Adventures of a New Year's Kiss: A Holiday Romantic Mystery (Funeral Crashing Young Adult Mystery Books) (5 page)

"I'm right there with you," I said.

Talking to the police was going to make me feel like I was the suspect even though I hadn't done anything. I was not looking forward to it. I tried not to think about it. I might start shaking like Chloe if I did.

"I wonder if she was on something," Chloe said out of the blue.

I shook my head. "It doesn't seem like her."

Chloe looked at me, "Oh. Did you know her?"

I backtracked. I didn't want the police to think Scarlett and I were friends. Chloe might tell them that if it seemed like I knew Scarlett too well. "Not really. She goes to my high school, but that's it."

Chloe nodded. "You looked like you were going to go talk to her or something."

I froze and then quickly tried to act normal. If I wasn't careful, I really was going to end up a murder suspect. Then I would have to give in and get Kait's help. "I spilled a little of her drink on her, she got mad, and I thought I'd go over and apologize again. I was having second thoughts, though."

"Oh. Okay," Chloe said. "And sorry. I'm a little suspicious of everyone these days for obvious reasons."

I nodded. She sounded more and more like Kait. That made me a little nervous. Did she investigate the death of the girl whose body she found? I definitely didn't need her to uncover my secret about the stolen necklace. I had to shut up.

"Chloe?" the policeman who had introduced himself as Officer Quincy called out.

"I guess it's my turn," Chloe said, taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling. "Wish me luck."

"Luck," I said, forcing a smile.

Chloe nodded. Then she walked toward the policeman. Her hands were shaking again. Lucy and I waited in silence. She continued texting. I tried to text Kyle, but he still hadn't answered. I really wanted to talk to him. I was starting to get really anxious. There was a knock on the door of the coffee shop. I looked up.

"Kyle?" I said and ran over to open it for him.

For once, I didn't care that everyone turned to watch us. I just wanted to be in Kyle's arms. This whole situation was stressing me out. I unlocked the door and practically fell into his arms.

Kyle wrapped his arms around me and I finally felt better. "Are you okay?"

"So much better now that you're here," I managed as I looked up at him.

Kyle smiled. I really, really wanted to kiss him, but I didn't dare do that with everyone watching. I'd feel really awkward.

We walked over to Lucy. "I'm just going to go talk to Kyle in the break room for a second, okay? If they call for me?"

Lucy nodded and raised her eyebrows, but she didn't say what she was thinking. She didn't need to. She thought we were going to go make out. I didn't correct her. Luckily, the manager was in the back doing inventory and I didn't have to worry about her thinking anything. I dragged Kyle to the break room as quickly as I could walk without running.

"Are you really okay?" Kyle asked as soon as we stepped inside.

The break room was a small room with barely enough space for a table and a few chairs. Extra holiday items we were selling were also stored in there, so it was a little cluttered at the moment. I didn't care, though. I just wanted a little privacy with Kyle.

Kyle was waiting for me to answer his question, but instead I looked at him and said, "Kyle, I found the necklace."

Kyle's face turned to one of complete joy and he grabbed my arms, drawing me into a kiss. I tried to stop him since I had a little more to say, but he was too intent on kissing me. Okay. I didn't try all that hard to stop him from kissing me and my disappointing news about the necklace could wait another minute...or two.

I finally managed to pull away and immediately said, "Kyle. My necklace is on Scarlett."

I was hoping that the aftereffect of my kisses might soften the blow of what I had just said. It didn't. Kyle looked totally shocked.

"What do you mean it's on Scarlett?" Kyle asked.

"I mean, she was wearing it when she collapsed," I said.

"Are you serious?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Do not tell that to the police," Kyle said.

I nodded. I wasn't going to tell the police about it in the first place. Still, when Kyle said it, it made it a way bigger deal.

"Have you talked to Kait about all of this?" Kyle asked.

"I thought you didn't want me to," I said.

"No. I said..." Kyle stopped.

"I don't want to mess up her and Ethan," I said.

After a moment, Kyle nodded. "But Suzie why did Scarlett take your necklace, go to where you work, and wear it right in front of you? And then she collapses? It doesn't make sense."

"I know," I said and then asked what I'd been thinking all night. "What if she dies?"

Kyle looked grim. "Hopefully that doesn't happen."

Kyle usually didn't believe in hopefullys. I was pretty sure he was trying to comfort me. The problem was that it wasn't working at all.

School the next morning felt like a blur. I was stuck at Wired until late the night before because the police talked to me last. Luckily, my interrogation was brief and only lasted for about fifteen minutes. Officer Quincy just asked if Scarlett seemed okay when she talked to me or if I had seen anything strange. I replied as honestly as I could except that I didn't mention the necklace. I felt guilty about that, but it really didn't have anything to do with their case since I wasn't the one who caused Scarlett to collapse. Kyle waited for me while I talked to the police. It was sweet that he was worried about me. After I was done he walked me to my car and told me to text him when I got home so that he knew I was safe.

I tried to meet Kyle before class most mornings, but he wasn't at our usual spot by the stairs. It wasn't a big deal. Although, actually, I was a little disappointed and thrown off since he had been so attentive the night before.

I had nightmares all night about a dead Zombie Scarlett. I kept trying to get the necklace off of her decomposing neck and she kept trying to bite me. I so did not want to turn into a zombie too. Yeah. It was a great night of dreams. I was hoping that Kyle would kiss me and make me feel better so I could get the image of Zombie Scarlett wearing my necklace out of my mind.

I was definitely on the verge of having another off day, but at least I made it to gym class on time. I automatically glanced over at Scarlett's locker, but of course she wasn't there. Ariel, Megan, and Sarah were though.

