Chapter Nineteen

"Any leftover shrimp?" I hear a familiar voice ask. Then I feel his arms go around my waist and his lips on my neck.

I smile and look back to see Gavin behind me. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the party."

"I was there a couple hours. That's long enough." He turns me around, keeping me in his arms, and kisses me.

"We're not supposed to do that in the kitchen."

"Says who?"

"Carol. If she caught us, she'd probably fire me. "

"She can't fire you. She works for my parents, so if I tell her I want to kiss you, she has to go along with it."

"Not if it makes your mom mad. I don't think she'd be too happy seeing us make out in her kitchen."

"She doesn't care. The fact that I'm here means she gets to see her son."

"Have you seen her tonight?"

"I saw her just now on my way to the kitchen."

"Does she know you drove all the way here to see me?"

"I didn't come out and say that but I'm sure she knows that's the reason. I don't normally drive over an hour on a weeknight to see my parents."

"And what did she say? I mean, when she saw you here?"

He laughs a little. "I don't know. I can't remember. Why all the questions about my mom?"

I shrug. "No reason."

"Did my mom say something to you?"

"Um, no." I glance away. "Not really."

"Kate." He waits for my eyes to return to his. "Tell me what she said. Was it about us?"

"Gavin, there you are. I—" Celeste stops mid-sentence when she sees me in Gavin's arms. "Oh. I'm terribly sorry. I thought you came in here to get a soda."

"I did." He lets me go and turns to her. "But I also came to find Kate."

She forces out a smile. "You two are so darling together. Can't spend a minute apart. I was just telling Kate what a lovely girl she is and how I'm so happy the two of you are together."

Lies. Nothing but lies. I want to call her out on her lying but that would just make Celeste hate me even more.

"We are happy," Gavin says, pulling me into his side. He kisses my head. "Kate's made me happier than I can even describe."

His mom coughs a little. "My throat seems to have a little tickle. I think I need some water."

"I'll get it." Gavin takes a glass from the cupboard behind me as Celeste glares at me. I glare right back.

"Here you go," Gavin says, handing her the water.

"Thank you." She takes a sip of it, then sets it down and waves him over to her. "Come, Gavin. I want to introduce you to Mr. Cavenaugh. He's a friend of your father's and a major contributor to the campaign."

"I'm not really here to work tonight."

"Politics never takes a day off, Gavin. You know that better than anyone. Now would you come with me, please?"

"Go ahead," I tell him. "I have to get back to work anyway."

He gives me a quick kiss. "I'll come find you later." And then he takes off with his mom.

When Gavin asked me what his mom said, I never answered, which means there's a chance he'll ask me again. If he does, what do I say? I don't want to start a war between his mom and him. Maybe it's best if I just keep quiet. Besides, Niles knows his wife is giving me a hard time. Maybe he can convince her to back off and be nice to me.

"Kate, you need to get those pastries out there, pronto," Carol says, racing past me.

"Yeah, I'm going," I say, picking up my tray.

Luckily, tonight is just a cocktail party. It's going on longer than it was supposed to but at least it's not followed by a dinner. In another hour, I'll be able to go home and take a hot shower. With Gavin. My mind wanders to an image of that.

"What is taking so long?" I hear Carol's voice and snap out of my dreamy state to find her standing next to me, her hands on her hips. "Is this because Gavin showed up? You're too flustered to work now?"

"No. Of course not." I hurry to finish transferring the pastries from the baking sheet to the tray. "See? Done." I hold the tray up to her.

She rolls her eyes. "This is why you never mix business with pleasure. The business side always suffers."

"Sorry. I'll get out there." I try to go around her but she stops me and takes my tray.

"I'll have Mia do it. You're too out of it to serve the guests. I don't want you spilling on someone, or worse, spilling on the furniture. Celeste has warned me repeatedly that I'll be paying for any damages to the house or the furnishings."

"What a bitch," I mutter, then quickly cover my mouth. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud."

Carol's lips tilt up just the slightest bit, but then her serious look returns and her posture straightens. "We need more ice. Can you go to the pool house and get some? There's a bag in the freezer."

"Sure."

Carol adjusts the tray in her hand, then quickly walks out of the kitchen to the party.

I seriously need to get it together. If I keep letting myself get distracted by Gavin, I'm going to lose my job. Good thing Carol is in a decent mood today. Normally she'd scold me for daydreaming. She didn't even scold me for calling Celeste a bitch, probably because she agrees with me.

It's a chilly night and I shiver a little as I make my way to the pool house. It's a long walk. I have to go all the way around the pool, then follow a long sidewalk to the small house. There are lights on the outside of it but they aren't turned on so it's hard to see. I find the door handle and once I'm inside I flip on the lights, both interior and exterior, but find that the exterior ones are burnt out. Great. I'll probably trip trying to carry the bag of ice back to the house. At least the patio lights are on, helping to light some of the path.

