Chapter 06: Meetings

KK falls against Kyle’s shoulder while laughing hard instead of attacking him. When she’s about stopped she pulls back and looks into his deep blue eyes. They seem to draw her deeper and deeper into a growing oneness of their very essence. If the eyes are the windows to the soul Kyle’s are huge bay windows. Finally she shakes her head, mentally draws the drapes over those windows, and asks, “Well, where do we go from here?”

Kyle answers with, “I guess the first thing is to meet with Robert in the morning and to begin making funeral arrangements. My thinking is we hang loose until after Jonas’ funeral is held and the will is read and probated.”

KK nods agreement, but a moment later adds, “The one thing that concerns me is your aunt breaking in here while we’re off with your father or other errands. We’ve also got a business to run.”

Kyle smiles, the respect he has for her is evident. “That’s not a bad idea. The whole sinister aspect of her actions worries me. The problem is timing. Even if I can contract with a security company on Monday I doubt they can get a system installed before the end of the week.”

Kathleen nods thoughtfully then replies, “That’s true.” After thinking further she adds, “You have to remember the security systems aren’t foolproof, nor do they take immediate action if something does happen. I’d hate to have someone destroy the entrance to Crossroads while we’re gone, stranding us there for who knows how long.”

“So what are you thinking in that devious little mind of yours?”

While looking indignant his love responds, “I’ll have you know my mind is not little. Devious, yes. Little, no. As for my thoughts, I was mentally tossing around the idea of having someone stay here for the time being. Someone like Larry Martin.”

“KK, that’s a brilliant idea.”

Faking a look of shy humility she replies, “Thank you. I do try.”

Kyle stands and draws her to him. He kisses her soft wet lips, and in the middle of the kiss he feels the tip of her tongue knocking on the door to his mouth. Surprised, he eases his mouth open just a little, and her reaction is to push that much harder. He’s always heard if you gave a woman an inch she’d want a mile; he’d give her that mile any day.

After they come up for air Kyle asks, “Well, Sweetheart, as you asked earlier, where do we go from here?”

“I think I probably should go home. I don’t want to, but my excited mother is just coming to grip with the idea I’ve got a boyfriend. For me to immediately start spending the night with him might be a bit too much for her. I’ll take the two manuals in case I need to read for a few minutes before I go to sleep.”

“That’s fine. I’ll try to get a hold of Larry first thing in the morning.”

“Good, and I’ll try to be here at eight to fix breakfast for my man.”

“I like the sound of that! Do you need me to follow you home?”

After contemplating the situation Kathleen replies, “I’d normally say no, but after today I’ll feel better if you do. There are just too many loose ends and unanswered questions about this whole deal.”

“I agree. Let me get something then I’ll be ready to go.”

Moments later Kyle returns with a pistol in his hand. He moves the maps and Jonas’ notebooks back into the safe and locks it. He checks the pistol, making sure it’s loaded, and the safety is on. Satisfied he’s as prepared as he can be he puts the gun in his belt, at the small of his back, and slips on a light jacket. Though it’s somewhat chilly the jacket is more to hide the pistol than anything else. They exit the front door and he locks it behind him. They walk to the street and kiss.

After Kathleen begins to feel the chill in the air they finally separate. Grudgingly she gets in her little Mazda Miata and he climbs into his Jeep. Nothing happens during the three block drive to her house, and in a short time Kyle is back at the house. He uses the garage door opener and he parks in his normal spot next to Jonas’ Buick LeSabre. He closes the garage door and he goes back into the house.

In the kitchen Kyle cleans up the remains of his and KK’s Pizza. After rechecking all the doors and windows he heads back to the study. He opens the door to the secret room and he gives it a quick look. Nothing seems to be out of place to him and he can’t find any additional notes his grandfather might have left. He closes the secret entrance and looks around the study. Again he finds nothing to give him a clue as to what happened.

