Adventures in Funeral Crashing (20 page)

I was trying to think of a way out of the
store. Vanessa was nuts, whether she was Jenna or Vanessa or
whoever. Where was Anne? I glanced toward the office. I hoped she
wasn’t dead. She was the best boss I’d ever had, even though she
had been my only one.

“I didn’t even want to kill them,” Vanessa
continued, “I tried to warn them. You and I are meant to be
together. I told them to stop dating you, but they just couldn’t.
They wouldn’t listen. So, I had to kill them to get them to stay
away from you. I love you.”

Vanessa was looking at Troy like she was
hoping he’d declare his love for her. I was hoping he would too, so
that maybe Vanessa would fall into his arms and I could make a
break for the door. Instead, to my surprise, Ethan burst into the
video store, and ran straight for Troy.

It was an amazing tackle. Ethan flew through
the air and took Troy down to the ground. Troy didn’t know what hit
him. He smacked his head on the ground and was gone to the
world.

It was then that Ethan looked up and got a
real handle on the situation. Vanessa was shocked, but still
holding the gun and it was pointed straight at Ethan.

Ethan looked at me, “I guess I was
wrong.”

“Uh-huh. I wasn’t quite right either. Ethan
meet Vanessa,” I managed.

Vanessa snapped out of it. “Well, this
complicates things. I guess I’ll just have to kill you all.”

I was tempted to say, ‘You’ll never get away
with it,’ but she had already gotten away with four murders, so
what was four more? I wondered if we were all about to OD on heroin
too or if she was just going to shoot us.

Ethan asked the question for me, “What are
you going to do?”

“I was just going to shoot Kait and have Troy
kill himself, but I do have another needle on me, so maybe I’ll
inject Kait, shoot you, and then have Troy shoot himself. Oh, the
options. I just have to make it look realistic,” Vanessa seemed to
be pondering her choices. “Troy’s going to be my fall man.”

“I thought you loved him,” I managed to
say.

Vanessa looked at me with cold, hard eyes. “I
do love him but if I can’t have him, nobody can. Besides, I can’t
be the one looking guilty and Troy knew all the girls. Mystery
solved. Police happy. All of you, dead. Me, safe.”

Ethan looked at me. I looked back at him.
What were we supposed to do? I mean, you couldn’t rationalize with
a psychopathic killer who it seems had already decided to kill us
all.

“Where to start, where to start,” Vanessa was
pointing the gun between us.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do at this point.
My first instinct had been to bolt, but how was I supposed to get
myself, Ethan, potentially Anne if she was still alive and in the
back room, and an unconscious Troy out of the video store alive
without Vanessa shooting anyone? It was impossible and yet I had to
do something. That is until Ethan distracted me.

“Kait, will you go to Homecoming with me?”
Ethan shouted, out of nowhere.

Vanessa and I both turned to look at him,
surprised.

“W-w-what I stammered?” I couldn’t quite
grasp the question. Was he actually asking me to Homecoming even
though we were both going to die? What was the point? Wait, did he
like me and this was his way of showing it? Was I getting some sort
of weird dying wish? This was surreal.

“Will you go to Homecoming with me?” Ethan
shouted again.

Vanessa was looking between us, indecisively.
I didn’t know what to say. I mean, was he really serious? And, was
Ethan on crack? We were about to die here. How could I go to
Homecoming with him? We had more important things to think about,
“Uh, Ethan…”

Vanessa swung the gun toward me and then I
saw her eyes flicker to the storefront window.

“Kait, will you go to Homecoming with me?”
Ethan yelled again.

I ignored him, he had obviously cracked under
the pressure, and followed Vanessa’s gaze to the storefront window.
What was she looking at?

Ethan yelled again, “Vanessa, over here! Duck
Kait, duck!”

And, I meant to, but then the explosions
began. Vanessa fired. I hit the ground with a searing pain in my
shoulder. Oh my God. Had I been shot? Was this better or worse than
dying of a heroin overdose? I would never get to tell Ethan I liked
him. Did he really just ask me to Homecoming? Or was he asking
Vanessa? Why would he ask Vanessa, though? She was about to shoot
him or inject him with heroin. Life had been very confusing. Sleep,
I just needed to sleep.

