Fireflies: A Katie Bell Mystery (book 1) (25 page)

T
iffany looked
Katie up and down. “It’s nice that we are going to be hanging out tonight. It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve done something together.”

It was true. Ever since Katie had seen Tiffany talking to the mysterious man she had done her best to keep her distance from Tiffany. It helped that Tiffany had been taking almost a double load in the spring, and had been constantly out and studying. Katie had on one of her standard outfits. Chucks, jeans, a black tank top, and her green canvas jacket. She had her messenger bag too.

Tiffany on the other hand was decked out, wearing a cute off white blouse and a pair of very short Daisy Dukes. She had on black Tom’s and her hair back in a single long ponytail.

Katie’s iPhone chimed. It was Gideon, saying he and Stacy were waiting out front.

As Katie and Tiffany walked, the Southern belle started to rattle off about how happy she was that the quarter was almost over.

“How are things going with Duncan?” Katie asked as they took to the stairs.

“Oh wonderful. He’s going to meet us there this evening. I don’t need to get into details, but the sex…” Tiffany sighed.

Katie laughed despite herself as she pushed through the exit door and into the lobby of Everwood. Stacy and Gideon were both waiting for them. Stacy was wearing leggings and Ugg boots with a long sleeved navy blue shirt on that fit her bell-curved shape well, and she had a small black surprisingly trendy purse slung over one shoulder.

Gideon was dressed very similarly to Katie. Black and white Adidas, dark jeans, and a slim fitting black Oxford shirt with the top button unbuttoned. He had gotten a haircut since she had last seen him, and Katie had to fight the urge to give him an up and down. In that moment she remembered why she had found it so easy to sleep with him. It didn’t hurt that he cleaned up really well.

“Damn, we are a good looking crew,” Tiffany said.

Stacy blushed and impulsively hugged Tiffany, which startled the blonde for a second but then she hugged her right back. Gideon said nothing but simply raised an eyebrow at Katie.

A
s they started
to walk up one of the main campus paths towards the party, two security guards slipped out of the shadows like wraiths and blocked their path.

Aside from their official looking uniforms they looked like shifty bouncers at some club. The one on the right was a heavy Samoan type with a shaved head and looked like a thug, his heavyset hands on his utility belt. The one on the left Katie recognized; Nick. He had been one of the friends of the Greek god and the other football players that had tried to confront her and her friends only a few months prior, and he smirked as he looked at Katie.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, taking a step towards Katie.

Katie reached into her bag, but Gideon stepped in front of her, his arms at his side. “To a party. You got a problem with that?”

“Afraid she can’t do that. We’re under strict instructions from her big bad daddy to make sure she doesn’t go out at night. Remember we’ve got a serial killer on the loose.”

Katie poked her head around Gideon’s sleek frame. “Yeah well, that’s an area where my father and I disagree, and frankly, none of your concern.”

“We don’t see it that way,” Nick said.

Gideon took another step towards Nick, and suddenly the big Samoan stepped forward, getting right between Gideon and his colleague.

Gideon’s shoulders rolled back, and he looked up into the face of the much larger man. “Easy,” he said quietly.

“My my my, aren’t there some hot tempers being thrown around tonight,” Tiffany said sauntering up to Gideon and grabbing his arm.

She batted her long lashes at the Samoan and reached out, touching his chest with her index finger and running it down. “I do love a man who looks good in uniform. I don’t really see the problem here, gentleman. Katie here’s with a group of her friends, and you guys do such a bang up job on patrolling the campus I see no reason she can’t go to a little party right down the street. Besides, if she’s with me she’s basically the safest place she could possibly be,” she said, moving around the large security to address Nick directly.

Tiffany continued to bat her eyes and smiled at Nick. If it had been anyone else, it may not have worked, but it was Tiffany. Sometimes looking angelic really did have it’s benefits, and in that moment it was certainly one of those times.

“I don’t know…”

Tiffany continued to smile at Nick, and she moved closer, her hands in her back pockets and her hips swaying as she walked. Katie found the hips distracting, as she suspected Nick and everyone else around did too.

“You know who I am right?”

Nick gulped and nodded. “Of course.”

“And you know who my father is…”

“Yes.”

“It would be such a shame to have him hear that you boys were keeping me and
my best friend
away from basically the last party worth going to our freshman year. If she doesn’t go, I don’t go after all. I’m sure you understand.”

“I…” Nick swallowed hard. “I suppose as long as we walk you guys it should be okay.”

Tiffany clapped her hands together. “See, I knew a smart man like you would come to a sensible conclusion. I would love for you two to escort us to the party.”

She grabbed Nick by the arm and started to lead him down the path, in the direction the group had originally been going. Nick’s partner started to lumber after him, and the remaining three friends looked at each.

