Karen Olson - Ink Flamingos

“Joel’s going to be in the spare room,” Bitsy said when I asked. “I’d put him on the sofa bed, but I’m afraid it might not be sturdy enough. If you get my drift.”

I did, and I said I didn’t mind. I started to go back out into the living room, but she caught my arm and stopped me.

“I know you’re uncertain about Jeff,” she said.

I opened my mouth to say, well, I wasn’t sure what I was going to say, but I didn’t have to because she put her finger up to stop me.

“He’s a good man,” Bitsy continued. “He’s got his own business. He’s settled into the community. He’s got a healthy relationship with his mother. He cares about you. You could do worse. In fact, you’ve done worse.”

I hated hearing it in such black and white terms, but she was right. I just wasn’t sure I was ready to take my relationship with Jeff to another level. Although that kiss had been a real surprise. In more ways than one.

She took her hand off my arm and patted it. “Think about it. He won’t push you; you know that. He’ll back off if you want. But I wouldn’t make any rash decisions just yet.”

I didn’t think I could, with this stalker blogger out there somewhere. I pushed Jeff Coleman and his kiss out of my head, although admittedly, it lingered somewhere in my subconscious; it wouldn’t go away altogether.

I pulled on my pajama bottoms and big T-shirt, brushed my teeth, and went back into the living room and crawled under the covers. The sofa bed was surprisingly comfortable, sans that metal bar that usually cut into someone’s back. As I closed my eyes, I heard something familiar. A little dinging sound.

A text message on my cell phone.

I grabbed my bag off the plush armchair next to the sofa and took out the phone. When I looked at the display, I caught my breath, my hands beginning to shake as I read the message.

“Brett, I know you did this to me. You won’t get away with it.”

I checked the display again. It was Daisy’s number.

Iput the phone down and pulled my legs up to my chest, my arms around them, my head down on my knees. I needed to call Tim, who was no doubt still trying to clean up the mess at our house, but I felt as though I’d fall apart if I let myself go. Literally let myself go. So I sat there, rocking slowly, trying not to think about the person who was trying to make me crazy.

The light in the hall went on, and Bitsy’s shadow appeared.

“What’s wrong, Brett? I heard something.”

Couldn’t get anything past Bitsy.

She came in and sat down on the edge of the bed. I cocked my head toward my phone where I’d tossed it, and she picked it up, hitting one of the buttons so that the display shone like a Christmas tree. She read the text, her eyes wide.

“What is this? Who sent this?”

I shook my head, unable to speak.

“Did you call your brother? Someone’s got Daisy’s cell phone. I didn’t know she had your number.”

We’d exchanged numbers at one point, and I keyed her number into my phone. I supposed she’d done the same thing.

Joel lumbered out, wearing a big terrycloth bathrobe.

“What’s up?” he asked, and Bitsy handed him the phone.

When he read the message, he came around and sat in the armchair, leaning over to rub my back. He’d been doing that a lot lately.

What was wrong with me? I was acting like some sort of victim. Which, of course, I was, but this was ridiculous. I pulled my arms away from my legs and reached for the phone, punching in Tim’s number.

“You okay?” he asked when he answered.

I told him about the text message.

“You’re sure it’s from her number?”

I was acutely aware of the four eyes watching me. “Yes. It’s her number.”

“No one saw a cell phone in the hotel room where she was found,” Tim said thoughtfully.

So whoever killed her and wanted to frame me could’ve taken it and planned this. Or taken it and decided just this very moment, hey, here’s another way to make Brett Kavanaugh insane. As if the blog pictures and Ink Flamingos weren’t enough already.

This really was personal. But who on earth hated me this much?

Or who wanted Tim and the cops to concentrate on who was harassing me and not on who actually killed the poor girl?

I voiced my thoughts, and Tim grunted.

“I need your cell phone.”

Great. I’d had to give up my car in the past, but this was a first. “When?”

“Morning. Can you drop it by for me at the station?”

I thought about the hassle I would have with the wireless company about getting a new number, after all their promotions about how you can take your phone number with you whenever you get new service or a new phone.

I said okay and hung up, Bitsy and Joel still watching me.

“You’re creeping me out,” I said, irritation lacing my tone.

“Like we’re any creepier than that,” Bitsy said, indicating the phone.

“Okay,” I sighed. “Sorry. I’m on edge. I have to bring Tim the phone tomorrow, so I guess we can all get some sleep.” I picked up the phone and shut it off, so I wouldn’t get any more messages from the dead.

They shuffled off to their respective beds, and I lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling, not sleeping until about an hour before I had to get up.

The three of us were in Bitsy’s car. This was not an easy feat. Bitsy was the only one who was comfortable in her Mini Cooper. Joel had squeezed himself into the front seat, “squeezed” being the operative word. I was in the back, all folded up across the backseat, my knees almost hitting the ceiling, my head grazing it.

It was like a clown car.

Bitsy had fed us bagels and coffee, and we were on our way to pick up more coffee before we dropped off my cell phone to Tim and then went to the shop. The text message from the night before seemed a long way away in the light of day. The only good thing about it was that it pushed Jeff Coleman’s kiss way to the back of my mind.

The kiss. Right. Something else I’d have to deal with. Or not. Knowing Jeff, he wouldn’t mention it. But what if he decided to do it again?

I noticed we weren’t headed in the right direction.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

Bitsy and Joel had been mumbling something this morning when I’d gotten out of the shower, but I was afraid they were talking about me and I didn’t want to know. So I’d ignored it. Now, however, it seemed that maybe they’d been hatching a plan.

“We’ve been doing a little thinking,” Bitsy said.

Uh-oh. That might not be the best thing.

“And we thought that we should try to find out a little more about this blogger, you know, the one who’s been…” Joel’s voice trailed off.

He didn’t need to finish the sentence, because we all knew what Ainsley Wainwright had been up to. Except that she wasn’t the one doing it. I said as much.

“That’s why it might be a good idea to poke around a little,” Bitsy said. “Go back to the beginning. See who might want to impersonate her, and then decide to impersonate you.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. I’d been so wrapped up in me that I hadn’t thought about her. It might be a good thing to concentrate on someone else for a little while. It would take the pressure off.

“So what’s the plan?”

“We go to her place. Start there.”

“How do you know where to go?” I asked. Bitsy seemed very sure of the direction we were heading.

“I did a Yahoo! People search. Gave me her address, so then I Google-Mapped her.”

Always thorough, that was Bitsy. But it made me wonder why the cops hadn’t done that. Or maybe they had. Maybe that’s the way they finally found her. That’s right. Knocking on doors, Tim had said.