Page 46 of Grave Kisses
“Don’t start,” Chrissy warns, not wanting me to point out that wherever she is, she was asleep with Decan.
“What would you suggest, Decan?” I ask.
“Well… My initial thought is that Jeff is either leaving something out or he is lying about something. Was he showing any sign of being attracted to her outside of just looks?”
“No, not really,” I say. “She grew comfortable with him when she was basically planning her suicide. Maybe we just mistook all of that for feelings. Everything was so hectic for a while because we were so focused on just making sure she survived.”
“I’m not gonna lie to you, man,” Decan says. “It sounds like he’s playing y’all. I’ve never met him, but I’d like to. If you are all serious about this, we can come to town and just make up a story to keep us close. We will be able to observe that way.”
“Well…” Marcus laughs. “The part we have skipped is that Kendra is pregnant… with twins. You can just say you are moving closer to be here for the babies. You can stay with us and just say you are in the process of buying a house or some shit.”
“Oh my God! I’m so excited!” Chrissy squeals. “Ah. I love babies. I need to meet this woman. If she can put up with you two dorks, she must be incredible.”
“She is incredible,” I say.
“We can do that,” Decan says. “I am licensed as a private investigator, so if he looks me up, he will know. Does that concern you?”
“No,” I say. “I don’t really know if he is a threat, but we will just play it low-key for now.”
“I agree. We finished up a case last night, so we have plenty of time to help,” Chrissy says.
“We will pay you whatever we need to cover the cost of you…” I start to say.
“No,” Decan says. “You are important to Chrissy, so you are important to me too. I don’t charge family. Plus, we are going to be staying with you, so if anything, it evens out.”
“We can stay in the basement apartment,” Chrissy says. “We were talking about moving the office to Huston anyhow.”
“This may be a good opportunity to do that,” Decan says. “We get so many case requests out there that it would be more lucrative.”
“Good. Then it’s settled,” I say. “I think what we might do is invite Hannah and Tim to come stay with us also and just go home.”
“That’s a good idea, actually,” Decan says. “Why not ask them now and leave before morning?”
“Hold on. I’ll call Tim,” Marcus says before standing and retrieving his phone. He places his call on speaker, and Tim answers almost immediately.
“Is everything okay?” Tim answers.
“Hey, so long story short, we need to get Kendra home and away from the detective. Things took a very weird turn, and it’s looking like he is hiding something,” Marcus says. “What did he do?” Hannah asks. Marcus explains the events of the evening, and right away they are both on edge.
“I don’t like that one bit,” Hannah says. “That is so different from how he was when Tim and her were gone.”
“I’m glad you have someone else looking into things. What can we do?” Tim asks.
“Chrissy and Decan are going to stay with us. If you can make it work, I think it would be good for Kendra if you two came and stayed also. She needs as much support as she can get, and I think this is going to get far worse before it gets better,” I say.
“We were actually just discussing moving to Huston to be closer,” Hannah says. “We’ve missed her entire life, so being three hours away doesn't feel right. We have replacements, as we were in the process of retiring anyhow, so we will just speed that up. When do you want to leave?”
“Right now,” Marcus says. “She is asleep, but I also might have drugged her water with sleeping medicine.”
“Did you really?” I laugh.
“Oh yeah. She will be out like a light for a while. She needs rest. I texted the doctor's wife from the ER. He gave me his wife’s number, since she is the OB he recommended. I asked her what it was she said it was safe for Kendra to take. Although, she doesn’t know that I drugged her with it.”
“It’s for the best,” Hannah says. “Give us twenty minutes, and we can be there. We only live a few minutes from the motel.”
“Are we doing this in the dead of night to leave without the detective knowing?” Tim asks.
“Yes,” Marcus says.
