Auf'd (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book Two)

Chapter 3

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Belinda had had a much longer day than anticipated by the time she finished helping Bennett, and the police officially questioned her. The first order of business was getting out of those heels, then food. Preferably something unhealthy.

But every time she came home, she forgot about the house renovations. Her parents, still on their extended tour of Europe, had picked now to gut the house and start over from the top. Belinda partially came back home to Portside to oversee the renovation. She and her twin brother Kyle now shared the carriage house, which was basically a loft-style apartment, and Belinda was the only one concerned with the moving or renovations. Kyle happily just left that all to her. Belinda loved her brother dearly and they got along most of the time and made pretty decent roommates. But it was at times like those that Belinda wished she had a sister.

She pulled her Mini Cooper through the open white gate, parked down by the main house, and headed to the side near the garden shed and dead tomato plants to peek in a window and see how much damage the workers had done.

She rounded the corner and froze in horror. The ocean breeze blowing across their cliff was chilly now that the sun was low in the sky. But it wasn't that chilly. She fled over to the carriage house.

"Hole!" Belinda pointed toward the main house. 

Kyle peeked around the fridge door sheepishly, his cocoa brown eyes a reflection of her own. "Yes, dearest sister?"

"Hole!" Belinda pointed more urgently. "House. Big. Hole!"

Kyle's mouth drooped and he came out from behind his protective wall, covered head to toe in white paint particles. The least desirable thing in Belinda's opinion about his job at the marina. But she was so distracted she hadn't noticed the trail yet. "Bels, what are you talking about?" 

"The house!"

"Yeah, but I still don't know what you're talking about."

She dragged him outside—with his ice cream—and they stood staring into the kitchen from the yard. And not through a window. Belinda stretched her arm toward the ragged wood and drywall. "Hole!" Not that the rest of the kitchen looked much better, but still. What were they supposed to do with this?

Kyle barely flinched.

"Do you know why there's a hole in the side of our house?" Belinda said.

Kyle shrugged.

"Was the hole there earlier?"

He shrugged again.

Exasperated, Belinda smacked her forehead. "What are we supposed to do?!"

Kyle pointed at the hole with his spoon, opened his mouth, and shrugged.

Belinda growled and marched back to the guest house.

The inside of the carriage house reminded her of a barn. A luxurious barn, but still a barn. The gambrel roofline mimicked the house and opened into a loft, which was the bedroom. The downstairs consisted of an adjacent living room and kitchen and then a bathroom off the kitchen in the back. Her parents had left the flooring and siding au naturel. Belinda had never once slept there, or spent any time inside of it. It was mostly just a guest area where relatives or friends stayed when they came to visit.

Late afternoon light streamed in through the windows in back, illuminating the cluttered interior—and the trail of white specks, starting at the door. "Kyle!"