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drugs or anything. They
were broken up when she died by like at least a couple weeks.”
    I nodded, “Probably not.”
    Courtney nodded and then seemed to want me to
continue talking about Troy. I didn’t know what else to say, so I
said, “Okay, I’m going to go restack DVDs.”
    I grabbed the pile of returned DVDs from the
inbox and walked away from Courtney, thinking about what she’d said
about Melissa. If the guy Courtney had mentioned was Troy, would
Troy have killed Melissa just because he could never have her? Troy
definitely needed to be investigated.
    Ironically enough, as I was resolving to
continue on with the case with or without Ethan, Vanessa Martin was
dying.
     
     
     
     

Chapter 8: Inspecting
    I didn’t know
about Vanessa Martin until late Sunday night. She had been dead
over twenty four hours before I even learned about her death.
    Sunday, I had spent my day reading and doing
homework. It has to get done sometime, even between work, guys, and
murder mysteries. I did make a quick trip to Wired to get a
comforting peanut butter banana milkshake (heaven on earth!), but
otherwise I stayed in. I ignored all things murder and buried
myself in the second Twilight book, New Moon . I’m a
Team Jacob fan, so it was my favorite book, since Jacob got a lot
of Bella/Jacob time in that one. Homework took a back seat to
reading, but I got it done too.
    I hadn’t turned on a television, read the
paper, or checked my Facebook all day, when my cell phone started
ringing. I thought it was Anne from work, calling me in for the
Sunday night shift, but I was surprised to see the name Ethan
Ripley pop up on the caller ID instead. We had exchanged numbers
days ago on that Thursday night when he came to the video store. I
had never really thought he’d need to call me for any reason. I
thought it was one of those – I’ll delete ya’ later phone number
exchanges. I guess not. Cool.
    So, here was Ethan, calling me on a Sunday
night at 6:23 pm. Should I answer? I was supposed to be mad at him,
right? Could I stay angry at the most popular guy in school
forever? Even when he was calling my cell phone? What if he was
calling to apologize? Or ask me out? I answered on the second
ring.
    “Hello?” I asked, like I didn’t know who it
was.
    “Kait?” Ethan asked, like he didn’t know it
was me even though he was the one calling me. Figures.
    “What’s up Ethan?” I asked, trying to sound
light and carefree when all I really wanted to know is why he was
calling me in the first place.
    Ethan sounded almost ghostly on the phone
line, “Kait, Vanessa Martin was found dead in her bedroom from an
overdose last night. There’s been another murder.”
    “I’ll be over in twenty minutes,” I said and
hung up the phone, already getting my things.
    I had to get to Ethan’s house. I didn’t even
remember driving there, I was in such a daze. Poor Vanessa Martin.
I felt guilty. If only we could have done something more to prevent
her death. If only Detective Dixon had listened to Ethan and me!
Her death could have been prevented! We had printed her email out
and everything for him! Even though she hadn’t talked about Troy,
her message had been urgent, so it could have been a clue too. But,
no, Detective Dixon had barely even looked at it! We could have
saved her. If only.
    And, what had Vanessa needed to talk to Liz
about? Had she been murdered for that information? Ethan was
supposed to have emailed her to ask, but I had no idea if he’d
gotten around to it after our disastrous efforts at the police
station on Saturday. Now, it was too late to find out what Vanessa
knew and why she had felt like it was such an urgent matter.
    I pulled up to Ethan’s house and realized
that I had invited myself over to his house, without really asking.
I only realized this because his house was ablaze with light. It
looked like the whole family was home. Did Ethan want me to come in
and meet his family? I wasn’t so sure. I also felt