to her, it always had. Right now, tension was her middle name.

The entire family she had been living with for the last few years, ever since she moved up to Black Stone Bay, was missing. Not really a stretch to find that the police wanted to talk to her about it.

That didn’t make her any more comfortable with the idea.

Detective Boyd said he’d be coming by to talk with her, and she was waiting. He’d also said it might take him a while to get to where she was. It seemed there were a lot of people missing in Black Stone Bay.

She walked around the house until almost noon and then she stepped outside into the overcast weather. The air was thick with fog and the sound of the waves was a resonating hiss as the ocean attacked the land on the other side of the Soulis place.

The leaves were falling in greater numbers now, and the entire area was starting to look barren. Autumn always made Kelli feel a little melancholy, but this year, it was starting to frighten her.

Jason Soulis was across the way. She saw him in the front yard of the massive place and thought about waving, but changed her mind.

He was staring at the house she lived in, his face unreadable in the gloom. A moment after that, he moved toward the far side of his own place, pausing exactly long enough to give his usual wave and nod of the head.

There was something about him she found endearing and something else that she couldn’t hope to fathom; he was an enigma. He’d had a girl over several times now, but he never left with her and other than her he’d never had any visitors that she knew of. A man that good looking—even if he was miles too old for her—should have been going out and enjoying life. Instead, Jason seemed perfectly content to just sit inside that big old mansion and do nothing.

Who are you to judge? What have you been doing with yourself except babysitting since you got to school?

She did go out; she just didn’t do it often. Life kept getting in the way. First there was Teddy—brief pause for stomach lurch—and then there was school, and between the two of them she always found it was easier to get a good book and read than it was to go find a party. She didn’t think she was really designed for that life, anyway. There were girls who could go party every night and find a guy and have a blast, and then there were girls like her.

Kelli was not a victim of low self-esteem. She knew she was pretty enough, she knew guys looked; she just wasn’t really in it for a fast fling and a polite nod to whomever she had bagged a couple of weeks earlier.

A new car pulled up in front of Jason’s place. This was a muscle machine, a Camaro with a glass-packed muffler. She knew it well enough and seeing it made her want to throw rocks.

Tom Pardue was a sleazy bastard if ever there was one. He’d actually asked her once, right after she got into town, if she wanted to hook for extra money. One look from her and he’d tried to laugh it off as a joke, but she knew better.

Her interest was piqued, so she stayed where she was and waited to see what would happen between Tom and Jason. If it was what she suspected, her estimations of Jason were about to take a plunge.

Naturally, she never got to find out. Around the same time Tom was knocking on the man’s front door, Detectives Boyd and Holdstedter pulled into the long driveway.

They got out looking shell-shocked. She smiled and stood up. At least she wasn’t the only one feeling that way.

“Ms. Entwhistle, how are you today?”

“Okay, I guess.” She wasn’t, but it was the sort of lie you were supposed to tell; and really, it was less worrisome than screaming and ripping her own hair out, which was closer to how she felt.

“I’m sorry to bug you, we just had to ask a few questions, especially under the current circumstances. I hope you understand.”

“Of course, Detective Boyd.”

“Listen, just call me Boyd. It’s ‘detective’ if you’re a suspect, and you aren’t.”

“I’m not?” She felt a little of the storm in her stomach subside.

Boyd looked surprised by her response and Holdstedter answered for his partner. “No, not at all. We actually talked about it and decided you weren’t stupid enough to kidnap your own employers. Seriously, who would you ransom them to?” He had pretty teeth in between his perfectly kissable lips. She pinched her thigh to get those sorts of notions out of her head.

“Funny, man. Very funny.”

Boyd nodded. “He likes to think so. I like to keep him from crying, so I pretend he’s right.”

Holdstedter didn’t look at all offended by the comment. “No, you were never a serious suspect.”

“What we wanted to see you about is if you can think of anyone who would have reason to make the Listers disappear like this. Do you know if they had any enemies?”