The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes by David Handler

Author:David Handler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

There were two of them. They came from inside the house.

Then came silence.

I stopped swimming. Lulu stopped barking. Over on the patio, Elliot froze, tongs in hand, and stared up at the house.

The silence was broken by the hollering of the paparazzi crowded outside of the gate, their voices amped by a whole new level of hysteria. Quickly, I got out of the pool and grabbed a towel.

That’s when I heard the second set of shots. Two more.

I dashed toward the house with the towel around my neck and Lulu trailing right behind me.

Elliot’s eyes were wide with fright. “What the hell was that noise?”

“Gunfire. What do you think?”

“Should we call someone?”

“No need. The cops on the gate heard it. They’ll phone it in.”

“They won’t come check it out for themselves?”

“Can’t. They’ve got a tabloid mob out there to contain. They’ll call for help. We’ve got a few minutes before they get up here. We’d better see what happened.”

I headed into the kitchen. Elliot followed me. On the stove a cast-iron skillet of onions and peppers was cooking on a low flame. A flour tortilla was warming in a second skillet on another burner. There was a package of tortillas and a stack of white kitchen cloths on the counter next to the stove. What there wasn’t was any sign of Maritza.

“She asked me to keep an eye on the steaks while she finished up in here,” Elliot said to me. “I wonder where she went.”

I turned off the flames under the pans and hurried toward the grand front rooms, hearing voices upstairs. Lulu dashed her way up the curving stairway. I followed her.

Reggie and Danielle were standing together in the upstairs hall, both wearing terrified expressions on their faces as they stared down the hall at the big double doors to the master suite, which were closed. Lulu headed straight for the double doors and sat, staring at them.

“Where’s Monette?” I asked them as Elliot came waddling up behind me, still clutching the grill tongs. “What’s happened?”

“We d-don’t know.” Reggie’s voice was quaking with fear. She’d changed from her wet bikini into an old Grateful Dead T-shirt and shorts. I put my arm around her. She nestled against me, trembling.

Lulu continued to sit and stare at the doors to the master suite.

“Did you knock?”

Reggie shook her head.

“Monette . . . ?” Elliot called out. “Everything okay, hon?”

There was no response.

Danielle hadn’t said a word. Just stood there in wide-eyed fear.

“Did you hear anything?” I asked her.

She blinked at me. “Like what?”

“An argument, raised voices?”

She shook her head. “I was in my shower rinsing off the chlorine from the pool.” She wore a pair of blue jeans now with her untucked lavender boyfriend shirt. Her hair was wet. “I was drying off when I heard the shots.”

“And what about Joey? Where’s he?”

“In his room, I guess. That’s where he always is.”

I heard rapid footsteps on the stairs. It was Maritza, who was puffing a bit and looking more than a bit shaken.

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