Death by Proposal by Jaden Skye

muscle under his eye twitching. “There’s no evidence
that Clay was the last person to see her alive, though, is there? How can they
be certain that someone didn’t break into the room while Clay was asleep?”
    “We
have no idea how it even happened that the two of them were sharing a room,” Margaret
said, her face growing paler. “That is not Clay’s typical behavior.”
    Cindy
was taken aback. Were Clay’s parents living in their own world? Clay was over
thirty.
     “It’s
not unusual for young men and women to go away for the week-end and share a
room,” Cindy said gently.
    “We
knew nothing at all about this young woman, nothing,” Margaret spoke without
taking a breath. “Then we learn that Clay was away in a hotel with her and they
became engaged? After that she fell to her death the very next morning? The
whole thing is preposterous. The paper said Clay met her over the internet. I
don’t believe it. It never happened. It’s a setup, a complete scam. Someone is framing
Clay.”
    “It’s
not hard to see why our son would be prey to scams like this, either,” Dan went
on. “Clay hasn’t ever dated much. He isn’t the kind who’s familiar with women
and their schemes. He’s always been close to his mother.”
    “Too
close perhaps,” Margaret said through pursed lips, “but there certainly hasn’t
been anyone else in his life.”
    “Have
the police researched our son carefully?” Dan stepped in. “He’s always been a
complete gentleman, had the best grades in school, graduated top of his class, amazing
writer, editor of the school paper. He’s quiet and thoughtful - and now this! Here
he is in the middle of a sordid situation with a young woman we never even
knew. I doubt he even knew her.”
    “Oh,
he knew her alright,” Margaret chimed in. “I’ve seen the photos of them
together on the web.”
    Dan
scraped his throat roughly. “Well, they may have gotten together in this hotel
for a few hours for nefarious reasons. But that’s it.”
    “Like
what?” Margaret resented that.
    “Sex,
dear,” he said. “The girl probably lured Clay in for reasons of her own, a romp
in the sack. With a high price to pay.”
    “Not
Clay,” Margaret said bitterly as two red spots rose on her face.
    “Clay
and Kate just became engaged,” Cindy said quietly. “They were planning a life
together. She announced it to all her friends.” Cindy felt a need to protect
Kate’s memory, to keep her from being reviled from those who would have become
her new family, her future in-laws.
     “Engaged?”
Margaret’s voice grew shrill. “Clay would never have become engaged to someone
without asking what I thought of her. He just wouldn’t. That’s not Clay.”
    “Sometimes
we don’t know our own children or the ones we’re closest to,” said Cindy.
    Dan
would have none of that.  “Preposterous, both Margaret and I know our son
thoroughly.  We have an excellent relationship. I see Clay every day, he works
for me. There is nothing hidden between us. Nothing at all.”
    “Have
you seen Clay here yet?” Cindy asked softly.
    “Of
course we have,” Margaret burst in. “He’s not himself, but how could he be? He’s
confused, rambling, imagining things. Keeps saying how much Kate loved him. I
said, Kate who? He said Kate, Kate, and opened the computer to show me her
picture online, and all the messages they’d sent and received.
    “I
looked at her and said who is she Clay? She’s a stranger to me,” said Margaret.
“Then he looked at me and said look at the pictures of us together, Kate loved
me. It was positively horrifying.”
    “I
can only imagine,” said Cindy.
    “Clay
told us that Kate’s family hired private detectives to find out more about how
she died,” Dan interjected.
    “Yes,
they did,” said Cindy, “that’s understandable, isn’t it?”
    “No,
it isn’t,” said Margaret. “What have detectives got to do with this?”
    “Either
the girl jumped on her own, or she