Death Takes a Holiday (3 page)

Michaels shrugged.

They watched as the truck barreled past the ornate fountain sitting in front of the mansion and toward the heavy iron gate at the end of the driveway.

“Why is he driving like that?” Fe
licity asked, worry coloring her voice. “He needs to slow down.”

Concerned by Parker’s erratic driving,
Steve started jogging toward the gate. “I don’t think he can.” He winced as the sound of crunching metal reached his ears.

CHAPTER
ONE

A Year Later

December 29
th

“Grace, watch out!”

Grace heard Kyle
Drake’s warning just in time. She hopped over the iron railing next to the sidewalk with the grace and agility of a seasoned athlete—unfortunately, sixty years after their Olympic win. She landed on her rear and immediately doubled over as the huge Great Dane leaped over the railing and her head. She was just about to sit back up when Kyle in pursuit of the fleeing mutt, flew over her head as well.

Rather amused, Grace watched as Kyle chased his latest case around the small courtyard in front of his office.
It was no contest. As fast as Kyle was, he was no match for a four legged, one hundred and sixty pound Great Dane.

Standing up,
Grace looked ruefully at her new winter white wool coat and light blue dress. While Kyle and the dog ran around her, she carefully checked her clothes for any signs of damage. She had finally summoned up her courage to ask Kyle out and the last thing she wanted was to be doing it in a mud splattered dress.

No sooner had the thought occurred to her
than Kyle threw himself at her feet in a desperate attempt to catch the dog’s leash. It worked. Leash in hand, he pulled himself to his feet and grinned at her. “Hi Grace, what are you doing here?”

Before she could answer
, the dog took off, pulling Kyle off his feet and into the mud.

Grace jumped out of the way just in time. Realizing that she wasn’t in the safest place, she gingerly made her way around the new
racetrack to the bench next to the building. Carefully pulling a leaf out of her long wavy red hair, she straightened her dress and sat down so she could enjoy the rest of the show.

Just then a
muddy patch in the yard sent Kyle sliding into a row of bushes. Grace winced in sympathy as Kyle pushed himself up with his forearms and then laid back down while the dog happily barked and jumped around his prone body. Grace’s amusement quickly turned to concern when Kyle became very still. She was just about to call his name when he made a quick crab like motion and took hold of the surprised dog’s leash. Using all his strength, he made it to his feet while pulling on the leash. Breathing heavily, he looked over the courtyard at her and smiled. “Got him.”

*

Grace ran her hand through the Great Dane’s soft fur. “What’s her name?”

“
His
name is Supersonic, but the MacReady’s call him Sonic for short.”

“What a strange name. I wonder why?”

Sonic immediately answered her question with a string of ear deafening barks. Grace looked down and noticed that Abry, Kyle’s pet rabbit, had chosen that moment to hop out from under Steve’s desk and right under the dog’s nose. The dog lurched forward, almost bringing Kyle to his knees. It took both of them to keep Sonic under control.

Grace looked up, worried that the dog may have scared the poor bunny half to death. Abry was standing only a few feet from the snarling dog. Taking his own sweet time, he slowly turned and hopped toward the bathroom.

Grace swore the rabbit looked over his shoulder at the giant dog and swished his tail before finally disappearing from view.

Once the bunny was gone, Grace rushed forward and closed the bathroom door after him. “When will the MacReady’s be here to collect
Sonic?”

Kyle, still struggling to keep
a hold of the dog, grunted a quick, “soon.”

It took a few orders of “sit” and several offers of dog treats before the dog began to behave.

Grace leaned forward and offered Sonic another dog treat. “So, this is the glamorous life of a PI?”

“See what
you’re missing. You could be right here with us. Chasing down leads, looking for clues, reuniting lost loved ones.” He threw Sonic another dog treat when the animal suddenly remembered the bunny in the bathroom and made a lunge for the door.

“Thank you, but I don’t think I have all my shots in order.”