“She’s good,” Stacy muttered.

They started to walk again and Katie slugged Gideon in the arm.

“Hey! What was that for?”

“I can take care of myself you know.”

“I was just trying to be helpful,” he grumbled, rubbing his arm.

“Personally I thought it was kinda hot,” Stacy said. “But that’s just maybe me.”

It wasn’t just her. As much as it had pissed her off, Katie actually liked it quite a bit that Gideon had stepped up.

N
obody
in the group noticed the figure watching them from an adjacent path, fifty yards behind them and to their left. The figure moved from one shadow to the next and followed after the group as they headed across campus.

T
he party was packed
as the four friends entered the house. It was a bit like déjà vu for Katie, considering the last time she had been inside the building was the night that Dan Reedman was killed.

The group split up almost immediately, Tiffany running off to Duncan as soon as she saw him, and Gideon went to talk to a few of his friends he knew from the paper. Stacy and Katie looked at each other and nodded towards the upstairs.

“Time to investigate.”

They went to the second floor together. Katie kept seeing flashes of the last time she had been there, though everything was still blurry like she was remembering a dream.

“Dan’s room first,” Katie said.

They turned the corner at the end of the hall and found themselves once again at Dan Reedman’s room. Stacy tried the handle. She grimaced. “It’s locked.”

Katie glanced back over her shoulder. The coast was still clear. “Not for long.”

Katie and Stacy switched places and the redhead reached into her bag and pulled out a small silver case. She opened it and selected two picks. Katie slipped one of them into the lock and held the other with her teeth while she set the case down on the carpet right in front of the door. Carefully Katie slide the long angular metal pick into the lock and began to twist one while she worked the other one slowly, back and forth.

“You know how to pick a lock?”

“Having an FBI agent for a father does have a few advantages,” Katie said.

Stacy glanced back down the hall and froze. She held up her hand and Katie stopped working. Down the hall the bathroom door opened and one of the Japanese exchange students left the bathroom, clearly drunk and swaying a little as he moved down the hall and disappeared around the corner, heading back into the fray.

“We’re good,” Stacy whispered.

“Cool, but why are we whispering?”

“I don’t know, this is exciting and all.”

Katie went back to work. It took her another minute before the lock made a satisfying “click” and the handle turned.

“Presto,” Katie said pulling the picks free and setting them back in her case.

They entered Dan Reedman’s room and started to look.

It took them less than a minute to find it, a hidden compartment behind the poster. The compartment was empty of course, but it was a large enough space to have placed a video camera.

“Well, that at least confirms our theory,” Stacy said.

“Okay, now it’s time to check Walter’s room.”

U
nlike Dan’s room
, Walter’s door wasn’t locked.

The only time Katie had been inside of Walter’s room was for about five seconds, and it was different now that they could turn the nightstand light on. It was a typical frat boy room, with a picture of a pinup on one wall, a poster of Scarface, and a poster for Jurassic Park. His bed was made, and there were no clothes lying around on the floor.

“Bed?” Stacy asked.

“Bed,” Katie confirmed.

They searched the bed and underneath it, but found nothing.

“Dresser,” Stacy said and started to search through it.

Katie looked around the room and opened the nightstand. She wasn’t expecting to find anything and didn’t really. A can of shaving cream, a bottle of lube, a ton of condoms and a pair of handcuffs as well as a joint.

“Charming,” Katie said, and closed the drawer.

“Anything?” Stacy asked, shutting the top drawer and moving on the to the second drawer.

Katie shook her head and looked around. “Maybe another hidden compartment behind one of those posters or something…” she trailed off as she stared at the Jurassic Park poster.

“Son of a bitch,” she said and turned around, opening up the nightstand drawer again.

Behind her, Stacy’s phone chimed.

Katie picked up the can of shaving cream and held it up to the light. She twisted it and sure enough the bottom popped out. Inside the empty can of shaving cream was a single small empty vial and nothing else.

Katie held up the vial. “I’m guessing if we ran a lab test they’d find trace amounts of GHB.”

“Katie, he’s coming up the stairs, we gotta bounce,” Stacy said.

Katie put the vial back in the hidden compartment and stuck the shaving cream can back in the drawer, shutting it and turning off the light.

They rushed out of the room and shut the door behind them. They turned away from the room and found themselves face-to-face with Walter Pike.

“
W
hat the hell
were you doing in my room?” Walter Pike snapped at Katie and Stacy, every muscle in his very thin neck straining as he took a step toward them.

“Just looking for the bathroom,” Stacy stammered.

Katie reached into her messenger bag, her hand searching for her trusty black cylinder.

“Yo, Walter, what’s up man!”

