Walk Through the Valley (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (14 page)

As Cindy realized that the woman must work with Kyle her face finally clicked. “You’re Bunni, from that show
Bunni’s Best.”

“Yes, Bunni Sinclair,” the other woman said with a bright smile.

Cindy had caught a few snatches of the show on the Escape! Channel while flipping through. She relaxed slightly. “What are you doing here?”

“We heard about Kyle on the news,” Bunni said, a shadow crossing her face. “We were shooting on location in Canada when we heard. A few of us piled in the car and we drove all night to get here. Everyone else is crashed out at a hotel, but I couldn’t sleep without seeing him first.”

“I understand.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, they’re not letting anyone near his room who isn’t family,” Bunni said with a scowl. Tears started to fill her eyes and she put a hand on Cindy’s arm. “Is it as bad as they’re saying?”

“I’m afraid so,” Cindy said softly. It was clear that the other woman was truly worried and upset. She was an actress, but from what Cindy had seen of her show, she wasn’t sure the woman was capable of faking emotion with this much realism.

“It’s not fair. Kyle is such a good guy. I mean, he’s got that wild and crazy reputation but under it all he’s just really sweet and caring. Once when most of us were on location shooting a number of specials overseas, I got food poisoning. I’ve never been so sick in my life. Kyle stayed up with me, took care of me. He even drove me to the hospital and stayed until I was released.”

“You must be really good friends,” Cindy said, watching helplessly as the other woman began to break down.

“He was there for me, and I just wish I could be there for him.”

“He needs everyone he can get in his corner pulling for him. At least his fiancée is doing alright.”

“Fiancée?” Bunni gave her a stricken look. “He proposed to Lisa?”

Cindy bit her lip as she nodded. In a moment of insight Cindy realized that Bunni cared about her brother, really cared about him. She felt a great surge of pity for her. She was sure that Bunni was in love with him, and he was marrying someone else. That had to be a terrible position to be in.

A sudden image of Jeremiah marrying a nice Jewish girl filled her mind and she felt like she was going to be physically ill.

“Are you okay?” Bunni asked. “You’re looking really pale all of a sudden.”

“I’m fine,” Cindy said, lying through her clenched teeth.

“Okay. Listen, can I give you my number? As soon as you have news, I’d like to know,” Bunni said.

“You know what, I can do better than that,” Cindy said, her heart really going out to the other woman. She reached out and took
Bunni’s arm, and pulled her with her over to the elevator. “Come with me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

A minute later they were walking back into the observation room. “This is Bunni, she’s one of Kyle’s coworkers. She and some others drove all night from their shoot in Canada to be here,” she said.

“He speaks very highly of you,” her mother said.

Cindy blinked in surprise. That was the most communicative her mom had been. Her dad came forward and shook
Bunni’s hand. “He told us about one particularly exciting adventure you shared in an overseas hospital,” he said with the ghost of a smile.

Cindy was pleased that Bunni had been telling the truth about that. She was even more pleased that her parents seemed to be accepting of her. She pulled the medication for her mother out of her purse and handed it to her dad. “Everyone ready for some food?” she asked.

“I’m not hungry,” her mom intoned.

“You have to eat something,” her dad urged.

She just shook her head.

“Okay, but I’m bringing you back a sandwich and you will eat it and take your medication then,” he said.

“I’ll stay here with her, if that’s okay,” Bunni said. She had already moved to stand next to Cindy’s mom at the window and had one hand pressed to the glass and the other one pressed to her heart.

“That will be fine,” her dad said. He turned to Cindy, “Let’s go.”

They made their way back down to the cafeteria. Cindy decided to gamble on the macaroni and cheese this time. They sat down at the table they’d had the night before and slowly began to eat.

“What were you up to this morning?” he asked.

Cindy shrugged, “I just had a couple of things to take care of.”

“So you said. Everything okay?”

“Yes,” she said, forcing a quick smile. She really didn’t want to tell her parents about the purse snatching. There was no need for them to worry about it. At least, hopefully there wasn’t.

Her dad looked at her oddly, but then dropped it. They ate for another couple minutes in silence. The macaroni and cheese was actually pretty good and she was pleased with her choice. Her mind, though, was on the things that she needed to do. One of them was check out Kyle and Lisa’s rooms at their hotel. She didn’t relish the idea of doing that alone, particularly if she had been targeted the day before. However, she didn’t see that she had much of a choice in that.

“We were thinking of taking a trip out your way in the next year or so. See you, visit Disneyland and that theme park that’s right near you.”

“The Zone.”

“Yeah, that one. Could be fun.”

Cindy nodded. “Sure. There’s lots to see and do.”

“I know Kyle said that the Escape! Channel has been considering doing a series of shows in the area, particularly at The Zone. I think he said that Bunni’s sister works there.”

“Small world,” Cindy said. “Where does she work?”

“He didn’t say. Bunni seems really nice, though.”

“Yes, she does.”

The small talk was killing her, especially given all the things that were going on and what was at stake.

She took a sip of soda and put the glass down.

“Dad, do you know what happened to the things Kyle had on him when he was brought here?” she asked. “You know, like his wallet and stuff?”

Her dad nodded. “I’m pretty sure there’s a bag of his stuff in the closet in the room he’s in. That’s how this sort of thing usually works.”

“Ah, but we’re not allowed in there to get it,” Cindy noted.