I find the twenty-pound bag in the freezer and yank it out, then walk back to the door and turn the lights off.

"Stand back," I hear a man say as I come out the door. I freeze, not sure if he's talking to me or someone else.

I'm about to ask but then hear another man speaking. "You lied to me." He sounds drunk, his words slurred. "You said I wouldn't get caught. And now they're after me."

"I told you, we'll deal with it," the other man says. He sounds familiar but I'm not sure who it is. As a server, I overhear so many conversations that it's impossible to identify who's talking.

"You said that last time!" the drunk guy yells. "You said you'd take care of it but you didn't!" I see a shadow in the distance, the man stumbling forward. "You lied! All of you! You rich fucking bastards!"

"Quiet!" the other man says. I see his shadow stepping up to the man. "You knew the rules. Why didn't you follow the goddamn rules?"

"What rules?" The man scratches his head, his movements rapid and fidgety, like he's on something. "I don't know what that means."

"It means you made a mistake by coming here tonight. What were you thinking, coming to my house? Interrupting my party? My guests?"

His house? So the mystery man is Niles? Now that I think about it, it does kind of sound like him.

"No!" I hear the drunk man say as he stumbles back, putting his hands up. "Mr. Bishop, please, I didn't mean to—"

"My guests don't like being interrupted. You know how quick tempered those men are. That's why there's a rule forbidding people like you from being around us."

"Yes. Of course. I understand. I'll leave. I'll...I'll leave right now." He turns and starts running off.

"Too late," Niles says. I see his arm raise. He's holding something in his hand.

I hear a loud pop.

The drunk man falls to his knees.

Wait—what just happened? Was that a gun in Niles' hand? Did he just shoot that man?

That can't be right. Niles wouldn't do that. But then why did that man fall down? And what was in Niles' hand?

The drunk man is mumbling something, whimpering as he tries to crawl away on the grass. Niles slowly walks up to him. His arm raises again, and this time I can see what he's holding. It's definitely a gun. And it's aimed directly over the man's back, over his heart.

I need to do something. Run out there and stop him. But I can't. I'm frozen in place. Too stunned to move. Am I really seeing this? How is this possible? Why would Niles do this?

I hear another loud pop. Another shot going off. But it's not as loud as it should be. There must be a silencer attached to the gun.

The drunk man collapses to the ground. His body doesn't move and his mumbling has stopped.

Oh my God, he's dead!

A loud thud startles me but I ignore it, my eyes still on Niles. He suddenly turns and looks in my direction.

"Who's there?" he calls out.

I'm frozen in place, afraid to move or make even the slightest sound. I start shivering from the cold night air and the ice that I'm holding. Except I'm no longer holding the ice. I look down and see the bag next to my feet. That must've been the loud thud I heard. I dropped the bag. And Niles heard it fall. That's why he looked over here. But does he know I'm the one who dropped it? It's dark so maybe he can't tell it's me.

"Niles!" someone yells from the house. It's a deep voice. I can't see who it is but it's someone tall and wide. I can see the outline of him in the door.

"Yes." Niles looks away from me and turns to whoever was calling him. "I'm coming."

When he's gone, I hurry back to the house and sneak in the side entrance. The kitchen is empty and I shiver again, this time from fear not the cold.

What did I just see? Did Niles really kill that guy?

Gavin told me his dad is opposed to guns. It's even on his freaking campaign ads! So why the hell does he have a gun? And why is he shooting someone in his back yard? With a party going on just a few feet away?

"Where's the ice?" I hear Carol ask. I look up and see her hurrying to get something from the fridge.

"I um..." Do I tell her what happened? I have to. A man has been just shot and I'm almost positive he's dead. So what am I doing just standing here? I need to call the police!

"So?" Carol asks, coming over to me. "Where's the ice? Are we out? Because I could've sworn there was a bag left in the freezer out there."

"Yeah, there... there was..." I'm stammering, my mind racing, my heart pounding.

I feel Carol's hand on my shoulder. "Kate, is something wrong?"

My eyes meet up with hers and I suddenly wonder if I can trust her. I wonder if she knows things she's not telling me. Does she know the truth about Niles? That he owns a gun? That he's a killer? She's always telling me to stay away from Gavin. Is this the reason why? Because she knows the truth about his father?

No. Of course not. She couldn't possibly know. She wouldn't work for someone if she knew he was capable of murder. And what if tonight was the first time Niles had done that? Although the way he shot that gun, it didn't look he'd never done it before. He had perfect aim and shot to kill, not to injure.