I think I was unconscious for only a minute
before my eyes snapped open. I had to get the fuck out of the
store. I couldn’t die. I mean, Ethan had maybe just asked me to
Homecoming. My shoulder was aching with excruciating pain as I
managed to crawl out from behind the counter.

The scene had totally changed. Detective
Dixon was handcuffing Vanessa. There was blood all over her jeans.
Had she been shot too? Police were everywhere. Ethan was on the
ground looking in my direction, and gesturing frantically to the
police officer talking to him. Troy was still out cold and there
was a paramedic attending to him.

“My boss is in the back!” I yelled and saw a
police officer head toward the back office.

Another officer headed toward me, “Are you
okay? You’re bleeding! We need a paramedic over here!”

Then, miraculously, Ethan was there too,
holding me, and I gladly passed out in his arms.

The first thing I remember was thinking, did
Ethan really ask me to Homecoming? And then I realized I was in the
hospital with a stiff bandage on my chest and my upper arm. My
shoulder was killing me.

Ethan was sitting up looking at me, “Your dad
just went to the cafeteria. I’ll go get him.”

“No,” I managed to say.

“Are you sure?” he asked, concerned.

I nodded, “I just feel a little weird.”

Ethan smiled, “Getting shot will do that to
you.”

“You talked to my dad?” I asked.

Ethan’s smile broadened, “Yeah.”

That was totally brain shattering. Maybe it
was good that I was knocked out for that one. I couldn’t imagine
what my dad would have said to Ethan. I just hoped they were
getting along.

“What happened?” I moaned, putting my healthy
hand to my head.

Ethan took that hand in his, surprising me,
“I’m assuming you mean with the whole getting shot thing.”

I nodded, still feeling his hand in mine and
not wanting anything to change that wonderful feeling.

Ethan continued, “When I got your text, I
freaked. I thought you really had asked Troy to meet you so that
you could interrogate him some more.”

“But…” I started to say, wanting him to know
what really happened. It occurred to me that his reacting that way
was almost…jealous. No. He had to have been just concerned for my
safety and my brain must be acting weird from painkillers or
something.

Ethan stopped me, “Now, I know you were just
egging me on. Still, you have to admit, you do have a bad habit of
side stepping me and doing what you want, after all. So, I thought
you did something impulsive.”

I smiled. He knew me well. He smiled back at
me and then frowned as he continued to tell the story, “Anyway, I
was so convinced Troy was the killer. I thought you were putting
yourself in danger again. I yelled at Detective Dixon, I was so
panicked, and then I ran out of the office.”

I smiled at the thought of Ethan chewing out
the detective. Detective Dixon deserved to get yelled at, even if
he had ended up saving us. He could have saved us all this trouble
by believing us in the first place.

Ethan continued, “When I got to the video
store, I could see you and Troy through the window. You looked as
white as a ghost. I called nine-one-one, saw an opportunity, barged
in, and knocked Troy out.”

I smiled and Ethan looked sheepish, “How was
I supposed to know Jenna or Vanessa or whoever she is was in there
pointing a gun at the both of you?”

“True,” I nodded.

“Then I saw the cops outside. I tried to
distract Vanessa. I didn’t want her to see them because, well, who
knew what she would do then. She was already getting set to shoot
us,” Ethan explained.

“So, you didn’t really mean to ask me to
Homecoming?” I asked. I had to know, you know, just in case I
needed to go and buy a dress.

Ethan smiled at me. “I thought it was a good
distraction.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling a little sad, because
it would have been nice if Ethan kind of meant to ask me to
Homecoming, even though he thought we were about to die at the
time. “And, then the police came in?”

“Guns blazing. Vanessa knocked off that shot
at you and then they took her down, shot her in the leg, and
everything,” Ethan squeezed my hand. “I was really scared that she
shot you in the chest when you went down so fast. I thought we were
all going to die in the crossfire.”

I felt suddenly panicked. I had been so
self-absorbed, “Oh my God, what happened to Troy? Is Anne
okay?”

Ethan smiled wickedly, “Troy is in the next
room with a concussion. He is being nursed back to health by Ariel
Walker.”

“What?” I was incredulous. “Are you kidding
me?”

Ethan shook his head chuckling, “No. She saw
us on the news, called my cell phone repeatedly until I answered,
and demanded to know where we were.”

