Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (6 page)

"Should we get out of here now or what?" Ethan asked, breaking into my thoughts. He sounded a little irritated.

I looked away from Troy and looked over at Gino who was talking with his family, but kept occasionally glancing at Ethan and I. I felt torn. We should get away from them before we got ourselves in trouble, but...

"I think we should talk to him," I said.

Ethan looked confused. I didn't blame him. We had a clean getaway if we wanted it, but I suddenly didn't want to run.

I clarified, "Gino, you know, the dad? I think we should talk to him before we leave. At least do a little investigating ourselves. I mean, if we're really investigating, we should do it right. Then we'll go to Gabe's funeral. I promise."

"But your rules..." Ethan said.

"The poor guy just lost his son. Let's talk to him for five minutes. Besides, we know enough from what Troy just told us to not mess up. I think," I said and automatically looked back over at Troy who was still standing next to Nico's casket lost in thought. I was doing this for Troy too. "I promise, just five minutes. Then I swear we'll go look for Gabe's funeral."

Ethan shook his head and sighed, but said, "Okay."

We walked over to Gino. Ethan took my hand again. I looked up at him. Wow, he was really the most amazing, supportive boyfriend. Most guys would probably run away screaming if their girlfriend dragged them to multiple funerals early on in their dating history. Yeah, Ethan was like the best boyfriend ever. I couldn't blame him for being a little reluctant. That was totally normal. Still, he was going out of his way to support me. I'd have to do something nice for him soon to show him that I appreciated him back. I mean, nothing too romantic, to scare him off, but just something really nice. I didn't want him to think I was totally in love with him. I just liked liked him. Huh. What could I do? What wasn't too...wait. I'd have to think of something later. Right now, there were funerals to investigate. Priorities.

"Sorry about that," I said as soon as we walked up to Gino and got his attention. "We ran into someone that we knew."

Gino nodded, "I know Troy. He used to come over sometimes when Nico was in high school. Troy's a good kid."

I nodded.

"Like I said, it's really nice to meet some of Nico's college friends, though," Gino smiled.

Ethan and I nodded again. I mean, what were we going to say? We didn't even know what college we were supposed to have gone to. Yeah, we were really in over our heads. We should have gotten more details out of Troy. It was too late now, though.

"Well, let me introduce you to the family," Gino said as he got the attention of the relatives near him, "This is my wife, Nico's mother, Isabella, Nico's sister, Bianca, and his cousins, Antonio and Fiorella."

Isabella, Nico's mom, nodded at us. She smiled, but her eyes were red rimmed with tears. Bianca, his sister, looked over at us. From the pictures I had seen of Nico, Bianca looked just like him, only younger and a girl. Still, they looked like siblings. She had to be around my age. Antonio and Fiorella were in their teens too. In fact, Fiorella looked familiar. I just couldn't place her. I wondered if we had to be careful. Did she go to school with us maybe? I glanced at Ethan, but he didn't seem to recognize anyone. Where had I seen Fiorella before? Did she come into the video store? I couldn't place her for sure. I felt weary. Yeah, we had to be careful.

Gino continued with the introductions, "And these are some of Nico's friends from school. What were your names again?"

We hadn't given them. I thought quickly. I could lie, but Fiorella really looked familiar. Did I know her? She could be about our age. I had to say something. I made a choice. Worst case, she'd know we lied about knowing Nico from school, but that's if she recognized us. What if she said something, though? Like right now in front of Nico's immediate family? I felt sweat begin to form around my temples. I had to say something.

"Kait and this is Ethan," I said.

Ethan shot me a look. I knew he was wondering why I had told them our real names, although in theory there could be hundreds of Ethans and Kaits out in the world, you know? I didn't give them our last names, after all. Still, if Fiorella recognized us, maybe we could get out of the hole we had dug ourselves into by a half-truth.

"Hi," Ethan said, automatically, recovering before I did at what I had just done.