All three teens turned to find Gideon approaching them, a red solo cup in his hand. He reached out to shake Walter’s hand and the frat boy hesitated, instinctively reaching out to catch the similarly sized teen’s hand.

Except Gideon pretended like he tripped, and splashed the red solo cup full of beer all over Walter’s shirt.

“Shit!” Walter said and leapt back from Gideon.

“Oh, dude, I’m so sorry,” Gideon said.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Walter said and pulled his shirt up and over his head.

Walter was completely ripped and his six-pack gleamed as he pushed past the girls and headed down the hall. “You’re just lucky that tomorrow is my laundry day,” Walter said and stopped towards the end of the hallway. He punched a panel of the wall and it popped out towards him.

Walter grabbed the raised panel and opened the laundry-chute-door, tossing his shirt into it.

He turned back toward the three friends and shook his head.

“What are you staring at?” he snapped.

Katie realized Stacy was clearly looking him up and down, and aside from the fact that he was probably a murderer she didn’t really blame her. If Walter was the killer, at least he was a damned fine looking one.

“Go,” Gideon said.

“Dude, seriously, I’m so sorry. Let me grab you a drink or something,” Gideon said, moving past Katie and Stacy towards Walter.

“Get the fuck out of my face,” Walter snapped.

Katie and Stacy looked at each other and bolted for the stairs.

A
s soon as
they made it downstairs the thump, thump of the sound system made it basically impossible for them to hear. In the corner Katie saw that Duncan and Tiffany were busy making out in a chair, while the Greek god was busy grinding on the Ditz, Katie remembered vaguely from the previous party. Others were dancing too, a sea of people Katie sort of recognized and some she didn’t. Amelia Wood was there, chatting with a cookie-cutter friend of hers. Katie didn’t know for the life of her how they could hear each other, but she supposed that maybe they couldn’t and it didn’t really matter. They both seemed like the type that cared more about appearances rather than actual human interactions or emotions.

There was another person at the party though, who gave Katie pause. Felipe stood in the corner of the room, his eyes seeing everything, and he seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face. Just seeing him made Katie shiver.

“Talk in the kitchen?” Stacy mouthed and Katie nodded.

The kitchen was a little quieter and they could at least hear each other speak.

“Holy shit. We have him.”

Katie shook her head and reached for an empty red solo cup and went over to one of the two kegs sitting on the kitchen island. She started to pour herself a beer but everything that came out of the spout was foam.

One of the brothers in the house saw that and shook his head. “Shit, sorry about that.”

He lifted the keg off the island and started to carry it towards the side door in the kitchen. Katie set her foam heavy liquid light cup down and ran past him, opening the door. The door led to the stairs going down into the basement.

Something was bothering Katie, but she wasn’t sure what. A very vague idea, more of a feeling was beginning to dawn on her, and she knew she had to pursue it.

“Hang on a second,” Katie said to Stacy and followed the brother carrying the empty keg downstairs.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he descended the stairs. “The only things down here are kegs, and the washer and dryer.

It was pitch black at the bottom of the stairs, and the brother stepped into the blackness and pulled on a chain. The single bulb light hanging from the ceiling flickered to life.

Everything he had just said was true. There was a washer and a dryer in the corner of the basement, as well as four kegs in a row in another corner of the room. He had failed to mention the laundry chute that ran from the second floor straight down to a big laundry basket in front of the washer and dryer however. Katie moved past the brother and examined the chute.

In Katie’s head, it was like a key sliding into a lock, clicking into place.

“What the hell are you looking at?” the brother asked, a combination of curious and annoyed.

Katie ignored him and ran back up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She found Stacy waiting for in the kitchen.

“He didn’t hide the knife in his room, he threw it and the backpack down the laundry chute,” she said.

“Okay sure, but the police did look in the basement. They didn’t find any traces of blood or either of those items. All that was down there were the laundry supplies and the empty kegs from the party.”

The key was still turning in Katie’s head, but more ideas, more concepts were floating through it rapidly. She was wrong but somehow, she was also right.

She moved past Stacy pushing through the swinging door back into the living room. Stacy followed after her.

Walter was there now, and he was wearing a white wife beater and looked pissed. He spotted Katie and Stacy and pointed at them.

“That doesn’t make sense…” Katie muttered to herself.

“What?” Stacy yelled above the music.

Staring at Walter, Katie understood suddenly. He was a scumbag, he was a jerk and he had probably used GHB on girls, but he was not the killer. He couldn’t have been, because he couldn’t have fit in the laundry chute.

Walter started to move towards Stacy and Katie. As he did Felipe brushed past him, heading for the exit.

Katie turned around and hurried back into the kitchen. The brother was just setting a fresh keg on the kitchen island.

“Hey, man, I have a quick question. Where do you guys get all of these sweet kegs?”

