Page 60 of She Doesn't Have a Clue
“Your aunt seems in the habit of denying most things,” Kate murmured, thinking of her heated exchange with Kennedy’s cousin. “What about Cassidy? It must be so hard for her, being cut out of the will entirely.”
“Oh, Cass.” Kennedy sighed, shaking her head. “I love her so much, really I do, but sometimes I wish she’d just… pull herself together. I know her dad basically cut her off, but she really did rack up an impressive amount of debt in a shocking amount of time. I tried to talk her out of it, you know. The food truck. I told her start smaller, work in a kitchen, get your feet under you before branching out on your own. But I think she was just so fixated on the Hempstead idea of making your own way in the world. It’s kind of been hammered into us since childhood. I’m worried she thinks she can talk Auntie R into letting her into the will, that she’s banking on getting her inheritance back to pay off the loans to keep her business afloat.” Kennedy shook her head sadly. “But Auntie R has taken such a hard line with the inheritance fund. And once the historical society deal goes through, well… I suppose that’s it for the Hempstead family fortune. I’ll be fine, I never really wanted to play the pampered heir and I’ve got savings from my mom. But Richie and Cassidy… I worry about them.”
Which brought Kate’s suspicions back around to Richie, Steven, and Cassidy. The three people who stood to lose the most if Rebecca gave away the family trust.
“Kennedy—” Kate started, pausing with a frown. “Do you smell that?”
“Smell what?” Kennedy asked, scrunching up her nose. “Wait, is that…”
“Smoke!” Kate said, peering into the depths of the crowded room.The furniture was so musty and the lights so dim she’d hardly noticed it at first, but now there were greasy black plumes obscuring the lamps and choking the air in the crowded space. The lamps popped and buzzed, unused to the surges of electricity pulsing through them, and Kate wondered if they’d even been used in the last century.
“We need to get out of here!” Kate cried, as Kennedy inexplicably moved toward the source of the smoke. “Kennedy, what are you doing?”
“The entire estate is made of hundred-year-old timber,” Kennedy said, pulling a blanket off a nearby armoire with a flair. Kate had the inexplicable thought that Kennedy would make an excellent magician’s assistant. “The lights must have short-circuited, and this room is full of dry old fabric. If we don’t stop the fire, the house will burn.”
Kate looked longingly toward the door, so close and yet so far. Kennedy was right; this whole place would go up like a box of loose matches if they didn’t stop the fire. Not that she wouldn’t mind shutting down this Haunted Mansion ride, but if it were going to burn she’d prefer it wait until she was well off the island.
“Kennedy, wait,” Kate said, struggling with a heavy tarp. She didn’t have nearly the same grace as Kennedy, but what she lacked in finesse she made up for in strength. She gathered it in her arms, hauling it toward the far end of the room where Kennedy was already beating at the smoky flames eating through what was probably a priceless antique.
Together they managed to smother the flames before they spread to the rest of the room, but they couldn’t stop the noxious smoke that gusted out each time they flapped their blankets, smothering the air and settling heavily in their lungs. Kate remembered reading about how most victims don’t die by fire, but rather through smoke inhalation, the hot ash irreparably damaging their esophagus. She coughed, her throat feeling ragged.
“We have to get out of here,” Kate rasped, sure that she could already feel her throat muscles disintegrating. She tugged at Kennedy’s arm as the smoke billowed out, burning her eyes and filling the room with black soot. Kennedy’s dress was ruined, not that that would matter if they suffocated. “Kennedy, the fire is out, but the smoke will kill us!”
“Okay,” Kennedy said, giving the smoldering ruin of a stuffed armchair one last vigorous smothering. Smoke burst upward and Kate cowered back, but the smoke didn’t come for her. Instead, it seemed to get sucked away, toward the wall. Kate’s eyes were streaming and she could barely see, but she could swear there was a crack in the wall. Another secret opening.
“Hey!” someone shouted from the far side of the room, and Juliette Winters stood on the threshold, waving away the smoke. “What the hell is going on?”
“There was a fire,” Kate said, and even she knew how stupid it sounded.
“Afire,” Juliette repeated as Kate led Kennedy through the mess of furniture and ducked out into the hall, both of them coughing. “So now you’re resorting to arson?”
“No!” Kate yelped, which sounded way guiltier than she wanted it to. “I was just getting Kennedy somewhere safe and dry while they fixed the window.”
“They covered the window several minutes ago,” Juliette said, still glaring at her. “Which you would know, if you hadn’t kidnapped Kennedy and held her hostage in here. What did she try to do to you, Ken?”
“Oh, Juliette, don’t be silly,” Kennedy said, before dissolving into another fit of coughing. “Kate and I were just talking and one of the lamps shorted out from the power surge. It’s a good thing we were in there, to be honest. If we hadn’t been, we might not have caught the fire in time. We should send someone to check the rest of the house. We didn’t include the lights and wiring in the latest round of restorations.”
The lights buzzed low and sputtered back at half their power, as if to prove Kennedy’s point. Kennedy sighed as she looked up at them, her hair in disarray and her dress streaked in gray and black. Still, even with the damage, she looked like a movie version of someone in a disaster, a single smudge on her face only highlighting the curve of her cheekbone. Kate didn’t imagine she looked so glamorously disheveled.
“We’ll have to delay the ceremony,” Kennedy said, her voice small and sad. “Spencer will be crushed.”
“We’re not delaying anything,” Juliette said, giving Kate a hard look. “You’re getting married today, andno oneis stopping it. Come on, I can fix you up in two minutes.”
“Really, Juliette,” Kennedy started, but Juliette took her hand possessively and mouthed something threating that Kate didn’t quite catch. Which was probably just as well.
“No arguments,” Juliette said, leading Kennedy back toward the ceremony room. “You’re getting married right now.”
“Okay, let’s get married!” Kennedy cheered. But even she couldn’t maintain her usual cheer in the face of such a tumultuous weekend. Kate could only hope they could get her to the altar unscathed. Because she was almost positive it hadn’t been the lights that started the fire, even though someone wanted it to look that way. Someone had used a secret passage to finish the job they’d started last night and kill Kennedy.
Chapter Thirty
Jake and the other volunteers had managed to secure the window by the time Kate returned, trailing a good distance behind Kennedy and Juliette. They’d forgone the walk down the aisle in favor of expediency, which was just as well considering the wind howling through the heavy curtains they’d hung to block the broken window. Kennedy hurried to stand beside Spencer, and Kate slipped into her place beside Jake. Spencer gave his bride’s appearance a startled look, and ripples of gossip undulated through the crowd, but Kennedy only smiled bravely and signaled for the ceremony to proceed.
“Well, better get this over with before the whole place comes crashing down,” Spencer’s cousin and current officiant shouted over the wind. The joke cracked the tension in the room, drawing surprised laughs out of everyone. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to see this man and this woman engaged in holy matrimony. The sooner the better, am I right?”
“Are you okay?” Jake whispered to Kate, taking her hand. “What the hell happened?”
“Another attempt on Kennedy’s life, I think,” Kate said grimly. “And this time I had a front-row seat. Did you notice anybody leaving after the window broke?”