Читать книгу Proof - Justine Davis - Страница 10

Odd, Alex thought. She believed Kayla, trusted her suspicions. Or perhaps not odd; after all, it had never been Kayla’s intelligence or abilities that had been in question, only her judgment.

The judgment of a teenage girl, Alex reminded herself. And only her judgment about men.

That teenage Kayla, in hot-blooded anger and at the height of their dispute over just that, had said Alex could never understand how she felt about Mike because Alex would never climb down off her high horse long enough to let a man get close to her.

Alex had been stung, painfully, that of all people her closest friend would throw that accusation at her. Strangers had often assumed she was a snob before they’d even met her, simply because she was a Forsythe and had the Forsythe millions behind her. She’d developed a reserve because of it, which had in turn fed the image. But she’d never thought to hear it from a friend. Let alone her best friend.

Besides, she’d proven Kayla wrong. She and Emerson would be married…sometime. He’d been pressing her for a date, but she’d continued to put him off. Something always seemed to get in the way—her work, his work, something. She had a heavy caseload this month, he had a big operation scheduled, or a trip for a consultation the next month. Something always interfered. Their mothers had both threatened to intervene and take over, but fortunately so far she and Emerson had managed to stave that off.

But she had never expected anything like this to be the roadblock. She couldn’t even begin to think about a wedding with Rainy gone like this, and her death shrouded in inconsistencies and suspicions. And if that gave Alex a vague sense of relief, she didn’t dwell on it now.

Kayla had been wrong, of course.

And then, for the first time in years, the rest of what her fellow Cassandra had said came back to her.

Unless you happen to find a guy who’s on as high a horse as you are, Kayla had added, just before she’d slammed the phone down on the last conversation they would have for a very long time.

Alex’s mouth tightened. Emerson certainly rode a high horse, and she had no doubt he was exactly the kind of guy Kayla had been referring to. His family was one of the oldest and wealthiest in Virginia, almost in the Forsythe stratosphere, as Kayla had called it.

She had been teasing then. At least, Alex always thought she had been. But in the end the bitterness all came out, as if it had been too long bottled up, and a friendship that was as close as sisterhood had been shattered. Alex had always hoped they might someday heal the breach, but neither of them had ever made the move.

And now they had to deal with each other. In a sad way, Rainy had brought them together again, as she had all those years ago.

Christine was still out when Alex returned to her bungalow. Alex paced, trying to decide whether to call her and risk interrupting an interview.

“She’s probably got her phone off,” Alex told herself aloud as she crossed the small but comfortable living room. Christine had lived here since the beginning of Athena, and she’d made a warm, welcoming home out of what could easily have been cold, impersonal staff housing.

Not for the first time Alex wondered at how thoroughly Christine, an attractive, vibrant woman, had given herself to Athena. She seemed to have no life outside the school, and dedicated herself to the students completely. Alex had often wondered if she herself would ever feel so passionately about anything.

Now she knew. Because the need to find the truth about Rainy’s death was consuming her. And that was a bottom line she knew Christine would understand. She made the call, just in case the principal was finished and on her way back, but as she’d expected got her voice mail. She spelled out the situation quickly, as much as she felt safe doing over a cell-phone call, and told Christine what she planned to do. She knew Christine would okay her next step.

Unfortunately, Christine had the master keys with her. She kept them on hand at all times, just in case.

“I’m going to be a B and E master before this is over,” she muttered. This was putting her lock-picking and breaking-and-entering skills to the test. It was a good thing she’d brought her picks along with her other gear.

But since there was no other way in, and she knew she’d never be able to wait until Christine returned with her master keys, she checked to make sure she had the necessary tools and headed out for the science building, which held the small medical facility. While lock picking wasn’t one of the skills she’d honed at the bureau, her lessons at Athena weren’t that long ago.

At least here if she was caught, the worst she’d face would be explaining to Betsy Stone, Athena Academy’s nurse, what she was doing. The woman could be a bit territorial about her domain. But Betsy hadn’t yet returned from the term break, although according to Christine she was due in later today. Alex would be able to talk to her then about Rainy’s “appendectomy.”

I wonder if Betsy is still as determinedly blond as ever, she thought as she walked around to the rear doors that opened into the hallway just outside the entrance to the small infirmary.

Nearing fifty now, the nurse had been at Athena since the beginning, like Christine. She, however, was much harder to get to know. Alex knew Christine’s former army commander, Lieutenant General Snyder, had sent Betsy to Athena, and it seemed to have worked well for all concerned. Betsy didn’t inspire the kind of loyalty that Christine did, but her frank manner and easy competence earned her respect.