A Kiss Revealed Read online

  SEALED WITH A KISS SERIES

  A KISS

  Revealed

  FRANCES HOELSEMA

  A Kiss Revealed: Sealed with A Kiss Book 2

  © 2019 by Frances Hoelsema

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author as provided by USA copyright law.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are from the author’s imagination. Any similarities to real people, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

  Published in the United States of America.

  Cover by The Cat’s Pyjamas│http://www.angelastevens.net/the-cats-pyjamas

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost, I want to thank God for the gifts He gives each person. Without Him, this book wouldn’t have become what it is.

  Secondly, many thanks to those who helped put this novel together. My husband, who helped plot it out. My sister, who pointed out the various flaws. My ARC team, who faithfully reads my work and provides feedback. And my cover designer and author friends, who make the book look and sound more attractive.

  Last, but not least, of course, a huge thank you to you, the reader. I appreciate your support and hope this book is found enjoyable and something worth sharing.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 1

  A

  tiny, solitary drop of ice-cold water splashed on top of Detective Randy Kojak’s nose, his special hat failing to protect him. He looked up at the sky. More gray had appeared in the clouds since he had first walked out of Laura Keaton’s duplex, but there were still holes where the late autumn’s sun tried its best to break through.

  Had he really heard the policeman on the other end of the line correctly? Was it true that the case of The Margaret Killer had just been solved?

  “Did you say Laura’s name was Louisa Margaret?”

  “I did, sir.” The man sounded pleased with himself, like he was the only one to have cracked the code.

  “Margaret?” he repeated once more.

  “Yes, Mar –”

  The detective interrupted. “Because you need to be sure. I’m not going to arrest her, finding out later it was a mistake.” His right foot started to scrape the ground in an arching motion. Was it because he was nervous? Or excited? Antsy?

  A low chuckle came through the phone’s receiver. “I’m absolutely positive, sir. Bring her in.”

  Detective Kojak hung up. This day kept getting better and better. For a moment, he looked toward the duplex. A couple more raindrops had started to splatter around him and over his clothes. His face was brushed with a brisk breeze, causing him to instinctively hold his hat down. His special hat. Only worn on days he felt were special. And today was living up to that.

  Marching forward, he approached the front door. The beat of his heart ticked faster, the blood running through his veins making him feel alive. It was excitement that he felt.

  The detective put his hand on the doorknob and started to twist it. In a matter of seconds, Laura would be in cuffs, heading to the station with him. And once again, Crimson Shores, his town, would be safe from those this ‘Margaret’ deemed to kill.

  * * *

  This day was getting worse and worse. Laura watched closely as her best friend, Marissa, wrote down the contact information of the lawyer she recommended. Through her peripheral vision, however, her world was crashing. The cops were going through her things, violating her privacy, and making a mess in the process. What did she do to deserve this?

  “Here,” Marissa said, offering her the card.

  Laura never heard. Her mind was in an entirely different place.

  Marissa nudged her twice. “Here,” she repeated, waving the card in her face.

  She snapped to. “Oh, sorry. Thanks.” Grabbing the card, she looked at what was scribbled on it.

  Charlie Richards? How could she do that to me? She knows I could never –

  Interrupting her own thoughts, Laura asked, “Charlie?”

  Marissa looked at her, confusion in her eyes. “Yeah, Charlie Reynolds is one of the best. He’ll take good care of you.”

  Reynolds? Laura looked down at the card again. This time the card did, in fact, say Charlie Reynolds. She must have seen it wrong. And she was glad she did. What a relief! A suffocating blanket had been removed from her head. She took a deep breath, trying to relax.

  “Good to know.” Though, outwardly, she sounded like she’d use her friend’s recommendation, inwardly she already ruled him out. Call it superstition or whatever it was, she was not about to rely on someone with a name close to one she had come to despise.

  Laura stepped away from her friend to get her purse. As the card was placed inside, her door started to open. All eyes were on who began to enter.

  Detective Kojak made his way inside. His eyes were gray as steel, cold as ice. His body, stiff. Laura could tell something bad was about to happen.

  Reaching into his back pocket, he grabbed the cuffs. “Laura Keaton, you’re under arrest.”

  “WHAT?!” With her heart starting to beat erratically, she put the purse strap over her head and reached out for help from Marissa, but the detective forcefully, yet with enough gentleness to not be rough, grabbed a hand. One cuff was placed on it. Laura’s other hand still reached out like a child reaching for their parent they were being taken from.

  “Laura,” he spoke sternly.

  “Listen to him, Laura,” Marissa said.

  The look of defeat covered Laura’s face. Her hand that reached out went limp. Slowly, she brought it to where the detective connected it to the other in cuffs. A clinging of metal on metal signaled its closure.

