It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries) (21 page)

“Hey, Riley, I
need your help to figure something out,” I said excitedly.

Putting down
the newspaper he was reading, he looked up at me expectantly.

“There is a
person sitting in the corner inside, wearing a red t-shirt, black shorts with
joggers and drinking a Grande white chocolate macchiato.” Riley gave me a look
as if to say
how the hell did I know what
they were drinking
. “I need you to tell me if it’s a man or a woman.”

Finally, this
mystery may be solved. Leaning over to look inside the shop, Riley strained to
see who I was talking about.

Grabbing his
arm and making him stand up I said, “No, no, no. You have to go and talk to
them. I pass him-her all the time and have never been able to figure it out.”

“Have you ever
tried speaking to them?” he asked.

“Of course I
have. No help there though.”

“Well, what do
you want me to do?” asked Riley, looking at me as though I was crazy.

“I don’t know. You’ll
figure it out. Go and wait for our drinks and see if he-she looks at you. Start
a conversation. I don’t care. We just have to solve this mystery,” I begged.

Sighing, Riley
walked into the coffee shop. I watched he-she as Riley moved towards them and
noticed them taking several deep breaths, obviously impressed by Riley. This
didn’t mean much though. My brother and sister had exactly the same reaction. After
a few moments, I saw Riley move closer, saying something. I noticed the person
of interest look down at their watch and then back up at Riley with a reply. I
think they actually swooned at one point. Just then the barista called our
drinks and Riley walked back out to me.

“You gave them
the killer smile didn’t you,” I said, more as a statement than a question. Handing
me my drink, Riley looked at me, eyebrow raised.

“Killer smile?”
he asked.

“Yeah, you know
the one that gets you whatever it is you want. Don’t tell me you don’t know
what I’m talking about. You understand its power perfectly well.” Riley gave me
the killer smile. “That’s the one,” I said, trying not to swoon myself. “Well,
what did you find out?” I asked.

“I have
absolutely no idea. If I had to take a guess, I’d say it’s a woman.”

“Why do you say
that?”

“Just a vibe I
got.”

“But you get
the same vibe from Danny.”

“That’s true. In
that case I have absolutely no idea.”

Chapter
Twenty One

We
spent the rest of the day at Riley’s, curled up on the couch watching DVDs. I
had so much work to get done I really should be at home, locked in the office,
but somehow sitting here next to Riley seemed like the better option. Go
figure. By the time we’d worked our way through every Jason Bourne movie
released, night had descended, my eyes were stinging and my yawning was getting
more obvious.

“Do you mind if
I go to bed?” I asked.

“Sure. I’ll
grab some clean sheets and change them for you.”

“That’s okay. I
can do that,” I said standing. “Just show me where to get them from.”

Riley stood up
and walked towards the stairs. I followed him up to his bedroom and waited
while he pulled clean sheets out of the closet. Walking over to the bed, he
started pulling off sheets. Just looking at his bed had my girl bits tingling
again. I started to wonder how many women he’d entertained here. That thought
did not sit well in my stomach, so I quickly busied myself helping him put the
clean sheets on.

We were
completely silent throughout this process and occasionally, I looked over to
Riley to see if I could figure out what he was thinking. The only light in the
room was coming from downstairs and the adjoining bathroom so I couldn’t see
enough of his features for his thoughts to be given away. When we’d finished,
he finally looked at me and smiled.

“If there’s
anything else you need, just let me know. Goodnight.” He turned his back and
walked back down the stairs.

What sort of a
statement was that, I wondered. Was there anything else I need? Well, how about
you naked? No, I didn’t think he’d respond to that too well, so I decided a
cold shower would be the best option.

Riley had
thought to leave a clean towel in the bathroom for me, so after stripping off I
stepped into his walk-in shower. The whole time I was in there, I desperately
tried not to think of all the times Riley had stood naked in this very spot.

Turning the
cold water up even higher, I stuck my head under the showerhead and closed my
eyes. These thoughts were doing me no good what so ever. I really needed to get
a grip. This was not helping.

Getting out of
the shower and away from my fantasies, I put on the least sexy pajama’s I owned
and got into bed. I must say Riley’s bed was pretty inviting, even without him
in it. It was much bigger than mine and crawling under the sheets felt like
heaven. It was extremely soft and comfortable and even though we’d changed the
sheets, I could still smell Riley on the pillow. Lying there, I could hear him
moving around down stairs, probably making up the couch to sleep on. He had the
television on low and I could hear the soundtrack to the late night news come
on. I heard him reach over, the lights went out and the TV was zapped off. Darkness
and silence descended.