Silence descended over the group. I mean, what did we say to an entire group of people who had just lost someone they loved? I tried to think about what people said to me when my mom died, but I didn't really remember. It was things like, I'm sorry about your loss and other things that hadn't meant much at the time. I appreciated the sentiment, but it didn't help much. That was the awful thing about funerals, the closest people to the deceased hurt so much that there was nothing exactly right to say. Still, we had to say something. I had put us into this situation for a reason. My mind raced trying to think of something, anything to say. I didn't dare look at Fiorella. Where had I seen her before? I focused on Gino instead.

"We're really sorry for your loss," I started, awkwardly. It was the first thing that came to my head. "Nico was a great guy. I, uh, I really thought he was a great guy. I'm really sorry."

Yeah, it had all come out better in my head. Still, I meant every word. I was sure Nico had been a great guy from what Troy had said and from the fact that everyone in the room was wiping away tears.

"How did you guys know Nico, exactly?" Antonio asked. "I go to Landale College and I don't know you."

I was surprised to hear the skepticism in his voice. If anything, I had thought we'd get caught by Fiorella. I was opening my mouth to answer Antonio's question, but Ethan beat me to it.

"We had a class with him," Ethan said. "We didn't know him super well, but we'd talk to him in class. It's just such a shock. We wanted to come."

"What class?" Antonio asked.

I could barely breathe. We had to take a guess. What class would be the most likely class Nico was taking?

"English," I said, without thinking.

Antonio nodded. I wondered if he even knew what classes Nico was taking this semester. Either way I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief because nobody said anything. Antonio was still just staring at us, though, like he was trying to place us. I didn't dare look at Fiorella. If both of them were staring at us like Antonio was, I might not be able to resist the urge to make a run for it. At least Gino didn't look at all suspicious.

"Well, we should go," I said, looking at Gino and trying not to sound as uncomfortable as I felt. "We're really sorry for your loss."

Ethan nodded in confirmation to what I was saying and then added. "We'll really miss him."

Gino nodded. His wife looked like she was trying to hold back tears. I continued to focus on them. If Nico's death really wasn't an accident, I would be investigating his death for them. This is what I had to take away from this funeral. They were so sad. They had suffered such a great loss. They deserved answers if there were any to give.

"It was really nice to meet you," I said as I took one last look at them, smiled softly and took Ethan's hand and walked away.

I felt Ethan's hand in mine. I looked up at him. He was looking at me. I smiled. He smiled back.

"Thank you," I said.

Ethan nodded and then added, "You're welcome. You were right. Talking to them was the right thing to do."


I nodded. Yup. Ethan was really the best boyfriend ever. I wanted to hug and kiss him and tell him I loved... Whoa. Not again. I just wanted to hug and kiss him, but it was totally inappropriate to make-out in the middle of a funeral.

"Um," Ethan started.

"What?" I asked.

"Just be a little more careful next time. I feel like we almost got caught," Ethan said.

"Yeah, sorry about that," I said. "I was a little impulsive."

"A little?" Ethan asked.

I shrugged, "Okay, maybe more than a little."

Ethan squeezed my hand and didn't say anything else as we walked toward the room's exit. Now, especially after meeting Nico's whole family, I was super motivated to find out if Nico's death was an accident or not. Plus even as we left the viewing room, I noticed that Troy was still standing near Nico's coffin, pouring over the pictures of Nico as if he was trying to take all of them in, detail by detail, in an effort to remember his friend. My heart went out to him. Again, I found myself wanting to go over to him and give him a hug, but I stopped myself. That was Ariel's job and besides, there was another death I had promised to look into.

We left Nico Moretti's Funeral and headed to Viewing Room 2 in the hopes of finally finding Gabe Fulton's funeral. We looked inside, not wanting to make the same mistake we had just made. There were a lot of people at this funeral as well. It took a second of searching, but I saw Suzie and Kyle sitting sort of near the door and knew we were finally at the right funeral. Thank goodness. If we had walked into another mysterious death funeral that wasn't the one we were looking for, my head might implode. Funeral Chasing slash murder chasing could overwhelm you. I was already having a hard time focusing on Gabe and not Nico.

