High Heels and Lip Gloss

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

The police officer slides his gun back in the holster and sprints off after Rick.

Jake jumps into his car and I follow, sliding into the passenger seat.

He puts the keys in ignition and we rumble down the street, following the police officer and the small running figure of Rick.

I notice that Jake has not spoken at all. I look over to him, and am surprised to see his stony glare.

"Jake?" I say, a bit nervous. He didn't still have feelings for Patricia did he?

"What? Oh sorry. I'm just a bit on edge. A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks." he says, placing his hand on my thigh.

"Yeah," I agree, placing my hand over his.

We arrive at Patricia's house in the next minute.

"Well I can honestly say I never thought I'd be here ever again," Jake mutters.

The door is already standing wide open. We run in, and find the place swarming with paramedics.

A lady walks over to us and shoots worried smile at us.

"This is a restricted area, sorry," she says.

Jake quickly explains the situation to her, and she grows pale.

"Patricia? We haven't located her. Her mother is here, but is unconscious."

I find myself growing pale as well. Where is she?

I run to where I last saw her. The kitchen.

Unfortunately, she is not there.

Then I see something red. A few drops of it, on the kitchen counter.

I drip my finger into the small puddle of red, and lift the sticky stuff to my nose. Blood. No doubt about it. I've seen enough of it this past week to know what it is.

I quickly scan around the floor, looking for any more traces of blood.

Jake is by my side, as well as a paramedic and an officer.

I find another drops of blood on the floor, about three feet away from the counter.

Now there is a small blood trail, that I follow hurriedly. The trail stops at the side of the stairs. Did the owner of the blood continue up the stairs?

No, there's no blood on the stairs that I can see.

"Wait a minute," says Jake.

His hand slides across a panel that is on the side of the wall, where a catch must be, because the panel swings open and I realize that it's not a panel, it's a door.

"How'd you do that?" I ask Jake.

His eyes drop to the floor and his cheeks turn red.

"Patricia showed me," he says uncertainly.

"Why?" I persist.

"I did date her you know," he says quietly.

Now it's my turn to become red.

But not with embarrassment, but jealously. Which is stupid, and I immediately slap myself mentally.

"Oh," I say, looking away from him.

"I promise we didn't do anything. Except kiss a few times but... nothing serious," he says to me.

I nod, but I feel tears coming to my eyes.