“Why?” her dad asked with a frown.

She debated whether or not to tell him what she was thinking. She didn’t want to worry him or her mom more than they already were, but if someone was really after Kyle they deserved to know the truth so they could be on the lookout for anything suspicious and protect themselves.

“I was going to see if I could get his and Lisa’s room keys and drop by the Excalibur and grab a few things from their rooms.”

“Does Lisa need some of her things?”

“I’m sure she probably does.”

“So, she didn’t ask you to?”

“No, but I thought I’d offer. If nothing else they might have some stuff, cameras or jewelry, that they’d rather not leave unattended in their hotel rooms.”

It was a good idea now that she thought of it. No need to leave anything important lying around where someone might be tempted to steal it. Not that their room across the street was any safer. Still, she was sure they could work something out. Maybe she could give it to Lisa and she could keep anything of value in her hospital room or have her parents take it to their house.

He stared at her intently, and she focused in on her food. After a few seconds he said, “Care to tell me what you’re really looking for?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I don’t buy the whole looking for valuables thing.”

“What?” she asked, blinking at him.

“You mentioned a camera. You think they have one and that there’s anything important on it?”

“I, I don’t know,” Cindy said, feeling flustered at being grilled. “It’s Kyle, wherever he is there’s usually a camera somewhere close by.”

“You think that could be what this is all about?” her dad asked, leaning in close, eyes focused in on her like lasers.

“What do you mean?” she asked him.

Her father glanced around the room and then leaned closer. “I want to know if you want to search their rooms for the same reason I think someone needs to.”

“And what would that reason be?”

“To figure this out,” he said.

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m pretty sure you do and that we’re talking about the same thing.”

“What is it you’re thinking?”

“I think that whoever drove that car was trying to kill him.”

12

Cindy stared flabbergasted at her father. “What makes you think that?”

“The same things I’m sure that make you think so, too.”

“You’re suspicious and paranoid?”

He actually laughed. “Yes, and I think you get that from me.”

She blinked. “I do?”

“Honey, you know what I do for a living.”

“You go into war-torn areas and help rebuild the infrastructure.”

“Yes. It’s not the safest job in the world. Sometimes people aren’t overly thrilled to see me. Once, a long time ago, someone even took a shot at me.”

Cindy gasped as fear bolted through her. She’d always been concerned about her dad when he was working overseas, but she had always believed that he was more or less safe.

“I never told your mother. It would have just upset her. I learned after that to be very vigilant, though,” he said. “A few months back after that cattle drive filming debacle Kyle and I sat down and we had a talk. The whole thing scared him.”

“It scared all of us,” she said.

He shook his head. “I mean scared him like nothing has since he’s been a grown man. He did a lot of hard thinking about his entire life, his priorities, his goals.”

“And as part of that he proposed to Lisa.”

“Yes. I think he decided that at the end of the day he wanted a little more stability and a little less excitement in his life. He also told me how you saved his life.”

“I didn’t do anything that anyone else wouldn’t,” she protested.

He smiled. “That’s so like my little girl. You never see the things about yourself that are extraordinary.”

“That’s because I’m not. I’m just ordinary.”

“You are far from it, but that’s a discussion for another time. Back to the topic at hand. When I heard about the accident, it sounded to me like somebody deliberately hit Kyle and Lisa’s car.”

“I think the police are thinking the same thing.”

He cocked his head to the side. “When did you talk to the police?”

It was time to come clean. “When I went down to the station this morning to give my statement concerning the guy who tried to snatch my purse last night.”

“What?” he asked, clearly startled.

She grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I didn’t want to worry you.”

“I think you should tell me everything from the beginning.”

She quickly filled him in.

“I don’t like any of this,” he muttered when she was finished.

“Neither do I. That’s why I want to get over to the other hotel and see if I can find anything in Kyle’s room that might give us some kind of a clue as to who might have wanted to hurt him.”

“We’ll get the key as soon as we go back upstairs,” he said.

“Great.”

“You shouldn’t go by yourself. I’ll go with you.”

“No, I don’t think we should leave mom alone right now, regardless of what’s actually going on.”

He sighed heavily. “You’re right. She’s pretty fragile at the moment.”

“Yeah, I mean Kyle has always been her favorite,” she said. She stopped, horrified that she’d voiced that out loud to her father.

She looked at him, waiting for him to deny it. Instead he just looked at her with incredibly sad eyes. “She wasn’t always like this you know,” he said softly.

Cindy felt her heart start to beat faster. Was her dad actually admitting that her mom really did love Kyle more? Parents might have favorites, but they weren’t supposed to actually admit it. That was unthinkable.

“What, what are you saying?” Cindy stammered, barely able to get the words out around the sudden tightness in her throat.

Her father reached across the table and took her hand in his. “Honey, we were all devastated when your sister...when what happened to her happened.”

Cindy nodded, no longer able to speak.

“You were grieving, in shock. It was your first experience with death and having it be someone so close to you, and having it happen right in front of you...well, you were so traumatized that I don’t think you really even noticed a lot of what was happening around you that first year. At least, not consciously.”

He cleared his throat. “You and your sister actually look quite a lot alike. Every time we looked at you we were instantly reminded of Lisa and the fact that she was gone. Your mother couldn’t handle the constant reminder so she stopped looking at you.”