Once the dog was back under control, Kyle refocused his attention on her. “Speaking of glamorous, what’s the occasion?”

Grace drew in a breath. She didn’t know why she was so nervous. She was pretty confident that Kyle liked her. After all, he had shown
an interest in her in the past. Of course, Kyle was a flirter, she thought, as her sudden confidence began to wane. He may not have been serious. He had never come out and said anything to her. He hadn’t even asked her out on a date.

Just as her confidence fled out the window, Kyle looked at her and smiled. He was leaning against the
desk; one hand holding Sonic’s leash, the other gently petting the dog’s head. Kyle was covered in dirt and dog hair, but he was absolutely beautiful. With strands of gold highlighting his thick blond hair, dark blue, almost violet eyes, and an athletic swimmer’s build, he was easily the handsomest man she had ever seen. And as always, whenever he smiled, she found herself grinning back at him. His smile was infectious. “Well,” she began hesitantly, “I was wondering if you would like—”

The phone let out a shrill ring which startled
Sonic into another loud string of barks.

It took another five dog treats to quiet the dog. “Do we really want to make this dog any bigger?” Grace asked as Kyle answered the phone.

Grace knelt down by the dog as she listened in on Kyle’s side of the conversation.

“Hi Steve . . .What? . . . That’s great! . . .
Really? Me too? . . . That sounds like a lot of fun! I can be ready tonight!”

Grace inwardly groaned as the evening she had planned flew out the window.

“Oh . . . No, that’s fine. You know, I’ve done some acting . . . No, wait, where is it? . . . Okay, I’ll see you soon. Bye.” Kyle set the phone down, grabbed Grace by the hands, and twirled her around the room. “We’ve got one!”

“One what?”

“A job!”

“Whose pet i
s missing now?” she asked over the sound of Sonic barking at the window.

“No
pets. This job involves actual humans.” Kyle walked to the window and peered through the blinds. “The MacReady’s are here. Time to go home, Sonic.” He picked up the leash and led the dog away from the window. “I’ll be right back, Grace. Don’t leave; I have a surprise for you.”

*

“What time do you need me there?” Grace asked, opening the trunk of her car. Clara Murphy, one of the owners of the Deadshot Theater and Saloon, a renovated old west restaurant that Grace had been working part-time at had called in a panic only a few seconds after Kyle had left.

“I’m so sorry to ask. I know you said you had plans
, but Emily and Hannah are sick with the flu, Freddie is in Montana and Cora’s daughter is in a play. We’ll give you time and a half.”

Grace retrieved her dry cleaning from the trunk of her car.
Pulling out her uniform, she said, “It’s okay. My plans fell through anyway.”

After arranging a time to go into work, Grace reluctantly walked back to the office. She decided she might as well change there. Despite herself
, she was rather curious to hear about Kyle’s new case.

When Kyle began working with Steve
Mattingly as a private investigator a couple of months ago, she was convinced it wouldn’t last. She figured Kyle would either get bored or worse, someone would uncover his secret and run him out of town.

A couple of months ago,
her ex-assistant had surprised her by showing up at her high school reunion uninvited. Unfortunately, a mistaken belief as to what Grace had been doing for the last few years had led all of her friends to believe that she and Kyle were private investigators. Kyle was in no hurry to correct their misunderstanding. He spent the entire night entertaining everyone with his daring exploits and then the next few weeks trying to solve the murder that took place that evening.

She worried for nights that people would realize that he
had lied to them or worse, suspect he was somehow involved with Crystal’s murder. Apparently, she needn’t have worried. Kyle assimilated into town very quickly and very easily. Her friends were practically throwing money at him. With his good looks and charming demeanor, no one questioned his qualifications. Well, almost no one, she thought ruefully, looking at the plaque next to the door embossed Mattingly and Drake Private Investigations.

