Secrets in a Still Life, Kari Ganske [best fiction books to read .TXT] 📗

car. I hobble-ran as fast as I dared across the street. Colleen was practically apoplectic by the time I reached her, dancing from one foot to another.

"Do you have to pee?" I asked brightly. "You should have thought of that before class."

"No! I'm excited. And you are taking your grand ol' time. I should've left you in the car."

"Why are we standing here yapping? Let's do what we came to do," I said, moving toward the tall privacy fence on the side of the yard. The slats were over six feet tall and almost touching. While that meant we couldn't see the backyard, it also meant Mike and his alleged mistress couldn't see us either. And really, we only needed to hear the conversation—or whatever else they were doing.

I pressed my ear to the wood. Colleen's face appeared in front of mine a moment later, giving me a little jump. I furrowed my brows at her; Colleen shrugged. We could hear faint music playing and the murmur of voices.

"Can you hear what they're saying?" Colleen said so quietly I had to read her lips to decipher what she asked. I shook my head. Collectively, we shuffled closer to the house. I got my crutch stuck in the mud and almost fell over but caught myself just in time. I stifled a giggle. Now it was Colleen's turn to snap her eyebrows together in warning. I clamped a hand over my mouth and pressed my ear to the fence again.

Snippets of conversation drifted through the fence now that we were closer to where Mike and his mistress were talking.

"... can be together," a woman's whiny voice said.

"... cool off for a bit until..." a man's voice answered.

Then the woman's voice, louder now and higher pitched as the conversation grew more heated. "Why, Mike?"

Colleen raised her eyebrows. We just got confirmation the male voice belonged to Mike Vandenburg.

The woman continued, "The crazy cow is gone. You said once she was out of the picture, we could be together."

I raised my eyebrows to match Colleen's. Did we just hear a confession? Too late I thought about recording on my phone. Dangit—but maybe they would continue the conversation and drop even more incriminating nuggets. Better late than never—I turned on the camera and held the phone next to my ear by the fence.

"... voice down," the man was saying.

"Who is going to hear? Who is going to care? No one even liked her."

Mike shushed her and lowered his voice. "... murdered... pin it on me... just for a while."

"Come on, say her name," Colleen wished out loud beside me.

I flicked her arm. When Colleen looked at me crossly, I pointed to my phone and mouthed, "I'm recording." I'd rather not have our voices on the recording just in case I needed to send it anonymously to the police. Was that a thing? I hoped it was a thing.

Colleen's confusion turned to excitement. "Good idea," she mouthed back and stopped rubbing her arm where I'd flicked it to give me a thumbs-up.

"I'm not going to wait forever. I deserve better than to be your side piece," the woman said, her voice as loud as before.

"Let's go inside if you're going to continue to act like a crazy person," Mike said, his voice clear as a bell.

I snickered. That wouldn't sit well with the side piece.

"Excuse me!" she shouted. "Now I'm the crazy one?" She paused for a moment, and I swore I heard her breathing heavily. But when she spoke again, her voice sounded much calmer and at a pitch everyone, not just dogs, could hear. Maybe she realized screeching did make her sound a bit crazy.

"Fine. I've waited this long; I can wait a bit longer. But not forever, Mike. Don't make me give you another ultimatum. I don't like being that woman," she said. I heard a chair squeak.

"Another ultimatum?" I mouthed to Colleen. "Another" implied a first. Could that first ultimatum have been getting rid of Missy? How did she put it earlier? Once Missy was out of the picture? Well, she was out of their vignette and into her own gruesome version of a still life.

The couple behind the fence were quiet for a while, then began murmuring again. I turned off my phone; we'd probably gotten all we were going to get for the evening. Colleen thought the same; she motioned for us to head back to the car. I nodded and, after putting my phone in my back pocket, hobbled after Colleen back across the street.

We managed to hold in our excitement until we got in the car, but as soon as the doors were closed, we looked at each other, happy-screamed, and danced around in our seats.

"I can't believe we just did that," Colleen gasped between laughs.

"I can't believe we got away with it," I said.

"Okay, okay. Deep breaths." Colleen took her own advice. "He totally did it, right?"

"Oh my goodness, totally. This definitely proves motive! And will hopefully get the police off my back. Adultery is a much better motive than high school rival."

"We should go into business as private investigators. You already have the camera gear," Colleen said. "We've already proven how great we are at it by getting away clean tonight. Despite your green pants."

Colleen had such a smug expression on her face, I almost didn't have the heart to tell her how ridiculous that was. We were only trying to prove my innocence so I could go back to living in anonymity.

"Don't be ridic—" I started, but a sudden rap on the passenger window had us both jumping and screaming again. Though this time from fright.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 14

 

 

 

Injured ankle or not, I practically climbed over the console to get away