  After stating Miranda rights, Detective Kojak said, “Okay. Come with me.” He gently nudged her forward, directing her where to go.

  Laura’s breathing became labored. She didn’t speak. But her eyes pleaded for help. All Marissa did, though, was stand and watch. Why wasn’t she trying to help? Then again, what could she even do? Laura’s mind raced. Her heart fell.

  Connor! Her boyfriend had a right to know. As she walked out the door, she looked over her shoulder toward her friend. “Marissa?” she sputtered.

  “Yeah?”

  “Do me a favor and tell Connor!”

  The door was closing, Laura’s neck straining harder to see her friend as she waited for the response.

  “I will. I’ll try.”

  And then there was a wall. Her best friend on the inside. Her on the outside. Drops of rain started to penetrate her skin, putting out the fire in her heart.

  * * *

  The journey from her duplex to Detective Kojak’s black car was short but felt like a lifetime. The moment dragged on in slow motion. Each step taken, Laura felt herself losing more and more of herself. Her assurance. Her security. Her freedom. It was as if she was being dragged to hell unwillingly.

  The detective opened the side door of the back. Using his hand, he
guided her where to go, cautioning her to watch her head. When she was all the way in the seat, he closed the door. To her, that one miniscule act represented her life being over.

  Laura kept her head down for the most part. What was there to look at anymore anyway? She would only be reminded of what she used to have, or the way life used to be. She wondered if there would be gawkers along the beach, getting as close as they could to the action without trespassing. But she didn’t have it in her to look. Her head remained down. Embarrassed. Ashamed. Hopeless.

  Detective Kojak closed his door and started the engine. He didn’t say a word to her. Not yet. But there was a lot of noise in the air, heaviness of what the situation meant.

  As they maneuvered down the driveway, the window wipers squeaked as they swiped left to right. It was annoying and ugly like her hands in the cuffs.

  Before her duplex would be out of sight for good, Laura decided to look up once more. Marissa had made her way out, standing in the rain with her arms crossed over her chest, watching. Laura kept her eyes on her friend, who seemed almost too nonchalant. But then again, maybe everyone would seem cold right about now. If they weren’t doing something to get her out of these chains, they weren’t helping. And if they weren’t helping, they weren’t caring. And if they weren’t caring, they were callous and hardhearted. As cold as the polar ice caps. Mean.

  A new noise appeared. One that went beyond the drops of water hitting the window, or the irritating wiper blades squeaking, or the cacophony in her mind. It was the detective’s voice. Firm. Harsh.

  “Why were you keeping secrets, Laura?”

  “What are –”

  “Or should I say Louisa Margaret?”

  Did he just say my birth name? “What did you just call me?”

  His eyes met hers through the rear-view mirror. “Why didn’t you tell me your real name was Louisa Margaret? Did you really think you’d get away without us finding out?”

  Laura’s eyes furrowed. No, she didn’t think she would. She just never thought that omitting that piece of information would be considered hiding something or lying about anything.

  “It is Louisa, right?”

  “It was,” she said, letting out a breath of disgust. Her eyes looked down to her knees again. She knew there would be more he would want to say. More he would want to know. But thankfully he left it at that for the time being. No words were spoken for quite a while. The air felt thick and heavy, and the weather perfectly resembled her state of mind.

  Each second the two of them traveled down the road and each turn the detective made with the vehicle, the further Laura was getting from normalcy. She was being stripped of all she knew. Forced into moving to another country. Another culture. So much unfamiliarity and many unknowns. Absolutely no hope. No reason to live. Or so it seemed.

  “Do you have a lawyer?” she heard the deep voice from outside the recesses of her mind ask. “I assume no, but you never know.”

  “Lawyer?”

  “Yeah, someone to represent you?”

  Laura looked down at her purse and thought of the man Marissa scribbled on a card. It would be easy to use him and not have to figure anything else out. But she was too leery of him. “No, I don’t.”

  Detective Kojak cleared his throat. “Well, you’re going to need one.”

  What a pointless thing for him to say. She wasn’t stupid. His idiotic statement didn’t deserve an answer. Her lips remained sealed, and her head hung low. That didn’t stop her from feeling the heat of his eyes on her, though.

  Let him look. She didn’t care. What she did have to care about, however, was finding a way of getting out of this trouble. And it was a deep pit of trouble, one where the result of her efforts would equal freedom or life in prison.

  Chapter 2

  P

  ulling into the station’s parking lot, Laura noticed the brown brick building that was showing signs of its age. The entrance was set apart by blue-painted metal beams and tinted windows. On top of the building was written ‘POLICE’ in white, bold, block letters. It was a typical-looking station, she supposed.

  Laura craned her neck to continue looking at her surroundings as Detective Kojak parked his vehicle toward the side of the building. The next thing she knew, the side door was opened for her and the detective gently tugged on her arm to get her to exit. She obliged.

