Treacherous Secrets novel Chapter 20

Detective Carter touched Emily's arm gently. "Tell me what happened next."

Emily nodded. "I called Sonja and asked her to come get me. I knew I was in pretty bad shape and needed to go to the hospital. Sonja, Fernando, and Mario came to the house. They were getting ready to take me to the hospital when my friend Ashley and her girlfriend, Kim showed up. Apparently, Kenton had called Ashley and told her to stay away from me."

"Why would he do that?"

Emily shook her head. "Ashley and Kim were at the party as well. They are a lesbian couple and I've known Ashley since college. We were very close back then." At the detective's raised eyebrow, Emily said, "Not lovers, just good friends. But apparently Kenton got it in his head that Ashley might be trying to have an affair with me or something like that. I have no idea where he got that notion because Ashley has never done anything out of the way. But he apparently called her early the next morning and told her to stay away from me. Kim and she had been worried about me because of the way Kenton had been acting the night before. When they couldn't get me on the phone they decided they would come out and make sure I was okay."

"Why couldn't they get you on the phone?" The detective asked, scribbling furious on her notepad.

"I'm not sure why the house phone wasn't working, but my cell phone was downstairs in my purse and I was in the bedroom upstairs."

Detective Carter nodded and made some more notes. "Okay, so the Rodriquez's came to get you and Ashley and Kim showed up. Do you have their last names?

"Yes, it' Ashley Sjveck and Kim...You know, now that I think about it, I don't think Ashley ever did tell me Kim's last name, but I have Ashley's cell phone number. I can give it to you if you need to contact her, or you can ask her yourself," Emily said, looking past the detective at the door, where Kim had just come in.

Kim rushed over to Emily and hugged her. "Ashley called me and told me what happened. She wanted me to come and check on you."

"Excuse me," Detective Carter interrupted.

Kim turned and looked at the detective, "Janice?"

Detective Carter said. "Kim McInery."

"You two know each other?" Emily asked.

"We had photojournalism classes together in college," Kim supplied.

"Oh, I didn't realize you were from here," Emily said.

"I'm not, we went to school together at UT in Knoxville," Kim said. "We lost touch, kind of like you and Ashley did. Life just gets in the way sometimes."

"That's true," Detective Carter said. "So you and Ashley were here the morning after Mrs. Jenkins was beat up by her husband."

"Yes," Kim said, her tone going serious. "We had been worried about Emily after we left the night before. Ashley said she had only met Kenton a few times, but she knew that he wasn't someone who took things not going his way well."

"How so?"

"You'll have to ask Ashley about that. I have never officially met the man.""Okay, so you and your girlfriend came to the house after the Rodriquez family came to get Emily?"

"Yes," Kim said. "We encouraged her to go to the hospital and press charges. Ashley is an attorney, and she really thought it was the best thing for Emily to do, but Emily didn't want to."

Detective Carter turned to Emily, "What did you do after you went to the hospital?"

"I went to visit with my parents. They live in Franklin, and then I got a hotel room." At the detective's questioning look, Emily said, "I figured that Kenton would try to find me at my parents' house."

"Mario dropped me off at the patio gate. I walked through the gate, saw Kenton in the pool and screamed. Mario rushed in and jumped in the pool thinking he could help Kenton, but Kenton was already dead."

"Can you think of anyone who would want Kenton dead?"

Emily took a deep breath. She had wanted to kill him the other night but she would not have been able to follow through with something like that. "Not right off the top of my head," Emily said. "He was a real estate broker. He could have enemies from business, I guess. I don't really know any of his friends except Damon."

"Your cousin, Damon and Kenton were pretty good friends?"

"Oh yes," Emily said. "They did stuff together all the time and, according to Mario might have been more than friends."

"According to Mario?" Detective Carter asked.

Emily dropped down on the couch wearily. She shook her head. "This is just all too much."

Kim touched the detective's arm. "Can we give her a break for a moment, Janice?" Kim motioned for them to move away from Emily for a moment.

"Do you know something?" Detective Carter asked quietly

"Yes," Kim whispered.

They moved toward the patio. Kim gasped when she saw Kenton's body. "Wow, he really is dead."