S
hortly after the reunion, Steve Mattingly, the only private detective in town, discovered Kyle’s lie and immediately blackmailed him into working with him. Steve couldn’t get a case if his life depended on it and he figured he could use Kyle’s reputation—granted it was a completely false and made-up reputation—for his own personal gain. It still irritated her to think Kyle had no choice but to work for him now. Almost as much as it irritated her that Steve still believed she was in the dark about Kyle’s past. Steve had made it his own personal mission to keep Kyle and Grace apart out of fear that she would discover the truth and tell everyone in town, thereby scaring any potential clients away.

Of course that fear began to lessen as the days passed by. Unfortunately, t
he work Steve was hoping for didn’t exactly pan out. They received a lot of interest after the reunion, but no real cases. At least not any that involved a substantial amount of money like Steve was hoping for. Fortunately for the town’s residents not much ever happened in their small sleepy town. So, Steve took most of the seedy divorce cases and Kyle took the dog cases. Sometimes, literally.

Grace looked through the blinds. Kyle was stan
ding next to the MacReady’s car accepting a sloppy kiss from Sonic, while the MacReady’s stood off to the side laughing.

Grace s
miled. Still, Kyle seems happy with his new life. She just wished he’d stop trying to press her into joining the team as he puts it. Sometimes, Grace wondered if he really wanted her around romantically or if he just wanted her around to help out if another murder should cross their paths.

Carrying her uniform, she walked to the bathroom. Abry was sound asleep ne
xt to the shower stall, clearly overwhelmed with his near-death experience.

Closing the door, she hung
up her uniform on the hook and reached around her back to unzip her dress. “Well, there’s always tomorrow. Hopefully, whatever big case he has won’t last until then,” she said to the sleeping bunny.

Abry lifted his head a
t the sound of the office door shutting and footsteps walking across the hardwood floor.

“Then again, m
aybe it wouldn’t hurt to tag along.” If joining him on his cases was what it was going to take in order to spend time with him, then I might have to consider it, she thought, as she twisted her arm higher up her back.

She had just started unzipping when the zipper hung on a piece of fabric in the center of her back.

Groaning, Grace lifted her other arm and tried to zip the dress back up.

After a few minutes of twisting and turning every which way
humanly possible and feeling a bit like a contortionist, Grace gave up. She opened the door part way. “Hey, can you come in here and help me? My zipper’s stuck.”

She turned away from the door and lifted up her hair so
Kyle could have easier access to the zipper. A few seconds later the door swung open.

“I can’t get this dress off. I think it’s stuck on some fabric.
Can you help me, please?”

He didn’t say anything
, but she felt his hands pull part of the fabric back as he worked on the zipper.

Grace noticed Abry watching her, his head tilted as if he was trying to figure out what was happening. She smiled
nervously at the bunny before taking a deep breath. “I was thinking that if you’re not busy tomorrow . . . That maybe you might want to go out . . . somewhere . . . with me.” She closed her eyes and winced. Kyle and she had gone out plenty of times but always as friends. How could she make it clear that she wanted this to be something different? Something special. “We could go have dinner and perhaps do some dancing?”

He continued to tug on her zipper.

Why wasn’t he saying anything? she thought worriedly. Maybe she was wrong about his intentions, after all. “Or what about a movie?”

He made a
sound somewhere between a grunt and a groan before roughly yanking the zipper down and tearing part of the fabric in the process.

“Hey,” she yelled grabbing at the dress to keep it
from falling to her waist. The words,
What do you think you’re doing?
froze on her lips as she turned and came face to face with Steve Mattingly.

“
Zipper’s fixed.” He ran his hand through his red crew-top before looking uncomfortably down at his red and white patent leather shoes that matched his red and white checkered pants. “Look, sweetheart, I like you and all, but I just don’t think of you in that way.” He looked at her anxiously. “Now, please don’t start crying.”

Grace, still in shock, stood transfixed to the spot.

“I just think of you as a friend. Sort of like a sister. Please, please don’t cry. I hate it when girls cry.”