"Kate." I hear his voice and a chill goes through me. "There you are." I turn and see Niles walking toward me, a big grin on his face.

My eyes do a search of his white dress shirt, his tie, his designer suit. There's not a single speck of blood. How is that possible?

Carol smiles at him. "Mr. Bishop. I hope everything met your expectations this evening."

"It certainly did." He puts his hand on her shoulder. "As always, you did a wonderful job. Celeste and I are very pleased."

 "That's good to hear." Carol continues to smile at Niles.

He keeps his eyes on hers. "If you don't mind, I need to speak with Kate. Celeste and I are trying to decide what to do for Gavin's birthday this year. And given that Kate is such a big part of his life now, we wanted to include her in the planning."

"I'll let you two talk." She gives us both a smile, then returns to the party.

I want to yell at her to come back. To protect me from Niles. But it's too late. She's gone, leaving me alone with Niles.

"Kate." He puts his hand on my arm and my muscles tense.

"Yes, Mr. Bishop?" I hear my quivering voice and clear my throat. "Sorry, I mean, Niles." I nervously laugh. "About Gavin's party, I was talking to your wife earlier and—"

"This isn't about the party," he says, gripping my arm. "This is about what happened outside just now."

"I...I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play games with me, Kate. I know it was you. I saw you by the pool house. I saw you drop the ice."

I swallow. "Mr. Bishop. I...I really don't know—"

"Quiet!" He grips my arm even harder.

I'm trying to breathe but my heart's beating so fast I'm gasping for breath.

"Listen to me," he says. "Are you listening?"

I nod and manage to say, "My arm. You're hurting me."

He eases his grip on my arm just a little. "That man you saw out there...he was a criminal. Been in and out of prison his whole life. He's been out on parole for a few months now and been trying to blackmail me for money."

"Blackmailing you how?" I ask, trying to pull my arm from his grasp but it just makes him hold on tighter.

"He claimed to have photos of me and some woman. It's a complete lie. I've never once cheated on Celeste. I told him that but he said the photos show a man similar enough to me to make people believe it actually is me. If I didn't give him two million dollars, he threatened to give the photos to the press. Ruin my political career. And my marriage."

He's lying. The conversation I heard before Niles killed that man never mentioned, or even hinted, that blackmail was involved. I don't know what exactly the two of them were talking about but it had to do with more than just Niles. He kept saying 'they' and mentioned something about rules.

"Blackmail isn't a reason to kill someone," I say, my voice shaky. "Rich people get blackmailed all the time. You could've gone to the police and told them what was going on."

"And have that story in the press just before the election?" he scoffs. "You obviously know nothing about politics."

"So you killed him to save your political career?"

He narrows his eyes at me. "Don't even attempt to assume you know what's going on here. You have no idea what that man has put me through. He didn't just demand money. He also threatened my family if I didn't pay up. He was determined to get that money by whatever means necessary. Even if it meant killing my son."

He's trying to scare me. Trying to make me think Gavin's life was in danger. Trying to defend what he did. But I see right through his lies. He's giving himself away. His pupils are dilated. He keeps glancing to the side. All signs of a liar. All things my father taught me.

"That's not what it sounded like," I say. "When I heard you talking to that man, it didn't sound like he was blackmailing you."

As soon as I say it, I regret it. I want the truth, but confronting a murderer is not the way to get it. I know better than that. I've listened to my dad talk about his cases and I know for a fact he would never do what I just did. He'd go along with whatever the killer says and then get out.

Niles smirks. "What did it sound like? What exactly did you hear me say?"

"I don't—" I stop and clear my throat. "Actually, I couldn't really hear. I was far away so I really only caught a few words."

He grins. "Then I take that to mean you understand my dilemma. You understand that I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands."

I nod. "Yes, I understand."

"And you understand that this is not a matter for the police, correct?"

I nod again. "Yes."

He inhales a deep breath through his nose and lets it out, then leans in close to my face. "And most importantly, you understand that this must be kept confidential. Telling someone would only cause more problems. For both of us.  And I don't believe either of us wants that. I certainly don't. How about you, Kate?"

I swallow. "No. Of course not." I try to back away but the counter is behind me.

"Very well, then. I think we're done here." He straightens up, finally giving me some space. "For your own sense of well-being I think it would be wise for you to forget what you saw tonight and never speak of this again."

I just nod.

He smiles. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."

He turns and walks away.

I'm shivering again and when I rub my hands over my arms, I feel that they're cold as ice. The rest of my body is numb from shock, but my mind is racing.

What am I going to do? I saw a man get killed tonight. I saw who did it. Can I really keep that a secret?

Do I have a choice?