The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (6)

On Friday afternoon, Lilly came downstairs, carrying her small suitcase. "I'm all packed," she said. "I brought my toothbrush and everything."

Riley nodded. "Let me give you this, then." He handed her a latched box. "It's Father's old fingerprint kit. Take care that you don't get the powder everywhere. You remember how to use it, correct?"

Lilly nodded. One of the many detective games that she and Riley used to play with their father involved fingerprint identification. The three of them had made up fingerprint identification cards using plain index cards and an ink pad. Then Jasper Rowley would find household objects for the two of them to dust with powder, and then identify who had touched the object in question. Every so often, the two of them would find another person's print, which meant the last person had likely been a guest. This would often involve a return visit from the guest, and a request for them to leave a fingerprint card with the children. If they were able to match the print with the correct guest, Jasper promised to buy them cake.

"If either of you two feel like you're in danger, I want you to call the operator and ask them to connect you with Officer Leroy at the Eighth Avenue Precinct," Riley continued. "He's a friend of Thomas's and he'll be on duty Friday night into Saturday."

"Anything else?" Lilly asked.

"Oh...yes." Riley went over to the kitchen table and handed Lilly a gift wrapped package. "I got this for you to bring to Kayla. Tell her...it's from the both of us."

"All right. I'll tell her that YOU brought her a present," Lilly said, smiling. Riley rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Now...please, be safe. I'm counting on you."

-------------------------------

Riley brought Lilly with him to the cafe across from Kayla's apartment building. They had agreed that once Kayla got home from work, she would go to the cafe, collect Lilly, and then the two of them would go directly back to the apartment for the night.

He checked his pocket watch. It was 5:30. She should be here any moment, Riley thought. He was secretly thrilled to be able to see Kayla again, but reminded himself that this was business related.

Just then, Kayla arrived, waving. "Evening," she said. "Are we ready to go?"

Lilly nodded. "I have everything I need," she said. "And I've also got this." She indicated the wrapped present on the table. "We got this for you." Kayla blushed as she saw the present, and looked up at Riley, smiling.

"Thank you. I really appreciate it," she said.

"Well, if you two are going to be off, I have to head back home," Riley said. "Otherwise, I think Mrs. Ditch is going to get a little too suspicious."

Kayla nodded. "Well, honestly, she's the least of our worries right now. Come along, Lilly."

"Bye, Bro," Lilly said, waving to her brother as she and Kayla exited the cafe. Riley watched their backs as they walked off. He found himself admiring Kayla's long blonde hair. It spilled from the cute French-style beret she wore at a jaunty angle on her head. Riley realized that he almost never saw Kayla hatless. It must've been her trademark.

The record player in the cafe was playing a very scratchy version of Debussy's "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair." Riley thought it described her perfectly.

Kayla reached into her handbag and pulled out a small set of keys on a heart-shaped brass key ring. She inserted one of the keys—a simple skeleton key—into the lock. She took a deep breath, turned it, and opened the door.

Lilly followed behind her, turning on the light. Kayla looked around the apartment as the light grew brighter, looking for anything that seemed out of place. As she did, Lilly set her suitcase down and glanced around.

"Wow!" she gasped as she looked around. "I love your apartment, Kayla! It's so quaint!"

Kayla tried not to laugh. Quaint? It was drafty, she had the landlady from Hell, and she barely even had room to move sometimes...Oh, to be young and innocent. "Thank you, I appreciate it," she said.

They were in the larger of the two rooms, which featured a tiny kitchen with a one-burner stove, a sink, an old fashioned icebox, and a small pantry. A table and two chairs, with a small ceramic vase of silk flowers, was set in front of the kitchen appliances as a dining room. Separated from the kitchen by a painted screen was a small sitting area. There was an upholstered two-person sofa, a small coffee table with a black glass top, a bookcase, and a small, battery-operated wireless radio. Lilly looked over at the bookcase and noticed a strange shape in the dust. "Was this where that photo was?" she asked Kayla, who nodded.

Kayla opened a white-painted door to her bedroom and motioned for Lilly to follow her. Lilly went in as Kayla switched on an overhead lamp with a beautifully decorated shade. Kayla scanned her bedroom, then went into her closet and switched on the light to check inside. She then ducked into the bathroom, turned the light on in there, and checked around. "Well, I don't see anything amiss," Kayla said, sighing with relief. "Guess I'll open that present you two got me." She set the wrapped present down on the dining table, and carefully undid the wrapping. She opened the box to reveal a beautiful picture frame.

"Oh...." Kayla smiled as she lifted the silver plated picture frame from its box to reveal a note underneath.

We're sorry your old frame and your photo got ruined. We promise we'll catch the person that did it. Until then, please accept this as a token of our friendship.

Riley Rowley and Lilly Rowley

"Tell your brother I said thank you very much," Kayla said. "Now, that reminds me...What would you like for dinner? I promise I won't cook like your brother does." Kayla chuckled.

"Hmm...can we make pancakes?" Lilly brightened up and looked into Kayla's eyes expectantly. "Riley always messes those up."

"Well...I suppose so," Kayla said. She hated pancakes—they were all she ate for the first three weeks after she arrived in Veritas. She never wanted to see another pancake again…but she could make an exception just this once.

"Then wash your hands and I'll get out the ingredients. It'll go faster if we work together."

-----------------------------------------------

A few minutes later, Kayla and Lilly were standing by the stove, carefully pouring a ladle of pancake batter into the frying pan. It sizzled as it settled into a circle, and the wet batter began to bubble.

"Now, we don't flip it just yet," Kayla said. "Wait until it begins to dry around the very edges, then you get the edge of your spatula underneath and turn it over with a flick of the wrist. Like this."