Kyle returns to Jonas’ office, the scene of his supposed suicide. Checking around Jonas’ desk he finds a few more small spots of blood on the floor and on the desk top. He grabs a rag from the laundry and he carefully cleans them. Jonas’ chair and a thirty-four star American Flag that usually hangs on the right side of the desk have already been taken out to the garage. They’re probably too covered in blood to ever be used again. That particular flag has historical significance as it’s supposed to have been used at Grant’s western headquarters during the Civil War.

Looking at the arrangement of the room and the location of where the blood would have been sprayed Kyle realizes Jonas had turned his chair to be facing the painting on the wall to the right of the desk - the painting of a land and building that looks much like his beloved Shiloh. His grandfather had commissioned a talented young student to do the watercolor picture and worked very hard with the artist on the picture’s details. If you look carefully you can see an excellent likeness of Kyle’s grandmother standing at the left of the front door, waiting to welcome her husband home. On the porch swing is another woman who looks a lot like MariLynn, Jonas’ Caretaker and lover on Cassandra.

Imagining his grandfather staring at the painting, as he often did, brings a flood of tears to Kyle’s eyes. From a romantic sense the scene might have been a positive memory for Kyle. That was changed by the strange circumstances of the suicide; if that was what it really was. The young man is really struggling hard with the idea because the timing of everything causes nothing to make sense. One thing did became very clear in Kyle’s mind from his analysis. If it was a suicide, when Jonas put the gun in his own mouth and pulled the trigger he was thinking of the two women who had been so important in his life.

The more Kyle stares at the painting the more at peace he is about the whole ordeal. He does make one firm determination, though; he’s going to have the artist add Jonas riding up to the house on a horse that looks like War Bonnet.

Kyle makes a thorough scan of his Grandfather’s desk top and the various drawers, but nothing seems out of place, nor does anything seem to be missing. Though there seems to be no reason for it Kyle feels, in his heart, there is something real important here that no one’s picked up on. Even though it’s late Kyle feels he needs to look further. He pulls his own desk chair into his Grandfather’s office and sits just inside the doorway trying to analyze the situation. Applying the skills Jonas taught him he attempts to see the room through Jonas’ eyes.

Kyle’s first question is why did Jonas choose this room to end his life. He spent far more time in the library, and why not the bedroom or even the garage. Was it as simple as viewing the picture as he prepared to leave this world, or was there more to it than that? If there’s a significance, how can he figure it out? After all, the police were in here all afternoon. Not having a better idea of how to approach the mystery Kyle moves his chair to the desk and sits like he’d seen his Grandfather do so many times in the past. As far as he knew Jonas used the desk for three purposes: to pay household bills; to grade papers; and to use the computer for email, Internet research, and to work on a book about the Civil War - which Jonas often called the uncivil war.

In the book Jonas was contrasting troop training and the role of (or lack of) non-commissioned officers on both sides of the conflict with current military doctrine. His view was the almost exclusive use of officers and their elitist ideas minimized the role of the non-coms, especially sergeants, and this snobbery lengthened the war by at least two years while causing at least two hundred and fifty thousand unnecessary deaths. From the parts Kyle had read it was enlightening and it would be of a high value, but only to military historians and strategists. It wasn’t the kind of thing someone would have wanted to steal, and, unless you were a civil war officer, it really had nothing controversial in it. Kyle asks himself, What else is here?

Checking the caller id memory on the telephone Kyle finds the last call was from his cell three days earlier. Instead of an answering machine Jonas had a service through the phone company that picks up, even if the phone is in use. Kyle checks the service for messages, and again comes up blank.

This leaves Jonas’ computer as Kyle’s only obvious option. He opens the specially built cabinet beside the desk, and discovers the computer is already turned on. Though when he tries to use the system he finds the monitor is turned off. He turns it on, and is surprised to see a dark screen asking the user to insert a boot disk. Checking further he soon realizes the hard drive is wiped clean. It makes little sense, but, at least, it’s his first clue. Unfortunately, it raises far more questions for him than it answers.