It always
fascinates me how all noises are magnified in the dark. I heard the rustle of
his sheets and him fluffing up his pillow. After a few minutes of straining, I
could even hear him breathing. I really hoped he didn’t snore but I suppose I
could forgive him one flaw.

Now it was dark,
I didn’t feel anywhere near as tired as I had before. Probably the cold shower
woke me up. I lay there for what felt like ages thinking about Riley on the
couch and started to feel a bit guilty. If it weren’t for me, he’d be the one
laying in this very comfy bed.

Getting up, I
walked downstairs and moved towards the couch. I think Riley must have started
to doze off because I could hear his breathing slow and become more even. A
streetlight shone through the stained glass windows and I could see just enough
of him to stop me in my tracks. Standing over the couch, I looked down at him lying
flat on his back, head to the side and all his features totally relaxed. Wow.

I don’t know
how long I stood there watching him but he woke with a start, obviously feeling
my presence.

“Are you okay?”
he asked.

“Yes thanks,” I
answered, grateful he couldn’t see my glowing face. Sitting on the edge of the
couch, I felt Riley move his leg to make some room for me and then roll onto
his side. “I think we should change spots.”

“What do you
mean? Aren’t you comfortable up there?”

“No, no, it’s
amazingly comfy. It’s just that if it weren’t for me, you’d be the one having
the comfy sleep. So I think you should take the bed and I’ll sleep on the
couch. I’m shorter than you anyway so it won’t matter to me.” Sitting here in
the dark with Riley so close had me feeling very fluttery and shaky. I just
hoped he couldn’t sense what I was feeling.

“I’m not taking
the bed.” I could feel him smile.

“Please don’t
argue with me, Riley. You have been so kind to me ever since we met and what
have I done for you? Dragged you into some sort of mess I don’t even understand
and kicked you out of your bed. No, please, the least I can do is to be the one
to sleep on the couch.” I could feel tears start to prick the back of my
eyelids. What were they about? I don’t really know. Maybe my period was due. Yeah,
that’d be it.

Riley sat up,
probably hearing my wobbly voice and knowing I was about to cry. “Lizzie, come
here,” he reached over and pulled me in close.

I’m sure he did
this as a gesture to soothe me and I have to say it did take my mind off of my
troubles. Tucked under his arm, my cheek resting on his naked chest, I could
feel his chest hair tickle my nose. I took a deep breath in and could smell a
mixture of his aftershave, deodorant and what I can only describe as Riley’s
smell. Believe me, when I say that any thoughts I’d been having were long
forgotten. Lust was rising up in me at speeds that could break records. In
fact, between you and me, I think I just had a little orgasm.

“If you
remember, I was the one who insisted you stay here. There was no way I could
have slept tonight thinking of you alone in that house. I don’t know why this guy
is stalking you, whether it’s connected to the house or not, but I do not want
you alone until this is over.” I felt him rest his chin on my head. Not daring
to move for fear this would be over all too soon, I sat silently taking some
deep shuddery breaths.

“Thank you,”
was all I could say.

We stayed like
this for ages, so long in fact I fell asleep. I mean, it wasn’t hard. There I
was snuggled into warm, sexy Riley, feeling safe and protected—would you
have moved?

When I did wake
up, I found myself still lying on him and thankfully hadn’t drooled on him in
my sleep. Sitting up and looking around, I could see the display on the
microwave read five-thirty. No wonder my back was cramped. I’d slept most of
the night half sitting up and half lying on Riley.

Wow. That was
so worth a sore back.

Hoping I could
sneak off for a shower, I slowly tried to stand without disturbing him. I
stopped, looking down at him, just enjoying the view, my heart doing its little
trippy thing. Overnight whiskers had appeared on his face giving him an
extremely sexy five o’clock shadow, his hair was messed just enough to be sexy
and the blankets had dropped from his waist just enough that I could get a
slight view of the top of his boxers and enjoyed how the hair on his chest and
abdomen trailed their way towards the unknown. Taking a deep breath in, I
resisted the urge not to just jump on him right there, right now.

Riley stirred
under my gaze, so I quickly turned and ran for the stairs. I think you
understand by now I am not that sexy first thing in the morning and unless I
wanted to scare the hell out of him, I felt I should jump in the shower and at
least tame the hair.

By the time I
got out, Riley was sitting on the bed waiting. Standing and pushing past me, he
smiled and shut the door. It was only when I heard the toilet flush I
remembered this was the only toilet in the house. Poor guy must have been
busting.