Kayla picked up the metal spatula and took the handle of the frying pan in her other hand. She quickly slid the spatula underneath the pancake, and then gave it a quick turn. "There!" she said, revealing the perfectly golden brown underside.

Lilly smiled. "We can never get these right at our place," she said. "Bro's not very quick with his hands. Often they're still raw in the middle and we have to put them back in the pan, and then they get burned."

"Well, you have to remember to keep the pan at a consistent temperature and not lift it from the burner," Kayla said. "Ah, I believe there's enough for one more."

The pancake lesson finished, Kayla put the plate of hot pancakes on the table, then went to the icebox and pulled out a butter dome and a clay bottle. "Here is some butter, if you want it," she said. "And this is a little souvenir from the farm my family gave me. Real maple syrup, made by my older brothers! I'll bet you've never tasted anything this good." She set them down on the table, then sat down and reverently bowed her head, with Lilly doing so as well.

"May God bless this food, and may God bless the hands that made it. Amen," Kayla said.

"I've never heard that grace before," Lilly said as she carefully put two pancakes on her plate.

"It's a family tradition. We're farmers, after all, so we produce our own food," Kayla said as she served herself. "So, how do they taste?"

Lilly cut a piece from one of the pancakes and tasted it. "It's good. Nice and fluffy."

"Well, you helped make the batter, after all," Kayla said, smiling as she poured some syrup on her portion. "And...it's always good to eat with friends. Hey...Lilly, can you keep a secret?"

Lilly nodded.

"Well, I told your brother that I'm thinking of moving from here," she said. "And once I do...I'm going to invite him over for dinner. Just him. Because..." Kayla's face flushed pink. "He's...a good person. And I want to get to know him more as a friend than as a client. But don't tell him just yet. I don't want any of our feelings to get in the way of this case, after all."

Lilly nodded. "I won't tell him, but you've got to promise me that we're going to stay friends," she said. "Because..." She searched for the right words to say. "You're...like a star. Because you have a great job and write a lot of interesting stories and such. I want to be like that someday."

Kayla blushed again. "That...really means a lot to me, Lilly...I'm happy that you think of me in that way. Thank you."

"Um, Kayla...if you don't mind me asking, who was the person in that photo that got ruined?" Lilly asked.

"Oh...he was my fiance. His name was Aaron." Kayla put down her fork and knife, and had a faraway look in her eyes. "When I was about your age, maybe a little older, he and his family bought some farmland near us. So I finally had someone my age to play with, and we became really good friends. When I was sick, and missed school, he came over to help me get caught up with work. We both got accepted to the same boarding school together, and..." Kayla looked down at her pancakes and blushed. "He was the first person to encourage me to pursue my dream. I had always wanted to be a reporter and travel the world, ever since I was a little girl. So he told me to work for my dream, and he would work hard and save money so he could go to the city and pursue his. But then..."

"What happened?" Lilly asked.

Kayla wiped the corner of her eye delicately with a napkin. "He died in an accident on his family's farm...it was awful. He was up early in the morning, getting feed for the cows, and the hay bales in the barn...they fell over and crushed him. His family didn't even find him for a few hours but by then, it was too late..."

"Oh..." Lilly looked consolingly at Kayla as she struggled to keep the painful memory down. "I'm sorry."

"No...it's fine. When I lost him...I decided that I needed to live for him. So I went to the city, and I got my first job at the newspaper. At first I was just an office girl that sharpened pencils, but then one day they sat me down and told me that I needed to go to an official function in the place of someone who called in sick, and write a report on it. They were probably thinking I wouldn't do so well, but then the editor called me into his office once he read it, and told me that he was promoting me to the regular staff. I was so happy that I was finally living my dream, but...without Aaron, it just felt like such a hollow victory."

"I know how you feel," Lilly said. "When I get a good grade in school...my first thought is always, 'I want to show Papa,' but I can't anymore."

"But you have your brother," Kayla said. "And I'm sure you make him very proud."

The two of them continued their pancake feast, until Kayla noticed the wall clock read that it was seven thirty. "Oh, Lilly, it's seven thirty," she said. "If you need to use my bathroom to clean up before bed, go right ahead. You can use my towels and such. I'll set up the couch for you."

Lilly nodded as she got up from the table. She took the empty pancake plate, and laid her own plate and cutlery on top of it to put into the sink. "Okay. I don't think I'll be long in there," she said. "I think I'm just going to read before I go to sleep."

Kayla began to fill the sink with hot water to wash the dishes as Lilly opened her suitcase and removed her toiletries, which were tucked into a small waterproof bag. As Lilly made her way into Kayla's bathroom and opened the door, she suddenly shrieked.

"LILLY!!!!" Kayla dropped the dish she had been scrubbing. It clattered into the sink. Kayla dashed behind the divider and into her bedroom.

Lilly was standing at the edge of the antique claw-foot tub that dominated Kayla's bathroom. They hadn't looked completely inside the bathroom when the two of them arrived at the apartment, but now...it was clear that someone HAD been there. Kayla's eyes grew wide, and her face paled. At the bottom of the bathtub was another long-stemmed red rose—but this one had had all its petals yanked off and left in a clump next to the stem.

"It's just like the other one..." Kayla reached inside the tub and picked up the stem and petals. "I've got to tell your brother."

"Wait," Lilly said. "If we think about it...maybe we can figure out what time it was that this person came here," she said. "What kind of schedule does Mrs. Ditch keep on Fridays? Maybe she noticed someone or something."

Kayla thought for a moment. "We'll have to ask her," she said, shuddering. "Your bath will have to wait, I'm afraid."

"It's all right. I'm not overly fond of them," Lilly said