Ethan and I walked over to Suzie and Kyle. I glanced around for Layla and saw her talking to another girl at a far corner of the room. Layla looked distressed and was motioning erratically to the girl. I wondered what Layla was talking about. Well, actually I could guess since it was probably Gabe and it made sense that she was distressed about him since he was dead and all. Was she the killer? Maybe or maybe not. She did look pretty upset. Still, she was my best lead so far. I'd definitely have to figure out how to talk to her as the night progressed. First things first, though, I needed to relax for five seconds and learn how to breathe normally again after the whole panic inducing situation that the whole mistaken Nico funeral had caused. Not to mention that I needed a few minutes to take the time to refocus my sleuthing efforts back onto Gabe.

"Hey Suzie, Kyle," I said when we were practically standing next to them.

Their gazes had been focused on the coffin at the front of the room, but they turned to look up at Ethan and I.

"Kait," Suzie said in a breathless rush and stood up from her seat to hug me, "I was wondering what happened to you guys. I tried texting you."

"Sorry, I turned my phone off and we, uh, kind of walked into the wrong funeral," I said, feeling a little stupid. I laughed a little like it was funny, even if it wasn't.

"How did you..." Kyle started to ask.

"Long story," Ethan cut him off, shaking his head.

"Cool hair," Suzie said, instead, looking at me.

I touched my hair. The wig hair felt foreign and fake under my fingers. I kept forgetting that I looked different.

I shrugged, "It's my disguise."

"I like it," Suzie said. "It's a good color on you. Makes you look totally different."

"Thanks," I said. It was time to get into case mode, "So, anything happen yet? Anyone suspicious? Meet anyone?"

Suzie's cheeks turned pink and she looked suddenly sheepish. She glanced at Kyle and he squeezed her hand.

"Well, I'm glad we met up with you first," Suzie said. "It turns out that, well, Gabe did die of natural causes."

"What?" I asked. I felt like my jaw had dropped a thousand feet. It was going to be one of those nights.

"I'm so sorry," Suzie said, letting go of Kyle's hand and putting a hand on my arm. "Kait, I didn't know. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean to lead you on a wild goose chase or anything. I swear. I really didn't know. He was just so young and there's really no reason why he should have died under normal circumstances."

"But...but...how can you be sure?" I asked. My mind was still reeling. How else had Gabe died then? It had to be murder. I voiced my rationale, "Like you said, he was so young."

I glanced over at Layla, who was still talking to a girl at the other end of the room. She was wiping away tears now. The girl she was talking to put a hand on her arm, but Layla pushed her hand away. Whatever the girl was saying, Layla was not comforted by it. I watched Layla for a moment as she dealt with whatever she was going through. Layla was my suspect in Gabe's murder investigation. I had a suspect! How could I have a suspect if there wasn't even a murder? How had this happened? Was I really chasing funerals to solve murders?

Suzie sighed, "Well, Gabe's mom told us that he's had heart problems ever since he was a kid. He did a lot of volunteer work with kids because he had spent a lot of time in the hospital as a sick kid. He got a lot stronger as he grew up and he could have lived a really long life, but he just had bad luck and it gave out. So, yeah, natural causes. He was at home with them when it happened. He wasn't murdered."

"Oh, okay," I said and nodded, but in my head my mind was racing and I was having a hard time focusing on what Suzie was telling me.

Life was really strange sometimes. The funeral we had set out to go to didn't have anything to investigate after all, but the one we stumbled upon, sounded like it did. Gabe was just like Anne's sister. Natural causes. It was hard to believe it, but I had to let it seep into my brain. Gabe had a pre-existing condition and it had killed him. I didn't want to give up on the Gabe case, but it really didn't sound like there was anything to investigate since natural causes at his age wasn't murder. It was just bad luck and that was really sad. Nobody that young should die at all.