Chapter 13 #2
The bed was made and empty. Heather sat wrapped in a blanket on an oversized chair in front of the picture window. Her face was mottled from crying, her gaze empty as she stared at the storm outside. Tangled red hair tumbled around her shoulders. A tablet lay discarded on the armrest.
Concern pulled Annie to the ottoman in front of Heather. The other woman stared straight through her. “Heather?”
Heather blinked. “My friend is dead.” Her voice was rusty, as if she’d forgotten how to use it. “She’s gone, and there’s no way to bring her back.”
“I’m so sorry.” Annie reached for her hand, and despite the blanket, Heather’s skin was frigid. “I know you loved Kayla.”
Tears brimmed in her mascara-rimmed eyes.
Her attention returned to the window and the icy rain pelting the glass.
Tate came to the doorway, took in the scene, and withdrew without a word.
Annie was grateful for it. She wished she could leave Heather in peace, but with a killer on the property, it wasn’t possible.
“Kayla made it hard to love her,” Heather continued in that faraway voice.
“She was my best friend, but I wasn’t blind to the fact that she could be selfish.
Most of the people here won’t miss her at all, but I understood her.
Deep down, Kayla just wanted to be admired.
She had to be the focus of every room she was in.
It was who she was. And I was happy to be standing in her shadow.
Her light shone on me, and people noticed me because of it. I loved that.”
The insight matched what Annie had always thought about Heather. She had often participated in Kayla’s awful pranks. Including the one that humiliated Annie at prom.
But that was ancient history, and Heather was in pain. What she needed was grace and understanding. And the knowledge that she wasn’t alone.
“Kayla had something special about her, and there were times she could be incredibly kind.” A memory rose.
“In elementary school, I was competing in the spelling bee and thought my mom was coming, but she couldn’t because she picked up an extra shift at the diner.
I was devastated. Seems silly now, but at the time, it was such a big deal.
I wanted my mom to see me on stage, to be proud of me.
Kayla found me crying in the bathroom and convinced me to tell her what was wrong.
She locked the bathroom door and waited for me to finish crying, then helped me fix my hair.
She even gave me some lip gloss. When I came in second place, she cheered the loudest.”
That was the Kayla who’d been her friend, the one Annie mourned. It was hard to reconcile that person with the one who tormented her in high school.
“I take it Kayla was not in the spelling bee.”
The question caught Annie off guard. “No, she wasn’t. Why?”
“Because that’s when Kayla was at her best. When you weren’t in competition with her.” Heather’s face hardened beneath the tear streaks. “But if she wanted what you had…or if you got in her way…well, she’d do anything to win, no matter the cost.”
The spike of anger seemed incongruous with Heather’s sadness, but Annie knew from experience that grief made emotions swing hard.
Her own memories of Kayla were snarled and confusing.
Heather had been Kayla’s best friend, but Kayla’s cruelty wasn’t limited to those she disliked.
She was cutting even to those within her inner circle.
Heather’s attention shifted from the window back to Annie. This time, she focused. “Sorry.” She tugged her hand out of Annie’s grasp and scrubbed her face. “Did you need something?”
“I was hoping you knew the password to Kayla’s computer. Tate—he’s a Texas Ranger—is investigating her murder, and believes it could have important information.”
“Ummm. Yeah.” She gave a wry smile. “It’s Cartier Queen. One word, the C and Q capitalized.”
Annie huffed a laugh, recognizing the famous jewelry brand. “That fits.”
“Yeah.” Heather’s smile faded. She leaned back in the chair and studied the storm again.
Annie wanted to rush out of the room and tell Tate the password, but compassion kept her in place.
She and Heather had never been close, but she was plainly hurting.
“Can I bring you something to eat? Or, better yet, you could go downstairs. I’m not the only one with good memories of Kayla.
Brooke was friends with her too.” She paused.
“You aren’t alone in your grief, Heather, even if it feels that way right now. ”
“Thanks, Annie, but I need to be alone for a while.” Heather hugged the blanket around herself. “Maybe I’ll go down later.”
“Okay.” Annie would check on her later. She slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Tate stood in the hallway, close enough to have overheard the conversation without intruding. A smart move in case Heather revealed something that could help them solve the murder.
He stared at her.
Annie shifted in the tight space. “What?”
“I just…” He shook his head. “Heather was always mean to you, but you still tried to comfort her.”
His compliment settled over her, leaving her warm and exposed at once. “It’s what our faith asks of us.” She pushed past him into Kayla’s room. The space was a mess, clothing spread across the carpet and the bed. Annie ignored all of it and went straight for the computer on the vanity.
“Our faith may require grace, but that doesn’t make it easy.” Tate followed her into the room. “If it were, everyone would do it.”
“Well, don’t be too impressed. I was planning on grumbling to God about it later.”
That earned her a chuckle and broke the tension building inside her.
He was making it hard to ignore that ever-present hum of attraction between them.
More so when he leaned over her shoulder to see the screen as she typed in the password.
The scent of his aftershave reached her, his chin nearly brushing her temple. Heat radiated off him.
Their impulsive kiss had ramped up her sensitivity to him.
Not good. Not good at all.
“There.” Tate pointed to an icon on the desktop. “Those are her text messages. Let’s see if they’re synced.”
Annie opened the app, and a stream of texts filled the screen. She scanned them. Friends, her social media manager, and something from her brother about a New Year’s Eve party. Halfway down the page, her breath stalled as a familiar name stopped her cold.
Seth Morrison.
You took advantage of me. Pretended to be in love with me, all the while sharing my secrets with Preston. Everything changed because of your betrayal.
But I got my revenge in the end, didn’t I?
Annie read the messages twice. Then she saw the timestamp. “These were sent an hour ago. What sense does that make? Kayla was murdered last night.”
“It’s not meant for her.” Tate straightened. “It’s meant for us. He knew once we survived the cabin assault, we’d check her messages to see if she received anything from Seth, like I did.” His mouth flattened. “This text is designed to scare us.”
Annie shivered. “It’s working.”