“Wow, that girl moves fast. She was just
asking me for the dirt about him this morning. I knew she wouldn’t
give up,” I shook my head in wonder.

“Ariel did check in on you too, you know. I
don’t know what happened between the two of you and why you stopped
being friends, but I can tell you that she didn’t want you to die,”
Ethan said trying to joke about a serious subject.

“Well, I guess that’s something,” I
smirked.

Ethan frowned as if he had some bad news.
“Anne is in intensive care.”

“What?” I jumped and felt a pain shoot
through my shoulder.

Ethan tried to soothe me, “She’s going to be
okay. Vanessa had already pumped her full of drugs. She’s in detox
and they want to make sure there will be no lasting effects. Anne’s
really lucky. The dose wasn’t high enough.”

“Wow, I hope she’ll be okay,” I said. I
really liked Anne and I wanted to keep my job at the video store,
at least until I graduated high school.

Ethan squeezed my hand, “I know she will
be.”

“It’s just so crazy,” I said and then gulped,
but I had to ask, “What happened to Vanessa?”

“Well, she’s in the hospital too,” Ethan
started and then noticing my alarm, squeezed my hand to let me know
that there was more to tell, “They had to give her medical
attention for her leg, but she’s under armed guard. She isn’t going
anywhere, except to jail, for life I hope.”

“Good,” I said adamantly and then I was
curious. “Is she really Vanessa or Jenna?”

“From the gossip I heard at the nurse’s
station, they don’t know for sure yet. The girls switched all the
time as kids, so it is totally possible that she really is Vanessa,
like she said and that Jenna’s actually dead. They just can’t take
her word for it. She’s totally insane. They’re going to take a
blood test, though, and try to figure it all out,” Ethan said.

“Wow,” It was hard to wrap my mind around.
“So, Vanessa or whoever did all of this because of Troy? Some kind
of fatal attraction?”

Ethan nodded, “Looks like.”

I frowned, “But why kill her sister
then?”

Ethan looked sad for a moment, “Well, and
this is all just a theory right now, it looks like Jenna found out
about Vanessa’s obsession with Troy and suspected Vanessa. Then
Vanessa also needed a way to escape suspicion. It was convenient
for her to kill Jenna.”

“Wow,” I said again. It was so sad and
surreal.

Ethan continued, “Yeah, they found Jenna’s
diary and pieced things together from that, my statement, and from
what Vanessa’s been saying. They’re talking to Suzie right now.
They’re going to want to talk to you too when you’re up for
it.”

“Yeah, definitely. So, what do they think
happened then?” I asked.

Ethan took a deep breath, “Well, it looks
like Jenna told Liz that day at the animal shelter adoption that
she thought Vanessa was messing with her regarding Troy and that
Vanessa was obsessed with him.”

“So, that’s why Liz was planning to go see
Troy that night,” I interrupted.

Ethan nodded, “Yeah, she really didn’t think
he was cheating on her anymore. Anyway, it looks like while Jenna
was telling Liz everything, Vanessa was trying to get to Liz first
to tell her that Jenna was the crazy one, by emailing and calling.
Vanessa failed because Liz hadn’t checked her email and had her
cell off. Then Jenna went home early and confronted Vanessa and
told her that she had told Liz everything. And, also that Liz and
Troy were getting back together. Or, at least that’s what the
police think happened. Although, their mom definitely confirmed the
twins had a fight.”

“Oh God,” I said, knowing what was coming
next.

Ethan paused for a moment, collecting
himself, and then continued, “So, Vanessa did what she had to do.
She waited for Liz down the street from Troy’s house, flagged her
down, and killed her. Vanessa thought it was done because the
police thought it was just another overdose, but it wasn’t over
with because you and I discovered that email tying Vanessa to
Liz.”

“She knew because you emailed her about it,”
I filled in.

“Yeah,” Ethan said, “So, Vanessa killed Jenna
to cover her tracks and then pretended to be Jenna, while making
the world think Vanessa was dead. But, then we kept investigating.
And, Vanessa knew you were about to be onto her again after the
whole Troy thing and catching her in the lie about who dated Troy,
so then her plan was to kill you and frame him. Besides, she
thought he might actually like you.”