  Never in a million years did she think she would be coming to the police station. In cuffs. For killing people. She was a college professor. A woman who couldn’t even hurt a fly, let alone a human being. An upstanding citizen. A convicted murderer? No. Not at all. None of this made any sense.

  Inside, Detective Kojak began to remove her cuffs. “This here is Mindy,” he said, nodding in front of him to a woman walking their way.

  Laura followed his gaze. The woman was too skinny to be alive. Her skin was pale, which only stood out even more because of the stark contrast of her hair and makeup. Laura half-smiled at what she thought resembled a walking corpse.

  “She will do some preliminary things. Fingerprints, photo, that type of thing.”

  Her hands were now free. Laura began taking turns rubbing each wrist.

  “When she’s done, she’ll bring you to the examining room. We’ve got a lot to discuss.” Detective Kojak put the cuffs back into his pocket. Then he asked, “Any questions?”

  Laura slightly shook her head.

  “Good. I’ll see you in a bit.” He walked off with a bounce in his step, his fingers tapping his sides. He was one small whistle away from acting like a person who couldn’t contain his happiness.

  The two women looked at one another. Mindy spoke first. “If you’ll come with me, it’ll all just take a brief moment.”

  If? Did she really have a choice? Laura rolled her eyes after Mindy turned around. Sighing, she slowly, reluctantly followed.

  As they entered a dimly lit room, a sudden chill ran down Laura’s spine.

  “Here. Put any of your belongings in here.” Mindy handed Laura a bin. “Your purse, phone, anything and everything from your pockets.”

  Laura took the purse off her neck and placed it inside. She checked her pockets. All were empty. She handed it back.

  “Thank you.”

  Laura felt there was a little too much pep in those words for someone that looked like they should be lying in a coffin. Or have fangs. It was strange.

  Mindy began moving forward once again. As she talked over her shoulder, she said, “Let’s get your picture quick a minute for records.” She pointed to the line on the floor. “If you could just stand behind that line right there, that would be great.”

  There was that ‘if’ again. Did she seriously have a choice here? She wished.

  Laura walked up to the line, making sure she obeyed. She was finally starting to understand why most people didn’t want to smile for their mugshots. Either they physically couldn’t, or they didn’t see the point. Which camp did she fall in? She wasn’t sure. Her heart was too heavy to want to smile. And who was this picture going to please? Sighing again, she looked toward the camera, lifting a tiny portion of one corner of her mouth. Before it could go any higher, she heard the snap. Picture time was over. Perhaps there was a third reason many didn’t smile for these pictures. There simply wasn’t enough time!

  “All right. Thank you.”

  Again, too much pep. Mindy was turning out to be an odd character. She looked like a ghost or even death but sounded a lot more like a princess being granted a wish.

  Mindy snickered. “Okay. Come with me.”

  What was that for? Laura’s eyes closed into daggers. If only…

  “I just need to get your fingerprints and a DNA sample and then you’ll be good to go,” Mindy stated, this time more blasé than her previous comments.

  The two of them stepped over to another section of the room where Mindy pulled out a chair for Laura to sit in. She then watched as Mindy fetched a cotton swab.

  “Open your mouth, please.”<
br />
  Mindy inserted the swab and rubbed it against Laura’s cheek for a few seconds. The sample was placed in a clear case. She then got out some cards to get some fingerprints.

  “If you could just press here and then here.” Each ‘here’ was pointed out.

  Laura followed directions. She first put her finger on the ink pad and then on the card.

  “We’ll need you to repeat that.”

  Laura did it a second time.

  “Here’s something to wipe your finger with,” Mindy stated.

  When she was finished cleaning up, she sat back, waiting for what was to come next. Neither of the women said a word, Mindy too busy collecting and organizing everything, and Laura simply not in the mood for small talk.

  The next thing she knew, she was walking down a corridor to meet up with Detective Kojak. The room that Mindy brought her to was small, but brightly lit. The four walls looked as if they had been painted white at one time. There was one rectangle table and two chairs inside, one of which was already occupied by the detective. And if she thought the other room was cold, this room was freezing. But part of it could have been because of the company she would be keeping.

  “Thank you, Mindy.” He looked up and partially smiled at their arrival.

  “You’re welcome, sir. Do you need anything else?”

  “Nope. I’m all set for now.”

  The walking corpse closed the door behind her, leaving Laura alone with the detective.

  “Take a seat,” Detective Kojak ordered, pointing out the only obvious place to do so.

  Laura slouched into the chair, placing her shaky hands on her lap. Her anxiety was kicking in. The last thing she wanted was to pass out. So, as secretively as possible, she worked on her breathing exercises, hoping it would help.

  The detective took his hat off and placed it on the table beside his folders. “So.”