After turning off the computer Kyle turns off the office lights and rolls the chair back to the desk in his room. He walks back to his Jeep, pulls his backpack out of the back, and returns to his room. He sits at his desk, removes his laptop from the backpack, and plugs everything in, including the patch cable connecting him to the small network Brain had created for them. In the hidden room there’s a server they both use for extra storage and backups. Also, he and his grandfather shared printers.

Kyle starts booting up his laptop, but instead of waiting he goes to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. Since coffee isn’t available on Chaos he’s gotten used to hot tea in addition to his normal cinnamon latté. Tonight the tea just seems to be more appropriate. He returns, and finds the log-in screen waiting for input. He enters his user name and password, then the laptop continues the boot process. When it finishes Kyle checks his email account. There are several notes from classmates, some spam, and a good night lover wish from KK. Next he checks the shared drive on the server, and finds a new hidden directory. It contains an encrypted compressed file, but none of his or Jonas’ usual passwords can open it. Knowing anything further will require Brain’s involvement he lets it go, for the moment. As a safety precaution he burns a copy of the file to a DVD. When the copy is finished Kyle mislabels it Computer Class Project A-19 and puts it in a sleeve. He carries it to the garage and places it under the rear floor mat of his Jeep.

With nothing more he can do until morning Kyle turns off his laptop, rechecks the doors and windows, and turns out the lights in the rest of the house. In his bedroom he strips off his jeans and sweatshirt then he places the Colt M-1911A1 forty-five automatic on the night stand beside his bed. He jumps into the shower, and a short time later he returns wearing fresh briefs and an over-sized v-neck t-shirt. He sets the alarm and turns out the lights. He stares at the shadows on the ceiling for a long time while he tries to deal with the realization of everything that’s happened. When he does finally drift off he sleeps soundly.

The alarm goes off at seven, but Kyle hits snooze and falls back to sleep. He does this several times until he’s awakened by the ringing of the doorbell. He rolls over and looks at the clock. It’s seven forty-five. He slips on some dark gray slacks plus a pink oxford shirt and heads for the door.

He opens it, and there stands a radiant KK wearing a teal silk blouse and a buckskin colored prairie skirt embroidered with Indian symbols. Her dark chestnut hair has been styled to frame her face and to draw more attention to her emerald green eyes. Her eyebrows are more defined because she wears just a hint of makeup.

Kyle is stunned by KK’s appearance, but she doesn’t seem to be at all offended when she pushes against the bottom of his chin to close his gaping mouth. Instead, she wraps her arms around him and pulls him close. After several minutes of holding each other in the doorway she pushes him further into the room, kicking the door closed behind her. When it slams shut she stands on her tiptoes and gives him a cartoon kiss. That’s the type of kiss where the steam whistle goes off as well as the bursting fireworks and the guy can only stand there with a silly look on his face while stars circle around his head. Kyle is still in shock as KK says, “Good morning, my soul mate. Did you sleep well?”

Beginning to recover Kyle answers, “After I finally went to sleep.”

“Knowing you, I suspect you were taking this whole thing apart in your head most of the night.”

“Let’s just say we’ve some things to discuss later. How about you?”

“Not as well as I would’ve liked. I did start to read the manuals. The more I read, the more I began to question if I could knowingly be a part of something like that.”

“Well, your appearance doesn’t give the impression you’re in that kind of turmoil.”

“I’m not, anymore. I’ve made the decision we were made for each other, no matter what planet we’re on or what universe or dimension we’re in. I also discovered my mother was surprised to find I came home last night. She expected me stay here and comfort you during this rough time. She pretty much told me I had her permission to stay with you whenever I wished.”

“KK, I’ve always liked your mom, but that surprises me as much as it does you.”

“She sends her condolences, by the way. She heard about it through the neighborhood grapevine.”