Cliffhanger (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book One) by Amy Saunders Page B

sitting there, figuring he could make a list of things
he needed from the hardware store while he waited. He flipped for a blank page,
passing a random scribble dead in the center of the notebook. Out of curiosity,
he flipped back to see what it said. Someone had slashed an address diagonally
across the page. Bennett flipped back to the beginning. Random lists and notes
covered the pages. The handwriting did not match that of the address.
    A door creaked
and then Bennett heard soft padding on the wood floor upstairs. He closed the
notebook and pushed it back into place where he'd found it, repeating the
address to himself. Belinda appeared at the bottom of the stairs, disappeared
as she hit the landing, and reappeared a second later at the edge of the
kitchen. She looked paler than when he arrived and now her brown eyes were
bloodshot. They also looked surprised to see him.
    Belinda tugged on
the ends of her sleeves and hugged her body, avoiding his eyes. "I figured
you'd left," she said quietly, but not with the ferocity of her earlier
statement. She cleared her throat and poured more water, gulping without a
problem this time.
    Bennett hoped he
hadn't messed up by not leaving, but it was too late. He couldn't think of a
question that didn't sound lame, so he stayed quiet, letting her pad around and
drink more water and search through the cabinets. She found cookies and nestled
into a seat next to him, setting the package between the two of them and
offering him one.
    "You
first," he said, his voice echoing in the house like it was built of
marble.
    She nibbled on
the edge of the cookie. "I'm sorry. I'm not good at public
hysterics."
    "Neither am
I."
    Belinda's face
started to come back to life. "You can ask me now," she said.
    "Ask you
what?"
    "Whatever
you wanted to before I went nutty."
    Bennett raised
his eyebrows, taking a minute to remember. "Why did your brother want to
talk to Clark?"
    "To make peace."
She exaggerated her words.
    "You don't
believe him?"
    Belinda scrunched
her nose. "Not really...but I don't think he killed Jeff either. Or rammed
into me."
    Bennett nodded.
"Someone saw your brother exchange heated words with Jeff the other day
outside of one of the cemeteries. And apparently that wasn't the first time
that had happened."
    "It was
probably where Mark is buried. Do you know what they were arguing about?"
    Bennett shrugged.
"Maybe Kyle was concerned that Jeff would pick up where he left off
obsessing over you."
    "As
flattering as that is I don't think it was Kyle's top priority."
    Bennett leaned
closer to her. "Did you know Mark well?"
    Belinda felt her
body tense and her mind drifted off to that final summer when Mark died....
"Oh...um, well enough, but he was primarily Kyle's friend." She
avoided his eyes and focused on her cookie.
    "Was he a
good sailor?"
    "Oh,
yeah." Belinda waved her hand like everyone should know that. "He
rivaled Kyle, and that's saying something."
    "So he
should have known what he was doing."
    Belinda didn't
know where this random line of thinking was heading, but she shrugged and
answered anyway. "Beyond. He actually taught lessons at the yacht club in
the summer." Belinda watched Bennett's eyes, deep in puzzle solving.
"Are you thinking...are you thinking Mark's accident wasn't an
accident?" Her throat constricted saying the words.
    Bennett looked at
her questioningly. "Is that what you're thinking right now?"
    "I don't
know, but I'm thinking about how good a sailor Mark was and that conversation
between Jeff and Stellan at the party..." She pursed her lips. "It
could explain some things."
    "Such
as?"
    "Their
behavior afterward. Jeff was a train wreck right from the beginning, but
Stellan was totally reserved about the whole thing. I just wanted to know what
happened, but he was very vague on some points and always got defensive.
Maybe...maybe that's because they weren't telling the whole truth." She'd
always had that feeling whenever she talked to Stellan.
    "I think
it's worth