They were talking amongst each other. They all looked up when I walked over to my locker. It sort of made me wonder if they were talking about me. No. If anything they were probably talking about Scarlett. It had to be all over school by now that she had collapsed at Wired. I hadn't talked to anyone yet, so I didn't know for sure, but this sort of thing seemed to get out everywhere fast.

Claire walked in just as I opened my locker. I made sure to lock it now and it took me a few minutes. I really needed to get another lock. Claire seemed pretty cheery. Maybe she hadn't heard about Scarlett yet. She walked past me to her locker, smiling to herself.

I started getting ready. It was weird how life seemed to go on after something horrible happened just like it had before. It felt like the world should stop, but it didn't. Mrs. Rowan would still mark me late for gym if I didn't get dressed and out to the pool on time.

I made it out to the pool with a few minutes to spare. We sat on a bench in alphabetical order until class started and Mrs. Rowan took attendance. I took my seat at the end of the line. Ariel hadn't made it out to the pool yet. Her last name was right before mine. If she didn't hurry up, she was going to be late. Last I saw, she was texting on her phone as usual.

"Attention everyone," Mrs. Rowan said.

I saw Ariel run past her to the seat next to me. Mrs. Rowan frowned at her, but didn't say anything. She was lucky that Mrs. Rowan hadn't taken attendance yet. Ariel was definitely going to land in detention for tardies this semester if she wasn't careful.

"I have some announcements. First, I have some very sad news. Scarlett York died last night..." Mrs. Rowan started.

Mrs. Rowan continued, but I couldn't hear what she was saying because the girls started buzzing with gossip. Ariel even turned to me with a shocked look on her face, but when I didn't say anything she turned to the girl next to her. Everyone was totally floored.

Mrs. Rowan kept trying to talk over the chatter. "If anyone wants to talk to a grief counselor, they will be available. "

That's when my brain began to work again. Wait. Mrs. Rowan had announcements. I could not let her say anything about my necklace. What if someone in gym class tied my necklace to Scarlett? If there had been foul play, then I could end up being the prime suspect. I had already hidden that piece of information from the police.

What I did next I can only claim that I did because I panicked. I got up out of my seat and jumped into the pool with a cannonball splash. It was so unlike me to cause a scene, but that's what I did. I stayed underwater for as long as I could hold my breath afterward, wondering if I'd dare to come up for air again.

My head broke the surface. I took a deep breath, savoring the feeling of air in my lungs. I blinked the water out of my eyes. My classmates were finally silent. Everyone was staring at me. I knew my face was beet red.

"Suzie Whitsett, what are you doing?" Mrs. Rowan was glaring down at me. "Get out of the pool and get back in your seat."

I just stayed there, treading water, and staring at her. My mind was a complete blank. Everyone was looking at me. What should I do?

"Suzie? Do you need to see the counselor? Is this about Scarlett?" Mrs. Rowan's glare changed into a pitying look as she realized that I might be having a mental breakdown.

I sort of was, but my brain was working well enough to grab ahold of that idea. "Yes, yes, I think I need a grief counselor."

That excuse made sense of what I had just done. Well, a temporary insanity plea might have made even more sense, but at least going to see the grief counselor would get me out of gym class. As an added bonus it would also get me away from the stares and whispers that were sure to surround me if I stayed.

Forty minutes later I was waiting for the bell to ring so that I could leave the counseling office. There were people in hysterics. The office was overwhelmed. It was very surreal. I didn't know that Scarlett had so many friends. I had a pass to come back later on in the day if I felt I needed to, but I had no plans to come back. I was fine now. My panic had subsided for the moment. Besides, everyone else just made me feel even worse for Scarlett. It was so sad.

The bell rang. I couldn't wait for the day to be over. Winter break could not come soon enough. I stepped out into the hallway, which was already crowded with students. I started to walk toward Chemistry.

"Suzie!" Someone yelled from behind me.

I kept walking. There were a few girls named Suzie in our school and it was never anyone calling for me. Then the girl yelled out my name again. This time I turned.

It was Kait. "Suzie! I've been looking all over for you. You weren't at gym class, but Ariel said you were at the counseling center. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I felt a little embarrassed. I was hoping that nobody I knew would see me at the counseling office.

Wait. Kait must have run to my gym class and then here. That was a little strange. We were going to see each other in about two minutes in Chemistry class. Did she need to talk to me alone and not in front of Kyle or something? But why?

"Well, I'm on my way to Chemistry," I said instead of asking what was going on. Kait would tell me when she was ready. "We can walk together."

"Great. I actually wanted to talk to you alone," Kait said.

Just as I thought. "What's up?"

"I heard Scarlett York collapsed and died at Wired last night," Kait said.

"Yeah. I was there," I said, unable to meet Kait's eyes.

I really didn't want to talk about Scarlett anymore. I was so upset about her and that necklace. At the same time, I was done. There was no way I could get my necklace back now.

I wondered if Kait was going to investigate Scarlett's death. If she was, I had a dilemma. Should I just tell her what happened with Scarlett and the necklace? She'd probably find out because she was pretty good at the whole sleuthing thing, but I was torn. If I kept knowing all of these dead people, I was going to end up as one of her suspects one of these days if only because the odds were against me. This time it actually looked really bad.

"So, did you see anything? What happened?" Kait asked.

I shrugged and told the truth. "I don't know."

"The rumor is that she died of an aneurysm," Kait offered.

"What? Really?" I finally looked up at Kait and met her eyes.

This was news to me. But then why did Kait want to know about Scarlett's collapse? Was she going to investigate anyway? Did she think it might be a murder and not an aneurysm?