He glanced at her, puzzled. “Oh that’s easy. You know Amelia Wood? Dan’s old squeeze? Her older brother apparently works at a local brew house; he gets the kegs hella cheap. It’s pretty sweet and generous on her part, especially considering she doesn’t drink.”

Katie nodded. “Yeah, I know, she quit after what happened to Dan.”

He looked at her, confused. “No. It’s not that she quit drinking, she
doesn’t
. She’s allergic to alcohol. If she had more than two sips, she goes into cardiac arrest.”

The key turned in Katie’s head. Suddenly it was a flash of insight, and everything made sense.

She ran back into the living room. Walter was ten feet away from her, and yelling at both her and Stacy. Gideon was right behind him, clearly about to stop him. On the dance floor the Greek god continued to grind with the Ditz, and in the corner Tiffany and Duncan continued to make out. Amelia Wood however was gone, leaving the cookie-cutter friend to dance self-consciously by herself.

Amelia Wood was nowhere to be seen at all. Sweet, sad, shy, very small Amelia Wood. The girl that Tiffany and many others had seen drunk as a skunk on the night of Dan’s death. Amelia Wood who couldn’t drink. Amelia Wood, the girlfriend.

Katie understood it all, though there were still sections she wasn’t one hundred percent on. She moved towards Walter, who tried to stop her, but Gideon was there, and grabbed him by the arm. Walter spun, fury in his face.

“Don’t you touch me!” he yelled out. Some people looked, most ignored them.

“Okay, sorry man,” Gideon said, but Katie didn’t stop, she ducked under them and was past them, sprinting for the front door.

Behind her Stacy and the others were calling for her. She ignored them. Katie’s heart was racing, and she knew, just knew what had happened and had to see it through. If they were fast enough, they would catch up to her, if not … She could finish this on her own.

Katie was outside well before they were, and was half a block down the street looking left and right, trying to spot Amelia.

Katie spotted her across the street, heading back towards the north parking lot of campus. She started to jog after Amelia

Nick and his friend stepped out of the shadows and blocked her path.

“Well hello, little lady, where do you think you are going all by your lonesome?”

“Jesus you two, not now,” Katie hissed.

She tried to move around them, but Nick grabbed her by the arm. Katie looked at his hand and then back up at him. She glanced over her shoulder. Katie could just make out Amelia moving from one streetlamp to the next … Amelia would be out of sight in a few moments.

“Sorry, but you know the orders. And since your girlfriend isn’t with you…”

“Katie, wait up!” It was Stacy and Gideon, both running out of the house.

Katie could see the big Samoan shift his attention away from her and towards them. She didn’t have time to waste sorting it out, and she figured the chances that Gideon might get hurt trying to stop the two overzealous security guards was pretty high. Besides, if she was going to try and follow Amelia, she couldn’t have a group with her. She had basic surveillance training. They didn’t. Not to mention it was dangerous, following after her, and Katie would never forgive herself if she got her friends hurt. She was willing to take the risk, but she couldn’t ask that of them.

K
atie Bell took
a deep breath in and waited. The Samoan took a step towards her friend, and then another. Nick was looking back at them too. One more step, and Katie moved. She twisted her arm fast, freeing it of Nick’s grip. Startled, he started to turn back towards her, but she was too fast for him, and brought up her other hand out of her messenger bag, her hand wrapped around her black cylinder.

Katie flicked her pepper spray open and hit him with a long stream in the face. Nick screamed and went backwards, clutching his eyes. He doubled over and Katie followed through with her knee, it making a satisfying crunch as it connected with his nose. Nick went down, even as the Samoan started to turn towards her. Katie brought the pepper spray towards him and tagged him in the eyes too, and he grunted and started to stagger backwards. Katie followed through with her foot again, this time kicking him in the groin.

He cried out in pain and then Katie turned and ran hard after Amelia, leaving both security guards on the sidewalk, both of them whimpering in pain.

T
hree blocks later
, Katie spotted Amelia again. The redheaded instincts had been right; she was going to her car parked in the north parking lot. Amelia got into her black Mercedes and turned on the engine. It was the first bit of luck Katie had had all evening. She happened to also be parked in the same lot. She waited till Amelia was pulling out of the parking lot before she ran to her Camry and started to follow.

As she pulled out onto the street and followed Amelia’s taillights in the distance Katie could feel her heart racing. The likelihood of Amelia leading her anywhere important were slim to none, except…

Felipe. He had left the party. He had been angrily talking to Walter at the New Year’s party … except Amelia had also been in the same room.

Katie knew she only had part of the puzzle, but she was damned sure she was about to find out the rest of it.

Her iPhone started to rattle in her bag. It was Gideon. She ignored it. This was something she had to do on her own.