Exit Stage Death by Dakota Cassidy

Author:Dakota Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: epub

An hour, two cups of coffee with some of my special herbal brew meant to provide a long-soothing balm for her grief, and some stale Danish she’d found in her cabinets later, Valencia and I sat at her tiny dinette as she showed me yet more pictures of Kai from a worn scrapbook. It had taken a little more persuading as she asked personal questions and Kai answered, but we were finally on the road to somewhere solid.

She even looked a little less like the world sat on her shoulders now that she’d had the coffee I’d doctored. Kai sat beside her in the chair by the window overlooking the drab parking lot, Bowie at his feet, smiling off and on as he relived his childhood with her.

Huddled in the small kitchen chair, her legs tucked beneath her, Valencia tapped the picture of Kai holding a big beach ball. “Ms. Dark, can I ask you a question?”

I smiled as I perused pictures of Kai with his father, the late and certainly great Samuel Pettigrew. “Please call me Evanora, and of course. Ask me anything.”

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before she spoke in stilted, half-finished sentences. “If Kai didn’t…you know…then the note? Does that mean someone…?”

How did I broach this subject? I’m not an expert. I only have my instincts to go on, and we’ve all borne witness to them. They’re not always aces. Not to mention, I’m not the most sensitive broad in the land—ask Fab. She’ll tell you.

But I’m no monster, either. I don’t want to hurt anyone with my legendary insensitivity.

Leaning my chin on the heel of my hand, I nodded. “I think someone pushed him off the ledge in Bridgewater Triangle, Valencia. I don’t know for sure, but that’s how this is looking, and that’s what I’m trying to find out. He came to me because he doesn’t want his legacy to be one of suicide. He didn’t want anyone to think that. He especially didn’t want you to think that. He told me all about how you raised him, what an amazing mother you are. He loves you, and that you’re in such pain has him in immense turmoil.”

She gripped the edge of the peeling Formica table. “Doesn’t that mean that one of the kids he was with…” Valencia shuddered, surely, much like me, thinking the unthinkable. “But they were his friends. He’s been friends with Bryce and Dilly since grade school… Wait. Shouldn’t we tell the police? Maybe they can help?”

If only it were that simple. “Do you recall how you reacted when I told you that I could talk to Kai? I haven’t really revealed my ability to anyone other than family because of how you reacted. I’m certainly not going to tell the police what I think, only to be called a fruitcake.”

She looked down at the table, guilt brimming in her eyes. “I’m so sorry I said that. It was just…”

I patted her arm. “A shock. I get it, please don’t fret.

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