The Detective and Her Bachelor

Chapter 31

I skipped the stage of life that involved a social life in high school. I grew up too fast and missed it entirely. I missed prom. I didn't have late nights filled with dreaming about the future while sitting under the stars with high school friends, hot drink in hand, feeling terrified and elated that the whole world was ahead of me. And I most certainly never went to a high school party. 

I think that if I had a sense of a social life, I would have been better at casually bringing up murder in a party game without it sounding like the WORST. SEGUE. EVER. But instead, I had been gifted with a lack of all subtlety that left everyone in the room utterly uncomfortable, killing all joy in the game. I was the person that wouldn't have gotten invited back for another party. 

Awesome.

And like the winner of party killing, the rest of our time at Luke's house was more of the same silence that had plagued us before my attempt at playing a game. But now it was utterly uncomfortable, heavy with an untold story that everyone else seemed to know but me. 

Luke was buzzing with anxious energy, glancing at the clock every few seconds, and by the time he felt he had served his brotherly duty, he shut down the already dead party. The camera crew began to move for the exit at an almost inhuman speed and I knew their desire to stop recording the bland day was entirely my fault. In a normal circumstance, I would have been relieved to give the camera crew nothing useful, accomplishing Luke's rule number three, but something told me I had given them something very juicy, even if I didn't fully understand it yet.

"Well, show's over folks. Thanks for coming," Luke said, ushering the camera crew towards the elevator. "And these two love birds will head straight back to the mansion." He turned and leveled us both with a deadly stare. "Right?"

I nodded. I was ready for the date to be done. I had to collect my thoughts and update my suspect list. Besides, I didn't want to push my luck with the— most likely irritated— showrunner, Nat. The crew left, and I watched Luke breathe easily for the first time in hours.

"Thank you, Luke," Andrew said into the heavy silence that seemed to have settled deep in their bones.

"Never again, Andrew," he replied, staring at the closed elevator doors, his back to us. "I've just gotten the media to stop asking me for interviews. I don't... I don't want my life to become more of a circus than it already is."

Andrew's face filled with grief but he kept his tone light. "Okay. I promise not to bring any more clowns to your house."

Luke nodded. "Good."

Luke walked away without a word, and shut himself in his room, leaving me and Andrew alone. 

We shuffled into the elevator quietly, and I took a moment to replay the day's information. Andrew and Luke's reaction to my question about murder, the revelation that Luke was Andrew's half-brother, the fact that Andrew was on the show to fulfill a family obligation, and how their parents were unhappy with that fact, all burned into my mind, turning into puzzle pieces, attempting to add themselves to a complicated tapestry that made up Kacey Grail's final moments.

A picture was beginning to take shape, but I was still missing key pieces. The elevator began to move and I stared at nothing in particular to keep myself from thinking about how high up we were, forcing myself to breathe normally as the world began to fly towards us at what should be considered illegal speeds. To stay calm, I began to list off the missing pieces to the unraveling mystery.

One. The recording of Kacey Grail's last words in the stairwell. Had Decker found anything?

Two. Why Kacey Grail? Why hurt her? Was she connected to the Walkers in some way? Did someone on the show view her as a threat?