* * * *

We
decided to have breakfast out to try to fill in time before our appointment at
the jeweler, so we found a really nice café about two blocks from the shopping center
and sat down to enjoy our bacon and egg burgers. Well, I enjoyed my bacon and
egg burger, Riley enjoyed his bowl of muesli. That’s probably why he was so fit-looking
and I needed to lose some weight.

Sitting in a
companionable silence, we watched as a few fire engines drove past, lights
flashing, followed by a couple of police cars, all heading in the direction of
the shopping center. Wondering what was going on, we paid for our meal and
decided walking was the best option. It wasn’t that far and we still had a good
three quarters of an hour to kill. A couple of minutes into our walk, we saw
the smoke rising high into the sky.

“That doesn’t
look good for someone,” said Riley.

“No, I hope no-one’s
hurt.” Just as I said this, an ambulance flew past, siren blaring.

Picking up our
pace we arrived at the shopping center to see a car park empty of shoppers and
filled with reporters, fire engines, police cars and ambulances, all with their
lights flashing. The police had taped off the entrance to the shops and were
ushering people out of a door further down the building. We stood watching as
smoke billowed out of the open doors, all the while hearing people scream and
shout as they pushed to be the first out.

The loud
screeching of smoke detectors was blaring through the air, mixing with these
panicked screams, and emergency radios squawking out instructions. A couple of ambulance
officers were attending to a few elderly and even though this looked like chaos
from my point of view, the police and firemen seemed to be calm and in control.
It didn’t look like we were going to make our appointment with Brian Hogan.

Standing back
and watching for the next few minutes, I noticed Officer Lucy Wilkins standing
near one of the police cars filling out paperwork. I wandered over to her and
said hello. Looking up, she recognized me and came over to where I was
standing.

“Hello, Lizzie.”

“Hi. This looks
really bad,” I said, nodding in the direction of the center. “I hope everyone’s
okay.”

“It is pretty
bad actually. I shouldn’t be saying anything but I just heard on the scanners
they’ve found a body in there. We don’t know how the fire started yet or if
there are any others. It’s going to be a really long day for a lot of people.” She
sighed and turned, as one of her colleagues called her name.

“Oh my God,
that’s really awful,” I whispered, watching her walk away and get consumed by
the crowd.

I felt Riley
walk up behind me as a wave of sadness hit me for the unknown person who’d just
lost their life. Not being able to do anything to help, we decided to leave. Watching
a disaster unfold just didn’t feel like the right thing to do.

On the drive
back to Riley’s, my thoughts strayed from the fire and onto all the work I had
to get done if I wanted to be paid this week.

“You know
Riley, I really need to go home and get some work done. Surely it’ll be safe
through the day, won’t it?” I asked. Riley looked at me, indecision in his
eyes.

“I suppose it
will be. How about we go over there and check it out. If the car is in the
street, we’ll call the police.”

“Sounds like a
plan.”

I was feeling
more on edge the closer we got but gave a sigh of relief when we arrived and
there was no black car stalking my house today. He probably realized he was
watching an empty house and gave up. How long he’d stay away for was yet to be
seen.

Riley walked
ahead of me as we approached the front door and put out his hand for me to give
him the keys. Fine by me, let him go and see if anyone was hiding in there. I
followed him in through the front door and let out the breath I’d been holding
when all looked normal. Everything was just the way I’d left it. Riley walked
upstairs to check everything up there and I headed to the kitchen to put a pot
of coffee on.

Hmm, that’s
strange. I could smell coffee. Walking over to the coffee pot, I reached out
and touched the glass jug.

It was hot.

I didn’t think
I’d left it on yesterday, but maybe I did. I hadn’t had much sleep the night
before and I wasn’t thinking straight. Picking it up to make a fresh pot, I
heard Riley walk into the room. Turning to look at him, I noticed he looked a
bit paler than usual as he looked back at me, his features hard.

“Um, Lizzie, I
know this is a personal question, but...umm...has Scott slept over here
recently?” he asked, uncertainty giving an edge to his voice.

“That’s not a
personal question, that’s a weird question. The answer to which is no. Why?” I
asked, filling the pot with water.

“Ok. Has any
man slept over here recently?” I watched as he swallowed down whatever was
sitting in his throat.

“Riley, what’s
this about?”

“Maybe you’d
better come and see for yourself,” he sighed. I followed him out and up the
stairs. Reaching my bedroom door, he stopped and motioned for me to enter
first.