She felt Frankie gasp beside her. She reached up, kissed the major gently on the cheek, and said, “For Elena.”
A hand landed on her shoulder. She smiled because she knew it was him. She leaned her cheek against it, and he stepped up behind her, pulling her against him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it,” Richard said.
When the signal was given, the music and the models stopped, and the crowd could all approach. They stood calm and quiet, and, when the music started again, they moved so that everybody could see how the effects worked.
She looked up at Richard and smiled. “I can’t get away from here very early,” she said.
Frankie shook his head. “She’ll be here right through to midnight.”
“That may be,” Richard said, “but I’m not leaving here either.”
She looked up at him. “Did something happen?”
He reached over, kissed her gently on the temple, and said, “You have your night. I have some questions, but that’s all.”
“Maybe I can help,” Frankie said.
Richard looked at him, and, while she watched, Richard said, “Maybe.” He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I’ll be right back.” He motioned to Frankie, and they stepped away.
“Do you know anything about Kenneth?”
*
“He’s the bastard who beat up Elena,” Frankie said.
“What?”
“No, no, wait, that’s wrong,” he said and then shook his head. “No, that’s wrong. Sorry,” he said, frowning, as if trying to remember. He took a deep breath. “I had a head injury not too long ago, and sometimes I get things wrong.”
“I don’t understand,” Richard said. “Why would a woman like Elena go out with somebody who beat her up?”
“She didn’t. I had that wrong,” Frankie said. Then his face lit up. “I got it. Kenneth is the son of the man, the stepson, of the man who hurt Elena.”
“Kenneth’s stepfather hurt Elena?”
“Yes,” he said, “and Elena helped Cayce later, and, as I understand it, became close with Kenneth.”
“Interesting. Well, apparently Kenneth is somewhere around.”
“I don’t think so,” Frankie said, “but then I don’t really know. I just know what I heard from the two of them talking here and there. I’ve been around long enough that, while I haven’t been privy to their conversations, they forget I’m here sometimes, and I overhear conversations.”
“Right,” he said, “that makes sense. Any idea where we would find him?”
“No, I didn’t know he was anywhere around here.”
“And what do you know about Elena’s or Naomi’s friend Derek?”
“From money, doesn’t really work. He has his fingers in a lot of pots. He is a little bit of an artist but not much. He really cultivates a role in the artist community though.”
“And his boyfriend?”
“Well, it used to be Kenneth,” he said, “but I’m not sure who it is now.”
Richard reached out, grabbed him, and gave him a shake. “What the hell are you saying? That Kenneth used to date Derek as well?”
“Yes, as far as I know.”
“And where are you getting this information from?”
“Naomi,” he said, “because Derek might be private, but Naomi is anything but.”
“Crap,” he said. “Let me get this straight. Cayce saves Elena from her abusive stepfather, and Kenneth is the stepson to that man and the stepbrother to Elena too. So Elena and Cayce continued to bond, and the stepson/stepbrother is around, and, somewhere along the line, Kenneth hangs out with Elena and becomes really good friends with the group. But then goes back to school to become an engineer and heads off to Dubai?”
At that, Frankie looked at him and frowned. “I don’t know anything about engineering and Dubai,” he said. “He was an artist.”
“What kind of artist?”
“He used to do big mural-size stuff too, like Cayce,” he said, “but his wasn’t very good. I don’t know how to explain it. It was really dark.”
“Ah, crap.” Richard pulled out his phone, called Andy, and said, “We need to find this Kenneth Lively, and we need to find him now. Apparently there’s a chance he’s in town, and he’s tied to this artist community. He needs to be brought in for questioning ASAP.”
“As in Elena?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “Not only was he there when Cayce got beaten up way back when but it was his stepfather who abused Elena, and Kenneth became very good, very close friends with Elena. And he’s an artist. He used to do mural stuff. Dark stuff.”
“Jesus, that’s an awful lot of coincidences.”
“Yeah. I don’t like any of this,” he said. “None of this is a coincidence. I’m not sure if it’s his plan, or if there’s a devious mind behind him, but something is going on, and it involves this Kenneth guy.”
Frankie leaned forward and said, “But Kenneth isn’t anywhere around here,” he said. “I haven’t seen or even heard anything of him for years.”
“And yet Derek told me that his current boyfriend saw him not too many days ago.”
“Seriously?”
He nodded. “But why would the boyfriend even tell Derek? That seems weird.”
“Because that’s the relationship they have,” Frankie said. “Benjamin is insecure, so it was probably a poke at Derek to see if Benjamin could get a reaction. See if Derek still cared.”
Richard nodded, spoke to Andy, still on the phone. “Did you get all that?”
“Yeah,” Andy said. “We’re already looking for Kenneth too. I’ll be there soon.” And he hung up. Richard frowned at Frankie. “Are you going anywhere tonight?”
“No way. Cayce relies on me,” he said, “and my girlfriend is one of the models.”
Richard stopped, looked at him with a smile, and said, “Cayce did it, did she?”
He gave a sheepish grin and shrugged. “Yeah. I know it’s only because I asked her to.”
“No way,” Richard said. “I may not know her as well as you do, but I do know she would never allow herself to be pressured into doing that.
